Model Depiction of the Three Genre Dimensions
摘要
This chapter provides a best practice guide on how to begin a genre analysis of a video game based on its three genre dimensions. It introduces a way to visualise the three genre dimensions of system-mechanics, fiction-aesthetics, and the social-ritual in a cube model. This graphical representation offers a quick overview of the different dimensions of a video game and helps to document the course of play. The chapter illustrates the usability of the model with a brief genre overview of Bloodborne (FromSoftware 2015). The game is presented in a rough overview and illustrated on the basis of its genre markers in the respective dimensions. As a result, the dependencies of the dimensions are made visible. At the same time, however, it becomes clear that even the model offered does not presume to resolve an impossible problem domain. However, it offers an appealing approach to roughly grasping video game genres and considering genre dimensions based on the complexity factors of cataloguing, hybridisation, and player dependence.