Your Top 5 Favorite Genres?

[F0X]

Thread title says it all. Name your top five genres, then tell us why you love them.

I'll kick it off.

5. Shooters
Representative Titles: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PlanetSide 2, Payday 2
Not Relevant to My Interests: Call of Duty, Gears of War, Shmups, and really almost anything not native to PC.

I have a thing for PC shooters. I've never been 100% comfortable with dual analog controls, regardless of aim assist, and the only console FPS control setup I adore is Metroid Prime's controversial lock-on variety. Never mind the fact that Prime is a hybrid title.

In the past year, I've spent 100 hours on PlanetSide 2, the best F2P game I've yet to play, 500 hours on Garry's Mod (which in a sense is based on Counter-Strike), and a few more highly competitive games like Tribes: Ascend and Payday. It appears that I like two varities of shooters in particular: the unique ones that don't fall into traditional game modes (Garry's Mod is often like this), and the large-scale ones with factions, squads, and lots of people who are more nerdy than me. PC gaming is quite the diverse landscape.

4. Adventure
Representative Titles: The Walking Dead, Ace Attorney, Zach and Wiki, Virtue's Last Reward, The Stanley Parable
Not Relevant to My Interests: Myst, King's Quest, Heavy Rain, Dear Esther, L.A. Noire

The adventure genre is a strange beast, as it's usually defined by it's focus on narrative. Gameplay-wise, adventure games traditionally involve exploration to some degree, and puzzle-solving. But if I'm to assume Wikipedia definition, some types of adventure games may not have elements beyond exploration. Dear Esther and Proteus comes to mind, with no real interactions I can think of, whereas Thirty Flights of Loving and The Stanley Parable have at least a few token activities.

But, with the exception of the two aforementioned oddities, gameplay doesn't usually matter to me when playing an adventure game. I look for narratives that appeal to me, and put up with some less-than-great gameplay if I think it's worth it (or, in Zach and Wiki's case, because the puzzles were fun for a change). The Walking Dead is a prime example, but I'd say the visual novel-like VLR is an even stronger one. If it falls under what I want from a good narrative, I'll probably like it.

3. Strategy
Representative Titles: Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, XCOM, Civilization, Age of Empires, Total War, Sins of a Solar Empire
Not Relevant to My Interests: MOBAs, Starcraft
 
I love strategy games. Mostly turn-based ones, but a few real-time franchises have caught my attention because of the historical aspect. A great strategy game has unspeakable depth and plenty of room for personalized, customized playstyles, and if built for multiplayer, it must be balanced fairly. I've spent hundreds of hours in micromanagement menus, and I love seeing my preperations pay off. It's such a great feeling.

2. RPGs
Representative Titles: A lot of them.
Not Relevant to My Interests: A lot of them.

Eastern or Western? I say both. I'll gladly explore the unusual sights of Xenoblade, then craft a ridiculously powerful spell in Morrowind. I'll happily face Kefka in FFVI, then bask in Kingdoms of Alamur's art style, a mix of cartoon and reality that only I can seem to appreciate for some reason. Sure, you'll hear me say that JRPGs have actually been far ahead of Western-developed ones in various ways most don't even realize, but that's because it's true. And regardless, I give the great 90's PC RPGs a ton of credit for refining an even more tradtional style of RPG, without being too archaic.

RPGs are diverse. I may enjoy one RPG for completely different reasons from another, and that's amazing. For most genres and sub-genres, I can pinpoint exactly what I want from them. But RPGs? I'm constantly surprised at what I find myself enjoying. There's so much untapped potential that I can't wrap my head around. Incredible.

1. Action/Adventure
Representative Titles: Metroid, Zelda, Batman, Prince of Persia, Okami
Not Relevant to My Interests: Assassin's Creed, not much else

Unlike RPGs, I have a very well-developed (and complex) personal idea of what makes an action/adventure game, and what makes me love the genre so much. For one, according to my own definition, an action/adventure game focuses on at least two of three elements: combat, puzzles, and exploration. All three need to exist on some level, but only two need to be emphasized.

As such, I define four subsets of action/adventure games and have detailed expectaions of each. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is typically focused on combat and puzzle/platforming, and some exploration is involved. Ocarina of Time balances all three rather well in my mind, so perhaps it's status as one of gaming's greatest games makes total sense. Regardless, I prefer Metroid above all. It's focused on action and exploration, but navigation itself can be a puzzle. A puzzle which extends well beyond mere platforming. A maze-like level design puzzle, to be more exact. And it's God's gift to speedrunners, becauses repeated playthrough become about getting through the maze a bit faster than before.

Surprisingly, some games typically classified as action/adventures don't fit my definition. Not a problem. On these forums, I make a point of assuming Wikipedia definition, as some sort of way to keep things rational. You're safe, Uncharted (and possibly the only console TPS I can stand).

About Platformers:

You may find a distinct lack of platformers on my list, but that may have to do with my own personal classifications. There's aren't many "pure" platformers I like, as most of my favorites fall into the action/platformer or puzzle/platformer classification (personally). If combat is prevalent, then action. If puzzles are prevalent, then... you know. I tend to treat platforming as a singular mechanic, not a genre. But if I really were to define a unified platformer genre, it would be #4 on the list.