Gaming Genres That Defined The 2000s

Gaming Genres That Defined The 2000s

• World of Warcraft made MMOs mainstream, and while others tried, they failed to steal the crown due to Blizzard’s dominance.
• Guitar Hero popularized rhythm games in the West, shifting focus to plastic instruments and social play.
• MOBAs emerged from Warcraft 3 mods, paving the way for games like League of Legends.

After making their first forays into true 3D, the era of experimentation seen in ’90s video games gave way to the suited-up, polished, HD-ready 2000s. Console developers began mastering and refining the work that had started in the 32- and 64-bit era, weening themselves off simple collect-a-thons and platformers and moving into more mature and realistic territories. Meanwhile, while PC games had seen a surge in the decade prior, gamers broadly turned away from all but a few mouse and keyboard classics.

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The 2000s was a time when video games were beginning to be taken more seriously in the cultural realm, before AAA publishers began heaping unfathomably risky amounts of capital on their investments, and before the indie scene made it to the big-time. While video games had its share of controversies in the 2000s, this was a time when games opened players up to social play (both in person and online), became more artful and thought-provoking in design, and cultivated a wider public appeal.

Massively Multiplayer Online Games

World Of Warcraft And The Would-Be-WoW Killers

• MMOs had been popular the decade prior, but World of Warcraft made the genre go mainstream
• Although other contenders sought to break into the market, none were quite as successful as Blizzard’s titan

The 2000s saw a rise in console popularity, but one genre of video games stood fast on the PC platform: massively multiplayer online role-playing games, and one, in particular, stood above the rest: World of Warcraft. While local multiplayer was a big hit in just about every teen’s bedroom thanks to stellar PVP shooters like Halo, hundreds of thousands of WoW players were tearing it up in the realm of Azeroth, while stepdads everywhere were undoubtedly tearing their hair out or tearing up credit cards and wondering what on Earth a six-month subscription to a company called “Blizzard” could be.

Games like Ultima Online, RuneScape, Asheron’s Call, and EverQuest built the stage for a willing MMORPG audience, but WoW truly captivated it. Hanging out with online friends in guilds and exploring the entirely loading-screen-free continents would take up entire weekends and vacations-worth of time. Of course, there were plenty of challengers to WoW’s supremacy, including Guild Wars, Warhammer Online, and Aion, but despite their valiant efforts, none could topple the king.

Instrumental Rhythm Games

Plastic Guitars, Donkey Kong Bongos, And Buttoned Frets

• While popular in Japan in the 90s, instrument-based rhythm games like Guitar Hero kickstarted a new gaming trend in the West
• Nintendo even threw their bongos onto the stage with a DK-themed drum game

Rhythm games had been around before the 2000s but focused more on the player following a beat, for example, 1996’s PaRappa the Rapper. But by 2005, thanks to Guitar Hero, gamers were able to live out their fantasy of jamming as a rockstar in front of their friends, neighbors, and grandparents by holding plastic guitar-shaped controllers and following the notes and riffs on-screen. Japanese studios had been capitalizing on the popularity of karaoke for years before this with games like Frequency, Amplitude, and, of course, Dance Dance Revolution.

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Nintendo commissioned their own spin on the Taiko no Tatsujin (Master of Drums) series with Donkey Konga, which allowed players to input Nintendo-themed beats with special “DK Bongos.” With the success of Guitar Hero and other studios looking to break in, the next logical step was getting a whole band together, and the Rockband series was born, which allowed a group to play tracks with various instruments. No nerdy college experience or kids’ birthday party in the 2000s was complete without at least one sloppy rendition of “Painkiller” on Rock Band 2. The format died away at the end of the decade due to an economic crash, but there has been a resurgence of rhythm games since. However, few of them involve plastic instruments.

Real-Time Strategy / Multiplayer Online Battle Arena

How A Modded Game Mode Became An International Esport Phenomenon

• A modded map of Warcraft 3 would end up kickstarting the MOBA into the big leagues, even cultivating commercial viability
• Several Warcraft 3 modders would go on to create the linchpin games of the genre

While the 2000s saw consoles step into center stage, PC gaming wasn’t completely out of the picture. The accuracy and depth afforded by a mouse and keyboard weren’t something that joysticks and trigger buttons could replace, and pixel-click accuracy and hotkeys were essential when it came to real-time strategy (RTS) games. The genre had its roots firmly planted in the ’90s with classics like Command & Conquer, StarCraft, and Warcraft. Using Warcraft 3’s “world editor,” mods began building the groundwork for what would later be known as the “Multiplayer Online Battle Arena” (MOBA).

The MOBA differentiated itself from the RTS genre by focusing on individual units rather than armies and emphasizing tactics over how fast players could smash clicks out of their mice. One modder named Eul took inspiration from a custom map created in StarCraft’s map editor called Aeon of Strife, making it his own and naming it “Defense of the Ancients.” A string of other modders built on the concept over the decade, and by the end, DotA saw millions of players at its peak. Developers sought to create their own non-Warcraft licensed DotA, and by the late 2000s, gamers had their pick of games like League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, and Demigod.

Life Simulation Games

A Virtual Dollhouse That Everyone Can Enjoy

• Before The Sims, computer games were primarily marketed to young men and boys
• While there were similar games in the genre, The Sims and its spin-offs reigned supreme

Due to a boardroom meeting in the 80s that prompted marketing teams to advertise exclusively to young men, half of the population’s gaming appetite was going unfed. That is until The Sims series came along and filled the food meter of this unserved demographic back to green. In The Sims, players take care of AI families in an idyllic suburb and watch their lives play out as they see fit, choosing to intervene or not to help or hinder them.

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Despite the skepticism of the publishers during its development, who also struggled to understand the appeal of its open-ended gameplay, slice-of-life subject material, and lack of goals, The Sims went on to appeal to PC players of every gender and age. The Sims went on to sell several expansion packs and sequels, making it one of the best-selling computer games of all time. Although there have been copycats, no other game managed to capture a fraction of the audience.

Zombie Games

Feeding The Consumer’s Great Hunger For The Living Dead

• The infectious zombie genre was made popular in the West thanks to popular zombie movies, which created an appetite for zombies in video games
• Enthusiasm for zombie shooters and survival sandboxes remained strong well into the end of the 2000s and beyond

While the zombie survival horror genre was popular with gamers (especially in Japan) in the 1990s, the zombie fad was hard to escape in 2000s pop culture, thanks to the success of films like 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead, as well as the film adaptations of a popular zombie horror PlayStation series of the “residential” and “evil” variety. The video game series itself was still going strong, with Resident Evil 4 having been released on the GameCube to critical acclaim.

Fresh new franchises from East to West, such as Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead, made the outbreak international. Something about the collapse of society brought on by a killable, mindless, violent mob of corpses appealed to the average movie watcher and video game player alike. The genre had such a powerful impact on audiences that it lasted well into the next decade of gaming, inspiring games like The Last of Us and Dying Light.

Exercise & Party Games

Bringing Video Games Back Into The Living Room

• Nintendo spearheaded one of the decade’s hot new trends in gaming, but few expected it to be based on motion-controllers, casual sports, and party games
• The looks, feel, and sound of the Wii helped bring in an audience who would never have thought to give video games a try

Just as they had done in the decades before, Nintendo dominated the video game scene in the 2000s, but in a totally unexpected fashion that threw off many long-time Zelda and Mario fans. The Wii was designed to appeal to consumers of all genders and ages, and family-friendly games that utilized motion controller inputs like Wii Sports and Wii Fit became standard living room entertainment staples.

The Wii’s controller resembled a television remote, which likely disarmed non-gamers who never developed the hand-eye coordination required to use a regular game controller. The bright, poppy aesthetic of the Wii’s menus and UI squarely placed Nintendo into the social, family-friendly category (or “casual” category, depending on the gamer), allowing Nintendo to shift as many boxes as its rivals despite the lesser power of the hardware.

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