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Critical Video Game Studies

The gaps in video game genres

By October 7, 20222 Comments

Having little to no experience with video games, I was confused as to how I was to choose between five games under the same genre. I individually clicked on each link and made my choice solely relying on the graphics and short descriptions. I eventually landed on Cult of the Lamb because it seemed easier to navigate due to the simplistic illustration of the characters. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about how different each of these games are despite being under the same genre. This led me to think:  Is genre enough to categorize video games? And is there a way to improve user experience when it comes to selecting a game, especially with new players? 

 Cult of the Lamb, while it is a roguelike game under the specifics of gameplay and mechanics, I can’t help but sub-categorize it as a stimulation and even town building. I say this because Lamb of the Cult has the narrative of building your own cult in a designated plot of land. It’s where you build the temple, the kitchen, and  where you gather all the necessary materials like wood, stone, lumber, etc. You also have to monitor hunger levels of your followers and devote time to keep their faith/loyalty alive. Thus creating the effect of a simulation game. If subcategories like these were listed under roguelike games perhaps it would make the choice of which game to play a lot easier to decide. Personally I would not play a roguelike game just by the genre alone. Although I enjoyed playing Cult of the Lamb, I would never have played it otherwise.

Each video game is unique and although one should not overlook the genre of a game, neither should they presume the entirety of it is based on a given genre. Cult of the Lamb to me felt like a mixture of genres yet every review page categorized it as almost the same thing. A roguelike indie game but I could argue that it involves stimulation and town building. For new players like myself, who have no experience playing games, genre means everything. Many people are familiar with “genre” as a term to categorize books or films. Genres like horror, sci-fi, and fantasy are familiar in this sense but when a video game is categorized as rougelike, it can be confusing. It is easy to make the assumption based off a simple google search that because rougelike games are defined by permadeath, it would lead to a frustrating experience . This can discourage new players and create an accessibility issue by losing the opportunity to reach a new audience. 

While there are gaps in the categorization of video games, it’s of course not enough to plummet the popularity of roguelike games. Cult of the Lambs still stands as a popular roguelike game which is not surprising since it has the element of a cozy stimulation game. Unfortunately it’s not that easy to figure out until you play it yourself.

2 Comments

  • KendrickX KendrickX says:

    You make an excellent point that categorizing a game into a single genre can make players hesitant to play. I was nervous about playing Dead Cells even though it is a roguelite game, not a roguelike game. Although having large consequences for dying added a lot of thrill to the game, I found myself exhausted from the gameplay after only a short time because I wanted a more relaxing experience. Eventually, I found out that you could change the settings of the game to resurrect you at the last checkpoint. This change resulted in a much more relaxing experience that reminded me more of other platformers I have played before. Although the main genre advertised for the game is roguelike, if I knew there was an option to play the game in a way that is more similar to other platformers, I would have been more likely to play the game out of class.

  • eren eren says:

    I find your perspective on Roguelike games very refreshing! As someone who is so deeply involved with games and game culture, and who loves Roguelikes and plays a lot of them, it is easy for me to get stuck in my hypercritical mindset coming from a place of thinking I know a whole lot about the genre and what makes it good (whether I actually do or not is another question). In thinking critically about Cult of the Lamb in the past week, I have begun to believe that its classification as a Roguelike is actively doing it a disservice – it is a good “top-down action-adventure” game (whatever that even means), but just not a very good Roguelike, so I think it is bad because it is classified poorly and compared to other better (actual) Roguelikes. But your perspective as someone who might be turned away by the Roguelike moniker (as opposed to me who is drawn to it) makes me realize the twofold impact of this misclassification – people who might enjoy the game quite a bit might never play it because of its catchy (but perhaps inaccurate) genre classification, and the marketing momentum that results from that.