Hey there fellow (or perspective) gamers and geeks! I thought I would start helping out by giving some general info about gaming vocabulary and what to expect from a particular game. So, here goes.
First, I’ll list the main types of time-consuming console and computer games that most gamers swear by. These are the boyfriend’s time-suckers and hoarders of attention that a lot of girls hate but can be very addictive. I’ll spend more time later posting details about each type of game, too.
- First-person shooter – These games include Call of Duty, Halo, Star Wars Battlefront, and Battlefield. This is a type of game where the screen shows the perspective of the person you’re playing as – you see what your character sees. This usually includes whatever gun (or other weapon) you’re holding at the time. They’re called shooters because the usual point of the game is to kill people with whatever guns you’re holding, and there are usually a broad assortment to choose from. I’ll go more in-depth about these later.
- RPG – Also known as a Role-Play Game (not the weapon in the types of games in #1). These can sometimes be switched between first and third person, but not always. These types of games include Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and the Elder Scrolls games (like Oblivion and Skyrim). These are usually more fantasy or sci-fi oriented and have weapons like swords, bows, crossbows, etc. Thees types of games tell a story and usually have a custom character that the player can create (and that can be either gender). Then sometimes there are crossover-type games like Mass-Effect that are both roleplay and third-person shooter, or some mix of everything. These are sometimes called Action RPG’s.
- Third-person shooter – These are games in which you are shooting enemies with some type of weapon while the character you’re playing as is visible, such as Heretic 2, Brute Force, Infamous, GTA, and Max Payne.
- MMORPG – These are Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplay Games, like World of Warcraft and Runescape. These constantly have new material added to them and can destroy your life by giving you new ones to live in a virtual world, though their graphics aren’t the best. They can be customized and never run out of new material and questlines and often are money and time-suckers. Some are worse than others, with WoW being at the very top.
- RTS – These are Real Time Strategy games like Age of Empires, Command & Conquer, and Halo Wars. They include building up your forces from a God’s eye view to face enemy resistance.
- Minecraft is a weird outlier. It’s an open-world and sometimes multiplayer game of survival and infinite LEGOs and customizable graphics. People can spend hours and hours trying to build something or write songs – yes, it’s possible to write songs in Minecraft – and it can waste big chunks of life (chunks, ha ha…).
- Sports games. I honestly know nothing about them, but there are tons of them out there. They usually have to do with moving as a player in a team or switching between each player. Then there are racing games – they’re pretty self-explanatory. (The closest I’ve ever played to a sports game was a PS2 Quidditch World Cup game, and I’ve never gotten very far.)
Then there are all of the other games out there, for DS and consoles, computers and smartphones. Those usually aren’t much to worry about (unless you’re on a Guitar Hero binge for an entire day – it’s happened to me before). You never know, though – some people can spend an entire weekend straight playing Angry Birds.
Anyway, have fun and I hope this helps!
A Girl's Guide to a Gamer Guy: 