Introducing this editorial series

The problem that arises when critiquing an entertainment medium is its genre must be taken into consideration, which often is not the case. Do action movies need deep characters? Do horror films need a complex plot? Videogames while on a different spectrum of the entertainment medium should be looked at in the same way. Which genres value graphics more than others, and is that a large part of what fills out what we perceive the game to be? What about controls, presentation, sound, and game length?

In a series of articles I aim to identify what characteristics are most valuable to many genres of games, by giving a numerical value from 1-5 to what I believe is relevant when discussing a genre and its respective qualities, consider it a type of review process. But please bare in mind the score is purely subjective and completely my opinion.

My hope is that with this, I can expand on the common perceptions of genre norms and constraints, and hopefully give a more in-depth understanding to the review process of games.

Let’s start by looking at the First Person genre aka FPS. Ever since Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, first-person shooters have been heavyweights of the industry. They often resemble big-budget summer blockbuster movies considering they have a lot of style, fun and explosions, but not too much substance, story and developed characters.

A lot of the success for the FPS can be attributed to a staple in the genre’s feature, which is brandishing a fire arm and pulling the trigger. Shooting is one the earliest and most visceral gaming devices. When one looks at old-school titles like Space Invaders, Defender, and Asteroid, the primary mechanic was shooting stuff. We as humans enjoy shooting things, I think, mostly because we rarely get a chance to do so in real life. (more…)