Posted December 13, 2020
waltc: Some folks are just lost without labels for everything these days. In my personal vernacular, a game is either very good/excellent, good/middling, poor, or very bad/rotten...;) I will admit to looking for "RPGs", but that's as far as I take it, usually. But even that label depends on who you ask.
I'd love to know where people think this game sits.
ToveriJuri: Why do some "intellectuals" hate labels so much? They are useful tools describing products by their features and help people find something that is to their taste. I'd love to know where people think this game sits.
So not everything fits all the labels we've come up with perfectly. The labels are still useful. We wouldn't use labels if it wasn't useful.
I have argued in the past that some Adventure games (such as life is strange) are more like an RPG than games with the RPG label. Sure it lacks character stats but you now have more interaction with the world, can change (ish) the story and approach tasks differently.
So the question becomes, what the hell do all these labels actually mean? We apply them based on individual likings and dislikings but not a true common definition and end up with something as meaningless as saying "game is good" or "game is bad".
Of course, we have even more fun labels such as "rogue-like" but no one actually talks specifically about what features are "like rogue". At the end, the labels become meaningless and it's more about finding someone who has similar tastes to you.