Taxonomy

As mentioned in the previous post, I'm filling some big gaps in my Game Studies knowledge by carrying out a research exercise into a range of classic games.

My research question for this mini-project is:

How are Schell's four elements represented in classic games?

Schells four elements are:

• Mechanics
• Story
• Aesthetics
• Technology

By classic games I mean games which have stood the (relative) test of time, and are popular within their typical demographic.  The selection will be artitrary but aims to cover a wide enough range to produce a useful analysis.

Before I start tabulating this, I need to find a taxonomy which organises these games into some kind of structure.  An initial glance at a (well-cited) Wikipedia article yields the following:

There are four common approaches to general games taxonomy:

• Categories — physical requirements, structure, skills
• Understanding — group by strategies (target, wall games, striking object, invasion, etc.)
• Core content — by form (movement skills, tactics, educational results)
• Developmental — low-level, complex, etc.

Three example approaches are listed which are specific to computer games:

• Eric Solomon — simulations, abstract, sports; sub-classify by number of players
• Andre Wright — educational, sports, sensorimotor (action/shooting/driving), strategy, other.
• Funk & Buchman — general (no fighting or destruction), educational/puzzle, fantasy violence, human violence, non-violent sports, violent sports.

Finally, there is the more mathematical Game Theory approach:

• Symmetric or asymmetric (i.e. dependent on personality); sequential or simultaneous; perfect or imperfect information; whether it’s determinate (i.e. luck or strategy).

Reading around these, and looking at a few other examples (including Craig Lindley and Dianne Rees), it's clear that most of these taxonomies are driven by an underlying agenda -- be it educational, sports-themed, or sociological.

Should I include sports?  After all, these fit into the wider casual gaming experience that I'm interested in.  Given that a fair number of video games have sport-based mechanics -- e.g. Pong = tennis, Beehive Bedlam = shooting, Breakout = squash) -- I can't afford to ignore sports.

I'm not satisfied that any of these are suitable for my purpose, so I'm going to have to design my own taxonomy. 

Given that I'm going to have to do a fair bit of brainstorming to generate a game list, I intend starting with a simple (arbitrary) taxonomy, and evolve and change it as necessary.  The starting categories will be: board games, puzzle/construction, social, physical/sport.