It's not a genre, it's a warning.

:^P

I'll put out a counterpoint - Steam tags can actively make it harder for you to find things you're interested in, especially since it's how the recommendation system works. For example, Steam recently recommended me Rocket League because I played Beyond Eyes. I can't think of two more different games than that. I assume that was recommended to me because of that pesky 'Indie' tag.

Also, I just finished Broken Age, a game that was funded via Kickstarter. And now Stream's recommending me a series of other games that I might enjoy based on my recent playtime in 'Kickstarter' games - not exactly a useful category. Although, there's been a heap of adventure games funded via Kickstarter; so in some weird way, maybe it's not that terrible...

I find it funny that Creatures Village and Descent are in the same category.


Also, why is Descent under simulation but the Star Wars X-Wing / TIE Fighter games are under action? TIE Fighter is definitely more of a sim than Descent.

RPG is a bad example here. I have seen the term used to refer to games that play nothing like what I consider to be RPGs, such as the Ys series.

In particular, for someone who loves games like Lords of Xulima and Elminage Gothic who is looking for another RPG, I would not recommend any Ys games, as they play completely differently.

Indie, as a category, also has this problem. Crimzon Clover and Lords of Xulima are both indie games, but they are extremely dissimilar and I would not recommend one game to fans of the other. There are AAA games that have more in common with Lords of Xulima than Crimzon Clover does. (In fact, it would be hard to find an AAA game that doesn't.)

I didn't say it was. You just said that the reason Journey wasn't an independent game was that it had a publisher. I merely pointed out that having a publisher doesn't prevent a game from being indie.

CD Projekt is a stock company. I'm not sure I would call that independent. :P

wrong click

When I first heard words "indie games", I thought it was about games made in India -.- I was greatly surprised that India games were so much more special than others.

People became too lazy to write "independent developers" each time, so they made such a confusing naming convention... :) "Independent developers" definitely sounds much better than "indies".

Indie games usually means "avoid" in my head. A lot of trendy stuff there that isn't my personal cup of tea.

I think it's a valid category, and implies a handful of things. But indeed, not a genre.