List of video game genres
This is a listing of computer and video games genres with brief descriptions and examples from each genre. This list is by no means complete or comprehensive. As with nearly all varieties of genre classification, the matter of any individual computer or video game's specific genre is open to personal interpretation.
Within game studies there is a lack of consensus in reaching accepted formal definitions for game genres, some being more popular than others. For example, some schemas are largely semiotic, while others rely more strongly on configurative patterns of interface and mechanics.
Many of these categories overlap due to the subjective nature of many genres. For example, the Legend of Zelda series has elements of action, adventure and role-playing. This overlapping is further pronounced as more games are being produced and styled as hybrids, blending elements characteristic to one or more popular genres (for example, action-RPGs like Diablo, Vagrant Story, and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance).
Major genres
Fighting
Fighting or beat 'em up games emphasize one-on-one combat between two players, one of whom may be computer controlled. These games usually focus on martial arts, which are usually dramatic and physically impossible, and other forms of unarmed combat. Some of these games may also employ handheld weapons such as swords, or ranged attacks such as chi-based energy blasts.
This genre arose in the mid-1980s and became a phenomenon with the release of Street Fighter II; the genre is still popular today.
Notable series of games include King of Fighters, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter.
First-person shooter
First-person shooters (FPS) emphasize shooting and combat from a specific perspective. Most FPSs place the player behind a gun or other weapon with the player's "hand" holding the weapon. This perspective is meant to give the player the feeling of "being there." Most FPSs are very fast-paced and require quick reflexes.
To be an effective game, an FPS must be both fast and three-dimensional, which put them out of the reach of most consumer hardware until the early 1990s. Doom was the "breakout" game of the genre; it used a number of clever techniques to make the game run fast enough to play on average machines.
Some of today's most popular FPS series are Half-Life, Doom, Unreal, Quake, and Halo.
MMOGs, MMORPGs and MMOFPSs
Massively-multiplayer online games, massively-multiplayer online role-playing games and Massively multiplayer online first-person shooters are virtual worlds in which potentially thousands of players may interact together over the Internet. Most of these games are subscription-based, but with the new age of MMO games they can be one time buy games with no monthly fees. MMORPGs emerged in the mid to late 1990s as a commercial, graphical variant of text-based MUDs, which had existed since around 1979. The massively multiplayer concept was quickly combined with other genres.
- Fantasy MMORPGs are the most popular type of MMOG. Ultima Online, EverQuest, Final Fantasy XI, Lineage, World of Warcraft and Runescape are some of the more popular MMORPGs. Though other types of MMO are appearing, this catagory still remains by far the most popular.
- Sci-fi MMORPGs hold a smaller part of the MMO Market. One of the first examples of this type of MMOG isAnarchy Online. Many other Sci-fi MMORPGs have launched with the popular space sci-fi game EVE Online being the most notable.
- MMOFPS is a category of computer games that combines first-person shooter gameplay with a large number of simultaneous players over the Internet. It is a category of massively multiplayer online games. PlanetSide, Control Monger and Gunz are a few notable games of this genre.
Racing
Racing games are one of the most traditional of genres. They typically place the player in the driver's seat of a high performance vehicle and require the player to race against other drivers or sometimes just time. Emerging in the late 1970s, this genre is still very popular today and continues to push the envelope in terms of graphics and performance. There are two main sub-genres within racing: arcade and simulation. Arcade racers tend to have exaggerated physics, fanstastical settings and course layouts, and unrealistic damage handling. Simulation racers focus more on accurate handling and performance of real-world cars, many times partaking in real-world events, such as the Indianapolis 500 or the Dakar Rally. Simulation racers tend to have many tweaking options available, from the looseness of the brakes to the gear ratio of the engines.
A popular subgenre of the racing game is the kart racing game, which simplifies the vehicle handling and introduces various obstacles and other quirks to the racetrack.
Notable arcade style racing games include Out Run, Mario Kart.
Notable simulation style racing games include Gran Turismo
Role-playing
Computer role-playing games (CRPGs or simply RPGs) often place the player in a fantasy or science fiction setting and drive the gameplay via a prominent storyline. Most of these games have the player acting in the role of a specific type of "adventurer" who specializes in a certain set of skills (such as combat, or casting magic spells). These various types of adventurer are called "classes" and players can normally control one or more of these characters.
Most of these games are similar to traditional role-playing games played with pencil and paper (notably D&D) except, in this case, the computer takes care of all the record keeping and nondeterministic elements such as die rolling. Since the emergence of affordable home computers coincided with the popularity of pencil and paper role-playing games, this genre was one of the first in video games and continues to be popular today.
Though nearly all of the early entries in the genre were turn-based games, modern CRPGs have introduced a real-time aspect. Thus, the CRPG genre has followed the strategy game's trend of moving from turn-based to real-time combat.
Notable entries in the role-playing genre include Final Fantasy, Ultima, Fallout, Baldur's Gate, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Simulators
Simulation games aim to simulate the experience of controlling a vehicle (such as flying an airplane) as realistically as practically possible, taking into account physics and other real-world limitations. Some require a great deal of reading before the game can even be attempted, while others include a simple tutorial. Microsoft Flight Simulator is perhaps the most well known flight simulator.
Combat flight simulators are a subgenre of simulation. Falcon 4.0 and IL-2 Sturmovik are examples of the genre.
Space Combat Sims are a subgenre that usually leans into strategy or action. Examples include Freespace, Independence War and Wing Commander.
Sports
Sports games emulate the playing of traditional physical sports such as cricket, baseball, soccer, American football, boxing, golf, basketball, ice hockey, tennis, bowling, rugby, etc. Some emphasize actually playing the sport, while others emphasize the strategy behind the sport (such as Championship Manager). Others satirize the sport for comic effect (such as Arch Rivals). One of the best selling series in this genre is the Madden NFL series.
This genre emerged early in the history of video games and remains popular today.
Strategy
Strategy games focus on careful planning and skillful resource management in order to achieve victory, and are therefore classified as "thinking games". These games may be turn-based or realtime, but there are some that mix the two types of play (such as X-Com). This genre has had a consistent following since the mid-1980s.
A popular subgenre of strategy is god games, examples of which include the very popular The Sims (which generally simulates home-life and social interactions), SimCity, SimAnt, and SimEarth. Unlike other genres of games, god games do not have a set goal that allows a player to win the game.
Strategy games can also be divided into turn-based and real-time games. Turn-based games were originally the more common form of strategy game, the computers of the time being too slow for real-time interaction; they go back to Star Trek games played on teletypes. Early home computers were soon adopted for wargames, and the genre expanded from there.
The vast majority of strategy games could be called "war strategy games" as they have heavy focus on military combat. For real-time games the focus is generally on military battle tactics(e.g. reconnaissance, flanking, etc.), while turn-based games are more focused on strategy (i.e. looking at war from the perspective of a General or even the leader of the nation).
Examples of games in the real-time genre include Warcraft, StarCraft, Command and Conquer, Age of Empires and Total Annihilation. Additional noteworthy examples are Ground Control, Sudden Strike and Mech Commander, which focus on a set amounts of units, and do away with the resource gathering and unit production aspects of most RTS games.
Examples of turn-based games include Sid Meier's Civilization, the Heroes of Might and Magic series, the Fire Emblem series, and Shattered Union.
Web based strategy games are a less popular variant where the player doesn't need any additional software installed at their computer because the games have web site interfaces. Such games often last for several months, before the round ends and the game restarts. Some of these games are extremely popular and have hundreds of thousands of players. Examples of web based strategy games are Planetarion, Dawn of Myth and Terra Incognita.
Massively Multiplayer Online RTS (MMORTS) is an extremely small subdivision, but has proven to have great potential. Games of this sub-genre include Shattered Galaxy, Mankind and the recently scrapped in development Sovereign.
City-building games
In City-building games, an offshoot of strategy games, the player acts as overall planner or leader to meet the needs and wants of game characters by initiating structures for food, shelter, health, spiritual care, economic growth, etc. Success is achieved when the city budget makes a growing profit and citizens experience an upgraded lifestyle in housing, health, and goods. While military development is often included, the emphasis is on economic strength.
SimCity and Populous were both popular and influential city-building games.
Third-person shooters
Third-person shooters (TPS) employ a third person perspective for the player. This is normally just behind the game character, but it is sometimes an isometric perspective. Some shooters default to either a first- or third-person perspective but allow the player to choose between the two; others switch between the two at predetermined points in the game.
The Grand Theft Auto series falls into this genre, as do such games as Heretic II, Jet Force Gemini, Max Payne, Mafia, Magic Carpet and Oni.
Notable genres
Adult
Adult video games, like adult movies or other media, are intended for an adult audience. There exists a wide variety of adult games, though many lack mainstream appeal and represent a niche category. The object of an adult game may differ from a mainstream video game or computer game, in that the reward can be a visual representation of nudity, partial nudity, or sexual activity rather than points, etc. Some games may focus on humor or drama rather than arousal, or simply have normal gameplay accompanied by nudity.
Adventure
Adventure games were some of the earliest games on the market, beginning with Colossal Cave Adventure in the 1970s, later developing into the Zork series, and rising to popularity in the 1980s and early to mid-1990s. They cast the player as the protagonist of a story, normally requiring the player to solve various puzzles using various artifacts. The earliest adventure games were textual (text adventures or interactive fiction). In these early adventure games, the player uses a keyboard to enter commands such as "get rope" or "go west" and the computer describes what is happening.
As graphics became more common, adventure games began to supplement and later on replace textual descriptions with visuals (for example, a picture of the current location). These graphical adventure games still used textual input. There is still an active community of interactive fiction authors and players, although major commercial enterprises are rare.
The growing use of mice led to the 'point-and-click' genre of adventure games, where the player would no longer have to type commands. The player could, for example, click on a hand icon and then on a rope to pick up the rope.
In the late 1990s the genre suffered a large drop in popularity, mass-market releases became rare, and many proclaimed the adventure game to be dead. However, as of 2005, the adventure game genre is showing signs of a revival, with games such as Trace Memory, Fahrenheit, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and Dreamfall being produced.
Notable titles include Day of the Tentacle, Mask of the sun, the King's Quest series and the Monkey Island games. The more action-oriented adventure games such as Full Throttle, incorporate other modes of gameplay.
Arcade
Arcade games are traditionally the coin-operated video games found in arcades during the 1970s and 1980s. These games were characterized as quick play action games that had an addictive quality. Arcade games are easy to learn, yet difficult to master. Since the decline of coin-operated games, "arcade" has become a genre in its own right. Arcade games can now be found in many sites that contain browser-based games.
Educational
Educational games, as the name implies, attempt to teach the user using the game as a vehicle. Most of these types of games target young user from the ages of about three years to mid-teens; past the mid-teens, subjects become so complex (e.g. Calculus) that teaching via a game is impractical. Numerous subgenres exist, each for a different field (math games, typing games and so on).
Notable games in the genre include the Carmen Sandiego series, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, and the Oregon Trail series. Programming games like Robocode and Core War may also be put in the educational category. A somewhat less serious approach to the genre is typified by the typing tutor The Typing of the Dead.
Maze
Maze games need logical thinking to foresee where the enemies come. One must be able to foresee hostile attacks about the flanks to escape from them. The most famous Game of this genre is Pac-Man. This genre frequently crosses over with Puzzle, but it often gets by completely without jigsaw puzzle elements and demands only reaction and planning.
Notable games include Ms. Pac-Man and Mr. Do's Wild Ride
Music
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Music games are typically arcade games that challenge the player to follow sequences of movement or develop specific rhythms. Some games require the player to tap out rhythms using a game controller or keyboard while others require the player to actually dance in sync to music. This genre arose in the late 1990s with the increasing popularity of rap music and the success of Dance Dance Revolution.
Notable music games include Amplitude, beatmania IIDX, In The Groove, and Dance Dance Revolution.
Party
Party games are video games developed specifically for multiplayer games between many players. Normally, party games have a variety of different types of mini-games that range between collecting more of a certain item than other players or having the fastest time at something. Versus multiplayer games are not generally considered to be party games. Popular party games include the Mario Party series and Fuzion Frenzy.
Pinball
Pinball games are, essentially, pinball table emulators, designed to replicate the look and feel of your common pinball table. Most pinball games feature the same gameplay style, where you control a right and left flipper, and try to make the ball hit various parts of the playfield to gather up points.
The control scheme in pinball games is, for the most part, the same. In today's consoles, left and right "shoulder" buttons are generally used to control the left and right flipper. Some games automatically fire the ball into the playfield, while others require you to press a button to pull down the spring-loaded plug and fire the ball into the playfield.
In some cases, a pinball game may feature more than two flippers. Two are generally located at the bottom of the playfield, and others (generally only one or two more) are found above the bottom two.
Pinball games have become more popular in recent years on handheld systems, as opposed to consoles. Some games in this genre include Metroid Prime Pinball (Nintendo DS) and Pokemon Pinball (Game Boy Color).
Platform
Platform games, also called platformers, are games in which downward gravity restricts the player to travelling on horizontal surfaces, which are referred to as platforms.
This is one of the earliest genres of computer games, and was once very popular and well-supported, but has declined with the increasing popularity of 3D graphics. Traditionally, platform games were 2D, viewing the environment from a side-on, 'cutaway' perspective. This could be done easily with sprites and was simple for early computers to handle. 3D computer graphics have removed the necessity for this restricted view, and can create platform worlds in full 3D. However, this loses the simplicity of control and gameplay of the 2D games. Nonetheless, 3D platformers are not uncommon. Also, while it may not always be the case, the so called 2.5D games are essentially platform games, with 3D rendered graphics but 2D platforming/side-scrolling gameplay.
Traditional elements of platform games include running, jumping, and climbing ladders and ledges. Fighting and shooting are also frequent elements.
Notable platform games and series include Mega Man series, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Lode Runner, Commander Keen, Sonic the Hedgehog, Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot.
Puzzle
Puzzle games require the player to solve logic puzzles or even navigate complex locations such as mazes. This genre frequently crosses over with adventure and educational games. Some arcade games, in particular Tetris-variants, are often labeled puzzle games, despite the fact that gameplay depends on hand/eye coordination and quick reflexes, rather than thought and logic.
Famous puzzle games include Lemmings, Minesweeper, and Boulder Dash; see list of computer puzzle games for more.
Stealth
A somewhat more recent genre, sometimes referred to as a "sneaker" to make contrast with the action-oriented "shooter" subgenre. These games have much in common with the first- or third-person shooter types, but tend to emphasize subterfuge and precision strikes over the more overt mayhem of shooters. Examples of the stealth genre include the Thief series, the Metal Gear series, Splinter Cell series, and Beyond Good & Evil.
Survival horror
Survival horror games focus on fear and attempt to scare the player via traditional horror fiction elements such as atmospherics, death, the undead, blood and gore. Many of these games include first-person shooter elements.
The genre is thought to having originated with Alone in the Dark and to a lesser extent System Shock, and was popularized by the Resident Evil series. Other notable games in the genre include Silent Hill and Fatal Frame (Project Zero).
Traditional
Most popular board games, card games, and the like have been computerized to some degree or another. Computer game programs can be worthy opponents and can help improve one's skill at traditional games.
- Chess, Checkers, Othello (a.k.a. Reversi), and Backgammon have world class computer programs.
- Mah-jongg and related games are immensely popular in Japan.
- Go, popular in Asia. It is infamously difficult to program a computer to play Go well: see Computer Go.
- Magic: The Gathering has had computer versions for some time.
Vehicular combat
Vehicular combat (or car combat) games focus on fast-paced action, as the player operates a car or other vehicle and attempts to disable or destroy CPU or human opponents. Vehicular combat games often allow a player to choose from a variety of potential vehicles, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Vehicular combat was born out of racing/shooter combinations like Spy Hunter, RoadBlasters and Rock 'N' Roll Racing, but differs in that the players can, if desired, take their vehicles off predefined routes and do battle wherever they please.
Famous vehicular combat games include the Carmageddon series, Interstate '76, and the Twisted Metal series.
Superseded genres
Interactive movies
Interactive movies came about with the invention of laserdiscs. These games are pre-filmed full-motion cartoons or live-action sequences, where the player controls some of the moves of the main character. For example, when in danger, the player decides which move or action, or combination to choose. In these games, the only activity the user has is to choose or guess the move the designers intended him to make.
With the evolution of the more flexible 3D graphics, interactive movies are quickly disappearing.
Notable games of this category include Dragon's Lair and Space Ace.
Light-gun games
Light gun games use a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games. The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing vacuum tubes. It wasn't long before the technology began appearing in arcade shooting games, beginning with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite in 1936. These early light gun games used small targets (usually moving) onto which a light-sensing tube was mounted; the player used a gun (usually a rifle) that emitted a beam of light when the trigger was pulled. If the beam struck the target, a "hit" was scored. Modern screen-based light guns work on the opposite principle -- the sensor is built into the gun itself, and the on-screen target(s) emit light rather than the gun. The first light gun of this type was used on the MIT Whirlwind computer.
Notable games of this category include the Virtua Cop and the Time Crisis series.
Retro
Retro is not necessarily a genre and can refer to any game, even a new one, that adopts a style or "feel" that has since been superseded. However, the term is most commonly used to specifically refer to the early games following a simple (if not simplistic) interface that involves, at most, simple four-directional movement and one basic command. Most pre-Nintendo Entertainment System console and arcade games could be classified as "retro". Pong and Pac-Man are probably the two more notable examples of the genre.
Scrolling shooters
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Scrolling shooters, also known as "shmups" or "shoot 'em ups", place emphasis on shooting, and usually simplify other gameplay aspects of in deference to this. Several of the earliest arcade games (such as Space Invaders) could be classed as shoot 'em ups, although in practice they are usually not.
The games that typify the shoot 'em up genre are scrolling shooters - shoot 'em ups that are traditionally played on a long, 2D, scrolling playing area. Scrolling shooters are generally classified by their direction of scroll: the most common are horizontal (side view) and vertical (top view) shooters. Two examples are R-Type and Raiden respectively.
There are also fixed shooters, which take place on a single screen; for example, Robotron: 2084.
The scrolling shooter is an early one, with its roots in the early 1980s. It has a mixed following nowadays, however, classic-style 2D shooters are still being made, commonly rendered in 3D graphics. Ikaruga is a popular modern shoot 'em up.
See also
- Audio game, games based on sound
- Game classification
- List of gaming topics
- List of movie genres
- Serious game
- First person adventure
- MMOFPS
- Free First-Person Shooters
- First-person shooter
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