The more I look at this generation of video games, the more I grow perplexed and a bit worried about what gaming is turning into. No, not that games are somehow becoming lame or less fun. But more in the sense of the quickly disappearing idea of video game genres.
Allow me to explain. When I first started playing video games in the mid 1980’s, there was really only one main genre: the 2D sidescrolling platformer. Super Mario Bros. defined this. While we always had things like Pac-Man and such, the image of Super Mario Bros. and what it stood for as a game was synonymous with the idea that people young and old alike had in mind when thinking of video games. Over time, this idea grew to encompass all kinds of different types of video games, including sports, shooting, puzzle and even fantasy role-playing games.
Continue reading Dude, Where Are My Genres?