Transformations in Three Genre Dimensions
摘要
This chapter reviews relevant video game genre attributes and transforms them into three genre dimensions. The dimension of system-mechanics portrays all the characteristics that determine the formal frame of a game. The diversity of this dimension is shown in the case study of the game Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio 2018). The dimension of the fiction-aesthetics describes a game’s narrative and audiovisual design and is easily explained with film and literary terminology. Regarding the case study for this dimension, the game Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores 2008) is characterised by the horror and sci-fi narrative. Lastly, the dimension of the social-ritual is derived from the idea that human behaviour can be classified into genres and, therefore, impact the experience of genres. In the case of the game Lord of the Rings Online (Turbine Inc. 2007, Standing Stone Games since 2016), players take on the role of characters of the fictional universe.