Table-top games could still be used to distinguish them from games like hide and seek, or bouls. Or Jacks for that matter - that's usually played on the floor.

As far as limits, it does create a weird anti-genre - romantic plots where you don't want the ending spoiled. They can't be sold as romance, due the the happy ending requirement consensus. I'm not disagreeing that it's an expectation, just explaining why I don't like it. And that genre is unnamed.

True, if the usage and consensus of the majority of everyone that uses the word 'genre' changes, then so will the definition of the word, but of everyone that uses the word (most people that speak English), romance novel readers and writers are a small minority, despite being a large group.

Well, classical comedy is different from modern, essentially just meaning "happy ending" and contrasting with tragedy, and not "funny" like the modern usage. I understand RomComs to use the modern definition. If they're using the classic, then romance would lack any implied ending by contrast.

Agreed! But the conclusion could be happy or sad - the detective could be horrified when they figure it out or triumphant. That it concludes is expected, but the tone isn't dictated by the genre in that case. Heck, the detective could be dead by the end, Reichenbach Falls style.

Anyways, maybe that's just me. I tend to be pretty literal-minded and so 'romance' needing a happy ending feels like it's trying to redefine the word 'genre'. I wonder if that's just me (quite possibly) or if this definitional discomfort is the root of a lot of the pushback?
I'll shut up now 😁

I admit that's probably a me problem. Oxford defines 'genre' as "a category of artistic composition characterized by similarities of form, style, or subject matter." To me, that doesn't include "ending" but form and style are vague enough to be up to individual interpretation of the word genre.

While I acknowledge this as an expectation, I dislike it. I can't think of another genre requiring a specific ending. Fantasy can be a comedy or tragedy in the classical sense, as can science fiction, mystery, thrillers, historical fiction, horror, etc. It conflates subject matter with conclusion.

Looks like Google Maps is now showing an estimated perimeter:

Except if police were penalized for dropped charges, that is an extreme incentive to manufacture evidence to avoid those penalties. You do _not_ want to live in a world that rewards police for framing people.

AI truly was inevitable because humans are both curious and lazy, and at some point someone was going to try to figure out how a neuron worked, model it as a perception, and then link a bunch of them together to see if the result could do their thinking for them, or at least the busy work. 😂