List of video game genres

Further information: [[:Game classification]]

Video games are categorized into genres based on their gameplay interaction. Thomas Apperley states that an "agreed form of interaction suggests a consistent genre has been established". Thus, genres are based on "underlying similarities rather than their superficial visual or narrative differences". On the other hand, there is a general lack of commonly agreed-upon genres or criteria for the definition of genres. Within game studies there is a lack of consensus in reaching accepted formal definitions for game genres, some being more popular than others.

Following is a listing of commonly used video game genres with brief descriptions and examples of each. This list is by no means complete or comprehensive. Chris Crawford notes that "the state of computer game design is changing quickly. We would therefore expect the taxonomy presented here to become obsolete or inadequate in a short time." As with nearly all varieties of genre classification, the matter of any individual video game's specific genre is open to personal interpretation. Moreover, it is important to be able to "think of each individual game as belonging to several genres at once."

Action

Action games are perhaps the most basic of gaming genres, and certainly one of the broadest. Action games are characterized by gameplay with emphasis on combat. Many of the other genres listed here can be included within Action, such as fighting games and first-person shooters.

File:Prince of Persia SOT Fighting.png

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, an action-adventure game.

Action-adventure

Action-adventure games focus on exploration and usually involve item gathering, simple puzzle solving, and combat.

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.

Because of their prevalence on video game consoles (and the absence of typical adventure games), action-adventure games are often confusingly called "adventure games" by console gamers.

• Examples of action-adventure games include: The Legend of Zelda series and Ōkami.

File:Splinter Cell Split Jump.jpg

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, a stealth game.

Stealth

Stealth games are a somewhat more recent genre, sometimes referred to as "sneakers" or "creepers" to make contrast with the action-oriented "shooter" sub-genre. These games tend to emphasize subterfuge and precision strikes over the more overt mayhem of shooters. Most have first- or third-person shooter elements, but there are some exceptions like Tenchu: Stealth Assassins.

• Examples of stealth games include: the Metal Gear series, Thief series, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.

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 mêlée weapons.

• Examples of survival horror games include: the Resident Evil series, Sweet Home, Alone in the Dark, and the Silent Hill Series.

Beat 'em up and hack and slash

File:Final Fight Cody.png

Final Fight, a popular scrolling fighter

Side-scrolling beat 'em up and hack and slash games have an emphasis on one-on-many close quarters combat, beating large numbers of computer-controlled enemies. Gameplay involves the player fighting through a series of increasingly difficult levels. The sole distinction between these two genres are that beat 'em ups feature hand-to-hand combat, and hack and slash games feature melee weaponry, particularly bladed weapons. Both genres feature little to no use of of firearms or projectile combat.

This genre became popular in 1987 with the release of Double Dragon, leading to a large number of similar games. The fighting style is usually simpler than for versus fighting games. In recent times, the genre has largely merged with that of action adventure, with side-scrolling levels giving way to more open three-dimensional areas, and the melee combat co-existing with shooting, puzzles and missions.

Fighting

Street Fighter, a one-on-one fighting game

Fighting games emphasize one-on-one combat between two characters, one of whom may be computer controlled.

These games are usually played by linking together long chains of button presses on the controller to use physical attacks to fight. Many of the movements employed by the characters are usually dramatic and occasionally physically impossible. Combat is almost always one-on-one, though there are some exceptions such as the Super Smash Bros. series or Guilty Gear Isuka, pitting up to four combatants in the fight at one time.

This genre first appeared in 1976 with the release of Sega's Heavyweight Boxing and later became a phenomenon, particularly in the arcades, with the release of Street Fighter II. The genre is still popular today, although it has failed to see the extreme popularity it once did.

• Examples of fighting games include: the Street Fighter series and the Tekken series.

Maze

Maze games have a playing field which is entirely a maze, which players must navigate. Quick thinking and fast reaction times are encouraged by the use of a timer, monsters obstructing the player's way, or multiple players racing to the finish. The most famous game of this genre is Pac-Man.

• Examples of maze games include: Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.

Pinball

Pinball games are essentially pinball table emulators, designed to replicate the look and feel of a common pinball table. Most pinball games feature the same gameplay style, where the player controls a right and left flipper, and tries 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. On consoles, left and right "shoulder" buttons are often used to approximate the left and right flipper buttons of a real-world pinball game. 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. Some games automatically fire the ball into the playfield, while others require the player to press a button to pull down the spring-loaded plug and fire the ball into the playfield.

One significant way that video game pinball games can progress beyond pinball table emulation is the inclusion of features impossible to incorporate in a real pinball table (multiple table layouts, or direct ball control for example), although some games strive to provide a more realistic experience and avoid this type of game play.

Pinball games have become more popular in recent years on handheld systems, as opposed to consoles.

Platform

See also: List of platform games

Platform games, also called platformers, are games in which the gameplay involves traveling between platforms by jumping (very occasionally other means are substituted for jumping, like swinging or bouncing, but these are considered variations on the same mechanic). Other traditional elements include running and climbing ladders and ledges. Platformers frequently borrow elements from other genres like fighting and shooting (such as the Castlevania series, which incorporates role-playing). They are most often associated with iconic cartoon mascots like Donkey Kong, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, and Rayman, though platform games may have any theme.

The first platformer is not easy to identify, at least beyond dispute. Some credit Frogs, the first game that allowed the player to jump. Still others believe that Pitfall Harry is the godfather of the platform genre.

Traditionally, platform games were 2D, viewing the environment from a profile, "cutaway" perspective. This could be done easily with sprites and was simple for early computers to handle. 3D computer graphics have opened these games up for movement in all directions. However, 3D perspectives make it more difficult to judge distance, which is an important part of platformers. Because of this many 3D platformers have a feature to make this easier (for example, nearly all of them will use a player shadow that will always be cast straight down, so the player can use it to determine if he will land safely).

Platformers were one of the earlier genres of video games, and, at their peak, they were the most popular games on the market. The genre experienced a sharp decline as 3D games became more popular. Although there are many 3D platform games, few have proven to have the universal appeal of their older games. Despite this, it is still a viable genre, with popular new games, such as those of the Mario and Mega Man series. While some 3D platformers like Donkey Kong 64, Super Mario 64, and Sonic Adventure have sold millions of units, the number of successful 3D platformers have dwindled to a fraction of what they once were. Today, 2D platformers exist primarily on handheld consoles, such as New Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo DS, and Ultimate Ghosts & Goblins for the PSP.

• Examples of platform games include: the Mario series and the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Shooter

Main article: Shooter games

First-person shooter

First-person shooter video games, commonly known as FPSs, emphasize shooting and combat from the perspective of the character controlled by the player. This perspective is meant to give the player the feeling of "being there", and allows the player to focus on aiming. Most FPSs are very fast-paced and require quick reflexes on high difficulty levels.

The fast-paced and 3D elements required to create an effective looking FPS made the genre technologically unattainable for most consumer hardware systems until the early 1990s. Wolfenstein 3D was the first widely known FPS, and Doom was the first major breakthrough in graphics; it used a number of clever techniques to make the game run fast enough to play on consumer-grade machines. Since the release of Doom, most FPS games now have a multi-player feature to allow competition between multiple players. Counter Strike, Condition Zero are some of the very famous games of the past few years in this genre.

• Examples of first-person shooter games include: the Halo series and the Call of Duty series.

Massively multiplayer online FPS

Massively multiplayer online first person shooter games (MMOFPS) are a genre of massively multiplayer online games that combines first-person shooter gameplay with a virtual world in which a large number of players may interact over the Internet. Whereas standard FPS games limit the number of players able to compete in a multiplayer match (generally the maximum is 64), hundreds of players can battle each other on the same server in an MMOFPS.

Examples of multiplayer online person shooter games include: World War II Online and PlanetSide.

Light gun shooter

Light gun shooters are a genre of shooter genre designed for use with a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and home consoles.

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 (usually moving) targets 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. Some "light gun" games actually use guns mounted on joysticks, giving the illusion of using a light beam, but all control is transferred through the movement of the stick; notable examples of this include T2: The Arcade Game and Revolution X.

• Examples of light-gun shooter games include: Time Crisis and Duck Hunt.

Shoot 'em up

Project Starfighter, a shoot 'em up.

A shoot 'em up (or shmup for short) is a computer and video game genre of shooter game in which the player controls a vehicle or character and fights large numbers of enemies with shooting attacks. During the peak of their popularity they were commonly called simple shooters. But with the emergence of first-person shooters, shoot 'em up has become an inclusive term to describe various kinds of non-3D shootrs.

• Examples of shoot 'em up games include: the Star Fox series and Ikaruga.

Tactical shooter

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Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, a tactical shooter

Tactical shooters are variations on the first person shooter genre (though also, less often, on third person shooters). Some are modifications of existing games; the aim of such modifications being to increase the realism of the original game. These games emphasize tactical play such as planning and teamwork (for example, co-ordination and specialised roles), whereas more conventional first person shooters tend to reward individual skill and heroism. In single player modes, the player commands a squad of AI controlled characters in addition to his/her own; in multi-player modes, players must work in teams to win the game. Also, in multi-player games, winning a match is likely to be dependent on capturing an objective of some sort rather than gaining the most kills (as is often the case in more conventional first person shooters).

• Examples of tactical shooter games include: the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series and the SOCOM series.

Third-person shooter

Third-person shooter video games, known as TPSs or 3PSs, emphasize shooting and combat from a third-person perspective of the character the player is controlling. This perspective gives the player a wider view of their surroundings as opposed to the limited viewpoint of first-person shooters. Furthermore, third person shooters allow for more elaborate movement such as rolling or diving, as opposed to simple jumping and crouching common in FPS games. Greater interaction with the player's environment is often possible. The emphasis remains on shooting however; these games lack the platforming and puzzle elements of action-adventure shooting games.

• Examples of third-person shooter games include: the Grand Theft Auto series and Gears of War.

Adventure

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 simple point and click interface, detailed worlds and casual pace made it accessible, and its sense of arty surrealism helped it escape the stigma that games are for children. 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. 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.

Text adventure / Interactive fiction

The earliest adventure games were text adventures, sometimes called interactive fiction. Games such as Colossal Cave Adventure (which gave the "adventure" genre its name) and 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.

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The Adventures of Fatman, a graphical adventure game with a point and click interface.

Graphic adventure

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. But 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.

Escape the room

Escape the room is a genre of online graphic adventure game, usually created for Adobe Flash and utilizing a point and click style of play. The object of the game is to find a way to escape from a mysterious room.

Visual novel

Visual novels are commonly characterized with dialog boxes and sprites determining the speaker.

A visual novel (ビジュアルノベル, bijuaru noberu) is an adventure game 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.

Visual novels are commonly called dating sims in the West, because many visual novels track statistics that the player must build in order to advance the plot. This is also because many visual novels permit a variety of endings, allowing more dynamic reactions to the player's actions than a typical linear adventure plot.

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 Sega Dreamcast or the Playstation 2. The market for visual novels outside of Japan, however, is nearly non-existent.

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 or action, or combination to choose. In these games, the only activity the user has is to choose or guess the move the designers intend him to make.

Interactive movies usually differ from games that simply use FMV extensively between scenes in that they try to integrate it into the gameplay itself. This has been used in everything from racing games (Megarace) to fighting games (Supreme Warrior). Because of this, it is arguable that the term is more of an antiquated buzzword (like how many early 3D games were tagged as "virtual reality") than a real genre.

The term itself has come to be associated with a lot of clumsy, poor quality games from the early-to-mid '90s, and thus it is rarely ever used anymore. 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 Indigo Prophecy, but few would include these in the same genre as games that used FMV in their gameplay.

Notable games of this category include Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Night Trap.

Construction and management simulation

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

City-building

A sample city from Lincity

In city-building games, a specialised sub-genre of economic simulation 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.

Economic simulation

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

God games

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.

• Examples of god games include the genre-setting Populous, SimAnt, SimEarth and the forthcoming game Spore.

Government simulation

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 has gained the moniker "serious game".

Life simulation

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 simulation

Biological simulations may allow the player to expermient with genetics, survival or ecosystems, often in the form of an educational package.

Pet-raising simulation

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

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.

Role-playing

Main article: Role-playing game (video games)

Computer and console role-playing games (CRPGs or simply RPGs) draw their gameplay from traditional role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Most cast the player in the role of one or more "adventurers" who specialize in specific skill sets (such as combat or casting magic spells) while progressing through a predetermined storyline. Many involve maneuvering these character(s) through an overworld, usually populated with monsters, that allows access to more important game locations, such as towns, dungeons, and castles.

Final Fantasy IV introduced the Active Time Battle system, one of the earliest steps towards real-time combat in role-playing games.

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.

Computer and console role-playing

Due to cultural differences in role-playing video games, there are two different types of RPGs. The first involves the player creating a character and a non-linear storyline along which the player makes his own decisions. In the second type the player controls a party of predefined characters through a dramatically scripted linear storyline. These styles are sometimes referred to as Western and Japanese role-playing games respectively (also known as computer and console role-playing games respectively), although there are numerous exceptions.

• Examples of computer/Western role-playing games include: Ultima, Diablo
• Examples of console/Japanese role-playing games include: Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Mana

File:Ultima7-ss-exult-completelyviolentcombat.png

Ultima VII was among the earliest role-playing games without turn-based combat.

Turn-based role-playing

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. 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.

• Examples of turn-based role-playing games include: Ultima, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy

Diablo is an action role-playing game.

Action role-playing

The action role-playing game or action RPG is a type of role-playing game which incorporates elements from action games or action-adventure games. The first action role-playing games began in the 1980s with games produced by Nihon Falcom, 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 many action RPGs focus more on the collection of randomized treasure than story progression that is found in other types of RPGs.

• Examples of action role-playing games include: Dragon Slayer, Ys, Mana, Soul Blazer, Diablo

Massively multiplayer online role-playing

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 around 1979. The massively multiplayer concept was quickly combined with other genres. Fantasy MMORPGs, like World of Warcraft or The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, remain the most popular type of MMOG. Yet other types of MMORPG are appearing. Sci-fi MMORPGs, which began with Phantasy Star Online, hold a smaller part of the MMOG Market; another early example of this type of MMOG is Anarchy Online. Many other sci-fi MMORPGs have launched with the popular space sci-fi game EVE Online being the most notable.

• Examples of action role-playing games include: Phantasy Star Online, Final Fantasy XI, MapleStory, World of Warcraft

Roguelike

The roguelike video game sub-genre 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.

Examples of roguelike games include: ADOM, NetHack, Mystery Dungeon series (console-based)

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Fire Emblem was the first tactical role-playing game.

Tactical role-playing

The tactical role-playing game sub-genre principally refers to strategy-derived games as an alternative to the traditional RPG system. In such titles, the system has been tailored to incorporate gameplay from strategy games. The genre has its origins in tabletop role-playing games, where each player has time to decide his or her character's action. The term "tactics" was not widely used to describe such titles until Square's Final Fantasy Tactics was released, where it popularized the genre in North America. However, the first tactical role-playing game was Nintendo's Fire Emblem, and other games such as Sega's Shining Force were also part of the genre years beforehand.

• Examples of action role-playing games include: Fire Emblem, Shining Force, Final Fantasy Tactics

Strategy

Strategy video games are video games that focus on gameplay requiring careful and skillful thinking and planning in order to achieve victory. In most strategy video games, "the player is given a godlike view of the game world, indirectly controlling the units under his command".

"The origin of strategy games is rooted in their close cousins, board games". Strategy games instantiated on computers 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.

4X

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.

Scorched 3D is an artillery game.

Artillery

Artillery is the generic name for either 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; the theme of such games is an extension of the original uses of computer themselves, which were once used to calculate the trajectories of rockets and other related military-based calculations. Artillery games are a type of strategy game, though they have also been described as a "shooting game".

• Examples of artillery games include: Gunbound, Scorched Earth, Tanarus and Gorillas.bas, programmed in QBasic Language.

Real-time strategy

Usually applied only to certain computer strategy games, the moniker "real-time strategy" (RTS) 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. Very few non-computer strategy games are real-time; one example is Icehouse.

• Examples of RTS games include: StarCraft and the Command & Conquer series.

Real-time tactics

A real-time tactics game shares feature of the simulation and war game categories. These computer game 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 battle gameplay.

• Examples of RTT games include: Warhammer: Dark Omen and the Close Combat series.

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

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 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.

• An example of a tower defense game is Desktop Tower Defense.

Turn-based strategy

The term "Turn-based strategy game" (TBS) is usually reserved for certain computer strategy games, to distinguish them from real-time computer strategy games. A player of a turn-based game is allowed a period of analysis before committing to a game action, also some games allow a certain number of moves or actions to take place in a turn.

• Examples of TBS games include: Civilization, Advance Wars (Nintendo Wars), Heroes of Might and Magic and the Master of Orion series.

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.

• Examples of TBT games include: the Jagged Alliance and X-COM series, as well as tactical role-playing games such as the Final Fantasy Tactics series and Nippon Ichi games.

Wargames

Main article: Wargame (video games)

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.

• Examples of video wargames include: The Close Combat series, Panzer General and its sequels and spinoffs, and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.

Vehicle simulation

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.

Flight

Main article: Flight_simulation § Flight_Simulators_at_Home

A flight simulation tasks the player with flying an aircraft, usually an airplane, as realistically as possible. Combat flight simulators are the most popular sub-genre of simulation. The player controls the plane, not only simulating the act of flying, but also combat situations. Falcon 4.0 and IL-2 Sturmovik are examples of the genre.

There are also civilian flight simulators that do not have the combat aspect, Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane being the most popular examples.

Racing

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. Many, if not most racing games can also be classified under the "Action" genre.

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".

• Notable arcade style racing games include Out Run and the Mario Kart series.
• Notable simulation style racing games include Grand Prix Legends, NASCAR Racing, GTR series, Gran Turismo series and Forza Motorsport series.

Space flight

Space flight simulator games are a sub-genre that involve piloting a spacecraft. Examples include the Elite series, Star Wars: X-Wing, Descent: FreeSpace — The Great War, Independence War, Wing Commander, Freelancer, X: Beyond the Frontier, DarkStar One and Homeworld. Space simulators are different from other sub-genres, 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 Driving Simulations

BVE Trainsim, a freeware train driving game.

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. Examples of train simulators include Microsoft Train Simulator, Trainz and Rail Simulator.

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.

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

Other notable genres

Music

Frets on Fire is a music game.

Music games are most commonly characterized by 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 hand-held game controller, to step with their feet on a dance pad, or use a device similar to a specific musical instrument, like a replica drum set. Other games marketed for home consoles avoid rhythm-based gameplay and instead focus on pitch-based, memory-based, or sandbox-style gameplay.

This genre rose to popularity in the late 1990s with the success of PaRappa the Rapper on consoles and Dance Dance Revolution in arcades. The 2000s have seen a rise to popularity in the console market of hybrid music games like Rez which, while musical in nature, also features elements of the more traditional genres like the shooter, along with the extremely popular "Guitar Hero" Series.

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. Mario Party, and Sonic Shuffle are examples.

Programming

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). Programming games of note include Core War, Robocode, RoboWar, Robot Battle, Crobots and A.I. Wars. 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.

Puzzle

Puzzle games require the player to solve logic puzzles or 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.

Puzzle is a very inclusive genre, and is often used as a general default for games not otherwise easily categorized, especially those with abstract concepts. Before they became commonplace, music games were sometimes called puzzle games, for example.

Sports

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 Madden NFL series.

This genre emerged early in the history of video games (e.g., Pong) and remains popular today.

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 (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. 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.
• 42 All-Time Classics is a game for Nintendo DS that features online play through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

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.

Adult

Adult video games, like adult movies or other media, are intended for an adult audience. In general, the purpose of adult games is to provide erotic entertainment, rather than just gameplay. 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, or simply have normal gameplay accompanied by nudity.

Advergame

Advergames have recently become popular due to the Burger King, King Games Collection, though advergames, like the 7up Cool Spot game and the Dominoes Yo! Noid games, were around much earlier. The majority of advergames are found online and mostly include simple and cheaply made Flash games. It is expected that advergamimg will become a very popular and far more highly invested in the coming years as TV ad revenue lessens and video games are shown to have a greater and greater impact on public opinion.

Casual

Casual games have very simple rules or play techniques, a very low degree of strategy, making them easy to learn and play as a pastime. They require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play, and 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, too.

The purpose of the casual game is to entertain, but with a much lower commitment than other video games.

Christian

Christian video games were first made in the late 1980s for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) by Wisdom Tree and now are made by many different developers. Most of these developers meet yearly at the "Christian Games Developers Conference" and build support through the Christian Game Developers Foundation. The purpose of Christian video games is to teach players about the Christian faith.

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 sub-genres exist, each for a different field (math games, typing games and so on).

Exergame

An exergame (portmonteau 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 includes one aspect of innovation or entertainment to an exercise workout.

Serious

Serious games are intended to educate or train the player. These games tend to promote "education, science, 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 raise political issues using the distinct properties of games.

See also

Game interfaces

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

Game platforms

• Arcade game
• Console game
• Handheld video game
• Massively multiplayer online game
• Mobile game
• Online game
• PC game

Other game classifications

• Game classification
• List of gaming topics
• Video game