I play anything really as long as I like the gameplay. Old and new.
FPS: I never really was a fan of those. I played Doom for a bit but I tend to get lost and bored, because the environments look so samey and there is really nothing much to interact with. I played Far Cry Blood Dragon recently but I guess that doesn´t count because you only shoot robots there, but that was also very short and had an incredibly awesome soundtrack and look. But in general I don´t like the first person view as it´s never like in real life because you don´t have periphal vision. And I´m just to slow to see who attacks me from where in time to not be killed.
Survival Horror: I played the first Resident Evil when it came out and a little bit of the second and third one, I played Silent Hill 2 and 3 and Silent Hill 2 is one of my favourite games of all time. The atmosphere is absolutly mesmerizing and the story especially the near end twist is one of the best in gaming history. I´ll replay that one any day if I can collect the nerves that is. Though there it is also debatable if the things you kill really exist.
Sandbox: I´m a huge sucker for those. I play most of anything by Rockstar. The hugeness of those game is amazing. Red Dead Revolver was a bit to linear for my taste, but Bully is fine and I played almost all of the Grand Theft Auto Games, Vice City I played even multiple times (my favourite of them all) and GTA5 to 100 percent. Yes you can kill almost anybody there but it is not encouraged and gets old soon and at some point you only do it to let off steam when you got frustrated by the difficult main missions. Red Dead Redemption is another favourite of mine as it has one of the best stories and main characters of all times, and the ending gets me even a little watery eyed. Probably also easily the best game in the western genre, can´t wait for part 2. There is a reason those are all some of the best selling games of all time. They´re smart, they´re funny, the worlds are huge the possiblilities are near endless and there is so much stuff to be discovered. If you only know those from their early 2000nds media coverage you have no idea.
Railshooter: Never was a fan of those. I don´t think I played one full game.
Coop stuff like Counterstrike etc.: I get the appeal but when it comes to coop I´m really more into the classic sitting next to somebody on a couch style. I don´t get the whole teamspeak thing and stuff. Even if I currently had friends who played these things the time would just be too precious for a LAN party where everyone sits in his isolated booth and you should short commandos through your headphones.
Fighting Games: I´m more of a Street Fighter kind of guy Mortal Kombat is just too difficult for me.
RPGs: I´m currently playing Shadowrun Dragonfall and really enjoying it a lot. I guess you kill a lot of people there.
Murder Simulators: There is a 1986 game called “Chiller”. If people would really go for the violence and killing only this would be the most successful game of all times and would have a ton of sequels. It is not and it hadn´t. The violence is a selling and attracting factor. But it gets old real fast and the games that are popular are popular because they´re good games, because of strategical elements, cooperation, atmosphere, story etc etc. Chiller has none of all that, it only has senseless killing and nothing else. Almost everybody reacts the same way. with a mix of amazement and amusement. It´s a ridicilous thing and that´s the way people perceive it. It has no reedeming factors while every other of those so called “murder simulators” (which they aren´t) have the other games all have.
I also think everybody who critizises violent games should at least have tried to play some. Because watching somebody successfully murder a lot of people looks a lot different when you don´t know how easy your opponents can kick your ass. Everyone who tried games like this knows that most of them are really really difficult and you tend to focus on reactions and the overall gameplay so you´re happy when you successfully got through a level without dying a bunch of times. It really is a big difference.
Now I don´t think we need to bring about the thing with societies general fascination with violence. Don´t ask the kids consuming the media. Ask their parents. Ask those who happily march of to war bombing childrens hospitals, ask those who blow themselves up in the middle of a crowd. I´m sure they´ll answer.
Personally I can enjoy a good horror movie but I´m still disgusted when looking at holocaust documentary. I can gun down lots and lots of people in a game but I´ve never had a gun in my hand nor do I ever intend to. My chances of survival in an actual war would probably be very thin.
I really got off the track there, sorry.
