What's your Top 3 Game Genre?

[WILL]

It seems these days that most games tend to fall into all too familiar gameplay mechanics. Remember the days when the hardware was much more limited and gameplay creativity was at a higher level than it seems to be now in commercial games?

Well thankfully "retro" or "classic" are the cool new catchphrases these days that are making commercial publishers consider older game genre from the big hits of the 80s and 90s. Added to that sites like Kickstarter are allowing indie developers to go back into those other genre that was said to be "dead" and are creating great projects to bring them back using today's new standards and operating systems.

What was your top 3 favorite game genre from back when until now?

I probably could have come up with more genres, however there is a limit of 10 poll options. :P

[Eric]

These days the genre isn't my criterion I play about everything, but the key factor is the length of the play "sessions", ie. 10-20 minutes sessions, preferably on a mobile platform (during transit). Game without ability to save at any time, or with fixed savepoints too far apart are no longer practical...

[de_jean_7777]

I also like space sims (like Freelancer) and flight sims (Flighgear, Ace Combat). I guess that would be the simulation genre. A lot of games these days also combine genres together, so a lot of games I like could not fit into a single genre (e.g. Mass Effect). One of the favorite things which I can't play on the PC is Gran Turismo, which is also a racing simulator. So I guess my top 3 genres would be first person shooters(or 3rd person), RPGs and simulation games, but I would not limit myself just to these.

[Super Vegeta]

I don't think there is really a favourite genre of mine, but judging on the amount of games played, I'd have to say simply "shooter" - be it first person (Serious Sam, Crysis 2), third person (Rune, Jedi Knight II) or side view (Iji, Soldat). Most of these games do not require much thinking, allowing to either plow effortlessly through hundreds of monsters or engage in quick skirmishes with small groups of enemies - a perfect way to just turn your brain off for a moment, forget about everything and get relieved of stress. Generally I'd even review "shooter" to "anything that provides some good action and allows you to kick some ass" - this would include e.g. space sims - Freespace 2 was simply glorious.

Second... RPGs, I think. Exploring the world (yep, I gotta say I'm attracted to sandboxes), developing character (create someone You cannot be in the real world! or someone You could be, if You only had more balls!), making choices, interacting, blah, blah, blah.

Third would be strategies. I've played more real-time than turn-based, but well, both subgenres have good and bad titles. As anything.

And as for X-COM, that game is pretty much immortal. I've downloaded it recently after seeing a fan-art of sorts - and whoa, once again I kinda disappeared from this world for a few days. :)

[SilverWarior]

I like decent simulation games. Unfortunatly many games nowadays have "Simulation" in their title but are far from being simulaton (poor reality). If I would have to name a few games I would say "King of the Road" aka. "HardTruck 2" for trucking simulation, "Live for Speed" for racing simulation, and "Flight Unlimited 3" for flying simulation.
I also like strategy games a lot. (Warcraft series, Settlers series, Sim City series, City XL, Outpost 2, etc.)
I do like squad based tactical games especialy SciFi themed (X-Com seires, UFO Extraterestial, UFO Alien Invasion - still in development).

Anywhay in games I value good gameplay (smoth controls, decent lenght, good replayability) over the state of the art graphics. Unfortunatly there are many games where developers spent a long time making superb graphics and in the end forget about the gameplay. Also if we talk about simulation games I demand for them to be as realistic as posible.

[Daikrys]

aww such a nice list then putting "Squad-based Combat" at the end :/
its turn based strategy and like real time strategy its a subcategory of the strategy genre
simulations go in one hand too, point and click counts under adventure games
you asked about "classic" genre just want to clear thinks up

since most games today are crossover titles its hard to pick but i think my fav keymechanics are RPGs, FPS (only multiplayer part) and Platformer :)
but i really play any game i get on my hands to analyze graphicstyle, coremechanics and so on

[vgo]

Turn-based strategy games (Panzer General, Civilization, Hearts of Iron) is my favorite genre.

[User137]

RPG: Skyrim, WoW, Startrek online...
RTS: Starcraft 2, Total Annihilation, Master of Orion 2
FPS: Hmm.. not many lately, but some good ones Quake 1&2, Unreal Tournament

Sometimes definition of FPS and RPG can get blurred a bit. Many RPG games are from first or 3rd person view.

[WILL]

I'm so sorry Space/Flight Sim(Wing Commander, Flight Simulator X), 4X(Civilization, Master of Magic) and Hack-n-Slash(Diablo, Dungeon Siege) categories. I had no more room. :(

Then there is other more recent ones (as in the last decade or so) like 3rd person platformers/shooters, user generated content/sandbox games(newest I believe), Party games, MMOs and so on. Since I had so little room for selections I decided to stick with the more classic game genres since there are many that have almost been forgotten by the industry these days. Makes me happy to see companies like Double Fine and 2 Player Productions willing to make new games in and older genre. Of course I always love seeing a new genre unfold with those titles that seem to defy what the industry is doing currently.

X-COM was awesome! I specially liked Jagged Alliance and am sorely disappointed that they didn't port the new one to the Mac or at least bring it to the consoles so I can play it. Bumber! :P

I find that I'm a little like Eric these days myself. I have a whole collection of PS3 games that I find I don't play much, but intend to fully someday soon. Some aren't even out of the package yet and I bought them when I got my machine a few x-mas' ago. lol

[SilverWarior]

aww such a nice list then putting "Squad-based Combat" at the end :/
its turn based strategy and like real time strategy its a subcategory of the strategy genre

Squad-based Combat doesn't necessary need to be turnbased but can also be realtime (take a look into X-Com 3 Apocalipse). Also Squad-based Combat is a mixture between strategy either turnbased or realtime and RPG. Members of your squad actualy evolve during the game, if they arent kiled obviously, they gain expirience, their stats improve etc. Actualy the mentioned fetures are core of any RPG styled game.

[Daikrys]

Squad-based Combat doesn't necessary need to be turnbased but can also be realtime (take a look into X-Com 3 Apocalipse). Also Squad-based Combat is a mixture between strategy either turnbased or realtime and RPG. Members of your squad actualy evolve during the game, if they arent kiled obviously, they gain expirience, their stats improve etc. Actualy the mentioned fetures are core of any RPG styled game.

but squad based combat is no "classic" genre its a crossover of strategie and most often roleplaying elements, but yeah since i think of fallout tactics it dont have to be turn based :)

EDIT: oh and Will you asked about "classic" genre so crossovers dont count ;)
and the Others... button leave enough freedom

basicly there wasnt a real FPS or TPS genre they where subgenre of the big "action" genre but i dont like the definition "action" better put shooter in a single genre cause there much subgenre in shooter themself :)

back in my studies there was a big discussion about classic genre and we kinda sort out a list we could live with

[code_glitch]

Hmm... Looks like some genres are beginning to pull away from the pack :)

And shouldn't that read medal of honor - not metal of honour?

[SilverWarior]

And shouldn't that read medal of honor - not metal of honour?

Yes it should. I fixed it now.

[WILL]

My bad, thanks SilverWarior! :) ...but then, how do you know I didn't mean a totally different game? ;)

It's funny, but the polls (right now) do seem to somewhat reflect what the current trend in commercial games are today. RTS on top, then FPS. RPG is third. Getting further down it's Economy 4th and Side-scrolling 5th while 6th is Point-and-Click. Some anomalies there, but for the most part what is strong today is still fairly strong from what we liked of the classics.

I do like seeing a few others in there doing well as the trendy stuff.

[SilverWarior]

It's funny, but the polls (right now) do seem to somewhat reflect what the current trend in commercial games are today. RTS on top, then FPS. RPG is third. Getting further down it's Economy 4th and Side-scrolling 5th while 6th is Point-and-Click. Some anomalies there, but for the most part what is strong today is still fairly strong from what we liked of the classics.

Offcourse it reflects the current trends becouse they are actualy the same for the past deckade. I belive the main reason for this is the fact that most game developers (indie or buig game developers) focus only on those games wich would alow them to earn as much money as fast as they can. But verry few tries to do something uniqe.
I personaly belive that something uniqe has much biger potential these day in all this flod of games wich mostly looks a like. Take a look at Minecraft for instance. It is omething uniqe at the market and it's is becoming more and more popular every day.
Also Minecraft is perfect examplle that good gameplay is more inportant than perfect graphics. But nowadays it seems that most comercial games stil just compete wich one would have best graphics. The result of this are sequels for once excelent games wich are basicly ruined today (take C&C for instance).

[SilverWarior]

My bad, thanks SilverWarior! :) ...but then, how do you know I didn't mean a totally different game? :-)

There is no game Meta of Honour or alteast google doesn't know about it. :-)

[WILL]

Offcourse it reflects the current trends becouse they are actualy the same for the past deckade. I belive the main reason for this is the fact that most game developers (indie or buig game developers) focus only on those games wich would alow them to earn as much money as fast as they can. But verry few tries to do something uniqe.
I personaly belive that something uniqe has much biger potential these day in all this flod of games wich mostly looks a like. Take a look at Minecraft for instance. It is omething uniqe at the market and it's is becoming more and more popular every day.
Also Minecraft is perfect examplle that good gameplay is more inportant than perfect graphics. But nowadays it seems that most comercial games stil just compete wich one would have best graphics. The result of this are sequels for once excelent games wich are basicly ruined today (take C&C for instance).

And that's kind of sad. I am however happy to see some of that turning around, but not so much in main-stream commercial game studios, but smaller and more indie developers. I love how people are embracing these pioneers of newer game play. While the big guys are trying to reuse their FPS and 3rd person action/adventure engines, indies are taking a piece of the gamer pie themselves by doing some new things. And they are doing well by it. Even old classics are making a comeback (some done right, some done not so right, but you can easily tell which is which)

I think many gamers crave new gameplay so they will be willing to spend on things like Notches pay for beta and get the full version free and the Humble Indie Bundles and even Kickstarter projects that look promising.

Some of the great things I've seen over the last bit: (not Pascal that I know of, but still)

FTL (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/64409699/ftl-faster-than-light) (it's been called a rouge-like / economy game, you run a ship with a crew and manage them and the parts, etc just like the TV show Firefly!)

You can still get in on the Kickstarter!


Double Fine Adventure (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66710809/double-fine-adventure?ref=live); old school Point-and-Click Adventure game (like they used to make - some big publisher screwing it up. backed by P&C fans! Rob Gilber involved!)

Sorry, this one ended, but it was successful! http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/images/pgdsmilies/happy.gif


Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition (http://wireless.ign.com/articles/122/1221334p1.html?utm_campaign=twposts&utm_source=twitter) for iPad & PC, BG2 will be released after (original + expansion + new content + "reforged" infinity engine + some of the original BG devs!)
And of course, I started playing Minecraft (http://www.minecraft.com/) myself! http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/images/pgdsmilies/laugh.gif



There is no game Meta of Honour or alteast google doesn't know about it. :-)

Well maybe there should be. http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/images/pgdsmilies/tease.gif Canadian HTML takes on the enemies of the free world... like SOPA! http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/images/pgdsmilies/surprise.gif




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM9Svihyyzc


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pSteVDn78s


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re_LWmRJK-g
cuz, this one is awesome to watch from a developer's point of view!

[SilverWarior]

How come I havent stumbled to FTL jet. It sems verry good.

[Ingemar]

When I thought about this, there are hardly any generally "good genres" in my world. A really good game is good in any genre. But I did miss a few in the list:

- Card/board games implemented on computer. (Chess, Bridge, Mah-Jong etc.)
- Small diversion games like the classic 2D games.
- Programmer's games. (PRobots, ChipWitz, Core Wars...)
- Turn-based strategy games. (I prefer them a lot over real-time ones which tend to be all about clicking the right commands fast enough).

[czar]

Ther appears to have been an oversight no Turn-based strategy

Civ, Warlords, Panzer General, Fanasy General, HOMM, Kings Bounty.

I am surprised RTS is so high as it has become a niche genre.

[Ingemar]

Ther appears to have been an oversight no Turn-based strategy

Civ, Warlords, Panzer General, Fanasy General, HOMM, Kings Bounty.

I am surprised RTS is so high as it has become a niche genre.
IMHO turn-based and real-time strategy overlaps and could be the same. Lord of the Realm, for example, has elements from both.