I’m proud of coming up with this
2 Likes
As you command
I break games up into three meta-genres, helpfully alluded to earlier
Puzzles are all games where play is not agential (you do not choose your goals nor how to pursue them) and which do not depend highly on contingency. Exploration and decision making are not major factors in this meta-genre.
Wars are all games where play is reagential (you react to the goals of others, you choose how to pursue your own goals but you do not set those goals). Exploration can be an element here, decision making is necessary, especially contingent decisions but the choices available to you are constrained by the doctrine of the war.
Dungeons are agential and nonlinear. Your goals are your own. Unlike wars, tactical play is subservient to exploratory play. The interest in play is how your shifting goals and decision making shape the narrative of play.
To use Sid Meier’s ludography as an example:
Covert Action is a puzzle game, Civilization is a war game, and Pirates! is a dungeon game
14 Likes
holy shit really? wait how many of these have breached containment. too much cake is pretty fresh for me but the others feel ubiquitous. course i don’t really post about games anywhere else but
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use lawnmower sim anywhere but here but if you have I think it’s more likely a case of convergent evolution than direct ancestry
most people use lawnmower Sim to talk about the actual game with that name yeah
damn… we still got it. cheers cubes
action comedy game duke nukem 3d