List of video game genres

A video game genre is a specific category of games related by a common gameplay characteristic. Genres are not usually defined by the actual content of the game or its medium of play, but by its common challenge.

Genres may encompass a wide variety of games, leading to even more specific classifications called subgenres. For example, an action game can be classified into many subgenres such as platform games and fighting games. Some games, most notably browser and mobile games, are commonly classified into multiple genres.

The following is a list of all commonly-defined video game genres, with short descriptions for individual genres and major subgenres.

Action

Main article: Action game

Action games emphasize physical challenges that require eye-hand coordination and motor skill to overcome. They center around the player, who is in control of most of the action. Most of the earliest video games were considered action games; today, it is still a vast genre covering all games that involve physical challenges.

Action games are classified many subgenres. Platform games and fighting games are among the best-known subgenres, while shooter games became and continue to be one of the dominant genres in video gaming since the 1990s. Action games usually involve elements of twitch gameplay.

Platform games

Main article: Platform game

Platform games are set in an environment with platforms, hence the name platform game.

Platform games (or platformers) are set in a vertical or three-dimensional (3D) environment. Players guide a character through obstacles, jumping on platforms and battling enemies in order to advance. They often involve unrealistic physics and special movement abilities.

Donkey Kong was one of the earliest and best-known platformers; the American gaming press classified it using the term climbing game at the time. Super Mario Bros. was one of the best-selling games of all time; more than 40 million copies were sold (excluding Game Boy Advance and Virtual Console sales). Jumping Flash! introduced 3D graphics to the genre, being the first console platformer to incorporate 3D graphics.

Shooter games

Main article: Shooter game

This picture shows gameplay of a freely-licensed version of Doom, a highly-influential first-person shooter.

In shooter games (or simply shooters), players use ranged weapons to participate in the action, which takes place at a distance. Most shooters involve violent gameplay; lethal weaponry is used to damage opponents. However, some shooters, such as Splatoon, have non-violent objectives.

Shooters, aside from subgenre classifications, can be further classified by their perspective of play. First-person shooters are played within the protagonist's perspective; they often include a heads-up display displaying key information such as the current health of the protagonist. In third-person shooters, the protagonist's body can be seen fully; the environment is rendered from a distance. Some shooters incorporate both perspectives.

This picture shows gameplay of a shoot 'em up. In most shoot 'em ups, players influence the actions of a vehicle instead of the protagonist.

Shoot 'em ups pit players, who are usually shooting from a vehicle, against large waves of opponents; the player must attack and avoid opponent attacks as well as obstacles.

Light gun shooters are controlled with a gun-shaped controller; light guns function via a light sensor, hence the name "light gun". The technology has been used as early as 1920s for shooter games, although electronic video gaming did not exist at that time.

Since the 1990s, shooters, most notably first-person shooters, have become widely successful in video gaming, accounting for a large percentage of video game sales. Wolfenstein 3D, created by Id Software and released in 1992, was credited for pioneering gameplay and graphics elements incorporated by many other shooters. Also developed by Id and published one year after Wolfenstein 3D's release, Doom is broadly considered to be one of the most influential games in video gaming history. Other successful shooter series include Half-Life, an widely acclaimed and commercially successful series noted for its influence on contemporary shooters; and the Call of Duty franchise, with more than 175 million sales across all its titles.

Fighting games and beat 'em ups

Main article: Fighting game

Fighting games simulate close-range combat against a few opponents, often involving violent and exaggerated unarmed attacks against opponents. While ranged and melee weapons may be present in fighting games, they emphasize hand-to-hand combat. Beat 'em ups (or brawlers) are a related, but distinct genre; they both involve close-range combat, but beat 'em ups pit players against large waves of opponents as opposed to a few. Many fighting games incorporate heavily-emphasized attacks based on various marital arts systems. Fighting games were one of the dominant genres in video gaming until the late-1990s, where the genre saw a general decline. Fighting games released after the late-1990s, including ones that are part of popular franchises, did not attain the popularity of earlier fighting games. Beat 'em ups saw a sudden decline in popularity in the same time period, but 3D beat 'em ups have kept the genre alive.

Action-adventure

Main article: Action-adventure game

Action-adventure games combine elements of their two component genres, typically featuring long-term obstacles that must be overcome using a tool or item as leverage (which is collected earlier), as well as many smaller obstacles almost constantly in the way, that require elements of action games to overcome. Action-adventure games tend to focus on exploration and usually involve item gathering, simple puzzle solving, and combat. "Action-adventure" has become a label which is sometimes attached to games which do not fit neatly into another well known genre.

The first action-adventure game was the Atari 2600 game Adventure (1979). It was directly inspired by the original text adventure, Colossal Cave Adventure. In the process of adapting a text game to a console with only a joystick for control, designer Warren Robinett created a new genre. Another typical Action-Adventure game is "The Legend of Zelda" by Nintendo, which involves puzzle solving, sword fighting, and item collecting. Because of their prevalence on video game consoles and the absence of typical adventure games, action-adventure games are often called "adventure games" by modern gamers.

Stealth game

Stealth games are a somewhat recent subgenre, sometimes referred to as "sneakers" or "creepers" to contrast with the action-oriented "shooter" subgenre. These games tend to emphasize subterfuge and precision strikes over the more overt mayhem of shooters, for example, the Sly Cooper series.

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. One crucial gameplay element in many of these games is the low quantity of ammunition, or number of breakable melee weapons. A notable example is Silent Hill and Resident Evil.

Metroidvania

Main article: Metroidvania

Adventure

Main article: Adventure game

Adventure games were some of the earliest games created, beginning with the text adventure Colossal Cave Adventure in the 1970s. That game was originally titled simply "Adventure," and is the namesake of the genre. Over time, graphics have been introduced to the genre and the interface has evolved.

Unlike adventure films, adventure games are not defined by story or content. Rather, adventure describes a manner of gameplay without reflex challenges or action. They normally require the player to solve various puzzles by interacting with people or the environment, most often in a non-confrontational way. It is considered a "purist" genre and tends to exclude anything which includes action elements beyond a mini game.

Because they put little pressure on the player in the form of action-based challenges or time constraints, adventure games have had the unique ability to appeal to people who do not normally play video games. The genre peaked in popularity with the 1993 release of Myst, the best-selling PC game of all time up to that point. The simple point and click interface, detailed worlds and casual pace made it accessible, and its sense of artistic surrealism caused news outlets such as Wired Magazine, The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle to declare that the gaming industry had matured. It had four proper sequels, but none managed to experience the same level of success. The success of Myst also inspired many others to create similar games with first person perspectives, surreal environments and minimal or no dialogue, but these neither recaptured the success of Myst nor of earlier personality-driven adventures.

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. More accurately, it has become a niche genre. Adventure games are not entirely uncommon, but they tend to be very low budget in anticipation of modest sales. The genre was somewhat rejuvenated with the release of The Longest Journey in 1999, which emphasized stronger story elements and more interaction with different characters. A recent resurgence of adventure games on Nintendo consoles might signify a new interest in the genre. A successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012, run by Doublefine Studios, also spoke to the continued interest in Adventure games. The game produced as a result was mired in controversy and production delays, and to some, signalled the true end of the genre outside of niche markets.

Text adventures

The earliest adventure games were text adventures, also known as interactive fiction. Games such as the popular Zork series of the late 1970s and early 1980s allowed the player to use a keyboard to enter commands such as "get rope" or "go west" while the computer describes what is happening. A great deal of programming went into parsing the player's text input.

Graphic adventures

Mystery House for the Apple II was the first adventure game to use graphics in the early home computer era.

Graphic adventure games emerged 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). Early graphic adventure games used text-parsers to input commands. 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.

Visual novels

A visual novel (ビジュアルノベル, bijuaru noberu) is a game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art. As the name might suggest, they resemble mixed-media novels or tableau vivant stage plays. Many visual novels track statistics that the player must build in order to advance the plot, and permit a variety of endings, allowing more dynamic reactions to the player's actions than a typical linear adventure plot. Many visual novels are dating sims, including bishōjo games. Visual novels are especially prevalent in Japan, where they make up nearly 70% of PC games released. They are rarely produced for video game consoles, but the more popular games are sometimes ported to systems such as the Dreamcast or the PlayStation 2. The market for visual novels outside of Japan, however, was nearly non-existent prior to the success of the Nintendo DS, for which several Japanese visual novels were released in the West, such as the Ace Attorney series.

Interactive movie

The interactive movie genre came about with the invention of laserdiscs. An interactive movie contains 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, action, or combination to choose. In these games, the only activity the player has is to choose or guess the move the designers intend him to make. Interactive movies usually differ from games that simply use full motion video, FMV, extensively between scenes in that they try to integrate it into the gameplay itself. This has been used in everything from racing games to fighting games. A few adventure game have tried to use the term to liken the storytelling of their games to those in movies, most notably the later Tex Murphy games and the more recent Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy), although they are more aptly classified as genre hybrids. Elements of interactive movies have been adapted for game cut scenes, in the form of Quick Time Events, to keep the player alert. Games like Resident Evil 4 present obvious in-game prompts for the player to react to. Not doing so usually results in the player character either getting hurt or outright killed.

Real-time 3D adventures

Around this time, real-time 3D adventure games appeared. These included Nightfall in 1998, Shenmue in 1999, realMyst in 2000, Shadow of Memories in 2001, and Uru: Ages Beyond Myst in 2003. They augmented traditional adventure gameplay with some of the attributes more commonly associated with action games. For example, freedom of motion and physics based behavior.

Role-playing

Main article: Role-playing video game

See also: History of role-playing video games

KQ is a role-playing game

Role-playing video games draw their gameplay from traditional role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Most of these games cast the player in the role of one or more "adventurers" who specialize in specific skill sets (such as melee combat or casting magic spells) while progressing through a predetermined storyline. Many involve manoeuvring these character(s) through an overworld, usually populated with monsters, that allows access to more important game locations, such as towns, dungeons, and castles. Since the emergence of affordable home computers coincided with the popularity of paper and pencil role-playing games, this genre was one of the first in video games and continues to be popular today. Gameplay elements strongly associated with RPGs, such as statistical character development through the acquisition of experience points, have been widely adapted to other genres such as action-adventure games. Though nearly all of the early entries in the genre were turn-based games, many modern role-playing games progress in real-time. Thus, the genre has followed the strategy game's trend of moving from turn-based to real-time combat. The move to real-time combat began with the release of Square's (now Square Enix's) Final Fantasy IV, the first game to use the Active Time Battle system; this was quickly followed by truly real-time role-playing games such as the Mana series, Soul Blazer and Ultima VII. Some throwbacks to older turn based system did exist such as the Golden Sun series for Game Boy Advance.

Action RPGs

File:Freedroidrpg basic gameplay.ogv

Video showing basic point and click action RPG gameplay.

The action role-playing game or action RPG is a type of role-playing video game which incorporates elements from action games or action-adventure games. The first action role-playing games were produced by Nihon Falcom in the 1980s, such as the Dragon Slayer series and Ys series. Later so-called "Diablo clones" are also part of this genre. Although the precise definition of the genre varies, the typical action RPG features a heavy emphasis on combat, often simplifying or removing non-combat attributes and statistics and the effect they have on the character's development. Additionally, combat always takes place using a real-time system (hence the "action") that relies on the player's ability to perform particular actions with speed and accuracy to determine success, rather than mainly using the player character's attributes to determine this. Typically action RPGs focus more on the collection of randomized treasure than story progression that is found in other types of RPGs.

MMORPGs

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGs, emerged in the mid to late 1990s as a commercial, graphical variant of text-based MUDs, which had existed since 1978. By and large, MMORPGs feature the usual RPG objectives of completing quests and strengthening one's player character, but involve up to hundreds of players interacting with each other on the same persistent world in real-time. The massively multiplayer concept was quickly combined with other genres. Fantasy MMORPGs, like Final Fantasy XI, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, and The Elder Scrolls Online, remain the most popular type of MMOG, with the most popular "pay-to-play" game being World of Warcraft, and the most popular "free-to-play" games including RuneScape and TERA, yet other types of MMORPG are appearing. Sci-fi MMORPGs, which began with Phantasy Star Online, hold a smaller part of the MMOG market, with the popular space sci-fi game EVE Online being the most notable. Other massively multiplayer online games which do not have a conventional RPG setting include Second Life and Ingress.

Roguelikes

Nethack is a roguelike game. The text display seen here is common in games in the roguelike genre.

The roguelike video game subgenre borrows its name and gameplay elements from the 1980 computer game Rogue. Superficially, a roguelike is a two-dimensional dungeon crawl with a high degree of randomness and an emphasis on statistical character development. Though traditionally featuring a text user interface, many such games utilize graphic tiles to overcome character set limitations.

Tactical RPGs

The tactical role-playing game subgenre principally refers to games which incorporate gameplay from strategy games as an alternative to traditional RPG systems. Like standard RPGs, the player controls a finite party and battles a similar number of enemies, but this genre incorporates strategic gameplay such as tactical movement on an isometric grid. The genre has its origins in tabletop role-playing games, where each player has time to decide his or her character's action.

Sandbox RPGs

Sandbox RPGs or Open World allow the player a large amount of freedom and usually contain a somewhat more open free-roaming (meaning the player is not confined to a single path restricted by rocks or fences etc.) world. Sandbox RPGs contain similarities to other sandbox games such as the Grand Theft Auto series, with a large number of interactable NPCs, large amount of content and typically some of the largest worlds to explore and longest playtimes of all RPGs due to an impressive amount of secondary content not critical to the game's main storyline. Sandbox RPGs often attempt to emulate an entire region of their setting. Popular examples of this subgenre include the Dragon Slayer series by Nihon Falcom, the early Dragon Quest games by Chunsoft, Zelda II by Nintendo, Wasteland by Interplay Entertainment, the SaGa and Mana series by Squaresoft, System Shock 2 by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios, Deus Ex by Ion Storm, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series by Bethesda Softworks and Interplay Entertainment, Fable by Lionhead Studios, the Gothic series by Piranha Bytes, the Xenoblade series by Monolith Soft, and the Souls series by From Software.

Cultural differences

Cultural differences in role-playing video games have caused RPGs to tend towards two sets of characteristics sometimes referred to as Western and Japanese RPGs (also referred to as "WRPG" or "JRPGs"). The first ("WRPGs") often involves the player creating a character and a non-linear storyline along which the player makes his own decisions. In the second type ("JRPGs"), the player controls a party of predefined characters through a dramatically scripted linear storyline (though there are additional features such as Xenoblade Chronicles which contains action elements and sandbox environments, and The Last Story which incorporates stealth gameplay and strategy). There are described advantages to -and dedicated fans of- each system, including fans of Western RPGs in East Asia and Japanese RPGs in Europe/North America. Western RPGs include the Fallout series and Elder Scrolls series, while Japanese RPGs include the Final Fantasy series and Dragon Quest series.

Choices

Some RPGs give the player several choices in how their story will unfold. Typically the player can have an effect on whether the enemies in the game will be taken out lethally or non-lethally. This is very popular because it makes the player have to deal with the consequences of their own choices whenever they fail to save someone or don't get the ending they desired, for example. This makes for a much more interactive experience between gamers and gameplay, also explaining their popularity. Some notable examples include the Megami Tensei, SaGa, Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls series.

Fantasy

Due to RPG origins with Dungeons & Dragons and other pen and paper role-playing games, the most popular setting for RPGs by far is a fantasy world, usually with heavy medieval high fantasy influences, with series such as Diablo, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls and Baldur's Gate sharing a basic fantasy setting. However, numerous exceptions exist, with some notable examples including the East Asian settings of Far East of Eden and Jade Empire, the steampunk settings of Final Fantasy VI and Grandia, the science fiction settings of Star Ocean, Xeno, Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect, the retro-futuristic setting of Fallout, and the contemporary settings of Mother, Megami Tensei and Alpha Protocol.

Simulation

Main article: Simulation video game

Simulation video games is a diverse super-category of games, generally designed to closely simulate aspects of a real or fictional reality.

Construction and management simulation

Main article: Construction and management simulation

A sample city from Lincity NG

Construction and management simulations (or CMSs) are a type of simulation game which task players to build, expand or manage fictional communities or projects with limited resources.

In city-building 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. Perhaps the most known game of this type is SimCity, which is still popular and has had great influence on later city-building games. SimCity, however, also belongs to the God Games genre since it gives the player god-like abilities in manipulating the world. Caesar was a long-running series in this genre, with the original game spawning three sequels.

Business simulation games generally attempt to simulate an economy or business, with the player controlling the economy of the game.

A government simulation game (or "political game") involves the simulation of the policies, government or politics of a country, but typically excludes warfare. Recently, these types of games have gained the moniker "serious game".

Life simulation

Main article: Life simulation game

Life simulation games (or artificial life games) involve living or controlling one or more artificial lives. A life simulation game can revolve around individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation of an ecosystem.

Biological simulations may allow the player to experiment with genetics, survival or ecosystems, often in the form of an educational package. An early example is SimLife, while relatively recent ones are Jurassic Park:Operation Genesis and Spore. In other educational simulations such as Wolf, the player "lives the life" of an individual animal in a relatively realistic way. Hailed as one of the greatest life simulation games, however, is Creatures, Creatures 2, Creatures 3, where the player breeds generations of a species in a hugely detailed ecosystem.

Unlike other genres of games, god games often do not have a set goal that allows a player to win the game. The focus of a god game tends to be control over the lives of people, anywhere from micromanaging a family to overseeing the rise of a civilization.

Pet-raising simulations (or digital pets) focus more on the relationship between the player and one or few life forms. They are often more limited in scope than other biological simulations. This includes popular examples of virtual pets such as Tamagotchi, the Petz series, and Nintendogs.

Social simulation games base their gameplay on the social interaction between multiple artificial lives. The most famous example from this genre is Will Wright's The Sims.

Vehicle simulation

Main article: Vehicle simulation game

Vehicle simulation games are a genre of video games which attempt to provide the player with a realistic interpretation of operating various kinds of vehicles.

FlightGear is a flight simulation game.

A flight simulation tasks the player with flying an aircraft, usually an airplane, as realistically as possible. Combat flight simulators are the most popular subgenre of simulation. The player controls the plane, not only simulating the act of flying, but also combat situations. There are also civilian flight simulators that do not have the combat aspect.

Racing games 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. This genre of games is one of the staples of the computer gaming world and many of the earliest computer games created were part of this genre. Emerging in the late 1970s, this genre is still very popular today and continues to push the envelope in terms of graphics and performance. These games "tend to fall into organized racing and imaginary racing categories". Organized racing simulators attempt to "reproduce the experience of driving a racing car or motorcycle in an existing racing class: Indycar, NASCAR, Formula 1, and so on." On the other hand, imaginary racing games involve "imaginary situations, driving madly through cities or the countryside or even fantasy environments". These "imaginary" racing games are sometimes called arcade racing games, in contrast to their more realistic "racing simulation" counterparts. Rollings and Adams note that "racing games are often sold in the sports category," but "from a design standpoint, they really belong in ... vehicle simulations".

Space flight simulator games are a subgenre that involve piloting a spacecraft. Space simulators are different from other subgenres, and are not generally considered to be simulators, as their simulated objects do not always exist and often disregard the laws of physics. However, simulators of real spacecraft do exist: Orbiter is one example.

Train simulators simulate the vehicles, environments and often economics associated with railway transport. These are frequently historical in nature, reminiscing on the evolution and emergence of the railroad in various countries and the economic booms that often accompanied them.

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. A subgenre of vehicular combat is Mecha combat, where vehicles generally include giant robot-like tanks.

Strategy

Main article: Strategy video game

Strategy video games focus on gameplay requiring careful and skillful thinking and planning in order to achieve victory and the action scales from world domination to squad-based tactics. In most strategy video games, says Andrew Rollings, "the player is given a godlike view of the game world, indirectly controlling the units under his command." Rollings also notes that "The origin of strategy games is rooted in their close cousins, board games." Strategy video games generally take one of four archetypal forms, depending on whether the game is turn-based or real-time and whether the game's focus is upon strategy or military tactics. Real time strategy games are often a multiple unit selection game (multiple game characters can be selected at once to perform different tasks, as opposed to only selecting one character at a time) with a sky view (view looking down from above) but some recent games such as Tom Clancy's EndWar, are single unit selection and third person view. Like many RPG games, many strategy games are gradually moving away from turn based systems to more real-time systems.

4X game

Freeciv is a 4X game.

4X refers to a genre of strategy video game with four primary goals: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. A 4X game can be turn-based or real-time. Perhaps the best known example of this genre is Sid Meier's Civilization series. 4X games often cover a very large period of time, giving the player the control of an entire civilization or species. Typically these games have a historical setting, encompassing a large amount of human history (Empire Earth, Civilization) or a science fiction setting where the player controls a species set to dominate the galaxy (Master of Orion, Galactic Civilizations).

Scorched 3D is an artillery game.

Artillery game

Artillery is the generic name for early two or three-player (usually turn-based) computer games involving tanks fighting each other in combat or similar derivative games. Artillery games were among the earliest computer games developed and can be considered an extension of the original use of computers, which were once used for military-based calculations such as plotting the trajectories of rockets. Artillery games are a type of strategy game, though they have also been described as a "shooting game."

Real-time strategy (RTS)

The moniker "real-time strategy" (RTS), usually applied only to certain computer strategy games, (however, this genre is probably the most well known of strategy games and is what most websites mean when they say "strategy games") indicates that the action in the game is continuous, and players will have to make their decisions and actions within the backdrop of a constantly changing game state. Real-time strategy gameplay is characterised by obtaining resources, building bases, researching technologies and producing units. Blizzard Entertainment's Starcraft is a popular RTS played competitively in South Korea and televised to large audiences. Other notable games include the Warcraft series, Age of Empires series, Dawn of War, Command and Conquer and Dune II (essentially the first RTS game). Very few non-computer strategy games are real-time; A few examples are Icehouse, Battle for Middle-earth II, Pikmin and Halo Wars.

MMORTS

Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games, also known as "MMORTS", combine real-time strategy (RTS) with a persistent world. Players often assume the role of a general, king, or other type of figurehead leading an army into battle while maintaining the resources needed for such warfare. The titles are often based in a sci-fi or fantasy universe and are distinguished from single or small-scale multiplayer RTSes by the number of players and common use of a persistent world, generally hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to evolve even when the player is offline.

Real-time tactics

A real-time tactics game shares features of the simulation and wargame genres, for example the battle system (though not the entire game) in the Total War series. These titles focus on operational aspects and control of warfare. Unlike in real-time strategy games, resource and economical management and building plays no part of the gameplay. These games often feature an overarching "campaign map" with different regions the player must vie for control of -not dissimilar to the board game Risk. Base building in the traditional sense is usually relegated to building up the infrastructure of regions you own.

Tower defense

Tower defense games have a very simple layout. Usually, computer-controlled monsters called creeps move along a set path, and the player must place, or "build" towers along this path to kill the creeps. In some games, towers are placed along a set path for creeps, while in others towers can interrupt creep movement and change their path. In most tower defense games different towers have different abilities such as poisoning enemies or slowing them down. The player is awarded money for killing creeps, and this money can be used to buy more towers, or buy upgrades for a tower such as increased power or range.

Turn-based strategy

The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game.

The term "Turn-based strategy game" (TBS) is usually reserved for certain computer strategy games, to distinguish them from real-time strategy games. A player of a turn-based game is allowed a period of analysis before committing to a game action, and some games allow a certain number of moves or actions to take place in a turn. Like real time strategy games, this genre can include many strategy games which are not solely turn based games, and games which may contain other features not related to whether the game is turn based or not.

Some recent turn-based strategy games feature a different gameplay mechanic, with a simultaneous resolution of the turns, every player preparing their future actions in the planning phase, then letting the game follow the orders given at the same time, causing orders to be interrupted by the opponent(s) actions, changing the gameplay from reacting to the opponent's action into guessing them. No definite name has been decided for this new genre, but STBS - Simultaneous Turn-based Strategy - seems to be the unofficial name. The first game of the genre was Combat Mission.

Turn-based tactics

The gameplay of turn-based tactics games is characterized by the expectation of players to complete their tasks using the combat forces provided to them, and usually by the provision of a realistic (or at least believable) representation of military tactics and operations.

Wargame

Wargames are a subgenre of strategy video games that emphasize strategic or tactical warfare on a map. Wargames generally take one of four archetypal forms, depending on whether the game is turn-based or real-time and whether the game's focus is upon military strategy or tactics.

Sports

Sports are video games that simulate sports. This opposing team(s) can be controlled by other real life people or artificial intelligence.

Racing

One competes against time or opponent using some means of transportation. Most popular subgenre is racing simulators.

Sports game

Sports games emulate the playing of traditional physical sports. 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 FIFA (video game series) series. This genre emerged early in the history of video games (e.g., Pong) and remains popular today.

Competitive

Games that have high competitive factor but does not represent any traditional sports or the concept is fictional designed by the developer (e.g. Ball Jacks).

Sports-based fighting

Sports-based fighting games are titles that fall firmly within the definitions of both the Fighting game and Sports game genre, such as boxing and wrestling video games.As such, they are usually put in their own separate subgenres. Often the fighting is far more realistic than in traditional fighting games (though the amount of realism can greatly vary), and many feature real-world franchises or fighters. Examples of this include the Fight Night and WWE 2K series.

Other notable genres

Frets on Fire is a music game.

MMOGs

A massively multiplayer online game (also called MMO and MMOG) is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting large numbers of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet. Many games have at least one persistent world, however others just have large numbers of players competing at once in one form or another without any lasting effect to the world at all. These games can be found for most network-capable platforms, including the personal computer, video game console, or smartphones and other mobile devices.

MMOGs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world. They include a variety of gameplay types, representing many video game genres.

Casual game

Casual games are the games that, regardless of specific gameplay features, are targeted at audiences (casual gamers) who do not wish to dedicate much time and effort to playing video games (unlike hardcore gamers who do). Statistics show that a majority of Casual Gamers are older women, which has drastically changed and influenced the gaming. This genre of gaming is meant to be a short and relaxing pastime, a rest in between other occupations or played after a long day at work. These games feature very low requirements to simply make progress (yet allow the player to increase the challenge to their liking by attempting to do things faster/cleaner etc., for additional reward), colorful, attractive graphics and sound, no negative connotations like violence or confrontations per se and rewarding gameplay with small and frequently awarded achievements yielding imminent motivation. Besides that, they allow the player to pause or quit at any time and for any amount of time (e.g. "minimize" the game while still having it loaded) with little or no loss in their progress.

Due to the aforementioned requirements, many of these games are simple logic games (Color Lines being an early successful title) or action games with dumped challenge levels, and a vast majority of them are released on portable platforms.

Music game

Music games most commonly challenge the player to follow sequences of movement or develop specific rhythms. Some games require the player to input rhythms by stepping with their feet on a dance pad, or using a device similar to a specific musical instrument, like a replica drum set. These games have changed the way players' interact with their consoles by making the gaming experience more active and sociable, and paving the way for exergaming. Music video games have also influenced the music industry by significantly raising the number of legal downloads of songs. Other games avoid rhythm-based gameplay and instead focus on pitch-based, memory-based, or sandbox-style gameplay. Recently, music games such as Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Sing Star have achieved huge popularity among casual gamers.

Party game

Party games are video games developed specifically for multiplayer games between many players. Normally, party games have a variety of mini-games that range between collecting more of a certain item than other players or having the fastest time at something. Such games include the Mario Party series, Crash Boom Bang!, and Rayman Raving Rabbids. Versus multiplayer games are not generally considered to be party games.

Programming game

A programming game is a computer game where the player has no direct influence on the course of the game. Instead, a computer program or script is written in some domain-specific programming language in order to control the actions of the characters (usually robots, tanks or bacteria, which seek to destroy each other). In SpaceChem, for example, players design circuits used for creating molecules from raw materials. Final Fantasy XII also includes some elements of a programming game, as the player creates the AI of his characters, although the player can also choose to directly control the action.

Logic game

Logic games require the player to solve logic puzzles or navigate complex locations such as mazes. They are well suited to casual play, and tile-matching puzzle games are among the most popular casual games. This genre frequently crosses over with adventure and educational games. Tetris, labeled a puzzle game, is credited for revolutionizing gaming and popularizing the puzzle genre.

Trivia game

Trivia games are growing in popularity, especially on mobile phones where people may only have a few minutes to play the game. In trivia games, the object is to answer questions with the goal of obtaining points. They may be based on real-life trivia shows such as Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? or Family Feud.

Board game / Card game

Many popular board games and card games have computer versions. AI opponents can help improve one's skill at traditional games. Chess, Checkers, Othello (also known as Reversi), and Backgammon have world class computer programs. Mah-jongg and related games are immensely popular in China and Japan. Go is popular in East Asia, though it is infamously difficult to program a computer to play Go well. Magic: The Gathering has had computer versions for some time, most notably Magic: The Gathering Online.

Idle gaming

Main article: Incremental game

In an IGN article, Cookie Clicker is credited as one of the few games to have played a major role in the establishment of the genre of idle gaming.

This genre involves games that orient the player with a trivial task, such as clicking a cookie; and as the game progresses, the player is gradually rewarded certain upgrades for completing said task. In all, these games require very little involvement from the player, and in most cases they play themselves; hence the use of the word "idle". This process of rewarding a simple action, or positive reinforcement, is what causes idle games to be commonly known as “super addictive”. The design is such that, with each reward, the player feels a sense of pride as if they have accomplished something important, thus creating the urge to continue to play.

However, due to their mockingly simple mechanics, idle games are also considered by many of being relatively simple or, as stated in the IGN article, "super dumb". Games such as Cookie Clicker have used this blend of simplicity and complexity to create a new genre that some may not even consider as actual games. Orteil himself described his works as "non-games". However, even though idle games, or "non-games", do not contain many aspects that one looks for in a game, they have still managed a prolific presence on the Internet. In early 2014, Orteil has released an early version of Idle Game Maker, a tool allowing customized idle games to be made without coding knowledge.

Video game genres by purpose

While most video games are designed as entertainment, many video games are designed with additional purposes. These purposes are as varied as the nature of information itself—to inform, persuade, or stimulate. These games can have any kind of gameplay, from puzzles to action to adventure.

Advergame

Main article: Advergame

Advergames, in the context of video game genres, refers to promotional software specifically made to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. The first advergames were distributed on floppy disk by the Chef Boyardee, Coca-Cola, and Samsung brands, while the first cereal box advergame was Chex Quest in 1996. The majority of advergames are found online and mostly include simple and cheaply made Flash games.

Art game

Main article: Art game

Art games are designed so as to emphasize art or whose structures are intended to produce some kind of non-ludological reaction in its audience. Art games typically go out of their way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing out for aesthetic beauty or complexity in design. This concept extends to the realm of modified ("modded") gaming when modifications have been made to existing non-art-games to produce graphic results intended to be viewed as an artistic display, as opposed to modifications intended to change game play scenarios or for storytelling. Modified games created for artistic purposes are sometimes referred to as "videogame art."

Casual game

Main article: Casual game

Casual games have very simple rules or play techniques and a very low degree of strategy. They also require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play, making them easy to learn and play as a pastime. There are comparatively low production and distribution costs for the producer. Casual games typically are played on a personal computer online in web browsers, although they now are starting to become popular on game consoles. The purpose of the casual game is to entertain, but with a much lower commitment than other video games.

Christian game

Main article: Christian video games

Christian games attempt to provide the dual purposes of spreading the Christian religion to non-believers through the medium of video games, and providing gamers who identify as Christian with a common pool of games that neither challenge their beliefs nor offend them. Christian video games were first developed by Wisdom Tree for the NES, without license. While largely regarded as derivative titles by the mainstream gaming culture, Christian games have nevertheless expanded in distribution since their inception.

Educational game

Main article: Educational game

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 users 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, in fields such as math or typing.

Electronic sports

Main article: Electronic sports

Electronic Sports games are multiplayer games that are usually played competitively at the professional level. These games are often targeted at the "hardcore" gaming audience, and are usually first-person shooter games, requiring twitch-based reaction speed and coordination, or real-time strategy games, requiring high levels of strategic macro- and micromanagement.

Exergame

Main article: Exergaming

An exergame (portmanteau of "exercise" and "game") is a video game that provides exercise. "Exergames" sub-divide into two main implementations, those with a game specifically designed to use an exercise input device (for example, the game Wii Fit using the Wii Balance Board) and those implementations using a genre of a game. Games fit into the category of entertainment, and similarly "exergames" are a category of "exertainment" (formed from "exercise" and "entertainment"). "Exertainment" refers to one aspect of adding entertainment to an exercise workout.

Pornographic video game

Main article: Pornographic video game

Pornographic video games are erotic video games and 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, 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.

Serious game

Main article: Serious game

Serious games are intended to educate or train the player. These games tend to promote "education, science, social change, health care or even the military." Some of these games have no specific ending or goal in the game. Rather, the player learns a real life lesson from the game. For example, games from websites such as Newsgaming.com and gamesforchange.org raise political issues using the distinct properties of games.

Scientific studies

As video games are increasingly the subject of scientific studies, game genres are themselves becoming a subject of study.

An early attempt at analysis of the action and adventure genres appeared in a Game Developers Conference 2000 paper 'Mostly Armless: Grabbing the 3D World'. This critiqued a variety of adventure and action games to categorize gameplay and interaction for adventure, action, and hybrid genres. It provided a graph of the genres along the axes of 'immediacy' vs 'complexity', with an 'ideal-zone' for gameplay that covered and linked adventure and action games. It detailed various interaction styles present in these genres and extrapolated to future user interface and gameplay possibilities for these and other genres. Some of these have since been adopted by persistent worlds. For example, Second Life uses some of the gameplay investment and interface elements described in section 4 of the paper.

In a University of Queensland study, game enjoyment was correlated with attributes such as immersion, social interaction, and the nature of the goals. These may be underlying factors in differentiating game genres.

Statistical scaling techniques were used in a study presented at the 2007 Siggraph Video Game Symposium to convert subject ratings of game similarity into visual maps of game genres. The maps reproduced some of the commonly identified genres such as first-person shooters and god games. A Michigan State University study found that men have a higher preference for genres that require competition and three-dimensional navigation and manipulation than women do.

See also

Game interfaces

• Audio game
• Browser game
• Text-based game
• Tile-based video games
• Side-scrolling video game

Game platforms

• Arcade game
• Console game
• Handheld video game
• Massively multiplayer online game
• Mobile game
• Online game
• Personal computer game

Other related topics

• Game classification
• List of gaming topics
• Nonviolent video game
• Non-game
• Video game
• Aysmmetric Video Game