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Video game genres are used to categorize video games based on their gameplay inte raction rather than

visual or narrative differences.[1] A video game genre is de fined by a set of gameplay challenges. They are classified independent of their setting or game-world content, unlike other works of fiction such as films or bo oks. For example, an action game is still an action game, regardless of whether it takes place in a fantasy world or outer space.[2] Within game studies there i s a lack of consensus in reaching accepted formal definitions for game genres, s ome being more observed than others. Like any typical taxonomy, a video game gen re requires certain constants. Most video games feature obstacles to overcome, s o video game genres can be defined where obstacles are completed in substantiall y similar ways.[citation needed] Following is a listing of commonly used video game genres with brief description s and examples of each. This list is by no means complete or comprehensive. Chri s Crawford notes that "the state of computer game design is changing quickly. We would therefore expect the taxonomy presented here to become obsolete or inadeq uate in a short time."[3] As with nearly all varieties of genre classification, the matter of any individual video game's specific genre is open to personal int erpretation. Moreover, it is important to be able to "think of each individual g ame as belonging to several genres at once."[1]

Action Main article: Action game An action game requires players to use quick reflexes, accuracy, and timing to o vercome obstacles. It is perhaps the most basic of gaming genres, and certainly one of the broadest. Action games tend to have gameplay with emphasis on combat. There are many subgenres of action games, such as fighting games and first-pers on shooters. The predecessor of all console game genres, a ball-and-paddle game was the first game implemented on a home console (Pong). Later renditions have included Break out, which was a driving influence behind the Apple II computer, and Arkanoid, a n arcade staple for many years. A version of Breakout called Block Buster was al so packaged with the first handheld console with swappable cartridges, the Micro vision. Beat 'em up and hack and slash games have an emphasis on one-on-many close quart ers combat, beating large numbers of computer-controlled enemies.[4][5] 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 han d-to-hand combat, and hack and slash games feature melee weaponry, particularly bladed weapons. Both genres feature little to no use of firearms or projectile c ombat. This genre became popular in 1987 with the release of Double Dragon, lead ing to a large number of similar games. The fighting style is usually simpler th an 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 th ree-dimensional areas, and melee combat co-existing with shooting and puzzle ele ments. Fighting games emphasize one-on-one combat between two characters, one of which may be computer controlled.[6][7] These games are usually played by linking toge

ther 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,[6] thou gh there are some exceptions such as the Super Smash Bros. series and Guilty Gea r Isuka, pitting up to four combatants in the fight at one time. This genre firs t appeared in 1976 with the release of Sega's Heavyweight Boxing and later becam e a phenomenon, particularly in the arcades, with the release of Street Fighter II. Maze games have a playing field which is entirely a maze, which players must nav igate. Quick thinking and fast reaction times are encouraged by the use of a tim er, monsters obstructing the player's way, or multiple players racing to the fin ish. The most famous game of this genre is Pac-Man. Pinball games are designed to replicate the look and feel of a real-life pinball table in virtual reality. Most pinball games feature the same gameplay style, w here the player controls a right and left flipper, and tries to make the ball hi t various parts of the playfield to gather up points. The control scheme in pinb all 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 auto matically fire the ball into the playfield, while others require the player to p ress a button to pull down the spring-loaded plug and fire the ball into the pla yfield. One significant way that video game pinball games can progress beyond pi nball table emulation is the inclusion of features impossible to incorporate in a real pinball table, such as multiple table layouts or direct ball control. Pin ball games have become more popular in recent years on handheld systems, as oppo sed to consoles.[citation needed] Platform games (platformers) are a subgenre of action game. These games involve traveling between platforms by jumping (very occasionally other means are substi tuted for jumping, like swinging or bouncing, but these are considered variation s on the same mechanic). Other traditional elements include running and climbing ladders and ledges. Platformers frequently borrow elements from other genres li ke fighting and shooting (such as the Castlevania series, which incorporates rol e-playing). They are most often associated with iconic cartoon mascots like Donk ey Kong, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, Megaman, Samus and Rayman, though platform g ames may have any theme. The term itself first came into use to describe any gam e in which the player traveled between platforms, and Space Panic, a 1980 arcade release, has been cited as the first platform game for featuring obstacles and gaps to jump over, making it a platformer by the modern sense of the term.[8] Pi tfall! can also be classified as an early platformer. Traditionally, platform ga mes were 2D, with players viewing the environment from a profile, "cutaway" pers pective. This could be done easily with sprites and was simple for early compute rs to handle. 3D computer graphics have opened these games up for movement in al l 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,[citation needed] such as a player shadow th at will always be cast straight down, tracking their location on the ground whil e the character is jumping. At their peak, platformers were the most popular gam es on the market.[9] The genre experienced a sharp decline, from 15% of total ma rket share in 1998 to 2% in 2002.[9] Although there are many 3D platform games, few have proven to have the universal appeal of their older games.[9] However, t his could merely be a result of a changing market and an increase in game variet y.[9] [edit] Shooter Main article: Shooter game

A shooter game focuses primarily on combat involving projectile weapons, such as guns and missiles. They can be divided into first-person and third-person shoot ers, depending on the camera perspective. Some first-person shooters use light g un technology. First-person shooter video games, commonly known as FPSs, emphasize shooting and combat from the perspective of the character controlled by the player. This per spective is meant to give the player the feeling of "being there", and allows th e player to focus on aiming. Most FPSs are very fast-paced and require quick ref lexes on high difficulty levels. The fast-paced and 3D elements required to crea te an effective looking FPS made the genre technologically unattainable for most consumer hardware systems until the early 1990s. Wolfenstein 3D was the first w idely 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 consum er-grade machines. Since the release of Doom, most FPS games now have a multi-pl ayer feature to allow competition between multiple players. Games such as Team F ortress, Halo, Killzone, Metroid Prime, Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty, and Tim eSplitters are in the ever-expanding first-person shooter genre. Massively multiplayer online first person shooter games (MMOFPS) are a genre of massively multiplayer online games that combines first-person shooter gameplay w ith a virtual world in which a large number of players may interact over the Int ernet. 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 batt le each other on the same server in an MMOFPS. 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.[10][11] [12] The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, following the development of li ght-sensing vacuum tubes. It wasn't long before the technology began appearing i n arcade shooting games, beginning with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite in 1936. These ea rly light gun games used small (usually moving) targets onto which a light-sensi ng 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" wa s scored. Modern screen-based light guns work on the opposite principlethe sensor is built into the gun itself, and the on-screen target(s) emit light rather tha n the gun. The first light gun of this type was used on the MIT Whirlwind comput er. Some "light gun" games actually use guns mounted on joysticks, giving the il lusion of using a light beam, but all control is transferred through the movemen t of the stick; notable examples of this include T2: The Arcade Game and Revolut ion X.[13] Project Starfighter, a shoot 'em up. A shoot 'em up (or shmup for short), or arcade shooter, is a genre of shooter ga me in which the player controls a character or vehicle (most often a spacecraft) and shoots large numbers of enemies, while dodging incoming projectiles. Games in this genre call for fast reactions and memorization of enemy patterns. The fi rst game of this type was Spacewar!, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961, for the amusement of the developers; it was later released as an arcade game. The genre became prolific with the release of Space Invaders in 1978 and this popularity continued as the genre evolved throughout the 1980s and 90s. Shoot 'em ups currently retain a niche appeal, particularly in Japan.[1 4] Tactical shooters are variations on the first- and third-person shooter genre, w hich focus on realism and emphasize tactical play such as planning and teamwork (for example, co-ordination and specialised roles). In single player modes, the player commands a squad of AI controlled characters in addition to their own; in multi-player modes, players must work in teams to win the game. Winning is like ly to be dependent on capturing an objective of some sort rather than gaining th

e most kills. A rail shooter is a sub-genre of the first-person shooter in which the player's navigation through the game environment is not under their explicit control. A r ail shooter restricts the player's interactions to the tactical objectives in ea ch scene, and progresses between scenes by moving the player's camera into speci fic positions along the game map. Third-person shooter video games, known as TPSs or 3PSs, emphasize shooting and combat from a camera perspective in which the player character is seen at a dist ance. This perspective gives the player a wider view of their surroundings as op posed to the limited viewpoint of first-person shooters. Furthermore, third-pers on shooters allow for more elaborate movement such as rolling or diving, as oppo sed to simple jumping and crouching common in FPS games. Greater interaction wit h the player's environment is often possible. The emphasis remains on shooting, however; these games lack the platforming and puzzle elements of action-adventur e shooting games. Some 3PSs have a function that allows you to switch to first-p erson in-game, such as in the "Star Wars Battlefront" and classic "Ratchet And C lank" series. Third person shooters have recently begun incorporating dedicated cover systems, an example of which would be Gears of War. Other genres of games have begun incorporating elements of third person shooters, such as the RPG Mass Effect. [edit] 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 lev erage (which is collected earlier), as well as many smaller obstacles almost con stantly in the way, that require elements of action games to overcome. Action-ad venture games tend to focus on exploration and usually involve item gathering, s imple 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 gen re. 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 t he 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 v ideo game consoles and the absence of typical adventure games, action-adventure games are often confusingly called "adventure games" by gamers. Stealth games are a somewhat recent sub-genre, sometimes referred to as "sneaker s" or "creepers" to contrast with the action-oriented "shooter" sub-genre. These games tend to emphasize subterfuge and precision strikes over the more overt ma yhem of shooters. Most have first- or third-person shooter elements. Survival horror games focus on fear and attempt to scare the player via traditio nal horror fiction elements such as atmospherics, death, the undead, blood and g ore. One crucial gameplay element in many of these games is the low quantity of ammunition, or number of breakable mle weapons. [edit] 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. Rat her, adventure describes a manner of gameplay without reflex challenges or actio

n. 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 consi dered a "purist" genre and tends to exclude anything which includes action eleme nts beyond a mini game. Because they put little pressure on the player in the form of action-based chall enges 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 p oint.[15] The simple point and click interface, detailed worlds and casual pace made it accessible, and its sense of artistic surrealism caused news outlets suc h as Wired Magazine, The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle to decla re that the gaming industry had matured.[16][17] 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, sur real environments and minimal or no dialogue, but these neither recaptured the s uccess of Myst nor of earlier personality-driven adventures.[citation needed] In the late 1990s the genre suffered a large drop in popularity, mass-market rel eases became rare, and many proclaimed the adventure game to be dead. More accur ately, it has become a niche genre. Adventure games are not entirely uncommon, b ut they tend to be very low budget in anticipation of modest sales. The genre wa s somewhat rejuvenated with the release of The Longest Journey in 1999, which em phasized 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.[18] Around this time, real-time 3D adventure games appeared. These included Nightfal l in 1998, realMyst in 2000, and Uru: Ages Beyond Myst in 2003. They augmented t raditional adventure gameplay with some of the attributes more commonly associat ed with action games. For example, freedom of motion and physics based behavior. None of these games permitted game entities to be wounded or killed, which dist inguishes them from action/adventure games such as the original Unreal and Tresp asser. The earliest adventure games were text adventures, also known as interactive fic tion. Games such as the popular Zork series of the late 1970s and early 1980s al lowed the player to use a keyboard to enter commands such as "get rope" or "go w est" while the computer describes what is happening. A great deal of programming went into parsing the player's text input. Mystery House for the Apple II was the first adventure game to use graphics in t he 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-cl ick" genre of adventure games, where the player would no longer have to type com mands. The player could, for example, click on a hand icon and then on a rope to pick up the rope.

bijuaru noberu?) is an adventure game featuring mostly sta A visual novel ( usually with anime-style art. As the name might suggest, they resemble mixed-me dia novels or tableau vivant stage plays. Many visual novels track statistics th at the player must build in order to advance the plot, and permit a variety of e ndings, allowing more dynamic reactions to the player's actions than a typical l inear adventure plot. Many visual novels are dating sims, including bishjo games. Visual novels are especially prevalent in Japan, where they make up nearly 70% of PC games released.[19] 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 n early non-existent prior to the success of the Nintendo DS, for which several Ja panese visual novels were released in the West, such as the Ace Attorney series. The interactive movie genre came about with the invention of laserdiscs. An inte ractive 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 mov e 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 t he later Tex Murphy games and the more recent Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy),[20] although they are more aptly classified as genre hybrids. Elements of interactiv e 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 p rompts for the player to react to. Not doing so usually results in the player ch aracter either getting hurt or outright killed. [edit] 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 cast the player in the role of one or more "adven turers" who specialize in specific skill sets (such as melee combat or casting m agic spells) while progressing through a predetermined storyline. Many involve m aneuvering these character(s) through an overworld, usually populated with monst ers, that allows access to more important game locations, such as towns, dungeon s, 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 stron gly 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 w ere 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 Ba ttle system; this was quickly followed by truly real-time role-playing games suc h 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 Gameboy Advance. Cultural differences in role-playing video games have caused RPGs to tend toward s two sets of characteristics sometimes referred to as Western and Eastern RPGs. The first often involves the player creating a character and a non-linear story line along which the player makes his own decisions. In the second type, the pla yer controls a party of predefined characters through a dramatically scripted li near storyline. There are described advantages to -and dedicated fans of- each s ystem, including fans of western RPGs in East Asia and eastern RPGs in Europe/No rth America. Due to RPG origins with Dungeons and Dragons and other pen and paper role-playin g games, the most popular setting for RPGs by far is a fantasy world, usually wi th heavy medieval European influences with Diablo series (by Blizzard), Final Fa ntasy series, Elder Scrolls series and Baldur's Gate series (all different kinds of RPGs) all sharing a basic fantasy setting. However exceptions do exist, with some more notable ones being the east Asian Jade Empire setting, and the scienc

e fiction settings of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect by Bioware. Th e Fallout series is set in a post-apocalyptic retro-futuristic America in which nuclear war destroyed a world in which culture had never advanced beyond that of the 1950s. Sandbox RPGs allow the player a huge amount of freedom and usually contain a som ewhat realistic free-roaming (meaning the player is not confined to a single pat h restricted by rocks or fences etc.) world. Sandbox RPGs are almost always west ern rather than eastern and contain similarities to other sandbox games such as the Grand Theft Auto series with a large number of interactable NPCs, large amou nt of content and typically some of the largest worlds to explore and longest pl aytimes of all RPGs due to an impressive amount of secondary content not critica l to the game's main storyline. Sandbox RPGs often attempt to emulate an entire region of their setting. Good examples of this small subgenre are Morrowind, Obl ivion and Fallout 3 by Bethesda and the Gothic series by Piranha Bytes. 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 act ion role-playing games were produced by Nihon Falcom in the 1980s, such as the D ragon 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 n on-combat attributes and statistics and the effect they have on the character's development.[21][dead link] 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 ma inly 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. 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 e xisted since 1978. By and large, MMORPGs feature the usual RPG objectives of com pleting quests and strengthening one's player character, but involve up to hundr eds of players interacting with each other on the same persistent world in realtime. The massively multiplayer concept was quickly combined with other genres. Fantasy MMORPGs like The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, remain the most popular type of MMOG, with the most popular "pay-to-play" game being World of Warcraft (by Blizzard), which holds over 60% of the MMORPG market, and the m ost popular free game being RuneScape (by Jagex), 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 th e most notable. Other massively multiplayer online games which do not have a con ventional RPG setting such as Second Life may still sometimes be classed as RPGs , or they may be more accurately described as MMOG's (discussed elsewhere in thi s article). The roguelike video game sub-genre borrows its name and gameplay elements from t he 1980 computer game Rogue. Superficially, a roguelike is a two-dimensional dun geon crawl with a high degree of randomness and an emphasis on statistical chara cter development. Though traditionally featuring a text user interface, many suc h games utilize graphic tiles to overcome character set limitations. The tactical role-playing game sub-genre principally refers to games which incor porate gameplay from strategy games as an alternative to traditional RPG systems .[22] Like standard RPGs, the player controls a finite party and battles a simil ar number of enemies, but this genre incorporates strategic gameplay such as tac tical movement on an isometric grid.[22] The genre has its origins in tabletop r ole-playing games, where each player has time to decide his or her character's a ction.

[edit] 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. [edit] 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, h ealth, spiritual care, economic growth, etc. Success is achieved when the city b udget makes a growing profit and citizens experience an upgraded lifestyle in ho using, health, and goods. While military development is often included, the emph asis is on economic strength. Perhaps the most known game of this type is SimCit y, which is still popular and has had great influence on later city-building gam es. SimCity, however, also belongs to the God Games genre since it gives the pla yer god-like abilities in manipulating the world. Caesar was a long running seri es 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 th e policies, government or politics of a country, but typically excludes warfare. Recently, these types of games have gained the moniker "serious game". [edit] Life simulation Main article: Life simulation game Life simulation games (or artificial life games) involve living or controlling o ne or more artificial lives. A life simulation game can revolve around individua ls and relationships, or it could be a simulation of an ecosystem. Biological simulations may allow the player to experiment with genetics, surviva l or ecosystems, often in the form of an educational package. An early example i s 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 gr eatest life simulation games, however, is Creatures, Creatures 2, Creatures 3, w here 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 su ch as Tamagotchi, the Petz series, and Nintendogs. Social simulation games base their gameplay on the social interaction between mu ltiple artificial lives. The most famous example from this genre is Will Wright' s The Sims. [edit] 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.[ 23] FlightGear is a flight simulation game. A flight simulation tasks the player with flying an aircraft, usually an airplan e, as realistically as possible. Combat flight simulators are the most popular s ub-genre of simulation. The player controls the plane, not only simulating the a ct of flying, but also combat situations. There are also civilian flight simulat ors that do not have the combat aspect. Racing games typically place the player in the driver's seat of a high-performan ce vehicle and require the player to race against other drivers or sometimes jus t time. This genre of games is one of the staples of the computer gaming world a nd 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 in to organized racing and imaginary racing categories". Organized racing simulator s 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 h and, imaginary racing games involve "imaginary situations, driving madly through cities or the countryside or even fantasy environments". These "imaginary" raci ng games are sometimes called arcade racing games, in contrast to their more rea listic "racing simulation" counterparts. Rollings and Adams note that "racing ga mes are often sold in the sports category," but "from a design standpoint, they really belong in ... vehicle simulations".[23] Space flight simulator games are a sub-genre that involve piloting a spacecraft. Space simulators are different from other sub-genres, and are not generally con sidered to be simulators, as their simulated objects do not always exist and oft en disregard the laws of physics. However, simulators of real spacecraft do exis t: Orbiter is one example. Train simulators simulate the vehicles, environments and often economics associa ted with railway transport. These are frequently historical in nature, reminisci ng on the evolution and emergence of the railroad in various countries and the e conomic booms that often accompanied them. Vehicular combat or car combat games focus on fast-paced action, as the player o perates a car or other vehicle and attempts to disable or destroy CPU or human o pponents. Vehicular combat games often allow a player to choose from a variety o f potential vehicles, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Vehicular co mbat was born out of racing/shooter combinations like Spy Hunter, RoadBlasters a nd Rock 'N' Roll Racing, but differs in that the players can, if desired, take t heir vehicles off predefined routes and do battle wherever they please. A sub-ge nre of vehicular combat is Mecha combat, where vehicles generally include giant robot-like tanks. [edit] Strategy Main article: Strategy video game Strategy video games focus on gameplay requiring careful and skillful thinking a nd planning in order to achieve victory. In most strategy video games, says Andr ew Rollings, "the player is given a godlike view of the game world, indirectly c ontrolling the units under his command."[23] Rollings also notes that "The origi n of strategy games is rooted in their close cousins, board games."[23] Strategy video games generally take one of four archetypal forms, depending on whether t he 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 selecti on game (multiple game characters can be selected at once to perform different t

asks, as opposed to only selecting one character at a time) with a sky view (vie w looking down from above) but some recent games such as Tom Clancy's EndWar, ar e single unit selection and third person view. Like many RPG games, many strateg y games are gradually moving away from turn based systems to more real-time syst ems. 4X refers to a genre of strategy video game with four primary goals: eXplore, eX pand, 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 gam es 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 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 develop ed; they can be considered an extension of the original uses of computers themse lves, which were once used for military-based calculations such as plotting the trajectories of rockets. Artillery games are a type of strategy game, though the y have also been described as a "shooting game." The moniker "real-time strategy" (RTS), usually applied only to certain computer strategy games, (however, this genre is probably the most well known of strateg y 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. R eal-time strategy gameplay is characterised by obtaining resources, building bas es, researching technologies and producing units. Probably the most popular RTS game is Blizzard's Starcraft, which is played competitively in South Korea and t elevised to large audiences. Other notable games include the Warcraft series, Ag e of Empires series, Dawn of War, Command and Conquer and Dune II (essentially t he first RTS game). Very few non-computer strategy games are real-time; A few ex amples are Icehouse, Battle for Middle-earth II and Halo Wars. A real-time tactics game shares feature of the simulation and wargame genres, fo r 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 re al-time strategy games, resource and economical management and building plays no part of the gameplay. These games often feature an overarching "campaign map" w ith 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 games have a very simple layout. Usually, computer-controlled mons ters 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 b uy more towers, or buy upgrades for a tower such as increased power or range. The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game.[24] The term "Turn-based strategy game" (TBS) is usually reserved for certain comput er strategy games, to distinguish them from real-time strategy games. A player o f 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 g ames which are not solely turn based games, and games which may contain other fe

atures not related to whether the game is turn based or not. 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 us ually by the provision of a realistic (or at least believable) representation of military tactics and operations. Wargames are a subgenre of strategy video games that emphasize strategic or tact ical warfare on a map. Wargames generally take one of four archetypal forms, dep ending on whether the game is turn-based or real-time and whether the game's foc us is upon military strategy or tactics. [edit] Other notable genres Frets on Fire is a music game. Music games most commonly challenge the player to follow sequences of movement o r develop specific rhythms. Some games require the player to input rhythms by st epping with their feet on a dance pad, or using a device similar to a specific m usical instrument, like a replica drum set. These games have changed the way pla yers' interact with their consoles by making the gaming experience more active a nd sociable, and paving the way for exergaming. Music video games have also infl uenced the music industry by significantly raising the number of legal downloads of songs.[25] Other games avoid rhythm-based gameplay and instead focus on pitc h-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 games are video games developed specifically for multiplayer games between many players. Normally, party games have a variety of mini-games that range bet ween 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. A programming game is a computer game where the player has no direct influence o n the course of the game. Instead, a computer program or script is written in so me domain-specific programming language in order to control the actions of the c haracters (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 programmi ng game, as the player creates the AI of his characters, although the player can also choose to directly control the action. Puzzle games require the player to solve logic puzzles or navigate complex locat ions such as mazes. This genre frequently crosses over with adventure and educat ional games. Some arcade games, in particular Tetris-variants, are often labeled puzzle games, despite the fact that gameplay depends on hand/eye coordination a nd quick reflexes, rather than thought and logic. Puzzle is a very inclusive gen re, and is often used as a general default for games not otherwise easily catego rized, especially those with abstract concepts. Before they became commonplace, music games were sometimes called puzzle games[citation needed], for example. 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 (suc h as Arch Rivals). One of the best selling series in this genre is the Madden NF L series. This genre emerged early in the history of video games (e.g., Pong) an d remains popular today. Trivia games are growing in popularity, especially on mobile phones where people may only have a few minutes to play the game. One common trivia game for Blackb

erry is MobileQs. 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 k nown as Reversi), and Backgammon have world class computer programs. Mah-jongg a nd 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. [edit] Video game genres by purpose While most video games are designed as entertainment, many video games are desig ned with additional purposes. These purposes are as varied as the nature of info rmation itselfto inform, persuade, or stimulate. These games can have any kind of gameplay, from puzzles to action to adventure. Adult video games, like adult movies or other media, are intended for an adult a udience. In general, the purpose of adult games is to provide erotic entertainme nt, rather than just gameplay. There exists a wide variety of adult games, thoug h many lack mainstream appeal and represent a niche category. The object of an a dult game may differ from a mainstream video game, in that the reward can be a v isual representation of nudity, partial nudity, or sexual activity rather than p oints, etc. Some games may focus on humor or drama rather than arousal, or simpl y have normal gameplay accompanied by nudity. Advergames, in the context of video game genres, refers to promotional software specifically made to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. The first a dvergames were distributed on floppy disk by the Chef Boyardee, Coca-Cola, and S amsung brands,[26] while the first cereal box advergame was Chex Quest in 1996.[ 27] The majority of advergames are found online and mostly include simple and ch eaply made Flash games. Art games are designed so as to emphasize art or whose structures are intended t o produce some kind of non-ludological reaction in its audience. Art games typic ally go out of their way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing o ut for aesthetic beauty or complexity in design. This concept extends to the rea lm of modified ("modded") gaming when modifications have been made to existing n on-art-games to produce graphic results intended to be viewed as an artistic dis play, as opposed to modifications intended to change game play scenarios or for storytelling. Modified games created for artistic purposes are sometimes referre d to as "videogame art." Casual games have very simple rules or play techniques and a very low degree of strategy.[28] They also require no long-term time commitment or special skills t o play, making them easy to learn and play as a pastime. There are comparatively low production and distribution costs for the producer.[29] Casual games typica lly 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 games attempt to provide the dual purposes of spreading the Christian religion to non-believers through the medium of video games, and providing gamer s who identify as Christian with a common pool of games that neither challenge t heir beliefs nor offend them. Christian video games were first developed by Wisd om Tree for the NES without license. While largely regarded as derivative titles by the mainstream gaming culture,[citation needed] Christian games have neverth eless expanded in distribution since their inception. 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;[citation needed] past the mid-teens, subjects be

come so complex (e.g. Calculus) that teaching via a game is impractical.[citatio n needed] Numerous sub-genres exist, in fields such as math or typing. Electronic Sports games are multiplayer games that are usually played competitiv ely at the professional level. These games are often targeted at the "hardcore" gaming audience, and are usually first-person shooter games, requiring twitch-ba sed reaction speed and coordination, or real-time strategy games, requiring high levels of strategic macro- and micromanagement. An exergame (portmanteau of "exercise" and "game") is a video game that provides exercise. "Exergames" sub-divide into two main implementations, those with a ga me 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 workou t. Serious games are intended to educate or train the player. These games tend to p romote "education, science, social change, health care or even the military."[30 ] Some of these games have no specific ending or goal in the game. Rather, the p layer 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 d istinct properties of games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_genres

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