- Mar 25, 2008
- 437
- 70
Lately, with so many game awards, I have been seeing "Action Game" pop up all over the place, and I can't stand it. Does anyone actually know what an "Action Game" is?
I was looking at the IGN GOTY awards, and Assassin's Creed 2 and Uncharted 2 were both in the same category: Action Game. Now, any genre that both those games can be in is so vague that it is not even worth having. Uncharted 2 is a Platformer and a 3rd-person shooter. The two main game mechanics are shooting and platforming. Assassin's Creed 2 is an open-world stealth game. The main game mechanic is stealth (not platforming, assassin's creed climbing mechanics are not platforming.)
On another note, people calling Braid a platformer and not a puzzle game annoys the hell out of me. Yes, you can jump, but the main challenge is not in the jumping (you can't even die in the game for Christ's sake), it is in the puzzles.
In the big picture, I realize a genre is just a name we give something. I will play games of any genre, as long as the game itself is entertaining, but I know many people base their purchases off of the genre of the game. I feel sorry for the developer and the gamer when they miss out on a great game, just because they don't like platformers, etc.
Sorry if this turned into a rant, but am I the only one that thinks this? Does anyone else agree with me or have other issues with people's ideas of a genre?
I was looking at the IGN GOTY awards, and Assassin's Creed 2 and Uncharted 2 were both in the same category: Action Game. Now, any genre that both those games can be in is so vague that it is not even worth having. Uncharted 2 is a Platformer and a 3rd-person shooter. The two main game mechanics are shooting and platforming. Assassin's Creed 2 is an open-world stealth game. The main game mechanic is stealth (not platforming, assassin's creed climbing mechanics are not platforming.)
On another note, people calling Braid a platformer and not a puzzle game annoys the hell out of me. Yes, you can jump, but the main challenge is not in the jumping (you can't even die in the game for Christ's sake), it is in the puzzles.
In the big picture, I realize a genre is just a name we give something. I will play games of any genre, as long as the game itself is entertaining, but I know many people base their purchases off of the genre of the game. I feel sorry for the developer and the gamer when they miss out on a great game, just because they don't like platformers, etc.
Sorry if this turned into a rant, but am I the only one that thinks this? Does anyone else agree with me or have other issues with people's ideas of a genre?