The Periodic Table of Gaming Categorization

Part 2 of many, introducing the Identity and Platform of a game

LFG: Learning from Games is a series dedicated to making the complex world of video game research just a little easier to understand. I post one about 2-3 times a month in between my Science Shorts and Coming Soon series. LFG #38 is a continuation about reorganizing how we classify games and how we define their connections to each other.

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

Sometimes, my obsessions into a topic and a mysterious need to mash all of my interests into one giant thing, can lead to monsters. My rough draft outline of a next-generation game categorization system had 4 general categories:

• game content

• game context

• player experience

• reviewer sentiment

Over the past two weeks, I’ve thought about it a lot more and I’m pleased to announce I created a monster almost three times bigger.

My Periodic Table of Gaming Categorization™️ has 11 general categories and multiple subcategories under each:

• Identity and Platform
  This describes the technical context of a game, including the platforms you can play the game on, the peripherals you need, and if it is part of a franchise.

• Players, Modes, and Networking
  This category describes how the game can be played — single player, co-op, PvP — and the different options for networking within the game.

• Core Genre and Subgenre
  Core genres like RPG can have subgenres like ARPG and JRPG. This is a big category but one that we are most comfortable talking about.

• Camera Perspective
  This is the first of many categories describing how we experience a game, and covers everything from perspective to freedom of camera controls.

• World Structure
  This category covers how the game world is made (hand-crafted vs. procedurally generated).

• Progression
  Tied to mechanics, this category describes the logic to advance the character in the game.

• Mechanics
  Related to progression, this category covers the logic to advance the story.

• Narrative
  A game with just mechanics becomes an abstract game (think chess) — narrative options work with mechanics to help tell a story.

• Setting and Lore
  The narrative is defined by where and when a story takes place, as well as any other information (lore) you would need to understand the game world that you are experiencing.

• Art, Music, and User Interface
  Without art, music, and a user interface, games would play like the text-based games of yore. What we see and hear tie the narrative and setting together into a (hopefully) beautiful experience.

• Accessibility and Languages
  This category covers options to assist disabled gamers experience the same games that able-bodied gamers do.

The entire periodic table is too big to talk about in a single post. So we’ll talk just about the first category, Identity and Platform.

The subcategories under Identity and Platform are:

• Franchise type: original, licensed—film/TV, licensed—sports, historical, and public domain

• Edition: standard, deluxe, ultimate, collector’s, GOTY, remaster, remake, definitive

• Release state: early access, full release, inactive/discontinued, server offline, in development

• Storefronts: Steam, Epic, GOG, Microsoft Store, Blizzard Battle.net, Ubisoft Connect, itch.io, Humble, Playstation, Nintendo eShop, Xbox, Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon, physical retail, browser

• Platform family: Windows, macOS, Linus, Playstation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android/ChromeOS, web/HTML5

• Peripherals: keyboard/mouse, gamepad, touch, steering wheel, joystick/flight stick, rhythm controller, camera/body tracking, gun, virtual reality

The idea with this table is that each game will get a tile for each subcategory. In some cases, like Storefronts, a game can get multiple tiles. There are loose links for tiles that are beside each other: for example, the tiles in the Edition subcategory increase in value (for the most part) from left to right, moving from standard to definitive editions.

This took some time to compile, and I’m sure its missing some tiles. But the category/subcategory combination under Identity and Platform firmly grounds any game in the context of the industry.

The table still requires some work to make it work “at a glance”. When I add the rest of the categories with their subcategories, it feels like I’m staring at a trippy version of Snakes and Ladders. You’ll see what I mean by the time we make it through the monster periodic table.

In the next issue, which will likely come off the weekly schedule since there’s so much to cover, we’ll look at Players, Modes, and Networking.

If you want to read why I think our current categorization is too limiting, you can find it here:

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