Hi Dark, Well, while I do see your point I personally still try to use standardized classifications when and where possible. I guess that is just the professional in me coming out. All the same I do see the problem you speak of and that is why I have both a genre and style classification on games in the USA Games database. It resolves precisely the type of problems you raised in your post.
For example, for Mysteries of the Ancients under genre I would classify it as adventure but under style I would classify it as side-scroller. Using both a genre and style classification I would be able to search a database of games under adventure or under side-scroller as the game would easily apply to both classifications. So would a lot of other games like Super Liam, Q9, and Tarzan Junior. Something like Pac-Man Talks could similarly have a duel classification. I'd classify it as belonging to the arcade genre but to the first-person style. This way while it would be technically arcade you also could find it if you were looking for any games designed using a first-person style perspective. The duel classification system makes much more sense than the single category system used by audiogames.net currently. As to your point about having a category that only has one or two games so what? While I realize there is currently only two pinball games, ESP Pinball Classic and ESP Pinball Extreme, using my duel category system would resolve this problem as it would be listed under two categories or classifications. Pinball games are traditionally classified as belonging to the arcade genre but quite obviously also belongs to the pinball style of game. If you were to look for arcade games the pinball games along with Pac-Man Talks, Puppy 1, etc would show up as belonging to that genre. However, if you were looking specifically for pinball games you could look under style and get Pinball Classic and Pinball Extreme. Make sense? In short, I think we can make widely accepted genres and styles work for us. We just need to expand the number of categories the audiogames.net database has and organize things a bit better. While I take your point some games might be hard to place according to mainstream categories I'm pretty sure it can be done if we agree on the genres and styles to be used to categorize games. :D On 12/16/12, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > well technically space invaders is a fixed shooter sinse a vertical shooter > > would imply scrolling ala archaeist, z out or xenon, but I do take your > point. the reason however the classifications in the db don't attempt to > mirror mainstream mode classifications, are todo with what the genre > classifications are supposed to be for. > > The intention of the audiogames.net db is to help people find games, thus > the genre classifications are meant to aide people in finding similar games > > to ones of a style they may like, indeed the question of "are there any > games like X" comes up very often as you will know from the list. > > thus, from a technical standpoint, jim kitchin's puppy1 is either a flight > sim, or a 3D shooter as in fact are games like 3D velocity and zero site. > Yet, those games are so amazingly different in feeling and intention, that > classifying them together as in any way similar would strike me as insane! > Jim kitchin's is a simple, wrack up score affair and perfect for a five > minute blast, where as the other two are very hyper complex, take a lot of > practice and are intended to give something of a realistic experience. > > It is for this purpose of clarrification that i use the term "arcade games" > > to describe fast action, wrack up score style games, to let people know > better the over all objective and feeling of the game whatever it's mode of > > presentation. > > Then of course, there is the issue that if we used strict genre > classifications, wwe'd have some catagories with just one entry. For > instance how many accessible pinball games are there? > > Finally, there is the problem o games that in audio are very different to > their mainstream counterparts and thus do not have an accurate > classification. > > One perfect example of this are games like packman talks and indeed super > egghunt, first person, fast action games but who's goal is wrack up score? > > then, how do we distinguish first person from top down vertical movement, > for example games like treasurehunt and night of parasite. While from a > technical standpoint I'd classify these as third person top down absolute > movement, that is a rather technical deffinition for the db, and also > doesn't take into account the fact that such games may have vastly different > > gameaplay, some having adventure or rpg elements, some being a pure action > fest. > > and what about games like enemy attack or damage extreme? they really have > no mainstream counterpart at all that uses a similar interface. I suppose > they are all technically "shooter games" because you mmmm, shoot things, but > > so is shades of doom, or clay pigion shooting. > > thus, while I do take your point that representing games according to the > presentation of their information and over all genre classification the way > > mainstream games do might be technically correct, I don't really see that as > > an advantage, particualrly when many audio games carry rather different > concepts in style (as I've said, I find first person audio packman far more > > fun than top down graphical packman). > > ? > > ? > > I am however happy to muck about with the genre classifications according to > > what new games come out, and when we have enough games to distinguish them > in style. i recently for example added the fps and simulation genres for > this reason. > > beware the grue! > > Dark. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. 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