6 ms·
Please, don't use the term 'an io game'. It really makes no sense.
by Shorel 9y ago
Please, don't use the term 'an io game'. It really makes no sense.
- jgmmo 9y agoI also have never heard this phrase 'io game'. Sounds like firebase & html5 games? Those were popular after html5 came out..
- gre 9y agoIt's referring to the domain .io, as in agar.io, which was a circle fighting game that started the trend.
- Danihan 9y agoWhich is so fucking strange. Is TagPro a "gg game" now, because they use the "gg" domain for their main site? I mean, how obtuse can we get..
- drngdds 9y agoIf it inspired dozens of similar games and they all used the gg domain, then yeah, it would be reasonable to call those gg games.
- oddlyaromatic 9y agoIsn't this just normal evolution of language? Like how terms like "uppercase" have meaning even though we don't keep letters in cases (most of us anyway!). It's not like every domain extension has to match a game genre, but if, by fluke, it became what happened for "io games" ... That's how words get their meanings. Which is a long way of saying I disagree that it's strange!
- Danihan 9y agoI suppose I'm arguing against the adoption of such a vernacular. It's just a web game.
- 21 9y agoThere are millions (ok, maybe not) of web games. How do you describe a particular genre? The one obvious thing this particular kind of games had in common when they appeared was the .io domain, thus the name. Go to cursors.io, agar.io and slither.io. Now find a short phrase to describe all three.
- lotyrin 9y agoIt's a specific genre of webgame though, something is or is not an "io game" it's more than where it's hosted, it's more than whether or not it's an HTML5 game or multiplayer. A genre is precisely a collection of artistic attributes that occur and are repeated mostly as a historical accident (usually after a pioneer explores the space and follow-ups revisit) and are shared among a collection of works -- they are hard to concisely label with precise descriptive terms so their audience seeks a fairly arbitrary label to describe the collection. "io game" seems reasonable enough to me. Just the same as (made up example) "Up-tempo minor-seventh-key highly-distorted guitar arpeggios with four-on-the-floor beats and legato vocals" gets called "wailcore" or something, the kids playing these aren't going to say "HTML5 games with an emphasis on large counts of concurrent players, with gameplay arising from emergent behavior of players instead of a large investment in story, art, or game mechanics." a hundred times to their peers -- even if they could consciously notice these attributes and articulate them that way. They'll start saying "you know, it's kinda like agar.io" "I haven't heard of that is it like <whatever>.io?" "Yeah, exactly" suddenly you have a community of players of "io games". I don't really understand how anyone would expect anything else here.
- rhizome 9y agoObtuse enough not to realize that a subculture produces its own tropes. If "gg games" acquires enough of an identity, they way io has, then yes, outsiders might start referring to gg games.
- corysama 9y agoI think the history goes: agar.io and slither.io were surprise smash-hit games that both featured simple, drop-in-and-play multiplayer HTML5 with a dedicated .io domains. They inspired literally hundreds of copycats that each set up .io domains to signal that they were following they genre. The genre has become so popular that "io game" is now a term.
- stevenwoo 9y agoI was introduced to this by my friend's (USA) elementary school age kids last year - they showed me a lot of games on the .io TLD. mope.io was popular for a time - it's seems pretty pointless from watching people play it over the shoulder.
- yaseer 9y agoI had also never heard the phrase, but a quick Google shows that it's part of the lexicon for a community of people.
- chii 9y agoi can't imagine the confusion of ideas that must have been for those people to have coined this 'io game'...
- amelius 9y agoAs opposed to an 'o game', which is output only, i.e., just a movie.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoOr an 'i game', a game that takes only input and provides no feedback. Like waving your hands in the air and pretending you are playing a VR game; or a Karate kata.
- amelius 9y agoOr air-guitar.
- Retr0spectrum 9y agoOr just 'the game', which exists only inside your own head.
- pmarreck 9y agoIt makes sense if they are all knockoffs of successful games that were hosted in the .io TLD, though
- Matheus28 9y agoI'm the guy that made Agar.io, and I personally hate that term, but I don't think we'll ever win the war of getting people to stop calling those browser MMO games "io games"
- crusso 9y agoAgar.io cost me a lot of productive waking hours. I'm not sure if I should thank you or curse you.. :)
- smaddox 9y agoGreat game. Was it a side project, or were you a full time game dev? And what about now after its success? Did it provide enough income to pursue whatever you want full time?
- brjacobs 9y agoI taught at a summer camp that had a curriculum focused on playing and modding Minecraft. One of the biggest challenges we faced was getting the kids to stop playing Agar.io for long enough to play Minecraft.
- cr0sh 9y agoI love that game! Never was super good at it, but it's a nice diversion all the same...
- nathan_f77 9y agoHave you written any development posts like this? I'm sure everyone on HN would be really interested to hear your thoughts about this post, and how it compares to the development of agar.io. Did you sort of just get lucky with the game mechanic, or was it something that you put a lot of thought into? Was agar.io originally supposed to be a different game?
- ouid 9y agowait until you learn what MOBA stands for...
- chii 9y agoat least MOBA makes sense.
- andybak 9y agoIt makes as much sense as most words. Usage defines meaning - not logic.
- chii 9y agoBut the problem with this name is that the 'io' part is entirely based on the url - would one still call this 'genre' an 'io game' if the url to it doesn't end in '.io'?