Which paradigms and innovations in video gaming invented great new genres, or redefined entire genres for the better?

(As the title mentions, posts will be heavily subjective. You don't have to agree with anyone.)


I'll start.

Western-style scrolling shmups. The idea that you can fly something that isn't a glass cannon and doesn't fall apart in 1 hit. No stupid color/polarity changing schemes either, just a good old shield/armor/hull defensive system and more firepower customization. The biggest examples that stand out are Stargunner, Raptor, and Tyrian2000 (the greatest game ever in the genre, never to be equaled again). It's a shame that these games largely aren't made any more and most devs go with the Japanese style.

FPSRPGs. The idea that an FPS could be more than a Wolfenstein or Doom clone, instead having an actual story and RPG-like progression. The most prominent early example that comes to mind is the original Deus Ex. While it had no shortage of balance and design problems, it laid the groundwork for the genre.

Early JRPGs. I typically don't have much favor for Japanese video game paradigms (and I would argue that most of them are ruining video gaming), but I also believe in giving credit where credit is due. Back in the old days (late 1980s through late 1990s), the vast majority of Western RPGs were based on some form of clunky, boring, mechanically broken tabletop rules that translate poorly onto computer. Most of these were based on some form or variant of D&D with all of its mechanical failures: martial classes only have regular attack with a few stances, spell memorization, awful clunky broken leveling, broken caster scaling, wretched circus of perpetual missed attacks at low levels, poor class hybridization, random level-up outcomes, UGH!
Japan already had the answer to this well in the works a decade before the West wised up. Fighter-type characters have more than just regular attacks, there's this thing called a "limit burst" where you can switch things up in ways that matter. Forget rolling dice to figure how much extra health you get for level up, the most prominent JRPGs actually balance level-ups properly and far better than their Western counterparts. Dump spell memorization in favor of spell points - a system built from the ground up for video gaming, and ditch ridiculous quadratic caster scaling. JRPGs also fix the circus of perpetual missed attacks - generally, attacks hit by default except if their intended recipient is using an evasion build or buff.

2D action RPGs. Perhaps the West's first real attempt to shake off the shackles of D&D. Combat-focused RPGs with more complex mechanics than just about anything else on the market at the time, and combat outcome largely based on player skill - both ability to fight and set up a build. Randomized loot was another major critical innovation.

Integrating a Diablo-style loot system into an FPSRPG. Started with Borderlands and took off from there. Whoever invented this idea - sir, you are a genius and you deserve to win an internet of your own.

Single-player/multi-character real-time with pause, or at least squad-based combat without multiplayer. Mass Effect and Dragon Age are obviously what comes to everyone's mind, but they were far from the first. This was already a thing with Might and Magic 7. For a more modern experience that isn't shackled to EA/Bioware, you might like Aarklash: Legacy. If you're willing to give up the ability to pause and issue commands, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri is an even earlier good example.

Space fighter combat games. I've been playing a lot of Freespace lately, and it's a shame they don't make these games anymore because the control scheme is impossible to adapt for console controllers.

Escape Velocity: Nova (and similar). Open-world 2D ARPG in space.

Combat-oriented platforming games. No instant death from taking damage or falling into pits, instead your character has a health bar and wide-ranging arsenal. My favorite classic example is the Jazz Jackrabbit franchise; more recently I favor modern indie "Metroidvanias".

The original Guild Wars MMORPG (Guild Wars 2 doesn't count). From a purely mechanical and design perspective, I can't think of any other MMORPG that got so many things right. The idea that consumables are bad for balance. The idea that energy and resource generation should be skill-based rather than limited to resting. The idea of having hundreds of skill choices with minimal RNG.

Extreme moddability, defined in my personal dictionary as a synonym for "Elder Scrolls".

Microtransactions for cosmetic-only items. I have no idea why people would pay $50 just to look cool in an online game, although I won't complain since it subsidizes the game, reducing costs for everyone else who isn't totally nuts.

THE greatest invention in computer games was freely saving my game anywhere.

...that was invented decades ago, I know, but still lots of developers haven't mastered the art of including this logical and essential feature in their games. For some reason, many seem to have the old console malady of checkpoint systems stuck in their heads. That used to be necessary on consoles back when they lacked storage media and I really wonder how any dev can have missed the fact, that storage media have been common for quite a few years now.

^ Agree 100% with this. "But checkpoints adds to the challenge" is another way of saying "we figured out that checkpoint only saves will artificially pad out game-time by +10-15% vs the same content with quicksaves, so instead of making 12hrs of content, we can now make 10.5hr content seem like it's 12hrs long game via enforced cheap replays". It's no accident that major publishers like Ubisoft place checkpoints before lengthy unskippable cutscenes or that they haven't figured out multiple manual save slots provide insurance against game-breaking bugs in larger complex games. They know this stuff by now, it's all down to cheap game-time padding and lazy consolization... (Rebindable keys are another thing that 64KB games got right that 64GB games still struggle with...)

- On the hardware side it's "Hardware Transform & Lighting", (remember when 2D / 3D accelerators / MPEG2 decoders used to be on separate cards). We had "2.5D is sort of 3D" games like Doom 1-2 but without 3D on the GPU, we wouldn't have a lot of DirectX7+ games as we know them.

- Cross-genre games. I still don't think I've played a game quite like Dune (1992). It's hard to even describe that genre (hybrid adventure / strategy), but it worked really well. Hybrid adventure / platformer (eg, Dex) is also underused.

- Thief's "light-bar gem" with its subtle 14-different states of visibility, enemies with 4-5 different alert states (instead of only 2-3) and a clever audio engine is something I still don't see modern stealth games even come close to replicating / improving on today which all seem remarkably primitive in everything but graphics, despite having a lot more CPU horsepower to play with.

- Really the most innovative games to me are those that were unafraid to create something that just felt very different that isn't the same old stale recycled "safe IP" - and not be afraid to stand alone as single games that don't need sequelling to infinity. Eg, there was nothing technically innovative about Giants: Citizens Kabuto or Planescape Torment, but they had more creativity under their fingernails than EA / Ubisoft / Square Enix churning out the same annual re-textured re-releases over and over do in their entire studios.

I think one of the greatest innovations was the Digital gameports such as the perfect Gravis Blackhawk Digital, to be able to have enough buttons for everything, separate fire buttons for primary and secondary and a aim as well as movement it eliminated the need for a keyboard altogether. The Gravis Eliminator gamepad was said by some to be the same with some flight simulators. Even the Microsoft Sidewinder series which had some of the first working motion controls, these first digital pc controllers pushed the boundaries of what a controller could be, for the first time unshackling us from keyboards, and providing more functionality than anything else on the market. (there were mercury vial atari joysticks, and I think a nes pad that didn't work well either as far as console motion control)

I also think the humble and often overlooked until you find a game without, health bar, revolutionized many genres.

As far as complaining about check points, I still run into games now and again that for some inexplicable reason use the antiquated nonsave format of level passwords, even when released for consoles that had memory cards.

That brings me to perhaps one of the greatest programming innovations, cheat codes. Adding the ability to play as all the other character skins the developers programmed for the story mode anyway is great, but my favorite is Disco Mode causing every texture tile to phase through the rainbow like a dance floor, especially when it is all non character/sky textures, lamp posts, foliage, etc.

Lastly one of the biggest innovations is micro-transactions and DLC. In the old days if a game wasn't done on time, they'd delay it or release it unfinished to cut their losses sometimes releasing a free patch later, perhaps releasing a deluxe version later with the missing features, fully rendered textures, and bug fixes. Now they just release it anyway and expect everyone to accept that they will have to buy the patch that completes the unfinished game. When before extra character skins were a free unlockable through codes or less often completing the game, they now expect us to pay for them.

Graphics! ;)

First person perspective (real time, with actual interaction)

Talking immersion... My first encounter with this was Dungeon Master on the Amiga. I knew similar views from for instance The Bard's Tale, and immensely enjoyed exploring the world in those too, but this was something completely new. Even with jerky grid movement and turns, interacting with the world directly, seeing through the protagonist's/parties eyes - picking up stuff, handling buttons and levers... totally amazing. Later Doom and Ultima Underworld set new standards in this regard, and with Quake going for real 3D and lightmaps, Duke3D for detailed realism... and nowadays there's everything from "artsy" worlds of varying craziness to hyper-realistic worlds waits to be explored through this perspective.

Mouse support

Be it to "point and click" or to aim down some gun sights - nothing matches the speed and precision of a good mouse.

Open world games (world simulations)

Meaning games, where you (limited only by the characters abilities) can explore freely and which give you the impression that the world does not revolve around you and your actions (the story probably will, though) but has a life of its own which will continue with or without you. I first had a whiff of this feeling with Elite on the Commodore 64, although it really lacked some things going on without you. Another game which went in that direction (and is inexplicably missing from GOG) is actually a strategy game: PowerMonger. It was divided in to levels which you had to beat in order to progress, but each level was a small miniature world alive on it's own.
An eye-opener of what was possible was Ultima V for me, although I have to admit back then I wasn't patient enough for games like this and didn't get very far.

Disagree if you will, but Motion Controls allowed designers to rethink the controller.

Also: The humble Directional Pad.

Part of the reason for it is for script triggers. If your game saves only at certain points, then your scripts don't have to check as often and programming is easier; It is harder to break the game this way. Not optimal, but it is a consideration in many games' save feature.

True 3D FPS: Quake. First time seeing a polygonal world in first person and MOUSE-AIMING.

Hand holding in Ico (with rumble): I mean, seriously, the rumble is so subtle and pulsing, almost like holding a real hand. That was SUBLIME.

Narrative in gameplay with Brothers a tale of two sons: Seriously, the two brothers don't get along in the beginning and struggle to work together (just like the player using both characters at the same time) and eventually become a team and you the player are better at it; and after SPOILER WARNING the older brother dies you actually have to use the "use" button for him in order for the younger brother to finally be able to do something he couldn't do before, showing he grew up. It blew my mind.

VR... in the 90s: Yeah, I know, it basically sucked, but AT THE TIME it was a breakthrough for immersion (now is the same, it only looks better). In fact, in the 90s there were some platforms where you actually had to walk in order to move in-game haha

Analogue controls in Super Mario 64: finally fluid movement in a 3d space (quake had it too, but it wasn't analogue in the movement department, you had to press a button to activate walk or movement speed, here it depended in the force applied to the stick).

Physics in games. Physics cards should been a proper addon for PCs with games using it's features in games instead of an afterthought. Light gun :P

In my experience much less precise (or I lack the skill to use them). ;-)

I 100% agree with this because with saving your game from anywhere you have had lots of saves in case something happened. Also I like the idea of RPGS adopting this feature because you could be busy grinding in a certain area and then you want to take a break you can just save your game and continue on a later time. What I hate about auto saves is that those kind of saves can get corrupted very easily. Also if you get far into a game but don't make it to the next check point and you die you have to start all over again from the previous check point.

Savegames, esp. in complex game with lots going on, are complicated, true. Still it can be done, but I guess it's something devs have to have in mind from the start (implementing ways to restore any script to its previous runtime state).

I remember playing one (old) RPG (I forget one) where you could cheat by saving and loading: Steal everything in sight, and when the guards rush towards you - before they attack or talk to you - quickly save and load again. The guards promptly forget what they were up to... :-)

CD players.

Many of you are too young to remember, but back in the early 80s storage space was measured in literal kilobytes. The 3.5" floppy, commonplace by the end of the decade, maxed out at just under 1.5 megabytes.

Which meant that installing a game, and sometimes even playing it, could involve switching through half a dozen disks or more.

Whereas even the earliest CDs could hold about 680 MB of data, or almost 500 floppies worth. This, back when hard drives were still cramped and expensive, was a godsend! Many early games were set up to play right off the CD, or with a bare minimum install that still accessed the CD for the bulk of the gameplay and graphics.

The difference between Ultima I (original, pre-remaster) and Ultima IV, as just one example, is mind-blowing.