Trigger Happy
lines between genres are gradually being erased. Just as Hamlet’s Polonius happily burbles through the permutational possibilities of dramatic genre— “tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical- comichistorical-pastoral . . .”—so at the beginning of thetwenty-first century we are offered driving-RPG
games, RPG-exploration games, puzzle- explorationshoot-’em-up games and more. And increasingly, large-scale exploration games in particular are incorporating “sub-games” of different styles within them, as a reward for completing certain sections. Sonic Adventure (1999) lets you play pinball or go snowboarding; Ape Escape (1999) has a mini-boxing game locked away inside.
But despite the myriad cosmetic and formal differences, all videogames in fact share similar concerns under the hood. When talking about racing games, I mentioned a particular type that seemed very serious and detailed: the simulation. Now, the concept of “simulation” is actually rather pervasive in all sorts of videogames. After all, God games and real-time strategy games seem to present recognizable, real-life phenomena like cities and armies, while exploration games model seemingly realistic human beings
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