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The Online Mom provides internet technology advice and information to help parents protect their kids, encourage responsible behavior and safely harness the power of technology in the new digital world. Social networking, photo sharing, video games, IM & texting, internet security, cyberbullying, educational resources, the latest on tech hardware, gadgets and software for kids 3-8, tweens and teens, and more.
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Genres
Like books and movies, games come in genres: just as a reader might like mysteries, so a gamer might
prefer "role playing" games. On this page, we offer a quick overview of today's most popular videogame
genres. Understanding what genres your kids like can help you choose which games to get them.
Along with the ESRB ratings system we discuss elsewhere, it
can also help you supervise your kids' game play. (And it's not only about your kids: knowing the available
genres can also help you pick the games you're most likely to enjoy.)
First Person Shooter (FPS). In these fast-paced games, you act as a combatant in a war or other
battle, aiming and shooting your adversaries, either human or alien. These games demand speedy
reflexes, not to mention powerful hardware; they're also among the most popular. If you widen
the category just a bit, you'll include other "action" games, such as
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell,
in which the player acts as an agent infiltrating a camp of terrorists to prevent a planned attack.
Examples:
Call of Duty 4,
Halo 3,
Half-Life 2,
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
Role Playing Games (RPG). In these games, participants act as fictional characters in running
stories within worlds that contain their own consistent rules and guidelines. These games can
continue indefinitely, and allow for extensive improvisation, collaboration, and socialization
amongst players. Some of them incorporate more action elements; for example, in
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance,
the participants act as Marvel superheroes fighting to prevent Dr. Doom and his evil crew from
conquering the Earth. The RPG genre includes many of today's most popular massively multiplayer online
games, such as
World of Warcraft and
Everquest.
Examples:
Final Fantasy XI,
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic,
World of Warcraft.
Sports Games. In these games, you either pretend to play a sport, or pretend to lead a team in playing a
sport. There are games for virtually every major sport, from baseball and football to basketball and
soccer, as well as many less prominent sports, such as table tennis and bowling. One subgenre of sports
games is racing simulations, such as
Need for Speed.
With the advent of the Nintendo Wii, game play can
even involve physical movements resembling those you'd be using if you were playing the "actual" sport.
Examples:
Madden NFL 2009,
Nintendo Wii Sports.
Simulation Games. These games attempt to simulate an environment, a process (such as city building or
flying an airplane), or even life and social interactions among people. For example, in
The Sims,
you simulate the daily life of a suburban family – doing everything from eating and sleeping to paying bills
and building careers. Examples: The Sims,
Microsoft Flight Simulator X.
Strategy Games. In these games, the player's careful planning and decision-making make the difference
between victory and defeat. For example, you might be placed in charge of an army involved in a war;
or you might be an Emperor seeking to build your empire. Examples:
Command and Conquer,
Civilization,
Age of Empires.
Fighting Games. These are the games that look like TV wrestling on steroids. (Or is that redundant?)
You battle other characters, often in hand-to-hand combat. You won't be surprised to hear that some of
these games are incredibly violent. Examples:
Tekken,
WWE Smackdown.
There are other genres. For example, there are PC-based videogame translations of old-fashioned board
games like Scrabble and puzzle games like Tetris; music and dancing games like Dance Dance Revolution
and Guitar Hero; and old-fashioned "platformers" like the old Donkey Kong and Sonic the Hedgehog games,
in which gameplay is based on jumping, swinging, bouncing, or climbing between platforms. And, of
course, quite a few games straddle genres, borrowing elements from two or more of them.
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