It is important for us to understand that just calling a game by a tag word such as "RPG" or "shooter" is not enough to analyse a game and understand how it both fits within the matrix or taxonomy of genre and how genre works both as a category and a framework to understand games and their development. Genre is an important aspect of game analysis, many frameworks and methods of categorisation have been established throughout the development of game studies as a defined discipline, some are helpful in understanding the development of games and some are somewhat ludicrous!
Genre frameworks work both as an analytical tool and a marketing tool and it is important to understand what frameworks to use and what purposes they serve.
Costikyan, G. 2005 Game Styles, Innovation, and New Audiences:An Historical ViewProceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/theory/styles.html
Apperley, T. H. Genre and Game Studies: Towards a critical approach to video game genres
http://sag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/1/6
(This will have to accessed from within the university firewalls on a student computer/athens login)
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1 comment:
Started looking at this for my essay now. Interesting stuff. I've got some old notes from my Media Studies A-Level on genre in movies. Some of it seems quite applicable - I'll see if I can find it!
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