Favorite and least favorite genres?

[Worst Username Ever]

So, video games have a lot of different genres. Which ones do you tend to like, and which ones do you prefer to stay away from?

One of my big favorites are platformer games, I just love this genre. Both 2D and 3D ones! I've just always loved them and this kind of gameplay. I play a lot of them, and as long as they're well-made, or at least decently made, I tend to enjoy them.

Another genre I've taken a huge liking to the past year are rhythm games! Especially the more "weird and wacky" style games that make no sense, preferably with original soundtracks (and the music is usually pretty nice in these games too!). Started with the Rhythm Heaven/Paradise series, then tried Elite Beat Agents and before I knew it I was importing obscure Japan-only titles. I'm not that much into Guitar Hero/Rock Band and similar though (they're ok, but not as fun as the other games)

As for genres I'm not into or just dislike:

- MMOs of all kinds, MMORPGs, MOBAs ect. I just can't get into them, and I also feel somewhat "dependent" on other people wanting to play the game with me at the same time (since I guess that's some of the experience?), when I want to be able to play a game whenever I want. Plus it feels like you have to play them a lot to get good, constantly keep playing? (Ok, some of it might not be 100% correct, or how it's like for all games, but that's the impression I get?) I don't want to be "tied" to the same game for months, I have to switch games quite often or I feel bored.
I guess I generally prefer singleplayer (though I do enjoy the occasional Mario Kart or Smash Bros with friends!) I also prefer to be able to "win" games, for the games to have an end (with a few exceptions like Animal Crossing) rather than using a lot of time at being great at this one specific game, I want to be good at many kinds of games. I guess "serious" competitive multiplayer in general isn't for me?
- "Realistic" racing games. I just have no fun with them, I don't really have any interest in racing or cars. However, I love games like Mario Kart, because they're more unrealistic.
-Most sports games, I don't like sports so a game about sports won't interest me either. One of the few exceptions is Punch-Out, and the non-seriousness and cartoony-ness helps a lot for that.
-FPS. I just don't enjoy the gameplay, plus a lot of the titles are just unappealing to me. I don't enjoy that many first-person games at all actually, I like to see my character.
-RTS: Never been my thing. Always paying attention everywhere and having to make strategies in limited time? No thanks... doing strategies are ok, but I need to take my time to think.

As for any other genres, I'm mostly neutral to the genre itself and it depends on the individual game. For example, I love Pokémon and the Mario & Luigi series, they're some of my favorite games, but the RPG genre by itself is just "decent" for me (I also prefer JRPGs to Western RPGs, in general) If it's not in the "disliked genres" list, I'll likely try it out if it seems fun/interesting.

So yeah. Your opinions on various genres?

 

[Murkrow]

I generally like any genre so long as the game is done well but beyond that, let me have a think.

I like action games, I don't mind if they're first or third person, or if they're shooters or beat-em ups or stabby-stabbys, so long as the gameplay's good and/or the story is interesting, I'll stick with it. I tend not to long multiplayer shooters but maybe that's because I'm unsocial and people can be mean.

I agree with you on realistic racing games. I love Mario Kart but racing games with realistic graphics and no weapons get me bored and I often end up having fun by driving backwards and crashing into the AI drivers. Bonus points if it's a motorcycle game and you can watch replays of crashes from whatever angle you want at whatever speed you want.

I'm not so much into games like Guitar Hero or DDR but I don't mind other games that run off of music like Beat Hazard and Audiosurf. I would like Elite Beat Agents if I weren't so bad at it (my DS's screen isn't configures right as well), there's also a free game like EBA called osu! but I'm awful at that too. Looking at the leaderboards for that game, I'm way too low considering how many plays I've played.

RPGs I'm mixed on. A lot of games I love are RPGs but at the same time, I find it difficult to get into new ones. I haven't played any Final Fantasy games for instance, I sort of want to but at the same time they don't appeal to me all that much.

Strategy games are pretty much dependent on who I'm playing with. Pokémon is fun single player but multiplayers I either win easily because they're using legionaries and spamming low accuracy high power moves, or I lose easily because they know what they're doing and I'm no good at team building. Age of Empires is fun against people who don't know what they're doing because it's a fair game against me, but against someone who does know what they're doing is like playing against an AI set to "normal" (i.e. super hard). Civilization is only fun if I have time victory turned off since I never have the highest score, but again it's only fun against people/AIs of the same skill as me.

I'm fond of some management games too like Roller Coaster Tycoon or Sim City. I'm probably awful compared with other people but they're still fun anyway.

Puzzle games are cool too! Not all of them are my kind of thing. I like physics puzzles and things like that. I don't much like timed puzzles since they can get frustrating.

Sandbox games and games like the Sims are really nice and can be addicting for a while but soon enough I get bored once I realise I have no imagination and I leave them be.

Platformers I'm not sure about. Standard ones are boring since we've seen it before. Just play the original Super Mario Bros! But anything beyond that needs some sort of gameplay mechanic that makes it different. The problem there is that it risks coming off as a gimmick rather than a mechanic.

 

[Karousever]

Ooh, I really like simulation games. Like the Sims, or any sort of Tycoon game. I don't know the attraction to it, I just really really like those.

I also quite enjoy RTS games. I don't have many, but I really like Starcraft II, Rise of Nations, and Supremacy 1914.

I like some FPS. Depends, usually. Hate CoD, love Battlefield, love TF2, hate Counter-Strike. It just really depends, I guess.

RPG...well I like JRPGs like Golden Sun and Dragon Quest. And then I really, really like Skyrim (my all-time favorite game). So yeah I guess I definitely like RPG games XD

Rhythm games, not so much my style. I enjoy the occasional one, but they don't interest me all that much.

I've never gotten into an MMO, but I probably could. As for a moba I play DotA 2 from time to time, but that's about it.

I can't really specifically think of any game genre I specifically dislike. I guess I'm not really all that fond of platformers, and a lot lot lot of old arcade-style games I don't really like either...or I do like, but barely. I don't know, really. I'm mixed on it.

 

[fresh fruit for Adol]

Platformers I'm not sure about. Standard ones are boring since we've seen it before. Just play the original Super Mario Bros! But anything beyond that needs some sort of gameplay mechanic that makes it different. The problem there is that it risks coming off as a gimmick rather than a mechanic.

play some Mega Man yo, every series manages to be completely different with lasting mechanics, bar the ZX games (though the draw to those was the exploration, i felt, rather than the fairly useless biometals and form copying)

anywho, i'll play nearly anything you put in front of me, and i'll find at least three things to be enjoyed from it guaranteed. but my favorites are always;

Platformers/Sidescrollers. absolutely love these, Mega Man X was my first game, and i love the challenge they can bring, and in the case of some, the exploration they provide (Metroid, post '97 Castlevanias, La-Mulana...)

RPGs. JRPGs in specific, because though they feed off of many tried and true tropes, more often than not their stories are very heartfelt and characters charming (like Grandia, Lunar, Tales, Star Ocean, etc), and provide a variety of means to develop/customize the characters in them. bonus points for having unique battle systems as well

Fighters. 2D fighters. i go nuts over them. i love a good game that requires plenty of thought, but i equally love skill based games as much, especially those that require you to constantly be on your toes and make split-second decisions and reactions in order to win. i can spend hours in a training mode practicing all sorts of scenarios and never get sick of it, and always be satisfied at the end of a match with a good opponent regardless of whether or not i lost, be it in a competitive environment or casual

FPS games i'm a bit iffy on; i couldn't care less for most modern realistic shooters, though there were a couple in recent years i enjoyed quite a big. i much prefer the old shooters of the 90s/early 00s, however. the games with hours, possibly days long campaign scenarios with levels of difficulty and great level design that would last more than two hours and never get old. things like Unreal, Quake, Turok, Perfect Dark, Serious Sam or what have you. and sometimes i just plain old like getting together with friends on a server to play Quake III or Unreal Tournament, because i love arena

Racing games i don't particularly care for. they just aren't that fun for me, mostly because they come off as too easy for me, but i like it when i go fast, which is exactly why i like F-Zero and Burnout so much. Burnout moreso because of crashing, and i love forcing my opponents to crash in Burnout 3, though F-Zero does have the advantage of some damn good stage design and hazards. though i do also enjoy Mario Kart and Sonic & All-Stars Racing when i'm with a group of friends and want some nice old competitive racing

 

[Storm Earth and Fire]

I am relatively open to genres, but I've got different tastes like anyone else.

Positive:
- FPS: I never strike people as a FPS person, but I do like the genre. My favorites are slower tactical shooters like Red Orchestra, Operation Flashpoint, or the Rainbow Six series, but I also love Unreal. Big fan of Battlefield, I feel like they always get it right, unlike the unfortunate decay of Call of Duty. TF2 is a great FPS, but I also appreciate how it managed to appeal to all sorts of people who normally wouldn't touch the genre. Counter-Strike was totally my jam back in the day.
- JRPGs: I feel like every decent JRPG is a massive experience. Whether the gameplay is deep or not-so-deep, doesn't matter what sort of style and ambiance it has, I know when I start up a JRPG, I am going to be sucked into a grand experience, because they put so much into characters, stories, settings, etc., that they always take me away.
- Western RPGs: Gotta give props to the usual suspect, the Elder Scrolls and Fallout, but there's also Arcanum, which is an old steampunk fantasy RPG that plays almost exactly like Fallout 1, and The Witcher.
- Rhythm games: I like Rock Band/Guitar Hero, DDR (and Stepmania on keyboard), as well as stuff like Audiosurf and Beat Hazard. I like to play Pop'n Music, but I don't like 80% of the music in that series. I like almost every Beatmania song I hear, but I am absolutely terrible at it. Watching my friends play osu! is absolutely terrifying. I'm pretty sure if you have the execution to play osu!, you will never have a problem with dexterity on the PC ever again.
- Racing games: I like all racing games, on both ends of the realism spectrum. There's actually not much more I can say, I really do enjoy the genre.
- Fighting games: I love fighting games, but my execution is still terrible so I don't do super well at them. I'm a fan of almost every 2D fighter. I like some 3D fighters too, mostly Dead or Alive and Soulcalibur.
- Other action games: I'll get into just about any of them. Third-person cover shooters, beat-'em-ups, action RPGs, what have you.
- Grand strategy: Love these games. I prefer them in real time, like Paradox Interactive games, but there are great turn based ones too, notably Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.
- Simulation: Mostly building and management sims like Rollercoaster/Railroad Tycoon, city builders, tank simulators, and The Sims.
- Shoot-'em-ups: These have to be extremely bad for me to not enjoy them, and part of me thinks that's because it's a difficult genre to mess up. Aero Fighters, the Strikers series, Deathsmiles, Einhander, and Twinkle Star Sprites are some of my favorites. Going into bullet hell difficulty my favorites are Ikaruga and Progear.

Neutral:
- RTS: I am usually really bad at them, so I don't play them too much. However, Warcraft III and StarCraft both have immensely fun custom maps. Like, that is pretty much 90% of my time spent on WarCraft III. Then again, it shouldn't surprise anyone considering it spawned entire genres of games.
- Sports: Pretty broad term here. I like boxing games, FIFA, Football Manager (835 hours clocked on 2012 according to Steam), wrestling games, and pretty much nothing else. Comes down to the sports I like, I suppose. Except wrestling, the games are a lot more fun than actual pro wrestling.
- Puzzle: Neutral because I've been pretty narrow here. I suck at puzzles normally. The ones I like are Portal (argued with someone who was convinced it's not a puzzle game once...), Puzzle Quest II, and the versus puzzle games like Twinkle Star Sprites (look it up if you're wondering why I listed it in two normally disparate genres), Bust-A-Move, and Puyo Pop.
- MMORPGs: How much fun these are is almost entirely dependent on how many people I know play the game. They're also a huge timesink, and I don't have so much time nowadays. I played WoW like everyone else. I also played the first Guild Wars. Beyond that, it's free-to-play stuff that varies greatly in quality. Phantasy Star Online 2 is a definite standout recently.

Negative:
- Platformers: I honestly find these boring if they are not Sonic the Hedgehog. I liked them when I was younger, but the only ones I still like are the Sonic games (the ones that don't suck, that is).
- MOBAs: I loved playing these when they were WarCraft III custom maps. They stopped being fun when they went mainstream, though. I tried to play Dota 2, but stopped after concluding that it is extremely boring.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

Favorite: JRPG, RTS, Adventure, Platform, MMO, Action, Fighter, Simulation

Dislike: First-Person Shooters, Horror, and whatever GTA falls under...