Games are penetrating popular culture like never before and are reaching new audiences in the ‘casual gamer’ demographic. With expanding network options and an emphasis on community, most games have an online component. Online games fall into three broad categories: mobile, computer and console.

Mobile Games

Mobile games dominate the casual gamer market. Games like Candy Crush, Bejeweled, Plants versus Zombies and Angry Birds offer simple rules and increasingly difficult levels. Most do not have player versus player capacity, but many offer a ‘free to play’ style with micro transactions to reset timers or purchase in game currency to achieve goals faster.

Computer Games

This is a very wide category encapsulating everything from browser based flash games to triple A titles. RPG’s are particularly popular, with pay per month examples being World of Warcraft, Wildstar, Everquest, and Eve Online. Free to Play examples are defence of the ancients, league of legends and world of tanks where players are pitted against other players. Counterstrike, Portal and Team Fortress 2 are examples of online first person shooters.

Console Games

Many console games now offer multiplayer, and many games are offered on both computer and console. Destiny, Titan fall, Call of Duty are online shooters. Mario Kart and Forza series are popular racing games on console. Story driven games like Farcry and Grand Theft Auto are also popular.