I should add that I think what I said in this post about video games applies to other art forms as well. Most of the movies, books and so on that I enjoy seem to be blends of different genres–which is to say, they are of no particular genre, but rather that they contain generally effective elements.

It’s similar to what Paul Graham once wrote about artists cultivating a particular style:

“[I]f you just try to make good things, you’ll inevitably do it in a distinctive way, just as each person walks in a distinctive way. Michelangelo was not trying to paint like Michelangelo. He was just trying to paint well; he couldn’t help painting like Michelangelo.”

As I see it, it’s the same thing with adhering to a genre; you don’t want to do it just so you can say “I made a typical work of this genre”, you only want to do it to the extent that the tropes of a genre are necessary for whatever you’re making.