How would you...

[Byrug]

...divide games, by gender. I thought about it when writing my Master Thesis and I came to a conclusion that basicly you have two types of games:
1. Symulators - car racing, plane fling, shooters, rpg (life symulator)
2. Manages - sims, civilization, rts

Pls make comments they mean a lot to me.

[trgeorge]

I believe you mean "genre" instead of "gender"....

And it's hard to differ them...If you look at Civilization, is it simulation (of evolving civilization) or manager game?

Most games are simulation. They mimic something from RL...after all you need someting remotly familiar, or playerbase would be totally lost and would get bored fast. But since there are usually some choices awailable, you're managing your car, civilization or character....result is depending on your choices.

But if you really want to apply genre, you should expandd selection a bit.(Like : simulations, manager games, sporting games, shooting games, etc..) But there will always be grey area games...those that could fit in two or more categories. Simply becouse creators of games always give some spice, addsome fantasy and at same time simplify them. After all if games would be as bleak and hard as most lifes, who would play them?

Maybe best option would be to apply some sort of rating...like game A is : 30%simulation, 30 % manager game and 40% fantasy. You could then sort them by genre or just leave it at that.

[Flameforge]

Are you trying to simplify the genres into their most basic forms? As Tr points out that's quite difficult. Head to a gaming website and you will find the "common" genres, for example:

ausgamers.com
Action/Adventure
Fighting
First Person Shooter
Platform
Puzzle
Racing
Role Playing
Simulator
Sport
Strategy

fileplanet.com
Action
Adventure
Arcade
Board
Card
Casino
Classic
Handheld
Pinball
Puzzle
Rhythm and Dance
RPG
Simulation
Sports
Strategy

I guess two basic categories might be "twitchy" and "non-twitchy" style games.

[furydemon]

If you have time - check out

http://socialstudygames.com/

Has some fantastic info on games, why people play, what they like etc. This one is often linked to education so with my job, I use it alot.

Same for http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/ but this one is mostly raw data from surverys - perhaps even more useful?

[Byrug]

Well I might have not made all the facts clear at the beging, my Thesis is not realy about games but marketing strategies in the video-games market, the part where I actualy speak about games will be 3 to 5 pages long and is only ther becouse my thesis will be read by people who have no idea about games. The rest will be boring marketing theories. Therfore, simplifing the genres is crutial to keeping the hole paper as short as possible.

Tr- your idea about the rating is nice and, if I may, I would like to use it.
Flame- where do you think I went first to look up game genres??? Althoe I like the -"twitchy" and "non-twitchy" style games-
Fury- BIG thanks, you just saved me two weeks of work... you wouldn't happen to know any sites with marketing strategies examples??

Thank you everyone, keep'm coming...the more you post the more you help.....and farm posts.

[furydemon]

hehe I do indeed - advantage of my job is that this is classed as work as long as I don't overdo it...

http://www.game-research.com/ has some stuff on the business side of gaming - marketing too. This is an article alittle about marketing http://www.game-research.com/art_review_kline.asp

I think a superb example of games marketing is the Xbox. Taking a console that (rightly or wrongly) was disliked by many & had only OK technology & forcing it onto the public with the most aggressive marketing strategy I've ever seen. Consoles to play on, 2 or 3 half nekkid ladies wandering every single shop in town, freebies & just general massive amounts of cash thrown at the campaign. People still claim Halo (a fps) the best game ever. Is it really? Or was that part of that same aggressive marketing campaign?

[Byrug]

Halo and Halo 2 were ground breakers when sales are taken in count, Halo 2 made three times more then Spider-Man 2 (movie)... and it will prolly have it's own chapter in my thesis.
Thanks again Fury....now all I have to do read all this stuff...

[furydemon]

http://www.brandweek.com/brandweek/head ... 1000874671

Athletes and celebs will show off the console's new features.

Dear god - the horror

[Syriii]

http://www.brandweek.com/brandweek/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000874671

Athletes and celebs will show off the console's new features.

-snip-

Sick and wrong.

[furyangel]

If you live in Sweden games are good for you!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1471403,00.html

They may even have a place in school!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3956241.stm

and finally.... just don't take it this far!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4486823.stm