ResearchVideo Game Genres
Fiction novels have genres; one need only stroll through the bookstore to see the various categories such as mystery, science fiction, and drama. Movies have genres, and the video store has those little signs over the racks denoting comedy, suspense, and action. If you're familiar with one, you won't have much trouble sorting out the other. Video games have genres, too, and if you're shopping for a gamer on your gift list when you yourself aren't a gamer, you'll be mystified by the strange-sounding categories which don't fit into the terms of genres you're probably familiar with. Thus, a survival guide:
First-person Shooter games: example: Half-Life, Quake
Number one with a bullet, to use a cliche with all puns intended. Take a typical action-adventure movie like Aliens or Terminator. Now imagine seeing Terminator through Arnold Schwarzenegger's eyes, and what's more controlling his actions. That's a first-person shooter. Highly popular with the guys to say the least. The point (if it is at all possible to explain a mainly-male interest to women), is to immerse yourself in a dangerous situation without being in danger. A first-person shooter has immersive 3D sight and sound, and you're limited to the same range of abilities as a human. You have to pay attention to sight and sound and use some tactical strategy.
Role-Playing games: example: Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy
Role-Playing games are related to first-person shooters only in that you are living out a story; the difference being that you're playing out a role more like Bilbo Baggins than the Terminator. But the execution is entirely different; you are playing from an overhead "map" view, you have a much more relaxing pace, you have a ten-times deeper story-line, and what equipment you carry and spells and skills you have is the primary focus. Role-Playing games frequently have a Medieval or fantasy theme. Their history goes all the way back to before computer games even existed, when kids would sit over graph paper and 32-sided dice and little figures and say things like "Your warrior has taken damage of fifteen hit-points from the goblin; do you want to try casting a spell of banish monster?"
Sports games: example: Madden '07, Need for Speed
Self-explanatory. Nearly every sport from racing to boxing to volleyball to Olympic figure-skating has been replicated in a video game. With the exception of racing games, you probably should check first to see if your recipient already watches that sport on TV or plays it. A football game will not interest a non-football fan; a hockey fan will be disappointed in an NBA game, etc.
Simulation games: example: The Sims, Sim City
Almost exclusively the domain of Maxis, simulation games are a different breed. Actually more popular with women than men, simulation games are mostly about creativity. You may control anything from a single person to a whole city acting as mayor or a whole world acting as "god". The challenge is to build so that what you're building succeeds by the game's rules, but frequently the fun factor comes more from creating a knock-out house design for your Sim or an elaborate downtown amusement park for your city. Hugely popular with artistic types of every kind.
Combat Strategy games: example: Warcraft, Starcraft
As a role-playing game is to Dungeons and Dragons, thus is a combat strategy game to Risk. The idea is to be a general in charge of an army; manage your army's strategy better than your opponent's to win. That army can be anything from a collection of aliens in space to a band of savage natives on a jungle island. Frequently contains a simulator-genre element, as your first challenge is usually to build a suitable military force starting from scratch. Popular with the same kind of people who like board games like Chess and Stratego.