01 — Classify
Every game in Strata is scored across five experiential domains and 21 specific construction traits — not by genre, review score, or popularity. This is what that scoring actually looks like.
The problem
Genre and review scores describe a game from the outside. Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring share a genre tag and are both critically acclaimed — and feel almost nothing alike to actually play. The difference isn't quality. It's construction: how dense the world is, how the story is delivered, how exposed the game makes you feel. None of that is captured by a genre label or a Metacritic score.
The mechanism
Strata scores every game across 21 traits grouped into five domains, using a fixed methodology with formal definitions, scoring criteria, and calibration examples for every trait — so the same construction always produces the same score, regardless of which game is being evaluated.
01
Title goes in
Submit any game title — released, unreleased, obscure, or massive. Strata doesn't require the game to already exist in the database.
02
21 traits scored independently
Each trait is scored 1–5 on its own, without letting other traits influence the result. Vulnerability and Encounter Design are judged separately, even though they often correlate.
03
Domain averages calculated
The 21 trait scores roll up into five domain averages — World, Social, Narrative, Psychological, Play — plus a single overall Experiential Intensity Score.
04
Narrative generated
A classification narrative is generated describing what's actually built, in taxonomy language — no genre labels, no quality judgments.
Proof
Elden Ring scores World Architecture 4.0, Social Architecture 2.7, Narrative Architecture 4.0, Psychological Architecture 4.8, and Play Architecture 4.2 — an overall Experiential Intensity Score of 4.05.
That 2.7 Social Architecture score isn't a flaw. It's the game being scored accurately: Elden Ring deliberately minimizes urban density, civilian presence, and behavioral diversity, communicating occupancy through corpses and abandoned camps instead of living NPCs. The low score describes a deliberate design choice, not a weakness in the game.
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