Making And Breaking Genre

Weird Terminology and Acronyms Apophenia: the brain’s natural tendency to create patterns from inputs, whether there are intentional patterns there or not. Wikipedia has a whole lot more information! Genre: one of those wide-open words folks can get lost in the weeds defining and defending. In this episode, we mean subject matter, theme, setting, and expectations. For example, the zombie survival genre as defined by work like The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, or 28 Days Later. There are dangerous beings that used to be living humans, those beings might not be the most dangerous thing about the world, the world order has collapsed after the arrival of these beings, and we expect our protagonists to be faced with high-stakes choices as they try to survive. In game talk, “genre” can mean a lot of other things as well! Trope: A “rule” of a genre, a recognizable moment, theme, or other element. In the zombie survival genre, for example: roving gangs of survivors, living villains who are…