MSSP Defines the following GENRES:

Adult (Focus on sex)
Fantasy (Focus on the super-natural)
Historical (Focus on a historical era)
Horror (Focus on fear)
Modern (Should probably be renamed to Contemporary - feedback welcome)
None (Used for Educational and Social MUDs)
Science Fiction (Focus on the super-technical)

Potential additions to the GENRE list:

Romance (Focus on love)

To help MUDs with categorization I'm trying to create a list of generic subgenres that will cover most MUDs and will hopefully assist MUDs with picking something a little more interesting than 'Medieval Fantasy'. Feedback is welcome.

Adult
Anthropomorphism
Dominance and Sadism

Fantasy
Low Fantasy (Historical setting)
High Fantasy (non-historical setting / alternative reality)

Mythical Fantasy (based on folklore)
Military Fantasy (war setting)

Hard Fantasy (Low focus on super-natural elements)
Soft Fantasy (Low focus on super-technical elements) (everything goes)

Dark Fantasy (Elements of the Horror genre)
Romantic Fantasy (Elements of the Romance genre)
Science Fantasy (Elements of the Science Fiction genre)

Historical (Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Romance are interchangeable)
Prehistoric Fantasy (stone age and earlier)
Classical Fantasy (greek and roman eras)
Medieval Fantasy
Modern Fantasy (modern era)
Contemporary Fantasy (like harry potter)
Near-Future Fiction
Apocalyptic Fiction (zombiez!)
Post-Apocalyptic Fiction (all the zombies are dead)
Interplanetary Fiction
Interstellar Fiction
Far-Future Fiction

Science Fiction
Hard Science Fiction (Omission of fuzzy science)
Soft Science Fiction (Inclusion of fuzzy science (teleportation, wormholes, social science, etc))

Military Science Fiction (war setting)
Dystopian Science Fiction (elements of horror)
Utopian Science Fiction (elements of love)

Low Science Fiction (Focus on historical and futurologic accuracy)
High Science Fiction (alternative reality)

I don't think hard and soft fantasy are in common use….they might connote a sub-genre you don't really mean.

Can admins do stuff like 'Star Trek', 'Harry Potter', etc. as sub-genres? Or is that a different category?

Admins can define multiple sub-genres so 'Harry Potter' is an option. Hard Fantasy is in common use, while Soft Fantasy not so much because few people want to categorize their work as soft.

In that regard a better term is needed for Soft Fantasy. Comic Fantasy and Comic Science Fiction come to mind, which would cover Hitchhiker's Guide and Discworld.

Science Fantasy covers Soft Science Fiction, and High Fantasy to some extend covers settings with fuzzy physics.

I would also suggest:

Storytelling (Focus on roleplaying a continuing storyline)



Instead of hard and soft, I'd actually spell it out as

Supernatural (Focus on supernatural entities or powers)
Future-Tech (Focus on technology beyond our own)
Superhero (Focus on heroes or villains with inherent powers)



Perhaps "Comic Fantasy" and "Comic Science Fiction" could be renamed and merged as "Superhero".
In that sense, "Low Science Fiction" would also fit as "Future-tech".

This is probably more so a GAMEPLAY field. I could probably define a SUBGAMEPLAY field which would include Storytelling Roleplay, Erotic Roleplay, Hard Roleplay, Soft Roleplay, Comical Roleplay, and Military Roleplay. Hard Roleplay would be the equivalent of RPI. Soft Roleplay would be games where Roleplaying rules are relaxed. Comical Roleplay would be an everything goes situation. *pinches Quixadhal's nose which instantly turns violet*


But Fantasy is the common grouping for fantastical elements. Most superhero settings are Contemporary Fantasy, and in some cases Science Fantasy. You could let MUDs use a 5 point scale to do their categorization which might be the way to go for a Mudlistings that wants to group MUDs objectively. I'm considering adding such grouping options to MSSP which would solve these grouping problems. Fields would be:

HISTORICAL_RIGOR (very low, low, medium, high, very high)
SCIENTIFIC_RIGOR (very low, low, medium, high, very high)
REALISTIC_RIGOR (very low, low, medium, high, very high) (fantasy)
THEMATICAL_RIGOR (very low, low, medium, high, very high) (is theme consistent)
LEGALISTIC_RIGOR (very low, low, medium, high, very high) (are there many enforced rules)
ROLEPLAYING_RIGOR (very low, low, medium, high, very high) (RPI would be very high)
ROMANTIC_RIGOR (very low, low, medium, high, very high) (does love, honor, beauty, and morality play an important role)
HORRIFIC_RIGOR (very low, low, medium, high, very high) (does fear, betrayal, uglyness, and immorality play an important role)


I'd view the Superhero genre as Contemporary Fantasy (Superman) or Science Fantasy (Fantastic Four). I don't think Discworld would identify as Superhero, where as it would identify as the Comic Fantasy genre.

So the question becomes if people are solely interested in the Superhero genre, or if they benefit from a more objective form of classification. I personally would think it interesting if various models were to be given a try, rather than all MUD listings uses them same clunky traditional system.

I may not be alone in reading "Comic" as "Comic book" and not "Comedic". :)

However, this is part of the reason I argued (back when you started this) against forcing a single choice for any genre/sub-genre setting.

If I were making a game about vampires with super-powers, set in the future… which genre would I pick? "HORROR", or "SCIENCE FICTION"? Then what sub-genres can I use?

I know that if I could do so, I'd simply say it was both horror and science fiction, and set the sub-genres to be superhero + supernatural + dark fantasy and possibly post-apocalyptic (depending on how the future turned out).

You're trying to make a nice and tidy rigid lineup to pigeonhole things which don't fit nicely into pigeonholes. The more unlike a traditional system you make it, the more likely people will either not bother, or just fill in arbitrary semi-correct data because they couldn't find the right single choices in your sea of options.

Good evening.
About historical, I enjoy first subdivisions as they seem to fit common History definitions. Wonder, though, if Harry Potter/Tolkien/Zombies should be included here. The amount of such themed muds are relevant comparing to the standard History sub-division muds, so I would define them as specific subgenres in spite of including them in "Historical". At least in my pov they don't fit in such genre…

That explains a lot. :) Comedic should be less confusing indeed. Wikipedia uses "Comic Fantasy" though categorization appears to be chaos everywhere and I'd rather create a logical standard than adopt an illogical standard. Especially if you consider that the established terms are not really established.


This depends on which genre is dominant in your game. It may in fact be FANTASY if science plays no role, and the sub-genre could be Dystopian Fantasy or Dark Fantasy. I'm considering adding ERA and SUB ERA which would allow MUDs to not feel forced to pick SCIENCE FICTION just because the setting is in the future. Categorization is extremely tricky because people tend to mix and match from different variables. So the best approach might be a set of 5 point scales, which in turn could be used to pin point the best fitting sub genre.


The specification currently doesn't allow for multiple subgenres but that's easily changed. I think adding a bunch of scales would be interesting. Gothic Fantasy could be used as a merge of supernatural and dark fantasy.

Superhero more so indicates that you play the role of a god-like creature. So Superhuman might be a more effective form of categorization for MUDs without a Marxist setting, or on a scale you could use POWER DISTANCE, though this could also be used to indicate MUDs where new players are equal in strength to old players.


Which is probably why a system of scales might be preferable.