Video games today are making significant strides in the entertainment industry. With over countless video game titles (and many more being available at sites like Theoldschoolgamevault.com), more people are getting into it. In the past, parents would often scold kids for playing too much video games. Today, some parents are actually encouraging their children to play these games. The reason for this trend is that video games often present their players with business options.
Just in the field of competition, teams and individual players have been making serious money with their winnings. Since 2011, Valve has been organizing its annual Dota 2 Tournament, dubbed as the International. Natus Vincere, a team from Ukraine, won the inaugural tourney, bringing in a total cash prize of $1,000,000.
Since then, the prize pool for The International tournament has significantly increased. Just this year, Team OG won a total of $15.6 million out of a staggering $34 million prize pool. Another game which also has a big prize pool is Fortnite. 2019 marks the first year of Fortnite’s annual tournament called Fortnite World Cup. It saw Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, a 16-year-old from Pennsylvania, United States, won $3 million by winning the match.
As you can see, video games are big money, and they’re here to stay. However, the genres of video games are many, and one might be confused as to what everyone else is playing. To give you an idea, here are some famous video game genres:
Fighting Games
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This video game genre is probably the most straightforward game to play out of all the genres on this list. In fighting games, two players are given a chance to choose a character. After selecting a character, they then enter a stage or arena and fight it out to see who survives the timer or who gets to end their opponent’s HP or Hit Points.
Don’t get it wrong, though, although fighting games are simple to understand; it takes tremendous skill to master a character’s move set. Not only that, some aspects of the games such as stage environment and character weaknesses make it even more complicated.
These games are also part of a growing eSports community, where tournaments with good prize money are held.
Fighting Games that often see competition are the Marvel VS Capcom series, Mortal Kombat series, and most notably, the Tekken Series. These games are so popular that the biennial sporting event SEA Games or Southeast Asian Games included video games such as Tekken 7 as one of their medal events.
FPS
FPS or First-Person shooters is also a well-known video game genre. In these games, the player is presented with a weapon and sees everything from a first-person perspective. These games are often presented with Military themes but do not exclusively rely on that theme. There are also FPS games that incorporate sci-fi elements in them.
The earliest LAN tournaments were, in fact, FPS shooters. Quake 3 was a popular sci-fi FPS in the early 2000s. Today, Counterstrike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends are famous among today’s gamers.
MOBA
MOBAs are arguably the most popular genre today. MOBA or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena is where a team of three or five players choose characters and battle it out with another team. Each character has unique traits and abilities, which can become an advantage or disadvantage for a team.
MOBAs are the most complicated genre because there are lots of factors that continually change the game is played. This genre can be attributed to Blizzard’s custom Starcraft Map, AOS, or Aeon of Strife. Since then, the map has spawned countless spinoffs, including one of the most popular games today: Dota.
DotA or Defense of the Ancients is a MOBA where each team needs to destroy the opposing team’s “Ancient” to win the game. Initially, DotA was a custom map that again came from a popular Blizzard game, Warcraft III. From there, Valve purchased the intellectual rights and proceeded to create DotA 2.
Valve’s “The International” is now a global annual event where teams from all over the world compete in DotA 2. The eSport event continues to have a considerable following where it can be seen from almost every country.
RPG
Role-Playing Games are also a popular video game genre mostly with adults and teens. In RPGs, the player takes control of a character. Players can then customize their characters however they want. In RPGs such as WoW or World of Warcraft, players can even choose their race.
RPGs have many varieties. The most famous is Open World, MMORPG(massively-multiplayer online), Live Action, and Tabletop RPGs. Renowned game titles in this genre are World of Warcraft, Ragnarok, Skyrim, The Witcher Series, and the most famous, the Final Fantasy series.
Battle Royale
Although Battle Royales are the newest video game genre, this genre is second in popularity to the MOBA. Battle Royales pit a solo player, a team of three, or a team of five against other players or teams. A single Battle Royale server can have over 30-50 teams with a total of 50-100 players at a time.
The objective of a Battle Royale is simple. Outlast the other players or teams, and you win. Most Battle Royales are often third-person shooters or first-person shooters. Famous Battle Royales are Fortnite, Apex Legends, PUBG(Player Unknown Battlegrounds), and RoS(Rules of Survival).
Takeaway
There are tons of choices when it comes to video game genres. There are Simulation Games, Building games such as Sim City, which is considered one of the best city building games, sports games, card games, etc.
The ones mentioned above are the most famous. Moneywise, tournaments such as The International and The Fortnite World Cup have the biggest prize pools. This is the reason why most people are now getting into games.
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