Genre Speak

It seems that there are more and more "genre-breaking" games released these days. This, and a recent discussion on RPGs here on our blog, have got me thinking. Perhaps it's not so much that the games are breaking the genres. Perhaps it's more that the genres themselves are broken - before the game ever came on the scene. You see, no one can seem to agree upon what characteristics solidly define a genre.

I guess this is true of other media, as well. Over time, technology changes, and thus, game mechanics change. This will naturally introduce a certain amount of error into catagorizing games. Or perhaps we need to take a look at how we catagorize our games - less by game mechanic and more by subject matter?