Video games can be put into dozens of categories depending on the audience and game experience that they bring to their players. Some games capitalize on a particular category while others mix several ones within their programming, giving a far overall dynamic experience to players. The following are some of the dominant video game families in the market today:

  • Role-Playing Games – commonly known as RPGs, these genre of games cater to players that are familiar with tabletop gaming – that is, taking on the role of a hero character that is destined to save the world or make a difference in the game. Fighting monsters, using magic spells, wielding epic weapons, these are but a few notable features that RPGs provide to players. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series comes to mind when RPGs are often discussed.
  • Action / Strategy Games – usually catered towards the more active gamers, these games tend to involve a lot of character movement and reflex in themes ranging from military-scale theaters of war to covert espionage missions that test player wits and strategy-building. The Command and Conquer series or Blizzard’s Starcraft falls under this family of games.
  • Sports Games – players acquainted with various sports find themselves even better acquainted with this family of games. Mimicking famous sports such as basketball, football, baseball, or hockey, sports junkies of all interests find themselves immediately at home within NBA Live’s environment or FIFA’s stadiums.
  • MMORPGs – a specialized family of RPGs, MMO’s work almost within the same principles and bounds as that of traditional RPGs, but take the gaming experience even further through its Massively-Multiplayer Online experience. It breaks traditional gaming limits by allowing hundreds to millions of players to come together in a single game world and work together to reach the game’s goal. MMO’s such as Ragnarok Online pioneered online gaming, and the ever-famous World of Warcraft continues to dominate most of the online gaming market today.
  • Driving Games – junkies with cars squeal with adrenaline-infused delight in playing this family of games. Putting yourself in the driver’s seat within a game environment, usually with its own specialized hardware to go with it, gives players an exhilarating experience of actually participating in the epic-scale races that can only be seen in TV or in the professional racing environment. Need for Speed justifies its title in this genre very well, giving its players the much coveted need for speed indeed.
  • Simulation Games – sometimes referred to as ‘open-ended’ games, these games attach themselves quickly to a player’s imagination, giving him free rein towards shaping the game world or aspects of it usually without the fulfillment of objectives or missions and not constrained by gaming restrictions. Players are free to do anything and everything within the game and in most cases, play God with the game world itself. This family has been notorious for many a voicemail missed or a dinner meal burnt because of its highly engaging and addictive experience. Notable games here are the Sims franchise of games.

There are a lot of games that exist on the market, but can you tell which family you belong into?