100. Future Directions
Future Directions
The Game Genealogy is unfinished! Chances are that it always will be, or it's certainly at least not something I could ever finish on my own. With that said, in case you ever want to contribute in your own way, this page is here to highlight loose ends that might help. I also discuss parts of the project I was never fully satisfied with but couldn't figure out any better solution for.
Current Progress
The Shooting Genre was ultimately a case study to develop the theory and methodology of the Genealogy, so active development will likely wrap up once Shooting is fully complete. That means it will include every layer of the Taxonomy (Subgenre, Super-Subgenre, Pack, Perspective, Modifier, and Aesthetic) to a degree thorough enough that others could replicate it for another Genre.
- However, a lot of natural overlap occurs, and I do have a lot of information leftover for other Genres already, so... I think the stretch goal is to have most of the Arcade Class built out, or at least the Arcade, Brawling, Racing, and Platforming genres.
Although I have preliminary classifications for the Adventure, Social, and Project classes, I am less confident in their accuracy overall. Many are based on admittedly limited knowledge of the source material. They are still included on the site because I think it is more helpful than not to show where we're at, but they should not be mistaken for hard science.
General Challenges
Class Bleed
Right now, the Taxonomy operates with a pretty strict hierarchy that works from the bottom-up: games are part of a Subgenre, which are part of a Genre, which are part of a Class. As a result, every Subgenre is ascribed their parent Genre's Class. This is elegant but lacks nuance.
We already see cracks of this with some of the Subgenres within the Arcade Class looking eerily similar to something from the Adventure Class. Adventure Brawlers feature heavy emphasis on narrative and meaningfully incorporate other Arcade Class mechanics (usually Puzzle), which would suggest they belong in the Adventure Class. They are still clearly rooted in the Arcade gameplay of others in their Genre, but even other Brawling subgenres with contemporary releases (i.e., Onslaught and Spectacle) maintain the high scores and level-based structure that Adventure Brawlers do not. Similarly, Sandbox Platformers seemingly drift further into Adventure territory with each release that trends toward Open-World. "Levels" still exist I guess, though more to section off areas geographically than group distinct challenges.
What does this tell us? Quite possibly, it also points to there being value in allowing for Subgenres to simply have a Class independent of their parent Genre. But these anomalies could also help hammer out the true definition of a Class: for Arcade, are levels necessary, and does their length matter? Does the length of a game matter? To what extent does a narrative need to take center stage?
There's a huge can of worms brewing specifically with the First-Person Shooter Genre. Its origins, like Doom (1993), would be Arcade Class while something like Half-Life (1998) would be Adventure Class. But what about Halo (2001) and games where a story-based campaign and an online multiplayer mode are equally important? Now, not only can a Genre be a part of multiple Classes, but a single game can be, too? Woof. A lot to unpack there. Don't even mention Games as a Service or stuff like Roblox, Fornite, and so on...
Related but Unrelated
Mechnically, it makes sense that Rail Shooters and Flight Simulators are distinct from one another... but intuitively, it's a much harder sell. The main concept of "flying a plane and shooting down enemies" is often identical, and there are sometimes even development links between them (After Burner (1987) to GLOC: Air Battle (1990), for example). So to essentially be as far apart as possible in the genealogy, not sharing a Genre or Class, feels very strange.
The main difference between them in terms of gameplay could be oversimplified into fantasy versus simulation. Rail Shooters are "gamified," while Flight Simulators aim to replicate reality as closely as possible. This is similar to what can often be found in the Sports Genre: Super Mario Strikers (2005) is not the latest in the FIFA series, just as Ribbit King (2000) is not PGA Tour Golf (1990). At least here, however, the Soccer and Golf subgenres can cleanly be split into Super-Subgenres of Soccer Fantasy, Soccer Simulation, and so on.
Meh... maybe I'm overthinking this and it doesn't really matter. After all, a consistent methodology is more useful than agonizing over a mystical single tool to demonstrate every connection! (thatbeingsaidifyoufindawaytomakeitworkpleasetellmeokaythanksbyeeeee)