Genre Glossary: What the heck is an RPG?
Originally posted on Grrlgamer

There are many games out there, and they are very different. How do you pick and choose what you would like? Reading reviews and game boxes, you quickly realize there is a whole language they speak. There are a lot of clues there to help you, if you know the code.

Using categories to find games can often be confusing. Do you often find yourself looking for something in the wrong section of your local video store because you call the film a comedy, but they list it as a drama? Well, we have the same problem here. I don't agree with what they call a lot of these games, particularly in the more muddled categories like Action/Adventure. Not only that, but everywhere you look you will find it listed differently.

To make it even more unhelpful, many games actually contain pieces of many different genres. Halo, for example, switches throughout game play between a First Person Shooter, a driving game, a puzzle game and an RPG. Haven: Call of the King was a mish-mash of just about every platformer type there is out there, with some puzzle and shooter elements thrown in for fun.

Here are a few of the most commonly used genres and descriptions to help you on your way. I've listed them in alphabetical order.

Action/Adventure
This one is a catch all for anything they want to call it. If you go through the lists you will see everything from Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets to Gunvalkyrie listed. Lots of battle robots and vehicle combat. Often it is used in combination with one of the other descriptive words, like James Bond 007: NightFire, which is listed as an "Action Shooter", or Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, which some people list as an "Action Adventure".

Interesting examples of the genre:

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee (Amazing game, but too weird to try to describe.)
Battlestar Galactica (Adama as a young Viper-jockey protecting the 13 Colonies. It doesn't get much better.)
Robotech: Battlecry (Japanese Anime series called "Macross" in a robot combat game.)
Grabbed by the Ghoulies (A cutely creepy haunted house crawl.)

Arcade
All those old favorites that used to stand in the corner of your local 7-11 are coming back to haunt you. Not only that, but there are new ones, with that same style of short games with lots of splash and not a lot of story to speak of.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Marvel vs. Capcom (Your favorite Marvel superheroes duke it out with the best Capcom characters. Ever wanted to put Venom up against Ryu?)
Frogger (Frog-squashing fun.)
Pac Man World (Our rotund yellow hero makes the jump to three dimensions.)

Battle/Fighting
Just like it sounds. If it involves your character personally bashing another one, this is it. Lots of martial arts games. Will also often overlap with the sports games about boxing and wrestling. These games are often cited as being "too violent" and bad for kids. Watch the ratings on these.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Mortal Kombat (Been around forever. Notorious for blood and ruthlessness. Also has some of the best character development, though.)
Dead or Alive 3 (This one turned heads with its jiggling half-dressed female characters. Don't get me started....)
Pokemon Arena (Combat game between those cute little characters.)
Super Smash Bros (Mario and the Nintendo gang get a little harsh on each other. On the good side, you finally get to kick Kirby's fluffy little butt.)

Casino
Many card and casino games have now got electronic versions. From Solitaire to slots, you can find it. There are console versions, but there is a lot more PC/Mac stuff, with lots of stuff available on the web for free or nearly free.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Hoyle Card Games (These really are "according to Hoyle". Their poker game is great.)
Meggiesoft Pinochle (Interesting shareware. It whomped me when I tried the demo.)

Driving/Racing
If this puts you behind the wheel, it's a driving game. Usually this doesn't include spaceships or fighter planes (those usually are either Action/Adventure or sims). If it runs close to the ground it's in, though.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Starsky and Hutch (Race around and bust crime in that familiar orange Ford.)
Quantum Redshift (Racing hovercraft around fantastical tracks.)
Project Gotham (Realistic racing/driving game - nearly a sim.)
Arctic Thunder (Snowmachine racing w/ combat.)
Circus Maximus: Chariot Wars (Chariots. I'm not kidding. Chariots.)
Gran Turismo (Grand old man of car racing games - just gets better each new release.)

Music/Dancing
A small but growing collection of games are based off of music and dancing. Most of them require peripherals that must be bought to give them the best effect.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Brittney's Dance Beat (Auditioning to join her dance group for the stage. Don't get me started on this one again, either.)
Dance Dance Revolution (Match the rhythm and direction of the arrows streaming up the screen.)
Samba De Amigo (A set of maraca controllers lets you make great music.)
Parappa the Rapper (Rhythm is key to help Parappa cut his best grooves. Inane but addictive all the same.)

Online/Persistent Online
These are games that are played over a LAN or the Internet. This can be just about ANYTHING. The Internet is littered with game sites. "Online" Games usually only last for one session and are often electronic representation of simple real-world games, while persistent online games last over time, as you keep logging in and building the game. These are a whole universe of games unto themselves.

Interesting examples of the genre:
Online

MSN Zone (Bejeweled is highly addictive, as is Bespelled.)
Orsinal (Oddly pretty online games. I'm addicted to Hydrophobia - that's the cute little frog.)

Persistent Online

Everquest (They don't call it "Evercrack" for nothing.)
Earth and Beyond (Futuristic ships roaming the far reaches of the Universe.)
Dark Age of Camelot (Ogres and giants and trolls, oh my! Fantasy fare with an interesting real time twist.)
Star Wars Galaxies (For a Star Wars fan, this is incredibly cool.)

Party
Sort of a newcomer to the scene, party games are multi-player games designed to be played with groups of people. It can be just about every type, but it mostly focuses on quick turnover, and on discrete game sessions to make it easier to take turns.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Mario Party (Mario and his gang in a series of short arcade-style games.)
Fuzion Frenzy (Techno-looking arcade style mini games.)
Whacked (Gameshow style with an evil cartoonish twist.)
Gauntlet Legends: Dark Legacy (Warrior needs brain, badly. Dungeon-crawling fun for the whole gang!)
You Don't Know Jack (PC based quiz show style with a sarcastic attitude.)

Platform
If the game is mostly about getting from point A to point B, overcoming obstacles on the way, it is probably considered a platformer. There are all sorts of this type of game, for just about every taste. They aren't all kiddie games, but a lot of them are. These were often used to show of the ability of the hardware as a game system was released. They also showcased some of the most memorable characters and franchises in games.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Gex III: Enter the Gecko (If you can still get it, this 3D lizard is loads of fun on the PSOne.)
Mario Bros. (Mario, Super Mario Brothers, and more recently Luigi's Mansion.)
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (This odd little guy with no limbs saves his cartoon-y world, with a funky disco beat!)
Ratchet and Clank (An alien and his robot save their world. Gee! Never heard that plot before....)
Crash Bandicoot (A marsupial and a vaguely Native mask save their world from the evil Dr. Cortex.)
Sonic the Hedgehog (A fast blue hedgehog and a fox with two tails save their world from Dr. Robotnik. I think I'm seeing a trend here....)

Puzzle
Tetris. Myst. Q-bert. Puzzle solving has long been a component of games. Puzzle games are available for just about every platform, and in just about every form.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Tetris (We all played it. Those falling shapes have become stamped in our brains.)
Myst (Redefined puzzle games into the 3rd dimension. Still going strong with Riven and Myst III: Exile.)
Pandora's Box (PC-based collection of some of the most fiendishly fabulous graphically oriented puzzles ever assembled.)
The Neverhood (This entire game was done using stop-motion claymation. Cool to look at, and a very cool game, too. Hard to find, now a days.)

RPG
Stands for "Role Playing Game". These can fit a lot of categories, but the main feature that makes them an RPG is the concept of building up your character. Most games you start as the character, and then just go find better stuff to advance through the game; your person stays pretty much the same. RPG's are about working out your character and building his skills and abilities to make him a better whatever-he-is (usually with go-find-better-stuff parts, too). Lots of your typical Dungeons and Dragons types, but with some other interesting additions to leaven the mix.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (First person perspective and RPG combined.)
Neverwinter Nights (You are a well-armed personal shopper for half the realm, while saving the world. But so cool, somehow!)
Diablo II (You are evil and you do not match the carpet, so now you must go. Medieval extermination at its finest.)
Final Fantasy X (Arguably one of the best games ever made.)

Shooter (First Person and Third Person)
Bang! You're dead. Battle/Fighting games are hitting people; these are about shooting people. A "first person" shooter means that they made the game look like the player is the one holding the gun (Halo, for example). A "third person" means you are steering a guy around who is shooting things (Unreal, for example). Can be as over the top as Doom, or as exquisitely subtle as Deus Ex. If you have never played one of these and you aren't sure if you want to, ask the sales-clerk what "gibbed" means before you buy. If you can handle that, then go for it.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Unreal Championship (Gore flies. People-sashimi everywhere. Lots of splash in this futuristic run-and-gun.)
Halo (Lots of alien blood. Lots of cool futuristic military action too - I actually consider this one a platformer, but hey, this is what they called it.)
Quake (Still helping to define the genre.)

Sim (Economic, Flight, World, God)
A game that is trying to realistically simulate a real world situation is a simulation, or "sim" for short. The Sims is one type, Microsoft Flight Simulator is another.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Railroad Tycoon (Building and running your own railway line and driving your own trains.)
Casino Empire (This one is about owning and running your own Vegas casino.)
SimCity (This venerable franchise simulates city planning and development. The little Godzilla stomping through the original version is my favorite part.)
Steel Battalion (A simulator based on a $200 cockpit controller that looks like the dashboard of, well, a Mech (they call it a "vertical tank". Big geeky tingles on this one.)
Black and White (A sim that allows you to literally play a god, complete with adoring villagers and minions to do your bidding.)

Sports/Extreme Sports
For those who want to be a couch potato, but don't want to just sit on the sidelines. Just about every sport ever conceived by the heart of man has a game. An interesting thing to remember about the "real" sports ones is they often come out with a new one every year. And the X-games and the fantasy sports crowds are well represented.

Interesting examples of the genre:

GRANITE (A computer game about curling. Believe it or not.)
NHL Hitz (I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out!)
Madden 2002 Football (Now he doesn't have to wait until Sunday for his gridiron fix.)
SSX Tricky (Fantasy snowboard racing, fast and furious and over-the-top.)
Tony Hawk Pro Skater (Grind and trick your way through this one. Street courses, vert, whatever makes you tick.)

Strategy/Real Time Strategy
March your armies out to do battle. Large scale conflicts and diplomacy. Classic strategy is turn-based, like playing Chess or Risk. Real Time means you have to make your decisions and carry them out while the other side is doing their turns too. Not a lot of console games in this genre. The scale and control structures don't handle just having a controller very well - you need a keyboard.

Interesting examples of the genre:

Age of Empires (Build your civilization and march off to conquer the world.)
Sid Meier's Civilization (History and real time strategy combine.)
Alpha Centauri (A colony sent to Alpha Centauri fragments into warring states on an alien world. Can your faction survive?)
Masters of Orion (Take over and rule the galaxy against several other races.)

Online Games: Eight-bit madness is back

Trogdor: If you've never been to Homestarrunner and been exposed to Strongbad, well you're in for ... well, you're in for something. Among the treasures of silliness is their games section, which is full of such classics as "Awexome Cross" and "Strongbad Libs". This is where you find the legendary "Trogdor", who is Burninating the countryside and brings back fond memories of many classic games from our Commodore days.