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Text Genres vs. Text Types: Gaming Edition

As passionate gamers, we are intimate with many forms of text. From code comments to novels, documentation to forum posts, we constantly engage written works tied to our pastime of choice.

Yet precisely interpreting gaming text can be deceptively tricky. Understanding when you are reading a lore grimoire versus a strategy guide challenges even seasoned players. Here, a crucial linguistic distinction clarifies analysis: grasping differences between text genres and text types.

In 2016, the global gaming market already featured an astounding 1.2 billion gamers generating $91 billion USD in game revenues. By 2022, Newzoo projects the market‘s value could top $196 billion globally. This passionate community clearly loves consuming gaming content across multimedia formats.

With competitive play and dynamic metagames driving innovation, understanding gaming text genres and types becomes critical for peak performance. When every advantage counts, insight into rhetorical situations provides an edge.

As both veteran developer and lifelong gamer, I want to elucidate this crucial distinction. Mastering key concepts in language grants leverage for growth across gaming’s varied contexts.

Why Genres and Types Matter for Gaming

Consider how gaming genres and types shape experiences:

  • RPG Lore Books: High fantasy prose transports players into expansive worlds through setting descriptions and epic histories. Comprehending this narrative text fuels immersion.

  • Esports Broadcasts: Shoutcasters analyze matches via play-by-play commentary punctuated by strategic exposition. Parsing information quickly is vital.

  • Patch Notes: Understanding system changes described in these technical documents ensures players can adapt with the shifting metagame.

As demonstrated, properly identifying gaming text conventions provides advantages. Confusing genres and types while speedrunning wastes precious seconds. When competing in multiplayer titles like League of Legends, such delays mean lost opportunities.

Gaming Genres: Defined by Social Purpose

As in broader contexts, gaming genres categorize texts based on purpose, audience expectations and common features. They focus on the author’s intended goals shaped by community norms.

Some examples include:

  • Walkthroughs: Sequentially guide players to 100% completion using structured advice.
  • Live Streaming: Directly engages audiences through reactive gameplay commentary.
  • Patch Notes: Provide official logs of system changes for developers and users.
  • Esports Casting: Analyze competitive matches focusing on strategy and hype.

Here social functions define approaches. Gameplay guides assist. Streams entertain. Patch notes inform. Casting educates and excites. The writer chooses a genre fit for their aims.

But while games feature defined genres using fixed conventions like platformers and RPGs, their associated text genres remain open-ended. As gaming evolves, new written forms emerge continuously.

In the past decade, YouTube let’s plays, Twitch streaming, and multiplayer game casting rose to prominence. Gamers even created unique genres like scripted parodic gamer-poetry readings known as “lezplays”.

For passionate gamers, balancing tradition with innovation remains key when producing and parsing game text. Retaining accessibility while pushing boundaries drives community growth.

Gaming Text Types: Classified by Structure

Text types mean something different entirely. Instead of fluid conventions based on social goals, types create set categories defined by structural elements.

While countless gaming genres exist, only several core text types tend to appear:

Descriptive

  • Objective depictions
  • Sensory and factual details
  • Examples: Art lore, system guides

Narrative

  • PLOT arcs
  • Scenes and characters
  • Examples: Story recaps, fan fiction

Expository

  • Explanations of concepts/ideas
  • Arguments/rhetoric
  • Examples: Strategies, commentaries

Writers then use types suited to their aims after choosing a genre. A gameplay guide writer utilizes exposition to teach while a visual novelist pens descriptive and narrative prose for worldbuilding.

Notably, gaming scholarship and journalism also leverage these same core types. From analysis of ludonarrative techniques to debates on representative character design, gaming publications utilize similar rhetorical forms.

Thus by studying textual types in gaming contexts, we can actually enhance critical thinking for discussing design and culture!

Applications: RPG Text Mastery

As an avid RPG gamer, I want to demonstrate these genre and type concepts in action. Let’s explore examples from classic franchise Final Fantasy:

Lore Books

These in-game items provide descriptive histories using embellished prose. Categorizing them as artifacts of the lore genre rather than unbiased historiography is vital for making sense of rhetorical touches.

Strategy Guides

Third party play manuals help users master games via expository advice. Identifying the strategic guide genre signals structured explanations rather than mere play records exist.

Message Boards

In online forums analyzing lore implications, recognizing persuasive and argumentative text appears. Posts debate canon rather than neutrally summarize.

Properly contextualizing these samples matters. My genre grasp as an experienced fan affects interpretation. I don’t expect impartial accounts from emotive lore books or ideological bias from strategy guides. And in debates, I anticipate rhetoric and subjectivity rather than agreement.

This literacy empowers me as a passionate fan. I can deeply but judiciously engage beloved games thanks to genre and type fluency honed by comparative play.

Conclusion

For us passionate gamers, insight into how language works translates directly into play mastery. By modeling our reading practices after professional strategy analysts while tailoring writing to community norms, we amplify learning.

Text genres reveal intended goals. Text types dictate structural logic.

Unpacking these concepts pushes our gaming to the next level. Soon we go beyond mere play into realms of scholarship, design and community leadership. Equipped with this knowledge, passionate gamers can pioneer future directions for gaming culture and technology.

So next time you open up a gaming text, take a moment to actively deduce its operating genre conventions and rhetorical type. Context transforms words into meaningful play. Game on!