From Clones to Genre: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

While genres can be known for a variety of works, they don't always start out that way. Usually they start out as loads of obvious [[Follow the Leader]] copies of a [[Genre Busting]] or making work, or a [[Genre Popularizer]] for a genre so small that [[Gateway Series|this is the first time the mainstream has heard of it]]. Eventually all the followers stop being that, and start having loads of works that stand on their own. '''This is the point that you don't just have a bunch of clones, you have a full genre.'''

{{examples|Examples (State the genre, popularizer, and then the turning point to full genre):}}

* The [[Cyberpunk]] and by extension all other [[Punk Punk]] Genres were all started by [[William Gibson (Creator)|William Gibson]]'s ''[[Neuromancer]]''. The first turning point could be argued to be [[The Matrix]], which both popularized the genre, and put an original enough twist on it to turn it into more than just a clone. The Second turning point was when author K.W. Jeter decided to call the genre in which he was writing [[Steampunk]] leading to, if not every other work of [[Punk Punk]], at least the idea of [[Punk Punk]] as a category.

* The [[Fighting Game]] was popularized by ''[[Street Fighter II (Video Game)|Street Fighter II]]'', and while some games set themselves apart, like ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', those were through gimmicks like blood. The fighting was still heavily based on SF. Even later Capcom fighters were just ''SF II'' clones. The turning point was ''[[Virtua Fighter]]'', not just with the [[Polygonal Graphics]], but adding a different style than the acrobatics and special moves of ''SF II''. Later games like ''[[Tekken]]'' and ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' added their own dimensions.

** One could argue that the emergence of ''Tekken'' and the Soul series merely split the genre into subsets: 2-D fighters and 3-D fighters.

* Now aside from [[Western RPG|Western RPGs]] having an open world for years (such as [[The Elder Scrolls (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls]] series, going all the way back to [[The Elder Scrolls Arena (Video Game)|Arena]])), [[Wide Open Sandbox]] games were largely clones of ''[[Grand Theft Auto III (Video Game)|Grand Theft Auto III]]'', until deliberate twists on the open world (such as ''[[Burnout]] Paradise'', ''[[Crackdown]]'' and ''[[No More Heroes]]'') made it into a full genre.

* Originally, [[Real Robot]] shows were ''[[Gundam]]'' clones. Then came ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'', which took the genre [[Trope Codifier|into more or less what we know today]], and finally things like ''[[Patlabor]]'' and ''[[Armored Trooper VOTOMS]]'' that went [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|for the very top of the hardness scale]].

* The ''[[Multiplayer Online Battle Arena]]'' genre began as a custom map for ''[[Starcraft]]'' called ''[[Trope Maker|Aeon of Strife]]'', and ''[[Warcraft III]]'' and its map editor came out, several maps were created that were styled after ''AoS''. The genre was popularized by ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'', followed by ''DotA: All-Stars''. The popularity of these games spawned such ''MOBA'' games as ''[[League of Legends]]'', ''[[Heroes of Newerth]]'', and ''[[Dota 2 (Video Game)|Dota 2]]''. The term ''MOBA'' was coined by ''Riot Games'' for ''[[League of Legends]]'' as a marketing term specifically because everybody referred to the genre as "DotA clones" and they didn't want their game always being compared to ''DotA''.

* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' franchise spawned craze in Japan for anything with collectable monsters, that would later be immitated by series such as ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' (via the ''Dragon Quest Monsters'' series) and ''[[Telefang]]'' (which overseas was ironically sold as a bootleg ''Pokemon'' game, after being poorly translated). The collectable monster concept proved successful as a card game as well, when the Pokemon card game was released. This success would lead to ''Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters'' becoming extremely successful. The success of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' lead to imitators trying to get on the bandwagon of making a show about a game, so that kids will want to buy the real version. With so many shows like this out there nowadays, such as ''[[Duel Masters]]'', ''[[Beyblade]]'', ''Battle B-Daman'', ''[[Medabots]]'', ''[[Bakugan]]'', and ''[[Chaotic]]'' just to name a few, one could say that "Card Game Animes" have become a genre. They all feature a tournament arc, talking about what the game is "truly about", and posing dramatically while playing the game.