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The issue is not with players categorizing a game as a roguelike (or not), it’s developers categorizing their game as a marketing tactic. The way discovery work
by chongli 4y ago
The issue is not with players categorizing a game as a roguelike (or not), it’s developers categorizing their game as a marketing tactic. The way discovery works on a platform such as Steam, developers are incentivized to tick as many boxes as possible on the genre list in order to get their game seen by as many players as possible. In effect, this self-categorization lets developers dilute the meaning of genre labels in order to make money.
Roguelike just happened to be one of the genre labels with a long-standing and passionate community. Now the community members are everywhere speaking out against this dilution. This is not gatekeeping — anyone is welcome to play roguelikes — it’s preservation of the genre’s distinctiveness.
- socialismisok 4y ago> it’s preservation of the genre’s distinctiveness. This is literally gatekeeping. You are deciding which things may pass the gate.
- chongli 4y agoGatekeeping pertains to people, not things. If you have a rock n' roll club you're allowed to say that "Happy Birthday" is not a rock n' roll song. That's different from saying "people who like the Happy Birthday song aren't allowed in the club", which is gatekeeping.
- socialismisok 4y agoNow you are gatekeeping the concept of gatekeeping, incredible.
- anthk 4y ago
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago> You woudln't call Sonic a racing game. Funny you should say that, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had a 2-player mode where you raced the other player to the end of the level. And Sonic Team Racing is a thing, too. But yes, I would not call the original Sonic game a racing game.