There are a great many different types of games around the world. By understanding the differences and similarities between the various types, it makes it easier for a person to choose the sort of game they would like to get involved with and to communicate with others about that game. Understanding game types also makes it easier to study them to find the game one is after.
Sports Games – Sports are the most physical type of game and in nearly every country around the world, at least one type of sport is a popular past time. Sports have spread around the globe from one country to the next, as well. Usually, a sport is a type of physical game that requires a specific location or area to play in and it also needs certain equipment that players must have in order to play. For example, baseball requires a field of a certain size, bats, balls and gloves for catching the ball. As baseball goes from the back yard variety played by school kids up to the professional level, it gets more complicated. This holds true with most sports. Popular sports have spectators who watch the game, and in situations where a league is involved there are generally fans of the different teams who play the games. The true definition of a sport is a physical contest that includes certain rules the players all agree on. This is why racing and gymnastics are not considered true ’sports’ since they are more of a contest than a game.
Tabletop Games – These are games that are played atop a table, of course, but more generally speaking this means games that are played indoors in a confined area. Generally, tabletop games will include a mat or board across which different pieces are moved. Games such as bingo, monopoly, poker or even Dungeons & Dragons qualify as tabletop games because they are played in this type of setting. Usually, with the exception of games like Solitaire, the games are for at least 2 people and often designed for small groups as is the case with party games. Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley are famous designers of board games like Risk, Life, Monopoly and various classic games which are fine examples of tabletop games. The games often come with supplies to play them with such as rule books, game pieces and dice.
Video Games – This game type is any game that involves a computer processor controlling the game play. The processor handles the math to set the challenges, display the player’s activities to the screen and also simulate randomness in a mathematical way. Video games are often involve specific controllers such as joysticks, gaming pads, a mouse, trackball or a remote control with a gyroscope in it such as the Nintendo Wii offers. The goal of a video game is to simulate other human opponents the player might otherwise be up against, but there are also multi player games that allow more than one human to play against each other or cooperatively. Video games can be played on an arcade machine, a personal home computer such as a PC or Mac, on mobile phones, in specialized devices built for one specific game, on handheld gaming systems and on consoles such as the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3.
Role Playing Games – These types of games can be played either in electronic format such as on a computer or video game console, some of them even being online like World of Warcraft, or they can be played as a tabletop game like White Wolf or Shadowrun. Abbreviated as RPG, these games involve taking on the role of a character in the game and controlling the choices of the character while working with their strengths and weaknesses.
Simulation Games – Games of this type are essentially extensions of childhood games where children pretend being in adult roles such as nursing, warfare or hunting. Today these games are primarily electronic in nature and cover a variety of different imaginary situations that the computer attempts to recreate as a form of virtual reality.
