"Games for the gamer in you"
SIMULATION (SIMS)-
Sim is the shorter version of the word Simulation, and that's exactly what Sim games are. They simulate an experience that people either do in real life (or are unable to do in real life due to limitations) that creates a unique experience.
Examples: Harvest Moon, The Sims Games, The Tycoon Games, Spore
Strategy-
Strategy video games focus on gameplay requiring careful and skillful thinking and planning in order to achieve victory and the action scales from world domination to squad-based tactics.
Examples:Advance Wars, Steel Panthers, and Sid Meier's Civilization.
SURVIVAL HORROR-
Survival Horror is, relatively speaking, a newer genre with fluctuating demand in the game industry. The basis of a survival horror game is that the player has to face the unknown in an environment highly reminiscent of one might find in a horror movie. The player is often much weaker and handicapped compared to that which hunts them, and thus they must rely on their own ingenuity to make sure they don't die. Survival horror games often-times have complex and intricate plotlines, spun together with disturbing motifs.
Examples: Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill, Clock Tower, and Dead Space.
TPS-
Very much like the FPS genre, the Third Person Shooter genre trademarks itself with a third person perspective instead. These games can be straight shooters, but oftentimes cross-genre.
Examples: Ratchet & Clank and Mass Effect
Gamer's Glossary
This glossary was created for anyone who's just getting started in the world of gaming. It will give an explaination of each of the different genres and examples of each one. Today though most games include the elements of multiple genres together. So I hope this helps you understand the world a little more. Happy Gaming!
Genres
ACTION-
Perhaps the most basic of genres, Action is practically all encompassing, thus, it should be applied to games whose main focus is Action. Not to be confused with fighting or combat.
Examples: Devil May Cry and God of War.
ADVENTURE-
Another very basic genre, Adventure in it's purest form is a game that takes you on a journey with emphasis on locales and excitement and usually encourage freedom of exploration.
Examples: Full Throttle, Shadowgate, and King's Quest, Grand Theft Auto, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda.
ARCADE-
A broad term genre usually applying to older games. Arcade games are games that do not have an expansive storyline other than bare essentials, with simple but effective gameplay, where the main focus is to finish the game with the largest amount of points possible. Never the main genre, it simply implies what sort of game to expect. A game does not actually have to have been in the arcade to apply to this genre.
Examples: Bubble Bobble and Metal Slug are good examples of Arcade games.
FPS-
The First Person Shooter genre literally stands for a genre where the player views the game in first person and shoots enemies with an arsenal of guns and ranged weapons.
Examples: Wolfenstein, Doom, Goldeneye 64, The Bioshock Trilogy, Call of Duty, and Team Fortress 2.
MMO-
Stands for Massively Multiplayer Online. While most modern games are playable online, a MMO constitutes that online gameplay is the focus of the game, and that hundreds, thousands, even millions of users can interact with each other in a real-time space (theoretically).
Examples: World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, Everquest, Monster Hunter, and EVE Online.
PLATFORMER-
A platformer, at it's core, involves moving a character in a 2D or 3D environment to overcome impeding obstacles with physical movement, such as running and jumping over a cliff to a safe area on the other side. The most basic form of combat in platforming games are squashing or punching the enemy, though the earliest forms of platforming games had no attacking, just the ability to dodge. Platformers stem directly from the early arcade games like Donkey Kong.
Examples: Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Prince of Persia, Jak & Daxter, Psychonauts, and Little Big Planet.
PUZZLE-
A Puzzle game is a very basic genre. In it's most basic form, it is literally a game where you solve mind teasers, usually at a rapid pace (Tetris, Puzzle League, Warioware). However, the Puzzle genre is almost always incorporated into other genres, where the player must solve puzzles to progress in a larger environment (The Legend of Zelda, Metroid), especially in adventure games (Secret of Monkey Island, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Professor Layton).
RACING-
This genre simply implies that the main object of the game is to race a determined number of opponents to the finish. The most general differentiation in racing games is the one between racing simulations, which try to duplicate reality as accurately as possible both in terms of physics and in terms of the race track setting,
Examples: GT Legends, iRacing and rFactor
RYTHMN-
A genre of game where the player uses rhythmic timing to solve a fast paced puzzle. Often times put to the beat of music.
Examples: Rhythm Heaven, Guitar Hero, and Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan
RPG-
The Role Playing Game genre, or RPG for short, is a genre based around concepts from early tabletop adventures. Usually the player consciously uses the application of mathematics to make their main character/avatar stronger and able to act in battle more efficiently. RPGs can either be with a lone hero or with a party, whereupon the player has to manage the statistics of several characters instead.
Examples: Fallout, Breath of Fire Series, Dragon Quest, and Pokémon
SHOOT 'EM UP-
A shoot 'em up game is a game where the premise is simple: annihilate everything on screen with whatever arsenal at your disposal. Typically shoot 'em up games refer to games where the player is in a space-craft or airplane and are sent through a series of levels, attempting to destroy as much as possible while racking up a high score. These games are typically rife with patterned enemies, plenty of power-ups, and very tough gameplay. Sometimes these games will scroll horizontally or vertically.
Examples: R-Type, Gradius, and 1943