Favorite Game Genres?

In the video game world there are many different types of game genre. I am going go over the different types of game genres and get into which genres I personally like to play.

Ok we will start off with my personal favorite and that is the sports genre. These games consist of individual and team sports. The reason I love this genre is because I love sports and I really like to apply my sports knowledge to my game play. Also some of the people I look up to are sports players and I like to use them when I play. My personal favorite sports game is NHL 13 because hockey is my favorite sport and I love to use my favorite player, Alexander Ovechkin.

I also enjoy playing fighting games, as it was probably the most played genre for me growing up. In this type of game you usually control an avatar and engage in close combat. The first fighting game that I played was Street Fighters way back on the Sega Genesis. I really enjoyed playing this game with my cousins or just the computer players.

My next favorite genre is Driving, in this genre you have to race or maneuver a vehicle. I think the big reason I like to play these games is because I like to drive fast and love cars in real life. So this type of game gives me a chance to experience having an awesome car or going fast without having to go out and speed down central entrance. My personal favorite driving game growing up was “Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition” where I got to make many cool customizations to my cars. These last three are the big games genres that I like and have the most experience in but I’m going to discuss some of the other game genres that are out there.

Simulation

This game genre is focused around real world events. This could be like a MS flight simulation or with the right equipment a real driving experience.  I do not have much experience in this game genre besides the flight simulation I did back in my 7^th grade tech class.

Strategy

Focuses on acquisition or utilization of resources to achieve goals. The medieval games would show this because you have to strategically manage combat. I personally never got way into these types of games although I have played some.

Shooting

This is a genre where you have an avatar and one or more weapons and many enemies. This type of game have been appealing to me but the reason I am not into it now is because I do not have an Xbox 360 or a PS3 so I cant play games like Call of Duty the popular one and when I do play its with friends and I just lose every time and that’s not appealing to me.

Action Adventure

In this game genre there is usually an antagonist and a protagonist that you usually control through some sort of adventure or storyline. I do have some experience in this type of game but it is not it definitely does not crack my top three favorites.

MMORPGs

This genre of game has a large number of players that interact in a virtual world. A big example of this would be World Of Warcraft (WOW). This genre of game I do not have any experience in, I might be interested in trying it but I wouldn’t lose sleep if I never did.

There are also a variety of other game genres as we discussed in video game entertainment class some of which it is hard to put a label on like Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero is put under the category of rhythm/music and this makes sense to me but there can be an argument that it could fall under simulation as you are in a sense simulating guitar play.

So why do why love the genres we do? I personally think it goes into the living vicariously through video games because it gives us a chance to play something we love (sports for me) though using the best players in the world.

Reference:

Downs , Edward . "Game Genres." COMM 3560: Video Game Entertainment. University of Minnesota Duluth. Power Point , Duluth . 2 May 2013. Class lecture.