Is there actually any genre in which the games are "the same"?

I hear people say this about many genres (especially FPS, JRPGs, and racing games) and I can't think of a genre in which this is actually true. I find that every genre has a good variety of games that feel different from each other.

Would you guys argue there are any genres in which the games are the same?

Sports games.

(Action) RPGs, FPS and action adventures, sadly.

Uhm, what? Mechanically, maybe, though not always true.

i'd say moba, is most like what the Op is asking for.

Hmm, not that I can think of really. Even sub-genres tend to have variety these days.

I'd say that the stealth genre could use more variety, but that's more an issue of there just not being enough stealth games in general.

Yeah, that's probably the closest

Racing Sims

Every genre has differences, people are exaggerating most times. The closest genre this would be true for is sports games since they are all trying to copy from the same source, but even then there are small differences

Nail on the Head

GTA'esque sandboxes, most JRPGs, Tolken'esque derivative fantasy WRPGs, indie shovelware

MOBA. 's

It's essentially the same thing no matter which one you play..

SMITE is a bit different since it gives a 3rd person perspective... but that's it.

Mobile multiplayer strategy games>? 99% are reskins (and that's not overexagaration) of Clash of Clans.

FPS.

-Football
-Baseball
-Basketball
-Soccer
-Hockey
-Tennis
-Golf
-Boxing
-Mixed Martial Arts

The sports games pick is one of the stupidest picks in this thread, unless you want to get really specific and mention which sport.

Not at all. Lots of different types of FPS games: everything from linear setpiece driven stuff like called of Duty to open world FPS with RPG elements like Far Cry or Stalker. There's even a world of difference between Halo and Call of Duty.

There were a good few years where all the classic FPS died out and we had nothing but COD clones.

Luckily those days are behind us. Having a genre be nothing but clones, is a very bad thing for the industry.

I don't know, do visual novels do anything other than tell a story and offer different choices? Or would they even count for this?

Only thing I could think of.

@jg4xchamp: that was clearly the intention. Obviously baseball and basketball games arent the same.

Sports games?

I mean, mechanically, all soccer games are ultimately the same, all football games the same, and so on... I guess?

There are a lot of similarities in pretty much every game from same genre but they can be different at the same time. For Example in both Starcraft 2 and Company of Heroes (RTS), you build bases to create your army but both have different mission design.

In one you gather resources through minerals, in other you capture different points and connect them to your base to earn resources. There is difference is unit behavior too. Same goes for FPS. All FPS are about shooting enemies, but some are linear, others are sandbox, some require more tactics, while others are mindless fun.

Third person cover based shooters.

It's literally the most boring kind of gameplay, too. I was so pissed when they turned Tomb Raider into one. I was even more pissed when they turned Deus Ex into one. It's like developers treat that as the "default" style of gameplay. Throw in regenerating health and a 2 weapon limit and you've got yourself a recipe for boredom.

You go into a room full of chest high walls and plant your ass on one. You shoot at some of the bad guys, they shoot back, you duck behind cover once you've taken enough damage. You wait a few seconds for your health to regenerate before you jump out again, do some more damage, and then hide after taking some damage. You do this for the entire game. Occasionally the average enemy position will force you to relocate to another piece of cover or else you'll withstand a lethal DPS threshold. That's the entire game. It blows my mind that people find this fun. It's not exciting, it's not fast paced, it's not challenging, your brain isn't working whatsoever. You're just getting up, shooting, ducking, and occasionally relocating. Repeat for 10 hours and roll credits.

Agree with this. The core mechanic is the same as far as I know. I haven't played many MOBAs so don't take my word, but yeah this genre seems to have games that are essentially the same with different characters and environments, but the core aspects are the same (like dominating areas and such).

Item finds.

I think one of the attraction or rather preference to a MOBA is theme/setting..... For example.. SMITE uses mythological gods from different pantheons like greek,roman,mayan..etc.

The more refined a community has bothered (or is smart enough) to label a set of games into a Sub-genre for marketing/identification reasons, the more you'll find that such games are the same.

This is correct.

Words of someone who've played one MOBA and only heard about the others.

Maybe the Genre that the Telltale games fall in. I can't think of any games that differ in those types of games off the top of my head.

Mass Effect and Skyrim are both action RPGs, largely different.

The Legend of Zelda and Metal Gear Solid are both action-adventure games, could not be less similar.

Can't argue with the FPS part

Football manager is the same as FIFA :?

Unless you're talking about a specific sport, that's not true (maybe not even then, in some cases).

Yes, because Football Manager and FIFA are ultimately the same game.

@khoofia_pika: @blue_hazy_basic: Meant more like, FIFA is the same as PES (in broad strokes), Madden like Joe Montana like NCAA, and so on.

Visual novels. Even Sports games had different feels to them (like the difference between Madden NFL and NFL Blitz).

@GreySeal9: I love games...but I always find enough differences for every genre...

Although, I would say that lately the industry does feel a little too samey, but thank god for Nintendo this year.

@SolidTy: I need to buy three of those four Wii U games D:

Get on that shit, mang! :P

There is a misunderstanding. Not ALL the games of any genre feel the same, but there are A LOT of games that feel pretty similar in certain genres, more similar that they had to be.

You played Deus Ex (HR) like a 3rd person shooter? For me, it's a stealth game and I play it like a stealth game, without any shooting involved if not absolutely necessary. I agree that it has cover based shooter mechanics but the game is much more than just that. And it's definitely not a 3rd person game, at least not the last time I've played it... ;)

I should, I neglected the Wii U once I got Splatoon haha.

FPS and Racing

Haha...well, at least you have a decent reason, lol.

@LordCrash88: In that respect, I can understand

ooo I didn't even consider Visual Novels.

Racing games with the exception of Mario Kart

Unless you're REALLY into cars, I don't see how anyone can stomach driving around in circles for hours and hours.

Are we counting "Souls" as a genre?

Eh in the end it's still just shooting.

You could apply this same logic to any genre.

"Eh in the end it's still just jumping"

"Eh in the end it's still just racing"

"Eh in the end it's all just beating dudes up"

"Eh in the end it's all just grinding"

Not really a good argument to boil something down to one element while ignoring all the differences and all the other aspects/mechanics.

Not to mention that a game like Far Cry 3 has other activities that are not just shooting.

There are tons of racing games that are not just driving around in circles. Hell, even in racing sims, there are plenty of different track designs.

MOBA games

@LordCrash88 I agree, I play Deus Ex/Deus Ex HR as stealth games (with role playing elements, hybrid maybe) not as RPGs or FPSs.

@LJS9502_basic: Oh well racers aren't very different either. Sure you can argue minutia but at the end of the day those genres are pretty much similar.