Genre, The Accurate Application of

Author Dr Ron Rhodes one said “An incorrect genre judgment will lead one far astray in interpreting Scripture”, if he’d have swapped the word Scripture for Video Games then that quote would be much more relevant to what follows.

I am generally a very calm person. I don’t suffer from gaming rage or forum rant and I’ve never had a Facebook breakdown but some things get to me – petty things. What I am about to say may paint me as an elitist bastard, I am not I promise. It is just that the incorrect use of terminology fills me with a slowly boiling anger. Now before you scour this post for evidence of the very crime I am lambasting please take into account that I just used the word ‘lambasting’ and am therefore beyond your scrutiny. You should also consider that although what follows is just an opinion, please take into account that I have consulted with luminaries of the games industry and they concur with my assertions.

You could argue that applying genres to video games is no longer an exact science and in some situations I would agree but not in the cases I will present to you. These were carved in stone by the pharisees of long forgotten gaming deities.

Beat’em up
An apostrophised form of the term Beat them up. Implies more than one of them, potentially many more. A game in which the player faces multiple enemies at once, progressing through an area beating them up.

Acceptable Alternatives: Brawler

Accurate Examples: Final Fight, Streets of Rage, God Hand.

Fighting Game
Although this could be viewed as a somewhat ambiguous term, its traditional and correct usage refers to a game where the player controls a character in a one on one fight against an enemy character, usually in a closed arena. Matches are won by depleting your opponent’s life bar thus scoring you a round victory. Multiple round victories are usually required to win a match. There are many acceptable variations including team and tag matches but on the whole the core gameplay remains consistent.

Acceptable Alternatives: Fighter, Vs Fighter However this is an unnecessary clarification of the genre as Vs is implied in the correct use of the terms Fighting and Fighter.

Accurate Examples: Street Fighter, Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter.

Is that clear? Next lesson we’ll move on to Shooters (1st and 3rd Person) and Shoot’um ups. Read chapters 4 through 6 and write me 5,000 words on points of perspective, the grammatical person and idiots that don’t know the difference!

Class Dismissed!