01. Overview

How can someone nurture their own authentic connection with the medium of video games?

Overview

Ten thousand million new video games are released every year, and twenty thousand billion already exist. This ocean is so vast that it seemingly requires deference to "the experts" just to sort it all out. What's popular. Or recommended. Or algorithmically-delivered. But what happens when the blockbuster releases elevated by publishers and journalists no longer represent your interests? Or when the Top 10 lists constantly rehash the same, familiar games? Both methods can be useful to some extent, but they're designed to keep individuals reliant on their ecosystems rather than encourage venturing into the unknown. Even the very basic systems we're afforded to group and rate games explicitly limit self-discovery. So, it's time for something new.

Genre genealogy is the path to which we can uncover the hidden knowledge of video games.

Games have never been developed in a vacuum; since the beginning, they have been a result of modifying, challenging, and building upon the ideas of peers. For every direct clone of Space Invaders, others took the basic concept and added new gameplay mechanics. When subsequent games use the newer baseline as influence, new branches of the family tree are born. This infinite cycle repeats so long as new games are created. While the genealogy is not always obvious, especially as mechanics organically transfer across threads, it provides us with a valuable gift: context.

Genealogical context tells us what makes a game special.

• What was it trying to accomplish among its peers, and how did it set itself apart? What was it in conversation with, or was it the first of its kind?

Genealogical context tells us who a game was for.

• What communities were built around a game, and how do those local experts canonize its genre compared to the mainstream? Was a game's developer the standard-bearer of the genre, or dipping their toes into something new?

Genealogical context points us to hidden treasures and discarded waste.

• What games became lost in the sea, taking a genre in new directions that didn't resonate with its audience at the time? Was it ahead of its time, misunderstood, or simply an example of what not to do?

And, perhaps most importantly... while it's impossible to perfectly fit every game into neatly-defined categories, the process of charting a genre genealogy provides us with standardized points of reference. A map. That's ultimately the main goal of this project: to update the ways in which we think about games as a whole so that it's easier for people to explore what they're interested in - or find something new entirely!

Getting Started

Now that you have the basics, there are a number of directions you can head in next:

• The genre-based TAXONOMY outlines hierarchical gameplay classifications and other identifiers to build a universally applicable yet dynamic and responsive categorical system

• A modified RATING SYSTEM emerges from these new categories, allowing nuance and simplicity to coexist for personal opinions and professional curators

• An experimental SEARCH TOOL offers a practical test of how the genealogy changes the game

Or, dive straight into the genres themselves! Note that lots of pages are unfinished and just for show... but sections 11, 12, and 13 should be mostly built out :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!