On game classification

There are many ways how to classify games but let's focus on just one aspect - the gameplay. People are used to divide games into genres which is done by finding similar traits. Genres are often poorly defined because they rely on historical examples of the genre.

To illustrate this, let’s take a look at genre definitions of MobyGames database. To be fair, they did a pretty good job but you can still find a lot of logical inconsistencies when you take time to think about them. For example:

• The distinction between Puzzle and Adventure game boils down to whether the game has a narrative but story is not a gameplay element, so it does not make sense to use it for genre definition.
• Simulation is distinguished by trying to portrait realistic behavior. I doubt again whether that is an actual gameplay element. But more importantly, we are running into the problem of old games being labeled as simulation despite being pretty far from reality (due to hardware limitations of the time), making them just as realistic as a non-simulation game of today. Also, what about realistic portrait of a fictional world with magic? Is that a simulation?
• Sports games are games in which players control either players or managers of a real or fictional sports. So it only depends on the narrative telling you that this is a sport game. Weak definition.
• Educational genre is also a hard sell. When you think about it, all games are teaching you something – to play the game better. And sometimes these skills are applicable outside the game. So, educational game is no different from other games, just instead of shooting monsters you have to solve equations to proceed.

I could go on but this should be enough to get the point across. I am cutting them some slack with things like compilation and DLC because I think they put it under genre label not because they are one but probably to somehow make their work easier. And I do like the definition for strategy and RPG games. Especially RPG tends to confuse people. Some say it is about role-playing but when we talk about video games, the distinction is in the leveling mechanic. You can role-play in almost any kind of game, especially the multiplayer ones.

Of course, these genre names are widely used because people are familiar with them and have a rough idea what to expect. They are just not well suited for reliable classification of games because of poor definitions and overlaps. However, I have seen a significantly different classification system at gameclassification.com which is well worth mentioning here. What they tried to do is to identify the basic concepts that are used to design gameplay. Therefore they defined “gameplay bricks” which can be combined to describe any part of gameplay. Unfortunately, I do see some problems here as well:

• These bricks are so abstract that you can’t make a practically usable classification with them. You will find that there are many games which are very different, yet they are described by the exact same bricks. And newer games use most, if not all, of them.
• I’m also not sure the Random brick makes sense. Imagine a very simple game of chance, you press a button and you either win or lose. In one case this is random, in the other you win on every third push of the button. In both cases I think the gameplay is the same – you push a button.
• Some of these bricks can be a bit hazy in their distinction. For example, what is the difference between shooting a homing projectile and creating a suicidal bomber unit?

Still, it is pretty interesting and it might become usable when someone manages to define more specific gameplay bricks. It does also have a certain predictive capability because there probably still are combinations of gameplay concepts that have not been done before, so you could combine bricks to discover new genres.

My system

Because so far I have not seen a good system, I decided to come up with my own. My goal is to make one that will be usable in practice and without inconsistencies. I decided to identify the most general genre where all games belong and work my way from there dividing into more specific genres, thus creating a tree structure. This is what I came up with:

• Puzzle
  • Shooting
    • 2D
      • Topdown
      • Sidescrolling
    • 3D
      • Ground
      • Flying
  • Management
    • Strategy
    • Tactics
  • 2D Moving / 3D Moving
    • Fast (Racing)
    • Precise
      • Platforming
      • Stealth

Looks crazy? Let me explain.

• When you think about it, every game is a puzzle to be solved. You have a set of rules and a goal – figure out how to get there. Even sandbox games without a stated goal have one, the one you stated yourself. Therefore Game = Puzzle. In practical sense, what does not fit into other defined genres is a Puzzle game.
• Shooting game definition is simple – a game where the goal is to hit a target, whether it is by means of a projectile or just moving a crosshair over it. The difference between 2D and 3D is in how many axes you have for aiming. In 2D you aim in just one axis (left-right in Topdown, up-down in Sidescrolling), in 3D it’s two (vertical and horizontal). The next level distinction is based on movement of camera. For example in Topdown you can move in two axes to avoid projectiles/enemies, whether in Sidescrolling you are limited in one axis by gravity (limited jump).
• Management is about spending resources (units are resources by the way). You can either have the ability to obtain more resources during the game, then we talk about Strategy games. Or you must accomplish the goal only with what you are given at the start, that is a Tactics game.
• Moving game can, similarly to Shooting game, be 2D or 3D depending on how many axes can you use for movement. Then it is about the goal, do you need to find the fastest route or do you need to move to precise spots? And for the Precise games, do you need to move to a specific spot (land on a platform) or to avoid specific spots (enemy sight cone)?

You can of course create even more specific genres and you can also combine them. You can state the main genre of a game, based on which is the strongest from the genres used, but it can be very hard to make a strict line. Some combinations are so weak it might not be worth even mentioning them, such as ammo management, which comes from Management genre and is in almost every Shooting game.

Simple example:

Doom

Main: 3D Ground Shooting
Strong: -
Weak: Strategy (ammo management, more can be found), 2D Precise Movement (dodging enemies and missiles)

“But where are fighting games, where is the RPG, where is ...?”, I hear you ask. In my system these are not genres but subgenres distinguished by various game mechanics, such as:

• Number of players
• Leveling system
• Time system
• Timer
• Effects persistent outside the game
• and more...

The number of players is interesting. This is not just about the amount of human players. A Single Player game is for example Zoo Tycoon. There is just you, playing the game. Multi Player game is Doom. There are you and then there are the AI controlled enemies. Their goal is different but they “play” the same game as you do. They have health, they move in the same environment as you, they aim and shoot like you can. The most basic Multi Player game is the Fighting game, where both players choose the right actions at the right time to outplay one another.
Leveling is a mechanic, it is not an action you take. The actual action you do, when leveling in a game, is spending points, which is resource management. There is no pure Leveling game. RPG games are usually Fighting games (Witcher), Shooting games (Mass effect) or Tactics games (Final Fantasy).
Time system refers to real time or turn based game. Any genre can hypothetically be done in real time or turn based system - even Shooting, just remember versus mode in the Bowman 2 flash game.
Timer would be the presence of a time limit or time being important for score.
And effects that persist outside the game are the basis of current "Rouge-Lite" genre. Every time you finish the game (die), in your next game you will have better chance thanks to persistent bonuses.
Of course, there are many more mechanics we could identify and define.

So how does one use this system in practice?

1. You need to identify the genres and game mechanics in the game. This should be fairly straightforward.
2. You need to determine how strongly present they are. This is the hard part, it would be very hard to come up with rules for this, so you will have to make a guess.
3. When you are done with the classification, you can label the game with appropriate subgenre names. For example, any game with strong Leveling game mechanic could be labeled as RPG.

Examples

(Roughly classified, the mechanics could be split into more detailed ones.)

Mechanic Definitions

• Base building: Throughout the game, player creates infrastructure to support their economy and unit production.
• Game unlock: Parts of a game are not available from the start and have to be unlocked by playing the game.
• Large scale: Design that encurages creating lot of units and bases in a large level.
• Leveling: Allows game entities to improve over time.
• Level destruction: Environment objects in the level can be destroyed, thus changing the level layout.
• Level randomization: Layout of the level and/or placement of objects in the level changes after game restart.
• Multi player: There are more than one human player and more than one AI enemies.
• Permadeath: No save or continue system, the game has to be started over.
• Pure multi player: There are more than one human player and no AI enemies.
• Pure single player: Game has no entity that behaves like the player does.
• Resource theft: Player can capture other player's resources or units.
• Single player: There is only one human player and more than one AI enemies that have capabilities similar to the player's ones.
• Stream economy: Resource income and drain from production are continuous. When emphasized, unused resources are wasted.

Subgenre Definitions

• Fighting: Game where player directly attacks other players but the game is not a shooter or management game.
• Rogue-Like: Game with permadeath that often uses level randomization to aid replayability.
• RPG: Game with strong focus on improving player's character/units during the game.
• RTS: Real time strategy game.

Classified games

Brigador

Rogue-Like Topdown Shooter
Main Genre: Topdown Shooter
Strong Genres: Stealth
Weak Genres: Management
Strong Mechanics: Game unlock, Level destruction, Permadeath, Real time, Single player
Weak Mechanics: Level randomization

Gothic

Fighting RPG
Main Genre: Puzzle
Strong Genres:
Weak Genres: Management, Stealth
Strong Mechanics: Leveling, Real time, Single player
Weak Mechanics:

Supreme Commander Forged Alliance

Large scale RTS
Main Genre: Strategy
Strong Genres:
Weak Genres: Tactics
Strong Mechanics: Base building, Large scale, Multi player, Real time, Resource theft, Single player, Stream economy
Weak Mechanics: Leveling