I don't know, I never saw it as a meme but rather just shorthand in cases where no other term existed that efficiently communicated the genre or style of a game.

Do you have a replacement term available for Souls-like that sums up what you can expect of a game within that genre using two words or less?

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I saw another article describing something, perhaps this game, as a "Theme Hospital-like". Theme Hospital-like is not a genre.

Souls-like is likely in a similar situation as Rogue-like or perhaps "Doom Clone" from back in the day, where a new genre is emerging and there isn't yet an agreed-upon term for it. Rogue-like stuck around probably because it was such a niche game/genre for so long and people had been calling it that for maybe decades before the term went mainstream. Doom Clone died out because the genre branched out so much.

I wouldn't necessarily want to reduce "Souls-like" to another genre, because it may very well be its own genre. It may end up "growing" a new name like First-Person Shooters did, or it may end up sticking around because "X-like" may be the new thing to do.

I'm just getting annoyed by seeing things like "Stardew Valley-like", "Dragon Quest-like", "Theme Hospital-like"...those tell you nothing if you don't know the game they're talking about, and if you DO know the game they're talking about, you might get the wrong idea what the game is about because the author is making a bad comparison.

[–] nuggsy@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I do take your point and it's a fair criticism. It can almost feel like a marketing ploy to piggyback off of the popularity of another game, such as Stardew Valley-like, considering a lot of the time those games have since developed a genre, like for FPS instead of Doom-like.

I would also add, though, that using Doom-like/Doom-lite would still be appropriate to define games that are closer to a Doom type game than your CoD or Counter Strike. You could make a similar argument for the style of play Stardew Valley offers compared to literally Farming Simulator 20XX.

But you could also argue it gives the reader/consumer a quicker understanding of what to expect from the game. Especially in the case of this article where there isn't a way to clearly define/ label what to excpet from the game.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My dislike of it stems from the marketing ploy aspect. It feels like clickbait; authors trying to get hits from people looking up (or "interested in") a certain game even if it may not be an accurate description.

I think the Doom-like FPS's are getting called "Boomer Shooters" now, lol...but we're ironically in a situation where we need a new term again. Or we would be if that genre were popular in the mainstream.

I think describing the game in the article as a "Management Sim inspired by Theme Hospital/Bullfrog" would get across the same concept, for example. I don't think it's difficult. I think it's just becoming a popular thing for gaming journalists to do

[–] nuggsy@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I can see where you're coming from and I agree at times it feels like it's being used for the marketing since it's easier to say, using the article as an example, "Bullfrog-like". They could have taken an extra moment to be a bit more descriptive, such as with your example, and say “Management Sim inspired by Theme Hospital/Bullfrog”, for people who may not be familiar with "Theme Hospital" or a Bullfrog game.

Just to circle back to your initial comment, "I got to the word “Bullfroglike” and stopped reading", I can definitely see where you are coming from, but I did disagree with your approach.

I also just wanted to add that I hope this isn't taken as an attack upon yourself.

I do like the alliteration for "Boomer Shooter" but I don't think it's the right demographic xD. I think it's still somewhat common, but I also don't think it's as mainstream as say your Battlefield or CoD.

RetroSlayer FPS? I have no idea, lol