Classification of Video Games

I don't like how video game genres are classified. The problem is twofold:

• I don't like the naming of video game genres.
• The method -or lack thereof- in categorizing video game annoys me.

Some of the classifications are decent enough. For example platformer games are aptly named, all of them share a common core mechanic which is jumping between platforms. But let's say "adventure", what that really means? Aren't most video games are some kind of adventure anyway? But, if you know about them, then you know it means "exploration or narrative based games with little to no combat". "Action" too, seems innocent enough until you see that it's way too undescriptive, until you see you can use it for Grand Theft Auto to God of War
Obviously the worst offender here is "RPG". What does "role-playing game" means? Well, the name comes from tabletop games about literally role-playing as somehow, and it frequently involves gaining experience by doing things and combat. In late 970s, the concept got adopted into video games, in 1980s, a simplified version of the same concept came for consoles, thus JRPGs or console RPGs are born. Eventually it grew over to include basically everything that includes leveling, combat and a fantasy setting.
Today, RPG is being used to describe all of these games: Trails in the Sky, Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne, Baldur's Gate, Witcher, Dark Souls, Might&Magic 7 and Diablo. Terms like WRPG and JRPG isn't helpful either. Structurally, SMT and Witcher series are actually more closer to each other than say, Witcher and Planetscepe: Torment, but they just posses just some aesthetics that makes them supposedly similar.
What really do all these games in common? Trails in the Sky is a dungeon-crawler turn based heavy-story game, Skyrim is an exploration game with some combat, Nocturne mostly focuses on dungeon- crawling turn based combat, Baldur's Gate and Planetscape: Torment are concerned with emulating tabletop RPGs - albeit they do it in different ways - Witcher series are action games with bulky stories, even when series change direction in last game that remains core, Dark Souls games are based around combat that is primarily interested in overcoming bosses, Might&Magic series are very old school  dungeon-crawling games with real combat and very little story and Diablo is about fast-killing and looting which came to know as hack&slash genre. There is also strategy RPGs, which does have a legitimate core difference with usual dungeon-crawlers but the name stays inadequate for reflect the difference.
This gets worse by the buzzword "RPG mechanics", which basically means a game has leveling or player has abilities that can be improved by grinding. With this classification a lot of games can be said to have" RPG mechanics", it's only that the term got really popular in 2010s. This phrase really proved that "RPG" means "character progression with gameplay". But, developers still hang around the original meaning too. And honestly, if RPG name didn't became so associated with combat, there are quite a lot of games that deserves the title, as people often call Crusader Kings 2 - a strategy game that focuses on dynasties - an RPG too..
Ok, why I am whining about all this? Well, I like to categorize things accurately quite a lot. But the actual important reason is this makes talking about video games more difficult, most of this terms tell you little to nothing if you already don't know the lingo, even if you know the lingo, it still makes people grow a lot of expectations that isn't there and increases confusion.  And perhaps the worst thing about is that it moves the discussion about games from their core experiences to their most superficial aspects. As much as I side eye at the term "Souls-like games", the term exists in the first place because everyone low-key realised how bloated the word RPGs, and while overall structure of Soulsborne games aren't that unique, their popularity and that particular feeling they give deserved a unique name,  they made a different genre.
Why genre-naming in video games is so difficult? Well, it's primarily because video games are a pretty new medium, I am confident that genres will find their appropriate places eventually. But video games have some unique challenges to overcome:

• Video games are so entrenched in capitalism, possibly more than any other medium. Live action films and animation both enjoyed a lot of decades before mass marketing, and literature is... old. As marketing defines so much things, it makes conversations that doesn't serve that in one way or another so difficult.
• While this is getting changed day by day, alternative discussions that has timeless value are still far from enough. This is made more difficult by a vocal group of people who strictly rejects games as anything other than a customer product. Still, I am hopeful about this, games and meta-media around games are already breaking through that reactionary screeching. Even nobodies like me writing articles and making videos for the purpose of having different conversation.
• The last challenge is inherent to video games. Most media is defined around just what they present to audience and how they present it and thus escape with two or three words. Fantasy novel, romance poem, sci-fi animation etc. But video games has a third dimension: How the player interacts with the world. This mostly explains why we need so many words to describe video game genres accurately. Open-world fantasy-combat game, turn-based story-heavy dungeon crawler, horror atmosphere FPS. Heck, even current genre names are usually abbreviations: ex. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.

So, what would be a good classification of video game genres? I am sorry to possibly disappoint you here I don't have one. I quickly realised how much out of reach the whole thing is for a single person, I truly need to know about the experience the whole genres of games I didn't even play try to capture. I wrote this article primarily as an invitation to think with me together. A good way to find of solution I can offer is people specializing in particular genres. People often do this for when playing games, they often stick to games that is similar in interaction or narrative genre. Reviewers and critiques should do the same, we can highlight the collective experience genres offers and how they are truly separated from each other. After all, that's why we write this stuff, so we can describe how people feel about video games with words.