The computer games industry has grown phenomenally over the past 30 years and we have now reached the stage where many households have a games console. Games sell in huge numbers, for example Mario Kart

Wii has sold over 21 million copies. These kinds of sales figures mean that the computer games industry is catching up with the film industry

in size, and many IT professionals are attracted to work in the industry.

Computer games are categorised into genres. Similar to music genres or film genres, a computer game genre is a category of similar games which have common features, styles and objectives.

Each genre tends to attract the same types of players. For example, first-person shooter (FPS) games are mostly played by males aged between 12 and 30, whereas brain training games tend to be played by females aged between 25 and 60.

*Action games – games which require quick thinking and ‘button bashing’ such as Sonic the Hedgehog or Space Invaders

*Role-playing games (RPGs) – games where you develop characters and level up such as Kingdom Hearts or Pokemon

*Adventure games – games where you follow a story and solve puzzles such as Tomb Raider or Zack & Wiki

*Strategy – games which require tactical thinking such as Age of Empires or Fat Princess

*Simulations – games which re-create real life situations such as Need for Speed or Roller Coaster Tycoon

*Sports – games where you play a sport such as Championship Manager or Duck Hunt

*Educational – games which teach the player something new or improve their skills such as My French Coach or Maths Trainer

*Massively multiplayer online (MMO) – games which are played across the Internet with thousands of simultaneous players such as Star Trek

*Online or Eve Online.