Well, game assets are made having in mind the limitations of a game engine, so you have to go as low poly as possible. You don't have to worry about quads, you can have the mesh triangulated. You have to use a lot of textures and bakes maps because you can't have high frequency detail in models for games. Game assets are fun to make, having the constraints you have. Hair is made with hair cards, to save on the sims and strands and all that stuff. Normal maps are a huge part of the workflow as well.
Models for 3D printing are the most flexible I think. You don't have to worry about topology at all. The requirements are few, like the mesh being water tight and scales and measurements are best if the are right when it goes to the 3D Printer.
And then there's your usual SubD modeling, the kind when it comes to quality but it comes at the expense of being resources heavy.
I haven't done research or a lot on printing, but in game development it's commonly divided as poly modeling(specifically box modeling or the newer term sub-d or quad modeling.) is for hard surface assets. Poly modeling(specifically pushing/pulling verts techniques) is also commonly used in retopology phase of sculpting unless you use the newer multi-resolutions sculpting method. Sculpting is commonly used for organic assets like characters and blankets. However it really doesn't matter which you use as long as you get the results you need.