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Copyright © 2003 by authors, Utrecht University and Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any forms or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, filming, recording, or by any informationstorage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holders. The editors, Utrecht University and DiGRA wish to make the following acknowledgement: Chapter 3. Espen Aarseth, Solveig Marie Smedstad & Lise Sunnanå, A multidimensional typology of games. Printed by permission of The European Commission. This paper is based upon work funded by the European Commission as part ofcontract number IST-2001-38846 and knowledge generated through that funding remains property of the European Communities. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. The authors would like to thank the European Commission for permission to present this work and use project data.

3.A MULTI-DIMENSIONALTYPOLOGY OF GAMES

Espen Aarseth Solveig Marie Smedstad Lise Sunnanå

ABSTRACT This paper builds on a general typology of textual communication (Aarseth 1997) and tries to establish a model for classifying the genre of “games in virtual environments”— that is, games that take place in some kind of simulated world, as opposed to purely abstract games like poker or blackjack. The aim of the model isto identify the main differences between games in a rigorous, analytical way, in order to come up with genres that are more specific and less ad hoc than those used by the industry and the popular gaming press. The model consists of a number of basic “dimensions”, such as Space, Perspective, Time, Teleology, etc, each of which has several variate values, (e.g. Teleology: finite (Half-Life) orinfinite (EverQuest. Ideally, the multivariate model can be used to predict games that do not yet exist, but could be invented by combining the existing elements in new ways.

KEYWORDS Game Genres, Typology of games, games in virtual environments

INTRODUCTION Games are the most culturally rich and varied genre of expression that ever existed. It is also one of the least studied, especially froma humanist, aesthetic perspective. Unlike literature, film, music, painting and architecture, the systematic study of game genres have been mostly neglected over the centuries. Perhaps the reason is that games are so diverse that it is very hard to see what they all have in common. Previous attempts to classify and typologize games often suffer from the apparent tendency to include too many,arbitrary, incompatible or overlapping categories. Another problem is the use of historically dated technology categories without pointing out this diachronic factor. In this paper we propose a multi-dimensional typology that can be used to classify all games based on spatial movement, including physical sports, board games, and computer games. The typology is biased towards spatial games, but can alsobe used to classify non-spatial games (e.g. card games) simply by excluding the spatial dimensions. The fifteen dimensions are grouped under five headings: Space, Time, Player-structure, Control, and Rules. These headings are simply for the reader’s

q Computer Games What’s in a game? 49

convenience and do not play any important role in the typology itself. It should also be pointed outthat the typology is by no means the definite classification system for games; it is open in the sense that it can be improved and partially modified by anyone, simply by rejecting or changing some of the dimensions. It is vital to point out that we distinguish between game brands (or game platforms) (e.g. Return to Castle Wolfenstein) and actual games played on that platform, e.g. RTCW Multiplayer...