|
Samuel Sol
Brazil
São Paulo
SP
All engines full to awesome land!
*tap* *tap* Is this thing on?
-
When the cool kids of RPGG did this, it worked greatly, and since we did copy a lot of what they did, let's do it one more time baby.
We need to create a glossary of wide use videogame and Geekdo related terms. The RPG Glossary can be found at http://rpg.geekdo.com/wiki/page/RPG_Glossary and it is a good base to start. For now I will be doing the edits to it, but I need input on terms for it. Use this thread to discuss what should be added and give us a definition.
-
james napoli
United States
Westwood
New Jersey
-
i had been thinking of this since the beginning, and had a minor running list.
Analog control
A type of controller that is able to measure the degree in which a controller is pressed.
Digital Control
A type of controller that is precise and is either on or off in accepting presses.
Backward compatibility
A gaming system that supports games that were made for the previous version of the system, this can be done with via hardware or via software.
Boss
An enemy that typically is more difficult or takes more damage to effectively defeat, there can be Mid-Level Bosses which a user faces before the end of a level and End-Level Bosses which typically mark a level’s end.
Cut scenes
An in game movie, animation, slide show that occur during a game that help to facilitate a games story and typically provide a break for players.
Open World
Games which do not require a player to follow a set or linear path but allow the player to explore, take on side missions/questions/objectives as they see fit.
-
Arcadian First Lady 조랑말
United States
Portland
Oregon
수고하세요
-
Descriptions of the terms like:
Platformer
Side scroller
First Person Shooter
Descriptions of the various acronyms:
MMO
FPS
RPG
MMORPG
JRPG
-
Nick Reed
United Kingdom
Southampton
Hampshire
-
(Do we want to include all the genre / theme descriptions??)
Okay, some first-stab contributions:
1-Up - An extra "Life" gained in some "Arcade Game"s.
AI - See "Artificial Intelligence".
Anti-Aliasing - A rendering technique used to blur the edges of sprites or 3D models so their edges are less noticeable on the pixelated displays of computers, consoles and handhelds. See "Jaggies".
Arcade Game - Used in reference to games that are reminiscent of those played on arcade gaming cabinets. This usually involves rapid gameplay and short levels or game-time, but extensive replay opportunities.
Artificial Intelligence - A term meaning the programming that goes into a game to depict lifelike reactions from characters the player encounters.
Boss - A significant enemy character in a game, normally much tougher than previous enemies the player will have encountered.
Bots - Used to refer to autonomous "AI" units within a game, or alternatively an entity programmed by a game player designed to try and play a game through automated means.
Button Mashing - A style of game where excessive button or key pressing is required. The term if often used in a critical manner in reference to rapid-input "Arcade Game" types.
Camping - Primarily used in reference to MMORPGs, this is the habit of waiting at known "Spawn" locations for enemies to reappear so the player can kill them.
Checkpoint - A location found in some games where the player can save their progress.
Combo - A special attack or move within a game that requires a combination of inputs or prior actions to trigger.
Co-op - A type of game that supports cooperative multiplaying.
Console - A gaming platform that is usually connected to a standard TV instead of a computer monitor. Usually uses some for of "Gamepad" for player input and is not portable.
Continue - The ability to continue a game even though the player may have died (a normally game terminating event).
Credit - Usually used in reference to "Arcade Game"s, the ability to purchase an extra life for credits or coins.
CRPG - A computer roleplaying game. Based on the premises behind table-top RPGs, CRPGs usually involve the player controlling a party of characters whose skills and abilities are raised during the timeline of the game.
Cutscene - A pre-scripted movie or progression of events, during which the player had no control of the involved characters.
Dekstop - A personal computer that is often found on top of or beneath a desk. Normally has separate keyboard, mouse and monitor.
Dialog Tree - In many adventure games, the player can interact with "NPC"s. However, their responses are often limited and can be seen to follow a tree of question-answer responses based on what the player asks them.
DirectX - A 3D, audio and input system for Windows, developed to help with the different hardware specifications prevalent in PCs throughout the world.
Easter Egg - A hidden extra in a game which a player will normally need to do something unusual to unlock and discover.
Fog of War - Depicted in many strategy games, the player's units are restricted in their visibility, resulting in the player needing to explore the game area to find what exists on the map.
Frag(ging) - The killing of a player, usual in a First Person Shooter.
Frame Rate - The rate at which the display of a game updates. Faster frame rates will seem smoother to the user and allow for faster response times.
FPS - 1) Frames Per Second - see "Frame Rate"; 2) First Person Shooter
Gamepad - A handheld input device mainly used on consoles, usually comprising of a few directional input methods and a small number of additional buttons.
Generation - Gaming platforms are generally considered to have been released in competing waves over the decades. The waves are referred to as the console's generation, and generally consoles of one generation are better than those of the generation before.
Griefing - Deliberately antagonizing or hindering other players in a multiplayer game.
Handheld - A type of gaming platform that can be carried around and usually held in its entirety with both hands.
Health Bar - Used in many game to represent the health or life of the player. When the bar becomes empty, the player generally loses the game.
HP - Hit points - an indicator of a character's health, especially in "RPG"s.
HUD - Heads Up Display. This refers to the on-screen information presented to the user, usually bordering the action on screen.
Jaggies - The 'stepped' edging visible on old and low-end sprites and 3D models. Usually used in reference to a game running on a device whose processing power should be sufficient to prevent such visual artifacts.
Joypad - See "Gamepad".
Joystick - A handheld input device, usually comprising of a directional input stick and 1 or 2 buttons.
JRPG - Roleplaying videogames with a distinctly Japanese feel to them. Some may be anime-styled, many involve young characters which extraordinary powers.
Lag - The delay noticed in an online game, caused by the round-trip time from the player's machine to the game server and back again.
LAN - A Local Area Network - can be used to play multi-player games locally.
LAN Party - A meeting where large numbers of people turn up to play "LAN" games.
Laptop - A variation of "Desktop"s containing all elements of a personal computer in one portable device which can be used on a person's lap.
Levelling - The increasing in skill of a character through experience.
Life - Many "Arcade Game"s give the player a pre-defined number of lives. When these are lost, the game ends.
Light Gun - An input device used in many shooting games (especially at the arcade) where the player points a 'gun' at the screen to shoot at precise locations.
Line of Sight - The line within which a particular player (or "AI" controlled enemy) can see events.
MMO - Massively Multiplayer Online - a type of game which usually has a server-hosted persistent setting which large number of players can connect to.
MMORPG - See "MMO" and "RPG".
Next Generation - The "Generation" of platforms expected to surpass the current one.
NPC - A non player character in a game. Can be "AI" controlled, or simply a static interaction point.
OpenGL - A 3D rendering system, designed and developed to help with the different hardware specifications prevalent in the various platforms throughout the world.
Party - A collection of characters all controlled by the player.
Patch - An update released after a game has been published which adds new features of fixes known problems.
Ping Time - The time it takes for a computer to send data to a server. Used as an indication of a player's "LAG" in a multiplayer game.
Quick Time Event - A "Cutscene" which allows the player limited input opportunities to influence the progression of the game.
QTE - See "Quick Time Event".
Resolution - The pixel dimensions (width and height) of a screen display.
RPG - See "CRPG".
RTS - A real time strategy game.
Spawning - In some games, killed enemies will reappear (or spawn) at set locations. Alternatively refers to the spawning of the player with a new life after they have been killed in a multiplayer game.
Special Move - As expected by the name, a special move the player can perform through some means. See "Combo".
Texture Maps - An image used in a 3D renderer on its 3D models. For example, a texture map may be some bricks used on a 3D wall, or the scales used across the body of a rampaging dinosaur.
Twitch - A typeplay of game that tests the player's reaction and response time.
Voxel - A rendering technique that doesn't use sprites or 3D modelling, but involves all the elements of the game being formed of tiny cubes (volumetric pixels, or voxels).
XP - Experience Points. Usually earned in "RPG"s, these go towards "Levelling" a character.
-
Nick Reed
United Kingdom
Southampton
Hampshire
-
Okay, I've just started adding the basics of the glossary: http://videogame.geekdo.com/wiki/page/VGG_Glossary
darlok - I didn't originally notice you'd already described some of the concepts I suggested in my later post, however I've gone with your descriptions in preference.
If anyone else has any suggestions for terms or improved descriptions (the wiki page is just a first-draft currently), do post here or geekmail me. Even if you don't have a description prepared, simply having a list of terms would prove useful ... although a description as well would obviously be preferred 
Thanks!
-
RUSH May 28th 2013
England
York
North Yorkshire
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flick-screen
-
Andy Leighton
England
Peterborough
Unspecified
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feelie
Other adventure companies (such as Magnetic Scrolls) also supplied feelies. One could say that The Dark Wheel (the novella which came as part of Elite) was also a feelie although it was never referred to that way by Firebird.
-
Andy Leighton
England
Peterborough
Unspecified
-
Poke a way of applying a cheat (or some other modification) to 8 bit games. Now chiefly used in the retro-scene.
-
Nick Reed
United Kingdom
Southampton
Hampshire
-
Added - feel free to suggest alternate descriptions - I wanted to steer away from blatant copy-and-pastes from Wikipedia for attribution reasons...
-
United States
Arizona
World Trade Center #7. NEVER FORGET...that no plane hit this building.
-
Computer Wargame - uhh...nevermind.
-
Kyle W.
United States
Up Nort' Der
Wisconsin
...and furthermore, tipping answers in GeekQuestions should be fixed.
Me Grimlock teach Hulk everything he knows about smashing.
-
Ncik wrote: Frag(ging) - The killing of a player, usual in a First Person Shooter.
I think this originated from the word "Fragment", in games like Quake where a character could be killed with such excess force that they'd split into smaller bits (gibs), as opposed to simply killing them and leaving an intact body behind. It seems to have adapted to become a general term for kills, though.
-------------
Gib - Short for "Giblet", a term for the various pieces that remain after a character has been killed with sufficient force to reduce their body to smaller fragments instead of leaving behind a relatively intact body.
HOTAS (Acronym) - Hands On Throttle And Stick - A controller setup usually associated with flight-based games that combines a joystick and a smaller, secondary controller, meant to approximate the controls of an actual aircraft while minimizing (or completely eliminating) the need for keyboard and mouse inputs.
Mana - A generic term for magic power used in many fantasy-based games, particularly RPGs. It functions similar to hit points and can be depleted by casting spells or using other magic-based effects. Typically it will recharge slowly over time, and/or can be replenished more quickly by using potions and other items.
Pixel Hunt - A generally derogative term for a game or a puzzle that requires the player to click on a precise, sometimes arbitrary location of the screen in order to find a required object and/or proceed further in the game.
Tank Rush - See "Swarming". Used in reference to a tactic in military-based strategy games where tanks or other comparable vehicles can be produced in large numbers and used to overwhelm an opponent.
Telefrag - To kill (frag) another player by respawning in or teleporting to their exact location.
VGG Glossary wrote: Strafing - In "Shooters" this refers to the player strafing their character or vehicle side to side whilst shooting in order to try and evade return fire. It's probably best to avoid using a word to define itself. Replacing the word "strafing" with "moving" would fix it.
-
Kai Pietila
Finland
Rauma
-
-
AoE attack - Area-of-effect attack. Instead of hitting a single target, you hit everything within a certain radius.
Ding! - The sound effect of a level-up from some (MMO)RPGs, has spread to other MMORPGs too, where the sound might be something completely different. Typed into chat to inform others you've just leveled up.
Instance - In most MMORPGs some or all dungeons and possibly other areas can have several copies (instances) of them running at the same time. In the case of dungeons, this is done to prevent crowding and helps ensure that there's monsters for everyone. When used for high-traffic central areas it's purpose is to reduce lag and excessive crowds.
Train(ing) - The act of trying to avoid dying in a MMORPG by running away from a fight that's going badly, which leads to the monster(s) chasing you and in large dungeons you usually wake up more on the way to the door. More or less frowned upon, depending on how the MMORPG's monsters react to other players while chasing you.
I think the WASD definition is backwards. Pretty much every PC game these days uses WASD instead of the arrow keys because you use the mouse to look around and there's plenty of other keys around WASD for more game controls.
-
Michael Dorosh
Canada
Calgary
Alberta
-
Woelf wrote: Ncik wrote: Frag(ging) - The killing of a player, usual in a First Person Shooter. I think this originated from the word "Fragment", in games like Quake where a character could be killed with such excess force that they'd split into smaller bits (gibs), as opposed to simply killing them and leaving an intact body behind. It seems to have adapted to become a general term for kills, though.
An equally plausible explanation would be the theft of the term from military history. "Fragging" was the practice of fratricide - killing "friendly" troops - and that term was used in the Vietnam War to denote the deliberate murder of a comrade, usually a superior. It refers to a method of doing so that let the murderer escape detection in a combat zone - use of a fragmentation (hand) grenade. Killing an unpopular platoon commander, squad leader, etc. by throwing a grenade at him during a firefight ensured that he died, but no one could pin it on you. The term may predate Vietnam but I've always seen it associated with that war in particular.
When I did my basic training in Canada in the late 1980s, we were taught to yell "frag out" to warn our fellow soldiers that we had thrown a fragmentation grenade (as opposed to a smoke grenade, white phosphorous, etc.) I've heard the term "frag" extended to become a verb and without the fratricidal intent, though how widespread this is now, I couldn't say. If it has spread to videogamers, I am not surprised.
-
Gary Jinxon
England
Quite Insane
-
J-CART Joypad Cartridge utilises the cartridge to add additional players by plugging directly into the cartridge.
-
Caleb Wynn
United States
Cumming
Georgia
I love Nintendo as well!
-
Shmup- Abbreviation for Shoot 'em up. A sub-genre of shooters where the player controls a ship or character through horizontally or vertically scrolling stages while shooting enemies in an attempt to achieve a high score.
Bullet Hell- A sub-genre of Shmup games where large numbers of bullets fill the screen that the player must dodge, in addition to shooting enemies and bosses.
There is my attempt at a term for the glossary.
-
Nick Reed
United Kingdom
Southampton
Hampshire
-
I think those are in the glossary already. Here's a list of the current entries, for anyone that's interested:
http://videogamegeek.com/wiki/page/VGG_Glossary
You can find them off the "Help" option at the top of each page.
-
Caleb Wynn
United States
Cumming
Georgia
I love Nintendo as well!
-
Ncik wrote:
Ah, you are correct. I should have checked that first!
-
Michael Dorosh
Canada
Calgary
Alberta
-
gamey - in serious conflict simulations, a tactic that is permitted by the game engine but may not meet some player's personal standards of historical accuracy
This may not be the greatest definition, so feel free to tinker. The first time I saw the word used was in the print manual for Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord. There are numerous examples - in Steel Panthers, running a bunch of trucks at an enemy tank unit to draw fire, knowing the turn sequence is sequential, and "depleting" that unit's ability to reaction fire, after which you then move your more valuable tank or infantry units without fear of reprisal, is a "gamey" move. The game engine allows it, but a real commander would arguably not sacrifice softskin vehicles like that. It's not cheating, but it's what ASL players call "sleaze". In Combat Mission, same thing - the "gamey jeep rush" was driving all your jeeps forward to draw fire while your more valuable tanks or infantry slinked around in the backfield.
-
Kyle W.
United States
Up Nort' Der
Wisconsin
...and furthermore, tipping answers in GeekQuestions should be fixed.
Me Grimlock teach Hulk everything he knows about smashing.
-
Michael Dorosh wrote: gamey - in serious conflict simulations, a tactic that is permitted by the game engine but may not meet some player's personal standards of historical accuracy That's good, but you could actually broaden the scope of that considerably because it's certainly not unique to simulations.
-
|
|
