The Top Five Biggest Genres In Games
Games have certainly come a long way since the days of Pong and Pac-man. Over almost half a century of steady development and growing popularity, certain genres of games have stood out over time, becoming the standard labels that we commonly use today. While many games seek to push the envelope, and incorporate new or multiple genres, generally though, they will fall into one of the following.
- Action & Adventure
In any list or stats regarding games, at very top is usually always the action-adventure category. This actually represents a very wide and non-specific number of different games, but if “action and adventure” are central to its theme in any way, and it doesn’t have any significant aspects that would put it in another genre, this is generally where it will land up on the shelf.
Action-adventure games are typically also made for the more casual gamer that doesn’t want to invest hours of learning or trial and error, which suites a generally larger audience.
- Strategy
Like the old game of chess, strategy games have always had a solid fanbase in gaming. Wherever you look, the strategy genre is usually somewhere at the top of the list and has produced many of the most beloved and memorable games of all time. In fact, even games like blackjack available at ZAR Casino online are considered strategy games, so they have many different facets.
- Role Playing Games
Commonly known as RPGs for short, role-playing games may also incorporate various elements of other genres. They are generally defined though by playing as a developing a character, or group of them, in a lengthy non-linear storyline, and themes and game mechanics that often, though not always, harken back to the days of D&D fantasy role-playing games.
These days, massive multiplayer online RPGs (MMORPGs) are highly popular variation of the genre.
- Shooters
As mentioned, many games seek to have a mixture of genres, though it is the most prominent that usually puts it into a category. Likewise, a “shooter” refers to game that predominantly features shooting with guns, usually in a 3D environment, though technically it can also refer to old-school top-down 2D shooter games. Shooters are most often synonymous with the action genre, and can usually be found in both categories, though occasionally also in the RPG section.
- Simulation Games
Simulation games, or “sims” for short, are also another fairly broad genre, as many of the games made these days are technically a simulation of some type. It can include racing and sports games, air and space-flight simulators, as well as more simple and down-to-earth games involving farming or cooking. Some sim games, such as manager games, are almost purely information-based, allowing for a high level of complexity and entertainment at the cost of having little to no flashy CGI.
So Much To Enjoy
This can easily be split up into a much longer list of more specific genres and sub-genres. Most game stores generally do this, listing games in multiple categories at once. Generally, though, the above adequately describes the large majority of games that have helped to make the gaming industry the major success that it is today.