Glossary of video game terms

This glossary of video game terms lists the general video game industry terms as commonly used in Wikipedia articles.

0–9

1-up

In games where player have a number of "lives" to complete a game or level, an object or the act of gaining an extra life.

16-bit

A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the fourth generation of video game consoles, targeting 16-bit computer architecture.

2D graphics

2D graphics. The game features 2-dimensional objects.

32-bit

A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the fifth generation of video game consoles, targeting 32-bit computer architecture.

3D graphics

3D graphics. The game features 3-dimensional objects.

4X

A genre of strategic video games, short for "explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate".

64-bit

A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the fifth generation of video game consoles, targeting 64-bit computer architecture.

8-bit

A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the third generation of video game consoles, targeting 8-bit computer architecture.

A

AAA

A high-budget game with a large development team, or game studios that make them. AAA games are usually multiplatform, have multimillion dollar marketing budgets, and plan to sell over one million copies.^[1]

Act

See Level

Action role-playing game (ARPG)

A genre of role-playing video games where battle actions are performed in real-time instead of a turn-based mechanic.

Actions per minute (APM)

The total number of actions the player can perform in a minute.

Aggro

See Hate

Aimbot (auto-aim)

A first-person shooter cheat that lets players shoot other player-characters without aiming. In most cases, the reticle locks on to a target within the player's line of sight and the player only has to pull the trigger. Aimbots are one of the most popular cheats in multiplayer FPS, used since 1990's Quake.^[2]

Alpha release

The alpha version of a game. The stage of development before beta.

Always-on DRM

A type of digital rights management that typically requires the player to be always connected to the Internet to play the game.

Analog stick

A variation of a Joystick. The main difference being this is smaller.

AoE

Abbreviation of Age of Empires

Abbreviation of Area of effect

APM

Abbreviation of Actions per minute

Arcade game

A coin-operated game machine.

Area

See Level

Area of effect (AoE)

A term used in many role-playing and strategy games to describe attacks or other effects that affect multiple targets within a specified area. For example, in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, a fireball spell will deal damage to anyone within a certain radius of where it strikes. This term is not limited to just role-playing games, however; in most tactical strategy games artillery weapons have an area of effect that will damage anyone within a radius of the strike zone.

Area of effect can also refer to spells and abilities that are non-damaging and non-explosive. For example, a powerful healing spell may affect anyone within a certain range of the caster (often only if they are a member of the caster's party). Many games also have what are sometimes referred to as "aura" abilities that will affect anyone in the area around the person with the ability. For example, many strategy games have hero or officer units that can improve the morale and combat performance of friendly units around them. The inclusion of AoE elements in game mechanics can increase the role of strategy, especially in turn-based strategy games. The player has to place units wisely to mitigate the possibly devastating effects of a hostile area of effect attack; however, placing units in a dense formation could result in gains that outweigh the increased AoE damage received.

Point-blank area of effect (abbreviated PBAoE) is a subset of AoE in which the affected region is centered on the character that is performing the ability, rather than a location of the player's choosing. That term, however, is rarely used by players because of its relatively higher complexity to spell out. Thus AoE is more favorably used, especially in MMO games.

ARPG

Abbreviation of Action role-playing game.

Attract mode

Also known as display mode or show mode, attract mode is a pre-recorded demonstration of a video game that is displayed when the game is not being played.^[3] Originally built into arcade games, the main purpose of the attract mode is to entice passers-by to play the game.^[3] It usually displays the game's title screen, the game's story (if it has one), its high score list, sweepstakes (on some games) and the message "Game Over" or "Insert Coin" over or in addition to a computer-controlled demonstration of gameplay. In Atari home video games of the 1970s and 1980s, the term attract mode was sometimes used to denote a simple screensaver that slowly cycled the display colors to prevent phosphor burn-in while the game was not being played. Attract modes demonstrating gameplay are common in current home video games.

Attract mode is not only found in arcade games, but in most coin-operated games like pinball machines, stacker machines and lots of other games. Cocktail arcade machines on which the screen flips its orientation for each player's turn in two-player games traditionally have the screen's orientation in player 1's favour for the attract mode.

Auto-aim

Also known as aim-assist is a gameplay mechanic built into many games to decrease the level of difficulty. The game itself has the ability to lock onto or near targets for faster aiming. Games such as the newer Grand Theft Auto titles utilize "hard" or "soft" aim settings to respectively either lock directly onto an enemy or assist the player's aim towards the enemy while giving some freedom of precision for headshots. It is not to be confused with aimbots.

B

Balance

Beta release

An early release of a video game, following its alpha release, where typically the game developer seeks to remove bugs prior to the released product through feedback from players and testers.

Board

See Level

Bonus stage

A level that is usually unlocked and not normally on the level choose screen until unlocked.

Boss

An opponent non-player character in a video game that is typically much more difficult to defeat compared to normal enemies, often representing the end of a level or a game.

Buff

An effect played on a video game character that beneficially increases one or more of their statistics/characteristics for a temporary period.

C

Campaign mode

A campaign mode, story mode, or simply campaign refers to one of several possible operating modes of a game in which levels are specifically encountered in a linear or branching fashion, often with more story elements present compared to other modes (such as a skirmish mode or sound test).

Camping

A controversial strategy in which a player stays in one place – preferably a fortified, high-traffic location – for an extended period of time and waits to ambush other players.^[4] It is most common in first-person shooter games.^[5] Spawn camping, or spawnkilling, is a related strategy in which players camp at a spawn point.

Cheating

To play the game unfairly; giving an unfair advantage via illegitimate means.

Checkpoint

See Saved game

Chiptune

Music composed for the microchip-based audio hardware of early home computers and gaming consoles. Due to the technical limitations of earlier video game hardware, chiptune came to define a style of its own, known for its "soaring flutelike melodies, buzzing square wave bass, rapid arpeggios, and noisy gated percussion."^[6]

Cinematic

See Cutscene

Circle strafing

Clipping

A game technology that turns objects (e.g., walls) into solid, impenetrable barriers. Also see noclip, a cheat where clipping is disabled.^[2]

Closed beta

A beta period where only specific people have access to the game

CMS

Abbreviation of Construction and management simulation

Coin-op

See Arcade game

Combo

Combinations of attacks in a fighting game, during which an opponent is helpless to defend themselves. Introduced in beat-em ups as Double Dragon and Renagade, and becoming more dynamic in Capcom's fighting games Final Fight and Street Fighter II, to correctly execute a combo, a player needs to learn complex series of joystick and button combinations.^[7]

Competitive gaming

See Electronic sports

Console

Construction and management simulation (CMS)

Continue

A common term in video games for the option to continue the game after all of the player's lives have been lost, rather than ending the game and restarting from the very beginning. There may or may not be a penalty for doing this, such as losing a certain number of points or being unable to access bonus stages. In arcade games, when a player loses or fails an objective, they will generally be shown a "continue countdown" screen, in which the player has a certain limited amount of time to insert additional coins in order to continue the game from the point where it had ended by pressing the start button; deciding not to continue will result in the displaying of a Game over screen.^[8] The continue feature was added to arcade games in the mid-1980s due to arcade owners wanting to earn more money from players who played for longer periods of time.^[8] The first arcade game to have a continue feature was Fantasy.^[8] As a result of the continue feature, games started to have stories and definite endings; however, those games were designed so that it would be nearly impossible to get to the end of the game without continuing.^[8] Salen and Zimmerman argue that the continue feature in games such as Gauntlet was an outlet for conspicuous consumption.^[9]

Controller

A means of control over the console or PC you are playing the game on.

Control pad

See D-pad

Control stick

See Analog stick

Conversation tree

See Dialog tree

Cooldown

The minimum length of time that the player needs to wait after using an ability before they can use it again. Similar to the reload time and firing rate of weapons. For example, a machine gun has very fast firing rate, so it has a very low cooldown between shots. Comparatively, a shotgun has a long reload/cooldown time between each shots. Cooldown also can be used to 'balance' a weapon such as a turret-mounted machine gun having infinite ammunition, since it can only sustain continuous fire until reaching a threshold at which the weapon would have to cool down (hence the term) before it could be fired again.

In design terms, cooldown can also be thought of as an inverted 'casting time' where instead of requiring a wait time before using an ability, cooldown may replace casting time and put the wait after the ability is activated. This creates a new dimension to the balancing act of casting speed versus power: "lower cooldown, faster cast, but weaker strength" versus "higher cooldown, slower cast, but greater strength." This sort of mechanic is integral to such games as World of Warcraft, where cooldown management is key to higher-level play and various abilities deal with cooldown (for example, cooldown reduction or immediately finishing cooldown on certain abilities). From the technical point of view, cooldown can also be used to assert control over frequency of cast (for spamming) in order to maintain a fluid frame rate and ping. For example, in the game Diablo II, cooldown was added in the form of a patch to several graphically and CPU intensive spells (blizzard, frozen orb, hydra, etc.) to solve the problem of extreme lag caused by players spamming these spells in multiplayer.

Moves and attacks in fighting games (like those from the Street Fighter series) have the amount of time each of them take to execute measured in "frames" (1/60th of a second per frame). Each move has a certain amount of frames in which it is considered to be "recovering" before another move can be executed, which is similar to cooldowns in concept. However, unlike the concept of the cooldown, where a move, spell or ability is considered to be cooling down before it can be used again but control over one's character/unit is still available, the recovery frames of a move in a fighting game do not allow the player to perform any other attacks or movement until the move has fully recovered. Because of this mechanic, strategic use of skills is necessary to make sure the opponent cannot immediately counter the player during the recovery phase of an attack, since it leaves the player wide open.

Corruptor

A computer program used either as or in conjunction with an emulator to corrupt certain data within a ROM or ISO by a user-desired amount, causing varied effects, both visually and audibly, to a video game and it's data, including but not limited to displaced or misdirected pixels in a spritemap, never-ending levels, artifacts, distorted or entirely incorrect sprites, polygons, textures, or character models, spastic animations, incorrect text or dialogue trees, flickering graphics or lights, incorrect or distorted audio, ear rape, inconvenient invisible walls, lack of collision detection, and other forced glitches, usually meant to be done for humorous effect. Most often, the end result is unwinnable, if the game doesn't end up freezing in some way or entirely crashing the corruptor and associated programs as a whole.

Cover system

CPU vs. CPU

See Zero-player game

Crafting

To craft an item in game. Minecraft takes advantage of this feature.

Critical hit

A type of Hit that will do more damage than usual. Normally a rare occurrence without Upgrades

Cross-platform

See Multiplatform

Crowd control

CRPG

Abbreviation of computer/console role-playing (video) game

Cutscene

A (usually) short video which can explain the story.

Cybersport

See Electronic sports

D

D-pad

A 4-directional rocker button on nearly every console controller. Allows for the player to direct game action in eight different directions (up, down, left, right, and the diagonals involving two of these)

Damage over time

See Health

Damage per second (DPS)

Used as a metric in some games to allow the player to determine their offensive power.

Day one (release date)

The day of release for a video game.

Debuff

The opposite of a buff, an effect placed on a character that negatively impacts their statistics and characteristics. Can also refer to effects that nullify or cancel the effects of buffs. Also known as a nerf.

Design

See Video game design

Development

The development period of a game.

Dialog tree

Found primarily in adventure games, a means of providing a menu of dialog choices to the player when interacting with a non-player character as to learn more from that character, influence the character's actions, and otherwise progress the game's story. The tree nature comes from typically having multiple branching levels of questions and replies that can be explored.

Difficulty

How hard (or difficult) the #Level is.

Digital rights management (DRM)

Software tools for copyright protection

Directional pad

See D-pad

Display mode

See Attract mode

DLC

Abbreviation for downloadable content.

DOTA

Abbreviation of Defense of the Ancients, and sometimes used as a moniker to describe similar multiplayer online battle arena games.

Double jump

An additional jump that follows the first in quick succession^[10]

Downloadable content (DLC)

Additional content for a video game that is acquired through digital download and often requiring additional purchase.

DPM

Abbreviation of "damage per minute", used as a metric in some games to allow the player to determine their offensive power.

DPS

Abbreviation of Damage per second

DRM

Abbreviation of Digital rights management

Dungeon

See Level

Dungeon crawl

A type of video game that is based around exploring a dungeon or similar setting, defeating monsters and collecting loot.

Dynamic game difficulty balancing

E

Emulator

A software program that is designed to replicate the software and hardware of a video game console on more modern computers and other devices. Emulators typically include the ability to load in software images of cartridges and other similar hardware-based game distribution methods from the earlier hardware generations, in addition to more traditional software images.

Episode

Electronic sports (esports)

Organized competitions around video games, typically using games from the first person shooter and multiplayer online battle arena genres, and often played for prizes and recognition.

Emergent gameplay

Strategies of play that use the game environment in ways unintended by the game developer, e.g., scaling a wall by placing proximity mines in Deus Ex.^[2]

ESP cheats (extra-sensory perception cheats)

A package of multiple cheats. E.g., "distance ESP" shows the distance between the enemy and the player, "player ESP" makes enemies highly visible, and "weapon ESP" shows enemy weapons.^[11]

eSports

See Electronic sports

Experience point

In games that feature the ability for the player character(s) to gain levels such as CRPGs and JRPGs, experience points are used to denote progress towards the next level.

F

Free to Play (F2P, FTP)

Abbreviation of Free-to-play

Farming

Field of view (FOV)

A measurement reflecting how much of the game world is visible to the player on the display screen.

Final boss

See Boss

First-party developer

First-person shooter (FPS)

A genre of video games where the player experiences the game from the first person perspective, and where the primary mechanic is the use of guns and other ranged weapons to defeat enemies.

FOV

See Field of view

FPS

See First-person shooter or Frame rate

Flashing invulnerability

(Sometimes called "invincibility frames") An invincibility or immunity to damage that occurs after the player takes damage for a short time, indicated by the player's character blinking or "buffering", to prevent the player from taking any immediate additional damage again until it wears off.

Fog of war

A means by which a portion of a game map may remain hidden or without visibility of units occupying that region, typically due to lack of visibility (a function of the gameplay mechanics) or having been unexplored. Common in strategic or tactical game genres

Frag

See Kill

Frame rate

A measure of the rendering speed of a video game, typically in frames per second (FPS).

Free-to-play (F2P)

Video games which are typically free to play, but where additional levels, items, classes, or other aspects can be purchased with money.

Free look

To be able to look around the map freely

G

Game design

See video game design

Game localization

See Localization

Game mechanics

Game mode

A mode is a distinct configuration that varies gameplay and affects how other game mechanics behave, such as a single player mode vs a multiplayer mode.

Game over

The end of the game (failure screen).

Gameplay

Game port

When a game is Ported from one platform to another

Game save

See Saved game

Game studies

Ghost

A feature included in time attack or time trial modes in video games allowing the player to review their previous rounds. In racing games, for example, a "ghost car" may follow the last or fastest path a player took around the track. In fighting games, the ghost is an opponent that the computer AI player can train against outside of normal player versus player or story mode.

Ghost cars in racing games generally appear as translucent or flashing versions of the player's vehicle. Based on previously recorded lap times, they serve only to represent the fastest lap time and do not interact dynamically with other competitors. A skilled player will use the ghost to improve his time, matching the ghost's racing line as it travels the course. Many racing games, including Gran Turismo, F-Zero, and Mario Kart, offer a ghost function. Some also show ghosts set by staff members and developers, often showing perfect routes and lap times. A variation of the feature, dubbed by Firemonkeys Studios as "Time-Shifted Multiplayer", was implemented in the mobile racing game Real Racing 3.^[12] It works by recording the lap times of people in each race, and using statistics from other players for the game's artificial intelligence to recreate their lap times for the player to beat. The ghost cars can collide with the player and other vehicles, and are fully visible to the player.

In some rhythm games, such as the Elite Beat Agents and Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! games multiplayer mode, you can choose to use your saved replay data as one of the players instead of playing the game yourself.

Gib

Directly hit an enemy or player

Gimp

God mode (infinite health/life, invincibility, invulnerability)

A cheat that makes player-characters invulnerable.^[2] Occasionally adds invincibility, where the player can hurt enemies by touching them (e.g., the Super Mario Super Star).^[13] The effect can also be temporary.^[14]

Gold farming

See Farming

Gone gold

Griefer

A player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately irritates and harasses other players within the game, using aspects of the game in unintended ways.

Grinding

H

Handheld console

A portable gaming console

Hate

A mechanism by which Non-player characters prioritize which players to attack.

Headshot

See Critical hit

Health

The health remaining of the character or player.

Hitbox

Where the game will register any hits on a player.

Hit points

See Health

I

In-app purchase (IAP)

A purchase (microtransaction) made within a mobile game or app, usually for virtual goods in low-cost games^[15]

Indie game (independent video game)

Infinite health/life

See god mode

Invincibility

See god mode

Invisible wall

The edge of that area.

Invulnerability

See god mode

J

Joystick

Note: Do not confuse this with "an Analog stick"

An input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling, such as a plane.

JRPG

Abbreviation of Japanese role-playing video game, typically referring to a subgenre of RPGs that originated from Japan

Jump

A basic move where the player jumps vertically upon pressing the action button^[16]

K

Kill screen

A stage or level in a video game (often an arcade game) that stops the player's progress due to a software bug.^[17] Kill screens can result in unpredictable gameplay and bizarre glitches.^[18]

Notable arcade kill screens include:

• In the coin-operated version of Dig Dug, the game ends on round 256 (round 0), where the player cannot move and ultimately dies.^[19]
• Pac-Man has a kill screen on level 256 based on an integer overflow.^[20][21] Ars Technica calls this "one of the most well known accidental endings in gaming".^[19] Billy Mitchell was the first person to perform a perfect play of Pac-Man, stopped only by the kill screen.^[22] The games Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man also have kill screens.^[19]
• Donkey Kong has a kill screen caused by an overflow condition, where the game timer kills the player before it is possible to beat the level.^[19] Ars Technica calls it the "second-most famous kill screen of all of gaming"^[19] and Wired described it as "mythic".^[23][24] This was popularized in the documentary The King of Kong.^[19]
• Duck Hunt also has a kill screen after level 99 in which the ducks become invincible and fly at a high speed.^[19]
• Galaga's kill screen occurs on level 256 (level 0), when an integer overflow occurs and the game turns into a blank screen that Joshuah Bearman described as "an existential void".^[25]

Kill stealing

The practice of arranging to get credit for killing an enemy, when it should have clearly been another player's kill.

Knock-back

When a character in a fighting game or platform game gets hit by an attack, it might experience being knocked back. During knock-back, the character is unable to change its direction until a short animation is finished.^[26] Knock-back commonly results in falling down pits as the player loses control of their character.

L

Lag

The time between the stimulation and response.

Let's Play

A type of video game run-through done by players, through screenshots or video, where the player provides commentary about the game as they work through it.

Level

A stage in a game.

Level editor

A program, either provided within the game software or as an additional program, that allows players to create new levels for video games.

Life

Hit points (HP)

Light gun

A specialized game controller which the player points at their television screen or monitor to interact with the game. The controller has means to determine where the player is aiming on the screen as to have the game respond appropriate to a firing action.

Localization

During publishing, the process of editing to game for audiences in another region or country, primarily by translating the text and dialog of a video game. Localization also involves changing content of the game to reflect cultural value and censoring unlawful content

M

Magic

Map

See Level

Massively multiplayer online game (MMO)

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)

Matchmaking

Meta

A term used to describe the current norm or standard class in games.

Microtransactions

The use of real money in in-game stores.

Miniboss

See Boss

Minigame

A game that is not part of the main game, hence the name "mini".

Mission

See Level and/or Quest

MMO

Abbreviation of Massively multiplayer online game

MMORPG

Abbreviation of Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Mob

MOBA

Abbreviation of Multiplayer online battle arena

Mod

An addition to a game that is not officially in the game.

Mode

See Game mode

Mouselook

See Free look

MP

See Magic

MUD

Multiplatform

Also cross-platform

Multiplayer

A game that allows multiple players to play at once.

Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA)

A genre of real-time strategy games popularized by Defense of the Ancients that pits teams of players to defend their home base from enemy onslaughts.

Multiple character control

An emerging feature of role-playing video games where the player controls multiple characters in real-time. The PlayStation 2 was the first console to pick up this feature with the Summoner series and Dynasty Warriors series. Four computer games have implemented this feature, all free massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs): 2029, Eudemons Online, Granado Espada and Kingdom Heroes. Both Granado Espada and Kingdom Heroes have Automatic character training/AFK Leveling, and thus require high computer specifications.

Multiplier

In games with a scoring system, a gameplay element that increases the value of the points earned by the given multiplier value while the multiplier is active.

N

Nerf

A change intended to weaken a particular item, tactic, ability, or character, ostensibly for balancing purposes.

Newbie

Someone new to the game.

Noclip mode

A cheat that lets players pass through normally impenetrable objects, walls, ceilings, and floors (by disabling clipping). It lets players reach inaccessible areas.^[2]

Noob

Someone who is bad at the game.

See Newbie.

Non-player character (NPC)

A computer controlled character.

NPC

Abbreviation of Non-player character

O

Old-school gaming

See Retrogaming

Online game

A Multiplayer game that supports gameplay over the internet.

OP

Abbreviation of Overpowered

Open beta

The game is open to the public whilst in beta.

Open world

Overpowered (OP)

An item that is classed as over powered for a reason.

Overworld

See Level

P

Paddle

Parry

Permanent death (permadeath, PD)

A game where once the player's character has died or lost the game, they must restart the game completely instead of from a save or checkpoint.

Persistent world

Pixel hunting

Also known as Hunt-the-pixel, refers to a common trope in old adventure games when players had to find very small items hidden in pixellated graphics. It is a term used to describe some computer game interfaces involving point and click with a mouse. The term is usually applied to adventure games in which the primary difficulty with some portion of the game lies in finding an object on the screen. In some cases, the required object is quite small, and may be only a few pixels in size. The player may not have any idea what to look for, but often the game cannot progress without finding it. Players often apply the term to any game in which the gameplay is hindered by the frustrating task of determining precisely where on the screen to click.

An example of pixel hunting appears from The X-Files: The Game, where a vital clue is a bullet exactly 2x2 pixels in size. Other examples can be found in Dark Seed, where the player must locate a small bobby pin lying on the floor of a library, or in Beneath a Steel Sky, where the player must identify and use (without prompting) such tiny items as a 2x2 pixel lump of putty, a thumb-sized metal plate in a poorly lit club, and a barely distinguishable light socket in an abandoned metro tunnel. Pixel hunting is also crucial in Future Wars, where items are not only hard to find and required relatively late in respect to their original location but also, to successfully find an item, the player character has to stand close to its location on the screen. Dreamweb actually incorporates a "magnifying glass" effect with a sighting reticle into its interface to assist the player in locating the many infinitesimal hotspots scattered thickly through its rooms. The problem was endemic in the controversial adventure Limbo of the Lost, which featured minuscule, crucial objects in deep shadow, sometimes off the edge of the screen or obscured by the game's status bar.

Missed objects will not always lead to an unwinnable situation, but sometimes will offer just better alternative approaches to future puzzles, being thus something like Easter eggs. Some games made by Sierra On-Line, including Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and portions of the Space Quest and King's Quest series, featured interfaces that at times required a hunt-the-pixel approach. One situation in LucasArts's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, which required the player to locate a particular book among several screens full of book stacks. However, LucasArts games have the advantage of a status line indicating the object the cursor is currently over. Another remedy was to make essential objects flash, or some other method to make the element more visible against the benign background, as is done for example at the beginning of King's Quest VI with Alexander's twinkling insignia ring on the beach. In LucasArt's Sam and Max Hit the Road the cursor will have a red border when above a clickable location. The Simon the Sorcerer series avoided pixel hunting all together, by allowing the player to press F10 at any time to highlight all the hotspots on the current screen.

Pixel-hunting is extremely common in games of the escape the room genre. Players must not only find and click on very small items, but sometimes must also find very small arbitrary, and invisible hotspots in order to trigger a change in point of view. Many authors of on-line Flash point-and-click adventure games have disabled the tab key to prevent players from easily cycling through all the hotspots. Digital Spy argues having "a cursor that changes shape when over an item of interest" makes this problem "nonexistent".^[27]

Platform

What the user is playing the game on.

Platform game (platformer)

Player-character

Player versus environment (PvE)

When the player has to fight their surroundings.

Player versus player (PvP)

Player vs Player.

Port

See Game Port.

Power-up

Procedural generation

When the map is updated as it comes into focus.

Professional gaming

See eSports

Publisher

The publisher of the game.

PvE

Abbreviation of Player versus environment

PvP

Abbreviation of Player versus player

Q

QTE

Abbreviation of Quick time event

Quest

Quick time event (QTE)

R

Rack

See Level

Rage Game

A video game which is designed to be extremely difficult and frustrating, with elements that intentionally try to cheat in some way or form, with the intent of causing a player to become extremely angry and rage quit.

Rage Quit

Quitting a game in an act of anger.

Raid

A type of mission in a video game in which a very large number of people (larger than the normal team size set by the game) attempt to defeat a boss monster. Common in MMORPGs.

Real-time corruptor

A type of ROM/ISO corruption program which incrementally and gradually corrupts video game data in real time as the game is being played. A game could look fine at start-up, but as time goes by, the game data becomes more and more distorted, and the game will eventually become unplayable and/or crash.

Real-time strategy (RTS)

A genre of video games where the player controls one or more units in real-time combat with human or computer opponents.

Retrogaming

Rhythm game

A genre of video games requiring the player to perform actions in time to the game's music.

Roguelike

A genre of video games featuring procedurally-generated level generation and permanent death.

Role-playing video game (RPG)

ROM hacking

Room-over-room

In video games environments, room-over-room is the placement of a room directly above another, something originally impossible in id Software's Doom series as the original Doom games did all mapping in 2D, while height variance was done via numbers. In true 3D engines to follow, such as the Quake engine, room-over-room became an easy effect to pull off.

RPG

Abbreviation of Role-playing video game

Round

See Level

RTS

Abbreviation of Real-time strategy games.

S

Sandbox game

A Sandbox game is a game that the player has the ability to alter their environment in some substantial matter, hence the term sandbox. The term sandbox is in reference to a child's Sandbox in which you can alter the landscape and build shapes. Not to be confused with the term open-world, where the player may roam openly through the world, without artificial gimmicks to direct a set path. The story driven aspect has no effect on whether a game is sandbox or not, but can sway if a game is open-world.

Many sandbox games are open world, as they usually go hand in hand and compliment each other well, examples would be Minecraft, or Trove. Examples of games that are sandbox but not open world would be along the lines of Robocraft. Example of games that are open-world but not a sandbox would be, Cubeworld, or Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness.

Saved game (game save, savegame, savefile)

Season pass

Secret level

Shovelware

A type of often-licensed video game released in large amounts and with little attention to quality control. Usually makes up the majority of titles on any given system.

Show mode

See Attract mode

Simulation game (Sim)

Single-player

A game that can only have one player at a time.

Skill tree

A character development gaming mechanic typically seen in role-playing games. A skill tree consists of a series of skills (sometimes known as perks or by other names) which can be earned by the player as he or she levels up or otherwise progresses his or her player character. These skills grant gameplay benefits to the player; for example, giving the character the ability to perform a new action, or giving a boost to one of the character's stats.^[28]

A skill tree is called a "tree" because it uses a tiered system and typically branches out into multiple paths. A tiered skill tree will require a player to achieve certain skills before the next tier of skills become available. The player may be required to achieve all skills in one tier before moving on to the next tier, or may only be required to complete prerequisites for individual branches. Skill trees are a common tool used for in-game balancing by game designers. Skill trees also offer a "game within a game" in which players are not only playing a video game, but their decisions on how they allocate points into their skill trees will affect their overall gaming experience as they play on.^[29]

The action roleplaying game, Diablo II, released over ten years ago, is often cited as the true innovator of in depth skill trees.^[30]

Skirmish mode

Sound test

The testing of sounds

Split-screen multiplayer

Stage

See Level

Status effect

Strafing

To move while in air or doing something else to #Dodge projectiles.

Strategy guide

Subgame

See Minigame

Superboss

See Boss

T

Technology tree (tech tree)

A branching series of technologies that can be researched in strategy games, to customise the player's faction. See Skill tree.

Theory

See Game studies

Theorycraft

Thumbstick

See Analog stick

Title screen

The initial screen of a computer, video, or arcade game after the credits and logos of the game developer and the publisher are displayed. Earlier title screens often included all the game options available (single player, multiplayer, configuration of controls, etc.) while modern games have opted for the title screen to serve as a splash screen. This can be attributed to the use of the title screen as a loading screen, in which to cache all the graphical elements of the main menu. Older computer and video games had relatively simple menu screens, that often featured pre-rendered artwork.

In arcade games, the title screen is shown as part of the attract mode loop, usually after a game demonstration is played. The title screen, as well as the high score list, urges potential players to insert coins. In console games, especially if the screen is not merged with the main menu, it urges the player to press start. Similarly, in computer games, the message "Hit any key" is often displayed. Controls that lack an actual "Start" button use a different prompt; in the Nintendo Wii, for example, usually prompts to press the "A" button and the "B" trigger simultaneously, as in Super Mario Galaxy 2 or Mario Party 9. Fan-made games often parody the style of basis of the creation.

Triple A

See AAA

Triple jump

An additional jump that follows the second in quick succession^[10]

Touchscreen

When the screen of the console can be touched and get a response.

Trackball

Turn-based game

When a game consists of multiple turns. Once one players turn is up they must wait until everyone else has finished their turn.

U

Underpowered

A character, item, tactic, or ability considered to be too weak to be balanced.

V

Replay value

The ability to play the game again and get the same enjoyment a second(+) time.

Video game design

For non-video game design, see game design

W

Wallhack

A cheat that makes walls translucent.^[2] Some wallhacks also let players shoot weapons or physically pass through walls (noclip).^[11]

Wall jump

A jump performed off of a wall to propel the player in the opposite direction. Wall jumps between two tight walls can be done in quick succession to climb vertically. As a special jump, it is sometimes an acquired skill instead of available from the game's start.^[10]

Warp zone

An area in a video game where players can go from one place or level to another.

WASD keys

A common control mechanism using a typical QWERTY keyboard, with the keys "W", "A", "S", and "D" bound to movement controls.

Wave

See Level

Win quote

A phrase spoken by a fighting game character after defeating an opponent. In older games such as Fatal Fury and traditionally in 2D fighting games such as Capcom vs. SNK, it is not an actual voice sample, but text superimposed on an image of the winning character, occasionally depicted alongside the visibly injured defeated character (Street Fighter II for example). Win quotes are rarely particularly profound, and are often little more than trash talk, but they help players to understand and identify with the characters.

In most games, characters have one or more win quotes that they use indiscriminately, but sometimes special win quotes are used in special circumstances. For example, in The King of Fighters '94, each character has special win quotes against each of the 8 teams; in Street Fighter Alpha, players can choose one of four win quotes by holding certain button combinations after winning a battle; in Street Fighter III: Giant Attack, characters sometime use special win quotes if they finish the battle with a certain move; and in SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium, players can input their own win quotes in edit mode.

Some win quotes have characters break the fourth wall, such as Chun-Li's Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter win quote in which she suspects the game is set on the easiest difficulty setting; or are in-jokes referring to other video games, like Sakura's Street Fighter Alpha 3 win quote in which she says she prefers "street fighting to sparring in rival schools."

World

See Level

X

XP

See Experience point

Y

YouTube Bait

Games that are made for an audience; games created with YouTubers in mind.

Z

Zero-player game

A game that has no sentient players. In video games, the term refers to programs that use artificial intelligence rather than human players.^[31]

Zone

See Level

References

Sources