Better genre names for mobile games

Fengol

I know we can't actually change the industry but I'd like to propose some new genres in the mobile space to better identify games.

Endless runner > Platformer
Games like Temple Run and Subway Surfer are classified as platformers because you run, jump, duck and sometimes shoot; and while this is correct it's too broad a term to describe what these games really are and how they're different.

Tower defense > Strategy or RTS
Would you put tower defense games in the same box as Star Craft 2? It seems any game that requires thinking that isn't an obvious puzzle is a real-time strategy game (where I personally think a good tower defense game is more akin to a puzzle game than a strategy game).

But what genre would you call games like Clash of Clans, Star Wars: Commander and even the mobile version of Dungeon Keeper? A work colleague suggested AoE (Age of Empires) but I really don't want to use the name of a game to describe a genre (Tower defense is an exception) and I don't think it also covers it's general freemium nature and asynchronous attacks that don't actually destroy your buildings.

Wikipedia calls Clash of Clans a "freemium mobile MMO strategy video game" but I'd argue that it's not an MMO because your interactions with other players is very limited and distinctly different from other MMO's like WoW or GW. I'd ask say that it's more a tower defense game than a strategy game but this isn't it's main mechanic (and there's no puzzle) it's more like a game like Farmville (which also needs a genre) where you wait for timers to build resources so you can attack random people to hopefully get more resources.

Ideas?

Tuism

I think the definition of MMO is just what the words mean - Massive Multiplayer Online. In that regard Clash of Titans aims to have you interact with a whole pile of people in one way or another, so MMO is right. So the way that Clash of Titans play being different from WoW or Guild Wars is irrelevant. If they didn't have "freemium" and "strategy" and only called it an MMO then it would be weird.

Although if a more appropriate term comes along I wouldn't fight it either.

Freemium as a model pretty much defines half the games - pay to skip things. It's not "the" gameplay but it defines a lot of the gameplay, unfortunately.

I think the only way to really lump Clash of Titans and Farmville and Dragon Vale and Mafia Wars together is through the Freemium thing, which, again, isn't strictly gameplay, but defines a lot of the interaction. X would take so long unless you pay to have it go away.

Though they all have a building thing in common? So... Something like empire management?

Terms like Endless Runner and Tower Defense are already being used as genre-definers, were you trying to say that they *are* better terms as an example or you'd like them to be used as genre-definers?

Karuji

This comes from a more systemic problem that games have:

What we call genres are actually styles.

Genre refers to what kind of feelings you have by experiencing a piece of art.

Style refers to how a piece of art was created.

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Since games are interactive, and for the most part only explore the experience of fun, we began talking about style as if they were genre since the type of interactivity was the leading factor on how we experienced the game.

The problem your describing comes from the fact that we're exploring new areas of design that don't fall into areas that have a formal definition so we end up with misappropriated terms (Platformer for Endless Runner) really long convoluted terms (freemium mobile MMO strategy video game) and poorly chosen terms to assert marketing value (MOBA)

I've been meaning to write an article about this kind of thing for Dev.Mag for a couple of years now, but just haven't managed to for various reasons at differing points in time, which makes me rather sad since it's a really interesting topic to explore :<

I'll try and give a better deconstruction of the problem after rAge when I'm not so busy ;)

dislekcia

Karuji said:

This comes from a more systemic problem that games have:

What we call genres are actually styles.

Genre refers to what kinds of feeling you have by experiencing a piece of art.

Style refers to how a piece of art was created.

This makes the most sense ever.