By the way, what's an AA [game]?

There's a lot of comments here about how TFA's classifications don't really match with people's own classifications because most people's classifications are more vibes-based, and I'm wondering if the problem is just that the name of classifications people use seems to imply a more objective based standard than what people actually use. Like, I treat the label AAA as a derogative that implies it's probably live service-ish, infested with microtransactions, constant FOMO events, and stuff like that, like, say, Call of Duty or League of Legends or something like that. (Usually multiplayer since those are better for live service which are better for monetization.) Meanwhile Doom (2016, Eternal, or Dark Ages) has a similar scope but is much more focused and respectful of the player's time, so I wouldn't call it AAA. (I don't really have a word to call those sorts of games.) Something like Factorio on the other hand definitely feels more indie, even if it isn't: a focus on gameplay over monetization, catering to a niche and accepting that it might not be popular outside of that, and a strong artistic theme. It'd probably be accurate to describe that as AA, which something like Undertale that shares a lot of the same commonalities but has a smaller team would actually be indie.

But by the plain reading of their names, AAA means large team and budget, AA means smaller team, and Indie means small/no publisher (which is orthogonal to team and budget). The confusion lies in the fact that my definitions for AAA and AA/Indie focus on gameplay and design, but the names themselves imply something about their budget or publishing status. If you're going for an objective definition, which do you choose to follow? I think TFA is trying to create an objective standard that fits the vibes most people have, which means it's not going to fit either most people's vibes-based definitions or the plain-reading definitions. I think it's a neat article though for making me think about those issues in the first place.