Template talk:Video game genre

Gambling as genre?

Should Online gambling be considered a video game genre? Or should it be put in the "Related concepts" section of the template? I mean, it has a huge effect on the whole experience, and might differ a lot in terms of gameplay as well. Thoughts? SharkD  Talk  02:27, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

I would think related concepts, if at all. I don't think "games of chance" are typically viewed as video games, even as they've moved into electronic mediums, but it's definitely at least tangentially related. Are there any particular games on PC or consoles that are say, slots or poker? What do we typically put in the genre field in those cases? -- ferret (talk) 12:30, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

We don't have a "Video games of chance" article, which would be ideal. And most games of this type are probably shovelware, unless real money is involved. Should we differentiate between virtual gambling games and games that involve real money? SharkD  Talk  03:52, 28 October 2017 (UTC)

Here is one example that seems popular (400k reviews/ratings, 10,000,000 - 50,000,000 installs). I don't know who reviews these games, and if they're reliable. SharkD  Talk  03:57, 28 October 2017 (UTC)

A review of some articles in Category:Casino_video_games and a few related categories, the genres are all over the place, including "Gambling", "Casino", "Business Simulation", or simply "Cards", etc. I'd say Related concepts is probably the best place still. -- ferret (talk) 13:52, 28 October 2017 (UTC)

Which term should we use? There is already Online game in the template, which is very similar to Online gambling. SharkD  Talk  00:17, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

Artillery

Can we move Artillery to the "Other genres" section? I don't think there are a whole lot of strategy or tactics in these games. They are more focused on the pointing, shooting and ballistics, and I think they don't fit very well in any of the other categories. SharkD  Talk  02:32, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

I'd more broadly discuss this at WP:VG. We need to address how Artillery game is described, and its currently built out as a part of a strategy sub-genre. I.e. it has {{VG Strategy}} at the top. -- ferret (talk) 12:35, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Artillery is turn-based tactics. By definition, it is not strategy, but tactics. While there are simple Artillery games focused only on ballistics, games like Hogs of War are typical artillery games, with a lot of tactics in it. EchoBlu (talk) 14:24, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

MUD

Should MUD be moved to the MMO section? How "massive" are these games in terms of no. of concurrent players? SharkD  Talk  01:00, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Some of the largest would have had more than 100 on at one time. I don't know if any are still that big though. -- ferret (talk) 01:07, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Here are some stats. Seems like most have fewer than 50 players on at one time. SharkD  Talk  03:17, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

It's a different era. Popularity now is nothing like it was in the 90s and even early 2000s. The servers support far more than the current demand. Speaking from personal experience as a player, admin and developer once upon a time. -- ferret (talk) 03:21, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Related discussion on Stack Exchange. It seems there are still several with more than 100 players online. SharkD  Talk  03:25, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Some of the real big ones were on AOL back in the day. GemStone IV had over 2500+ players online at its peak. Realms of Despair, as the flag ship for SMAUG, ran into the hundreds. Elendor used to have 100-150, but is now a graveyard. Everquest started it but WoW was a major killer for "text MMOs". -- ferret (talk) 03:30, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Tower Defence

Tower Defence has same story as MOBA. Both originated as a subgenre of RTS (as Warcraft 3 mods), but they are not RTS. Tower defence has turn-based elements in it. Someone can say that Tower defence is "real time"... "strategy", but don't take names of genres too literally when you try to define it. Tower defence is strategy, but real-time strategy games are something different.EchoBlu (talk) 14:35, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

inclusion Criteria

This template is starting to bloat again. Is it time for a set of inclusion criteria? Something like, only if the genre article is C class or better can it go on the template. Any thoughts?- X201 (talk) 10:23, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

In doing research on the horror game genre, a couple scholarly articles pointed out that they've at times counted upwards of 40-45 distinct genres and that was in 2013-2015. I estimate, ignoring the last row in this, we're around 60. I don't think we're too far off, but that last row is getting a bit too weighty with things that are getting away from terms that are commonly mistaken for genres. For example, "Educational game" is reasonable to have there as it is not a genre but commonly mis-thought of as one, but "twitch gameplay" is decidedly not a genre, it is a gameplay concept (do we have a good landing page besides the glossary for gameplay concepts in general? that might help too). --Masem (t) 17:37, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 May 2023

MOBA should link to Multiplayer_online_battle_arena , an informational page, rather than the current destination, an exemplar list. 2600:1700:E8B0:5C00:69D3:1166:9693:62B9 (talk) 18:45, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

Done! soetermans. ^{↑↑↓↓←→←→ B A TALK} 18:52, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

Don't revert my edit

The ARPG (Action RPG) does not need have its own mini section or whatever. The RPG section as about as short as the Strategy Section. QuantumFoam66 (talk) 02:29, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 August 2025

Could someone group Action-Adventure under Action and Adventure and remove Grand Theft Auto clone (which I don't think is a genre)? 2601:C7:C280:14C0:E5AA:53C8:9C3E:FBD4 (talk) 17:40, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. The list is currently in alphabetical, so moving the headings around would put it out of order. Also, the article for Grand Theft Auto clone lists it as a subgenre, and is well sourced. Consensus should be determined before it is removed. cyberdog958^Talk 01:23, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

Survivalcraft

I think this genre belongs in the template, perhaps in the Survival category. What does everyone else think? OzzyMuffin238 (talk) 18:16, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

thts the name of a game, and doesnt imply a genre thats "survival" already implies since crafting is a part of survival games already. Masem (t) 18:18, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

Beat 'em up/Looter shooter classification

@13akoors Beat 'em ups are not considered fighting games. Looter shooters are shooting games by definition. TPI81AF (talk) 16:03, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

@TPI81AF: The first line of the Looter shooter page says "Looter shooter (also called loot shooter) is a subgenre of action role-playing games that incorporates shooter gameplay". It doesn't matter that it is also a shooter. Similar to how survival horror is an action-adventure game, not a survival game.

I also strongly disagree with classifying Action-adventure as under Action. These games are not a subgenre of action. They are a hybrid genre of Action and adventure. You're making the page much harder to read for seemingly no reason. 13akoors (talk) 16:34, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

Please cite something other than an unsourced sentence from Wikipedia. I can link to Shooter_game#Looter_shooter clearly stating "Looter shooters are shooter games." All the examples of looter shooters are shooter games in the sources that I have checked.

Action-adventure games are both action and adventure by definition, thus they are a sub-genre of action games. They also tend to be more similar to other action games than to other adventure games. There are only 3 subcategories of action-adventure so I see no reason why that sub-genre should be made top-level when the entire shooter genre is crammed into action. TPI81AF (talk) 17:26, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

@TPI81AF: So according to your logic, the shooter page listing it as a shooter is fine. Meanwhile, the Looter shooter page itself listing it as an Action RPG, as well as the infobox used on that page, which lists it as "part of the series on RPGs" are all wrong, and not reliable because it's "unsorced". Understood.

As for why the "Shooter genre" is not top level, that'd be because it isn't a genre. It is a subgenre of Action. It is not a unique, separate genre from Action, which is what makes it top level.

Regardless, I'm putting this up for further discussion, because almost none of these changes make sense. 13akoors (talk) 23:05, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

A looter shooter is obviously a shooter in the same way that an ARPG is obviously an RPG. The statement that a looter shooter is an ARPG is unsourced and not obvious from the name itself. The main examples of looter shooters are all shooters and not really RPGs. I wasn't proposing to move the shooter genre, but pointing out that you should have no problem with placing a sub-genre of action games (action-adventure) under the action category. It could be categorized under adventure, but as I explained, the genre is more similar to other action games overall.

Please specify which changes in particular that you have a problem with so that we may reach a consensus through discussion. TPI81AF (talk) 23:24, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

It appears likely that no one is going to add additional input in this discussion, so I'll go over the main things I have a problem with, as requested.

• 1: Digital tabletop and Action-adventure should be moved back to the top level of the list. The same Action-adventure suggestion was made before on this talk page, and it was rejected for exactly the same reason. A consensus needs to be made that shows that Action-adventure is reported as a subgenre of action. Since no consensus exists, it cannot be moved. I will make the same argument for Digital tabletop. Until notable sources are found that say this is a subgenre of Simulator, it should remain separate.
• 2: Restore the Other genres category. This category exists for things that are video game genres, but are only loosely related to, or completely unrelated to, the major genres. That should not be removed. I'd argue that every single genre that you removed from "Other genres" should be moved back, unless you can show with a notable source that the games belong somewhere else. (Music and Non-game can remain where they are)

This is basically all I'm asking for. Pretty much every other thing does not matter to me.

I would ask that since you take issue with the Looter shooter page claiming they're Action RPGs with shooter elements, find a source and edit that page.

Also, as a note from the above conversation, I want to be clear that I don't think any hybrids of major genres should be under those genres (so, I think Action RPG shouldn't be under RPG, and Tactical RPG shouldn't be under Strategy or RPG). But, only Action-adventure is big enough to be separated, because the others have too few games / subgenres to warrant separating 13akoors (talk) 23:26, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

You make good points, but unfortunately I still entirely disagree. Since I haven't the time today, I shall post a request for a third opinion tomorrow, which you may ignore if you disagree with the process. TPI81AF (talk) 01:55, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

I support this process, and will fully engage. I expect the same from you 13akoors (talk) 02:14, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Note: most of the discussion occurred at:

Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Video_games#Template:Video_game_genre_changes

1. Digital tabletop games are definitionally simulators, as Action-adventure games are definitionally action games
2. Other categories:

• Rhythm to Arcade

Rhythm games are very nearly pure action games like other arcade games and many rhythm games are exclusive to arcades. Even rhythm games on other platforms are often categorized as arcade games.

• Moved Fitness, Party, Friendslop, and Typing to "Other Action".

Fitness games and typing games are definitionally action games. Party games and Friendslop are all action games or collections of Action minigames.

• Moved Cozy to Life sim.

All cozy games are simulators with one hybrid platformer exception. The most prominent examples Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley are considered simulators.

• Moved Photography to "Other simulator".

Simulates photography by definition

• Moved Incremental to Strategy (real-time)

Incremental games are more similar to strategy games than to other types of games.The only meaningful inputs are which purchases to make and when.

• Moved Programming to Puzzle

They are all puzzle games except for Core War-likes which are really competitive strategy games, like autobattlers, with programming as a mechanic.

• Moved Horror to Themes

Horror does not have any prescribed gameplay and primarily relates to visual or other thematic elements. There are horror visual novels, third person shooters, puzzle games, walking simulators, action-adventure games, etc.

• Moved Music to Themes

See above.

TPI81AF (talk) 15:52, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Response to third opinion request:

I have taken a third opinion request for this page and am currently reviewing the issues. I shall replace this text shortly with my reply. I have made no previous edits on Template:Video game genre and have no known association with the editors involved in this discussion. The third opinion process is informal and I have no special powers or authority apart from being a fresh pair of eyes. Xan747 (talk) 15:56, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

After reviewing the current state of the template most recently edited by @13akoors, and reading the above debate, there are a few too many items for me to research on my own to render a specific opinion for each one. It might be better for me to adopt the role of discussion moderator, which is beyond what is typically expected of a 3O volunteer, but which is also not discouraged either. In this case I think it would be best to begin with both editors to pointing to the version of the template they prefer, and briefly summarizing their justifications for how they wish to present each of the disputed items. This distills the debate and gives me something more concrete to look at, making my job less difficult. I will give more weight to arguments supported by reliable secondary sources, e.g. PC Gamer, if they can be found. However, the nature of these kind of categories is that they're often ill-defined, highly subjective, and obviously subject to debate even in industry circles. If either editor is not comfortable with me taking on this role, I will gladly step back and restore the 3O ticket and let some other volunteer have a crack at it. Xan747 (talk) 16:20, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

I prefer this version: Template:Video_game_genre

I am also OK with allowing you to moderate, if @13akoors is.

Please allow me time to find sources to support my position, as I have none prepared.TPI81AF (talk) 16:31, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

1. Digital tabletop games are definitionally simulators

Tabletop Simulator is a simulator. MTGO is a "digital adaptation" of an analog game.

Action-adventure games are action and adventure as implied by the ampersand in "Action & Adventure"

2. Other categories:

1. Rhythm to Arcade

The rhythm game Thumper, for example, is described as an "arcade game" despite never being released as an arcade game. The games that were originally arcade games are obviously arcade games (Taiko no Tatsujin, Beatmania, Dance Dance Revolution, etc.)

2. Fitness and Typing to "Other Action".

Fitness games and typing games are definitionally action games.

Kinect Adventures! and Ring Fit Adventure are listed as action games on IMDB . Ring Fit Adventure is an "action game" or "action role-playing game".

Typing of the Dead is considered action

3. Cozy to Life sim.

The most prominent examples Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley are considered simulators, specifically farming simulators.

4. Photography to "Other simulator".

Simulates photography by definition.

New Pokemon Snap, for example, is considered a simulator

5. Incremental to Strategy (real-time)

Egg, Inc. is considered a strategy game. Compare the strategies of optimizing income in Tower Defense games to optimizing cookies in cookie clicker. The principles are the same.

6. Horror to Themes

Horror does not have any prescribed gameplay and primarily relates to visual or other thematic elements.

Is there any gameplay preserved across the following 4 horror titles? (DDLC, RE4, Limbo, The Typing of the Dead) The only thing they share in common is the horror theme. Horror is equivalent to Sci-Fi.

7. Music to Themes

Similarly, Audiosurf 2, Mario Paint, Just Dance, and SingStar have no shared gameplay whatsoever and merely share a musical theme.

== Conceded Points ==

• Party and Friendslop to "Other Action".
• Programming to Puzzle

These changes should be reverted. At a later time, I would argue that they should be moved to Related > Design as there are multiple gameplay genres represented, similarly to Horror and Music.

Programming

Puzzle (Human Resource Machine) Strategy (Darwin)

Party

Rhythm (Samba de Amigo) Beat-em-up (Gang Beasts) Sports/Simulation (Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games)/(Party Golf) Music (Sing Party)

Friendslop

Survival Horror (Lethal Company) Platformer (Chained Together)

TPI81AF (talk) 19:04, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

The old "Other" category which contained Horror and Music was an "imbroglio of visual, narrative, and interactive terminology" and lacked the "specific focus on genres of interactivity" as recommended by Apperley. My goal in placing them under "Themes" was to separate the genres describing forms of interactivity from those genres describing other elements of games, such as milieu, narrative, monetization, level design, etc.

If you have issues with specific references, please inform me so that I may cite a more reliable source to support the proposed changes. TPI81AF (talk) 20:11, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

I do have an additional issue that your references brought up, but it's not with any individual one. I want to make sure this gets clarified before things go much farther. I think there may be a misunderstanding of what I'm asking for. For the most part, you're providing examples of games that are a specific genre. I'm not asking for examples. I'm asking for sources.

To make sure it's clear, let's pretend I was asking you what a Looter Shooter game is. You could respond to that by saying "Destiny is a Looter shooter". That's an example. Alternatively, you could say "A Looter shooter is a type of Shooting game", and then go on to describe the specifics that make Looter shooters unique. That's a source.

So, for all the contentious points, I'm not asking you to provide game examples that meet your definitions. I'm asking you to find a website, like IGN or PCGamer, or any other media that meets the Video Game notability requirements, that provide a source. So in the case of Digital tabletop, I'm looking for a page that says "Digital tabletop games are a type / sub-genre of simulator". That would be what I am looking to see for each to show that these changes make sense 13akoors (talk) 01:01, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

I understand what you are asking for, but I wouldn't even be able to find a source explicitly stating "an FPS is a type of action game", let alone an analogous statement for an obscure genre with little coverage like typing game. What I tried to do instead was to show that the archetypal exemplars of each genre were considered to fall under those overarching genres. Generally, for a sufficiently narrowly-defined genre such that the gameplay remains highly conserved across titles, the games should all be categorized the same way with respect to genres of gameplay. I could go down the list for each genre, but the difficulty of finding written material rises exponentially with obscurity of the title. TPI81AF (talk) 06:27, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

I agree with you that what I'm asking for is very difficult. That's unfortunately the problem. Because a lot of these moves are not substantiated by the genre pages themselves, they need to be substantiated directly by statements about the genre themselves. Because you can find games that are, for example, Digital tabletop and Simulator, but what you're trying to prove is the converse. You have to show that there are no Digital tabletop that aren't simulators. Which itself is impossible.

However, it's not completely impossible to find. For example: PocketGamer is a WP:VG accepted source saying fighting games are Action. And here's GameInformer saying Run-and-gun is an action subgenre, which at least implies all shooters are. 13akoors (talk) 15:10, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

Want you both to know I am following this discussion, which seems like it is productive. I'm content to let you continue to discuss until either of you feel you've reached an impasse, at which point just ping me. Xan747 (talk) 19:42, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

@13akoors you wrote And here's GameInformer saying Run-and-gun is an action subgenre, which at least implies all shooters are. Per wp:synth we cannot make that claim in an article based on our own reasoning. We can make that inference ourselves and then look for sources to back it up, but that's the limit of our ability to reason. Xan747 (talk) 07:04, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

That's true. My point was more to showing that these kinds of sources do exist, rather than the synthesized result stated after. I agree with TPI81AF that we'd struggle to find a source saying Shooters are Acton games, both because Shooters are so old that most of these claims aren't digitized, and because modern gamers just describe them as Shooters independent of Action at all. We'd probbaly be able to find sources saying Shooters aren't action more than they are. 13akoors (talk) 13:52, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

I am perfectly fine with you taking this moderation role. The version I am working off of is the version before any edits: .

First and foremost, I want to make clear that most of the issues in the above text are not issues. It was a list of every edit made by User:TPI81AF on the day in question. My objections are to the following categories on my preferred version: "Action-adventure", "Digital tabletop", "Action - other", and "Other genres"

As for my justifications, my goal in this is just for TPI81AF to provide a source for his edits. So I'm not sure how much I can present personally, but I will provide whatever I can in response.

I am fine with any site as a source, as long as it comports to the Video Game source requiremets as outlined here: Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Sources 13akoors (talk) 16:40, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Ok I accept your acceptances, and will await for both of you to finalize your opening arguments. I'll also get up to speed on what the project considers acceptable sourcing. Xan747 (talk) 16:50, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

My opening argument is simple, but probably overly wordy, as i have a tendency to over explain. I will try to resist here.

User:TPI81AF has been making a lot of changes to this page, and many of those changes do not align with the linked pages themselves. Using an example above, he has moved Horror from "Other genres" to Themes, and his argument is "it has no prescribed gameplay", despite the Horror game page explicitly calling it a video game genre. To my knowledge, every single genre in the "Action-adventure", "Action - other", and "Other genres" do not have any text on them that support the moves he's making

Because of this, I have tried both requesting his source for these changes, and reasoning with him, and gotten nowhere. My goal is simple: I want him to provide an acceptable source for every move he's made in these columns. All other changes he's made on this page are either completely acceptable to me, or generic organizational changes that aren't worth fighting over.

Let me know if I need to provide an itemized list of all the changes I am requesting sources for, and I can do that 13akoors (talk) 17:08, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Ok I have seen both of your responses. It will take some time to review them and respond. Not longer than 24 hours. In the meantime, if is acceptable to both, I would suggest leaving the template in the state it was before contested changes were made to it. Xan747 (talk) 00:00, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

I will try to restore the original state for the contested changes, leaving the uncontested changes made since then that should be kept.

Additionally, please note that it may be possible that the "original" location of these genres and the recategorized position of these genres form a false dichotomy and there exist other places in the template that they could be moved to. TPI81AF (talk) 15:34, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

I am also fine with Music being in Themes, as a note. Rhythm is still in contention, but Music itself is not 13akoors (talk) 16:30, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

@TPI81AF That will be quite helpful for me. I am reading Apperly, and what I have gathered thus far is that the *traditional* ways of classifying video games in a single hierarchical taxonomy is inadequate, and that a proposed multi-dimensional method based on the four axes of platform, genre, mode, and milieu is more representative of the gamut. If I have misstated let me know. In any case, on Wikipedia we give more weight to "mainstream" opinions over novel or minority views, so already I am leaning toward being conservative about adopting too many concepts from this single paper, especially in a way that disrupts any long-standing "conventional" status quo. Xan747 (talk) 16:42, 23 July 2026 (UTC)