Topic: Game genres you don't like

I feel like there was another thread related to this not long ago, but in no particular order:

• Sports: I'm not really into them in general, and I fail to see the thrill people get out of these when you could get most of the same action on TV. I wouldn't call simulating team matchups using certain players much of an improvement.
• Shmups: Too much frenetic action that requires quick reflexes and too much adrenaline. I primarily game to relax, and these definitely don't help. I'm not a fan of the settings either.
• FPS: Similar reasoning to the above. In addition, so many of these feel like the same game. The only exceptions to this are the Metroid Prime games, but those get a pass since they incorporate other gameplay elements. They feel more like playing a 3D Metroid.
• Roguelikes: Thank the earlier Pokemon Mystery Dungeon titles for this one. Not a fan of a gimped save system, losing most or all items thanks to the former point, limited attack direction, and the randomization.

Genres I don't necessarily dislike but just don't hold my attention for very long:

• Racing: Mostly because of how repetitive they can be; the more content, the better. I tolerate the occasional Mario Kart 8 Deluxe session, but that's about it.
• Fighting games: I'm just not too thrilled with beating the snot out of other characters in a stage setting. This is mostly up to repetition as well. Street Fighter II's better incarnations are the exception, but I think a lot of this is thanks to nostalgia.

I can see the point and in some way i can agree. Especially MOBA games are not very beginner-friendly and frankly community there can be very toxic. Also you need to play all the time in order to achieve a success, so they also are quite a "time-eaters"))) Or you need to use such thing as boosting https://anyelo.net/ to level up your account, like they say to be a pro. I play them on a very rare ocassion, but even them can be quite entertaining you know)

There are a few game genres that I don’t particularly enjoy. One is the survival genre, where players have to eke out an existence in a hostile environment with limited resources. I find these games to be tedious and frustrating, often requiring hours of patience for very little payoff. Another genre I don’t care for is the open-world sandbox style, where players are given free rein to explore and do whatever they want. I prefer games with a bit more structure and direction, as I often find myself wandering aimlessly in open-world games without any real sense of purpose. Finally, I’m not a big fan of platformers. I grew up playing games like Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog, but I’ve never really enjoyed the genre as an adult. Perhaps it’s because I’m not very good at them, but platformers just don’t hold my attention the way they used to.

Visual novels just… I hate them so so much.
If I wanted to read and make choices I would read a choose your own adventure book.

I was thinking about something @Fizza said and was curious what genres people specifically have a negative reaction towards. Not necessarily hate, just immediate default to 'probably won't like this game'. I figured there was already a thread about it so I'm resurrecting this one.

For me it's tactical RPGs, deck-builders, and reality-based sports games, especially ones about real sport leagues such as the FIFA or MLB games. I leave open the possibility that I could like a game in those genres (and occasionally do) but my immediate gut reaction when I hear any of those 3 is very negative.

There are other genres I'm not really into (such as scary horror games, FPS, or mobile idle games) but I don't feel particularly negatively towards any of those, I just don't play them much.

Whatever Animal Crossing is, no more of those for me.

I'm hopeless at Real-Time Strategy games (I'm more of a turn-based kind of guy), but other than being really bad at them, I don't hate them.

Modern open World. Not sure if that is a genre on its own, and maybe don't like is too strong, but I have learnt to avoid them. They are just too much for me. I don't enjoy it and get so overwhelmed by them.

Otherwise, not really into racing games, sport games, or first person shooters. Or anything that is too Collectathon heavy (common in open world).

@FishyS I can't say there are many genres that I've not enjoyed at least some games, except maybe Survival Horror.

I tend not to play many First Person Shooters, but I have enjoyed some over the years. There are too many mediocre one's around nowadays and all focused on multiplayer or co-op which I'm not really interested in so tend to just roll my eyes when anything new gets announced. Last really good one I played was probably Titanfall 2.

Although not really a genre, I tend to have an aversion to Fantasy-themed games - have no interest in stuff like Diablo, Souls games, Final Fantasy, Dragon Age etc.

Sports games. Probably because i have no real interest in team sports irl. I do recall having quite a bit of fun with Mario Tennis/Golf back in the day tho.

Simulation Sports/Racing Games - Arcade style games like the Mario ones & Forza Horizon are fine, but I find the sims (Madden, MLB the Show, Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport) dull.

Fighting - This hurts because I often find all the characters appealing, but it seems like every time I try one I'll play around with it a few days to a week and just never play it again (I just don't want to get into the meta of learning a bunch of detailed combos). The only ones I've really been able to get into are Smash (which is pretty much an entirely different beast altogether) & Dead or Alive.

Visual Novels - I've kinda liked some of them I've tried (like the Famicom Detective Club remakes), but I feel like I need to be doing "something" regularly whenever I have a controller in hand, so these often don't do it for me.

Also not too keen on anything Rouge like, Live Service, or Hipster (like 90% of indie games have this "hipster" vibe about them, for a lack of a better descriptor, that does absolutely nothing for me).

Honestly at first I wasn't gonna do this because even genres I'm often not interested in have games I absolutely love and I haven't tried enough games to dismiss the genre (I actually partially love stealth games and strategy games, I just can't deal with the time wasted with failed attempts in most games (Manual saving at most times is the single best feature of Deus Ex: Human Revolution for that reason)).

But baseball games I can't get. I could not hit the ball in the baseball games I played a kid, nor the ones I played as an adult, it has never worked for me beyond the hilariously easy and basic Wii Sports game. The timing of that has always eluded me, more difficult than Dark Souls, I cannot.

I admit to having zero idea what a hipster vibe game is and am legitimately curious. You mentioned indies — is Celeste Hipster? Shovel Knight? Vampire Survivors? The watermelon/suika game? Sea of Stars? 🤔 um... Baldur's Gate 3? 😆 Stardew Valley? Actually I can kind of see Stardew as hipster.

Visual Novels - just not enough 'gameplay' for me.... although objectively I can see their appeal.

The only genres I can think of that I won't touch at all are realistic sports games and survival horror. There are others I'm not keen on like shoot em ups, beat em ups and RTS, but I don't mind giving games in those genres a chance if they're acclaimed enough or I just like the look of them.

Yeah, again I'm not even sure if "hipster" is even the right word (though it certainly is in some cases) Celeste, Stardew Valley, & Sea of Stars all have that vibe IMO. A ton of other stuff too, like Goodbye Volcano High & well pretty much 80% percent of everything that's announced in your typical Indie World (we get so much of the stuff in a year it's hard to remember names).

Baldur's Gate 3 is more AA rather than indie, so it's not what I had in mind. Don't seem to mind the look of Shovel Knight (the indies I DO tend to like are the ones that go great lengths to look like they could have, aesthetically, been at home on an actual NES, SNES, etc. Shovel Knight seems to fit that mold, as do the Bloodstained, Gunvolt games, as well as the Blaster Master & Shantae revivals).

I will say I am NOT FOND of pinball games AT ALL. All they ever do is just bring out the frustration in me...
Card games are another dislike of mines. I just plain suck at them. Not much into racing games.

Now RPG's I'm a bit zig-zaggy with. It depends on the game in question honestly. Only because of the sheer variety of them. But Western RPG's is something I'm definitely not big on. Except for Wizardry. I've never played that series before. Soooo...yeah.

RPGs with permadeath, like the early Fire Emblem games (until "casual" was introduced wherein units would simply flee instead of die).

Online games with voice chat where they never, or at least very rarely, enforce the TOS.

Games where you have to gamble with real money to get useful items.

@IceDomino Same, I just don't like permadeath in games in general. Doing all that hard work, just to lose a character permanently, yeah no thanks.

Unless the game has an option to prevent it. I'm playing the classic PC game Jagged Alliance on PC on easy and with quick-save on. If quick-save was off, then the game would have permadeath. Usually if the game has an option to turn it off, I always take that option.

@Matt_Barber I always turn off voice chat in any online game I play, only sticking to Discord or a phone call when I play with my friends. Pressing the "mute chat" button in Apex Legends has become muscle memory on both Switch and PC

I generally don't care for the vast majority of sports games. Mainly because I'm not a sports guy to begin with, so those ultra-realistic sports games like the Madden series just never appealed to me. I do like the Mario Tennis games though, and I had a decent time with Mario Tennis Aces a while back.

I also don't like fighting games too much. I can kind of play Street Fighter because I know a couple of the special moves, but their complexity is too much for me to handle. So many fighting games have those long button combinations for special moves, and I can't land hits most of the time anyway... so I generally don't enjoy them. I do like Smash Bros., though. I know some don't consider it a "real" fighting game, but it's the closest thing that I like.

And for some reason, I don't like farming sims very much. It's weird because I do like Animal Crossing, which is a life sim with customization aspects. I really wanted to get into Stardew Valley, I have it on PC... but for some reason, it just didn't click with me. It's hard to explain in words. I also played a little bit of Fae Farm via that NSO game trial, and yeah, it didn't grab me, either.

I should also mention that I have a love-hate relationship with RPGs. It's a genre that I have to be in the mood for to enjoy. They tend to be really long, and sometimes they have complex gameplay mechanics. I've faced bosses in the Xenoblade series that just frustrated me to no end, too. I do like most of the Mario RPGs, of course. Stuff like the first two Paper Mario games, I do enjoy.

I'll also agree with @Matt_Barber on that gambling thing. I don't like microtransactions and loot boxes, and I'd rather just buy a game and be done with it... plus the DLC if it's worth it. It's pretty much why I don't like mobile games in general.