The first-person shooter genre used to be called Doom Clones because they were all viewed as rip offs of Doom (which, to be fair, many were). Genre conventions are created by copying what others have done. Souls is a game series, which has been so influential that it became a genre.
that’s the funny thing about genres and knock-offs, the only difference is scale. every game after pong is a knock-off of something that came before, and the great ones are the ones who purposefully or inadvertedly added something that made it a new standard for which to knock off, birthing a new genre. people hate terms like metroidvania or roguelike but imo those are the best genre names because they most clearly communicate the context and intent of the game
souls is a genre tho
The first-person shooter genre used to be called Doom Clones because they were all viewed as rip offs of Doom (which, to be fair, many were). Genre conventions are created by copying what others have done. Souls is a game series, which has been so influential that it became a genre.
that’s the funny thing about genres and knock-offs, the only difference is scale. every game after pong is a knock-off of something that came before, and the great ones are the ones who purposefully or inadvertedly added something that made it a new standard for which to knock off, birthing a new genre. people hate terms like metroidvania or roguelike but imo those are the best genre names because they most clearly communicate the context and intent of the game
Bah! Pong is just a knock-off of Tennis for Two!
Finally a fellow connoisseur of the true classics!
i’ve even heard rumors that tennis for two is a knockoff of a sport called “tennis” although this has yet to be proved conclusively