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Gaming Discussion / Re: Gaming Deals Thread
« on: July 18, 2012, 05:21:04 am »
Genre can refer to a few kinds of classifications based on similarities, such as form, style, and/or content.
Form refers to the way an artistic work is arranged—the medium, the length, the ordering, any particular rules, etc. In music, a form could be something like a sonata, or a symphony; you would interpret the piece knowing it should be laid out a certain way (e.g. certain forms are arranged in movements; there are rules for minuet trio sections, etc.). In literature, forms include novels and poems, but of course there are many. The boundaries are not strict, of course; you wouldn’t expect a novel to be written in verse, but you could make it work.
Style is too complicated to review and besides, everyone knows what style is. Same thing with content too.
So in form, indie games tend to be short and/or small-scale, with a lot of overlap with the “casual” genre; graphics tend to be a bit on the “less of it” or “not as detailed” side. Indie style tends to side either on the artsy-fartsy, or the wacky, with lots of individual touch, standing in stark contrast to a larger-scale production. But in terms of content, indie games are not particularly easy to define because they can be anything at all—is this where you have a hangup?
While all these criteria are nebulous, there is a makable case for calling it a genre on two of three grounds. The form is a particularly strong argument for it; because we can have certain expectations about the presentation, indie can be a genre of video games much like novel can be a genre of literature.
Or I could just be engaging in sophistry, I dunno.
Form refers to the way an artistic work is arranged—the medium, the length, the ordering, any particular rules, etc. In music, a form could be something like a sonata, or a symphony; you would interpret the piece knowing it should be laid out a certain way (e.g. certain forms are arranged in movements; there are rules for minuet trio sections, etc.). In literature, forms include novels and poems, but of course there are many. The boundaries are not strict, of course; you wouldn’t expect a novel to be written in verse, but you could make it work.
Style is too complicated to review and besides, everyone knows what style is. Same thing with content too.
So in form, indie games tend to be short and/or small-scale, with a lot of overlap with the “casual” genre; graphics tend to be a bit on the “less of it” or “not as detailed” side. Indie style tends to side either on the artsy-fartsy, or the wacky, with lots of individual touch, standing in stark contrast to a larger-scale production. But in terms of content, indie games are not particularly easy to define because they can be anything at all—is this where you have a hangup?
While all these criteria are nebulous, there is a makable case for calling it a genre on two of three grounds. The form is a particularly strong argument for it; because we can have certain expectations about the presentation, indie can be a genre of video games much like novel can be a genre of literature.
Or I could just be engaging in sophistry, I dunno.