Gaming Glossary: A Rough Guide to Videogames Terms

Do you know your FPS from your JRPG? Is that a first- or third-party game you’re playing? And do you prefer your RTS to be isometric or not?

The following glossary is designed to cut through the jargon and acronyms that can cloak videogames writing, making it appear impenetrable to anyone but the initiated. A version of this appears at the end of the Rough Guide to Videogames, but this post will be added to and amended as time goes by. Suggestions welcome.

action-adventure
A broad game genre encompassing games that include combat or other perilous physical activity as well as exploration and puzzle-solving. Also sometimes action game or adventure game, or action RPG.

AI (artificial intelligence)
Dictates the actions of anything in a game that isn’t controlled by the player; great AI makes for more interesting and realistic behaviour by non-player characters or enemies.

analog controls
Buttons or other mechanisms on a game controller that react to gradations of movement; an analog stick, for example, will allow you not just to move in a specific direction, but to move slowly or quickly depending on the level of pressure exerted; compare this with digital controls, which offer just two states: moving or not moving.

arcade cabinet
A coin-operated games machine in an arcade.

beat-'em-up
A genre of one-on-one fighting, often martial arts. Examples are the Mortal Kombat and Virtua Fighter series.

beta
The stage in a game’s development when an almost-finished version is submitted to user testing to iron out any problems.

boss
An enemy at the end of a level which must be defeated in order to complete the level and move on to the next; they tend to be tougher than other opponents in the game.

cel shading
Computer-generated artwork that resembles two-dimensional cartoons in style, rather than aiming for photorealism.

console
A game-playing system that is hooked up to a TV screen, for instance the PlayStation, Xbox or Wii.

cosplay
The pastime of dressing up as characters from games at launches and other events; big in Japan, it’s now become popular in the UK and US.

cut scene
A non-interactive sequence that interrupts gameplay, usually designed to move the plot along.

developer
A person (or more usually a vast team of people) who designs and produces games.

digital controls
Buttons or other mechanisms on a game controller that offer just two states - on or off. Contrast this with the gradations of movement allowed by analog controls, above.

d-pad
A controller’s cross-shaped directional button.

emulator
Software that mimics the functionality of a console or other hardware, so that games can be played on a different system from that for which they were originally designed.

engine
The software backbone of a game, underlying programming that is often used across different games.

expansion pack
Additional content for a game, extending its life.

first-party
Used to describe a game developed by the same company that makes the console it’s played on, for example Nintendo games for the Wii.

first-person
Viewpoint whereby the player sees the action through the game character’s eyes.

FMV
Full motion video; see cut scene.

force feedback
Technology by which a peripheral such as a controller responds to signals in the game and vibrates correspondingly; for instance, when the car you’re driving crashes, when your character dies, or to signify recoil in shooting games.

FPS
First-person shooter, a shooting game with a first-person perspective.

god game or god sim
A strategy game in which you get to take control of the creation of a civilization or some other kind of human development such as a city.

handheld
A portable gaming system with an integral screen, for instance the PlayStation Portable or Nintendo DS.

hit points 
A numerical representation of a character’s capacity for damage, especially in RPGs; if a character is wounded in battle or falls off a ledge, hit points diminish. Other types of game use graphic life meters or bars, which drain or change colour to indicate health.

HUD
Heads-up display; in an FPS it often gives information on health and available equipment.

isometric
Viewpoint that allows you to see objects from three sides at once, used in RPGs and strategy games to give an overview of a broad area.

JRPG
A roleplaying game produced originally in Japan; JRPGs are significantly different from Western style RPGs.

LAN
Local Area Network; in games, this is usually used to refer to a small-scale multiplayer setup.

life meter
See hit points.

localization
The process of changing a game so that it appeals to a different territory from the one it was originally designed for, including changing the language and altering anything that might be deemed offensive in the new territory.

machinima
An art form that uses in-game footage as the basis for filmmaking.

minigame
A short, usually simple game, either within a bigger game, or forming part of a collection of games often suitable for multiple players in a party setting.

MMORPG
Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game; an MMO is simply any massively multiplayer online game.

mod
Based on the code of an existing game, modding (from "modification") usually provides new levels for an old game and can even revise the gameplay setting beyond recognition.

NPC
A non-player character, controlled by the computer rather than the player.

PC
A player character, controlled by the player. (Or a personal computer, depending on context.)

peripheral
Anything you connect to a console or PC to facilitate gameplay, for example a controller, a microphone or a steering-wheel.

pick-up
An item picked up by a character that offers a usually short-term or one-off effect, for instance a weapon in a racing game, or a health potion in a platform game.

platform(er)
A genre in which the player’s character has to jump from 2D platform to 2D platform; the word is also sometimes used for the 3D version, in which characters have to traverse dangerous environments by means of accurate player control.

port
A later version of a game revised to work on a different system from the one for which it was originally designed. A game is ported to another console.

rhythm
A generally music-based game in which fast and accurate responses to prompts are required.

RPG
Roleplaying game; a lengthy game (fifty-plus hours of gameplay is not unusual) in which the player assumes the role of a character or characters. It usually has a fantasy setting. See also JPRG.

RTS
Real-time strategy game; a game in which the player’s actions and the computer’s reactions occur in real time.

save point
A predetermined place in the gameworld where the player can choose to save progress for continuing at a later time; some games have autosave points that do the same job. Often located before a boss or other perilous situation.

sim 
Simulation, a type of strategy game. The term is used in combination with whatever’s being simulated, for instance a flight sim or a theme park sim.

spawn
The reappearance of a dead character or defeated enemy. If Master Chief dies in Halo, for example, he’ll respawn in a safe location.

third-party
Used to describe games developed by one company for another company’s hardware, for instance a Rockstar game designed for the PS3.

turn-based
Describes a game or part of a game in which the action happens in a certain prescribed order; the computer will wait until a player has acted before taking its turn.

unlock
To access a part of a game, or an item in a game, that only becomes available once certain criteria are fulfilled. In some games, completion unlocks a further level, for example.

walkthrough
A detailed guide through a game, often written by fans. Also known as a game FAQ.

Unleashing LucasArts' Force: Star Wars and beyond

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is released this week and seems likely to be one of the year’s top-selling titles, if the demo’s anything to go by: it was downloaded 2.3 million times in the first two weeks or so. The game is available for every platform (though there are significant differences between them), which is just as well as it covers a missing part of the Star Wars story, the gap between the end of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which marked the birth both the Empire and Darth Vader, and the beginning of Episode IV: A New Hope (aka the original Star Wars movie).



It’s on my wishlist, but as always I’m waiting till the furore dies down before getting a copy and deciding whether it deserves better than the rather average review scores it’s been receiving. Although I did admit to preferring Indiana Jones, that doesn’t mean that me and my co-author aren’t huge Star Wars fans, and a glance at the index of the Rough Guide to Videogames turns up no fewer than eight entries. Of these, Lego Star Wars is covered as a canon entry, with shorter writeups of several other games, but we also delve further into the background with a piece on LucasArts, the developer and publisher behind The Force Unleashed. It’s just one of the articles in The Players, a section of the book covering individual creators, companies and characters who’ve had an impact on videogames history. Here’s an edited-down excerpt.

LucasArts
George Lucas’s filmmaking empire entered the games business in 1982, with a project looking into the capabilities of Atari’s computers, presumably with an eye to the potential afforded by the success of the first two Star Wars movies and more recent Raiders of the Lost Ark. Lucasfilm Games, as it was then known, wouldn’t make its own Star Wars game for many years; perhaps not so surprising, considering the catastrophe that was the E.T. game. In subsequent years, as Lucasfilm and its subsidiaries remained at the forefront of video, sound and special effects technology, games would become a vital, and lucrative, movie marketing tool. Back in the early 1980s, though, Lucasfilm licensed Atari and others to produce arcade and home computer games based on its film franchises.

After a couple of unmemorable titles for Atari in 1984, Lucasfilm Games established itself at the head of a new genre – the graphical adventure game. This was spearheaded by self-published titles like Ron Gilbert’s Maniac Mansion (1987), a point-and-click comedy-horror game for the home computers of the time, which inspired a three-season-long TV show (plus a 1993 sequel, Day of the Tentacle). Gilbert went on to produce the groundbreaking The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), followed by Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (see picture – this is a Canon title in the Rough Guide; PC, Mac, 1991).

The first actual Lucasfilm spinoff would stick with the genre, with the point-and-click Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, followed in 1992 by Hal Barwood’s Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, an original premise with such a great script that it sparked rumours of a film spinoff. The company’s last great adventure title was 1998’s Grim Fandango for the PC (another Canon title; see picture), after which the genre appeared to fade away with the arrival of 3D. At that point LucasArts’ focus was taken up with the prequel trilogy of Star Wars movies, beginning in 1999 with the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Although the company had developed a side-scrolling platformer for the NES based on A New Hope, the franchise was then – as it is now – licensed to a number of other companies, resulting in games of varying quality. Until 2001, by far the most highly regarded was the outstanding X-Wing series for the PC (1993 onwards; see picture), developed by the same team (Larry Holland’s Totally Games) responsible for LucasArt’s excellent World War II air combat sims for PC.

No matter that the Star Wars prequels disappointed many hardcore fans, for a while the world went Star Wars crazy anyway and LucasArts put out a slew of games on the back of the films, ranging from the dismal Obi-Wan (Xbox, 2001) to the superb Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GC, 2001). Then, in 2004, a company shakeup meant redundancies and a number of cancelled projects; highlights from other developers included BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic RPG (Xbox, 2003) and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 by Pandemic (PS2, Xbox, 2005).

As a publisher LucasArts has successfully straddled various genres, from the realistic shooter Mercenaries (Pandemic Studios, 2005) to the Lego Star Wars games (Traveller’s Tales, 2005), though the Star Wars brand is probably enough in itself to have carved out a prominent place in videogames history. All the more interesting, then, that as a developer, the LucasArts name is still, for many, synonymous with classic adventure games of the 1980s and 90s.

Win a Wii (and the Rough Guide to Videogames) via Gamespot.com

Yes, another competition but this time you don't have to do anything except send in your name. And live in the continental US or Canada. It's totally effort (and cost) free.

The ad apparently looks like this on various pages at Gamespot, but I can't see it as I'm based in the UK and automatically get UK-based advertising.

I've checked it out at the page the ad links to, which works too.

Simply because it's so great, I'm also posting here an ad from GamePro magazine's Fall 2008 Wii Gamers' Guide special issue (below) - it's right by the article that tells you how to win at Wii Fit without breaking a sweat. Thanks to Rough Guides US, and especially Nancy Lambert.

Canon fodder: LEGO INDIANA JONES: THE ORIGINAL ADVENTURES

Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3, PS2, Wii, PC, PSP, DC; Traveller’s Tales, LucasArts; 2008; 7+, Everyone 10+

I love the Indiana Jones movies. More than Star Wars, even. So no one could have been more excited than me that Traveller’s Tales were bringing their Lego adventure magic to the Spielberg trilogy. It’s one of those games that’s simple to pick up, and perfect for times when you don’t feel like committing to anything too serious. As for whether it’s Canon material, read on. [NB Canon fodder is a category covering games not included in the Rough Guide to Videogames canon. This might be because a game didn’t quite make the grade, or it simply didn’t exist at the time at the time of writing, or both.]

How’s it work?
Anyone familiar with the Lego Star Wars games will be right at home; if not, then it doesn’t take long to familiarize yourself. First of all, you play through the stories of the first three films, each divided into six chapters, with the characters of Indy (in various disguises) and whichever sidekick is relevant to the scene. If you’re playing alone, your companion will be AI-controlled; if you’re playing with another person co-operatively, you’ll take a character each. The excitement comes from the action – solving mysteries (puzzles in this case), punching and shooting, chasing and being chased by the bad guys – that takes place in disparate settings around the globe, accompanied by the familiar John Williams score. But since these are Lego models rather than highly paid actors, violent interactions result in an explosion of bricks rather than blood, and there’s no dialogue either. The story is conveyed through silent cut scenes, and expressive grunting and facial expressions (“drawn” onto the plastic) that cleverly mimic the original actors. Individual character animations are just as perfectly judged, for example, Willie from Temple of Doom, Indy’s most feeble of female sidekicks, has a punch as strong as any character, but it’s followed by some ineffectual slapping motions; Indy waves him arms in inimitable style to balance himself as he jumps. These details are so cleverly observed, they don’t get tiresome however often you see them.

What do you actually do?
The large environments reflect those of the films in Lego form, albeit altered for gameplay reasons. So as well as being atmospheric they’re always partly destructible, whether in the jungle or the snow, in the Middle Eastern desert or a Shanghai nightclub. You’re not just fighting your way through to the end of each chapter, either, but picking up and moving items to solve puzzles, mending machinery, entering buildings, swinging on vines (or use Indy’s whip) across ravines, driving trucks and motorbikes. There’s no equivalent of the space battles in the Star Wars game though.



The baddies aren’t specifically Nazis, unsurprisingly – so no, there isn’t a Lego Mr Bronson from Grange Hill. Whatever their motivation, they tend to arrive in waves, heavily armed, unlike the majority of characters (you need to snatch up their guns to use them). Smashing the enemy’s only part of it, as you have to destroy lots of the structures onscreen to uncover items to build from Lego pieces, find treasure chests, and amass a pot of studs (aka cash) to buy extra characters and additions like disguises or improved digging and building skills.

Even for fans of the films, it’s the Free Play mode that opens up after you’ve played the story chapters that’s the most fun. Here, you run through the same scenarios minus the plot, with the ability to swap different characters in and out; it’s only through doing this that you can retrieve all of the hidden items. For instance, most of the characters can’t enter the low-down crawl spaces dotted around; swap to Short Round and you can wriggle in to gain access to new areas. The bigger characters have their own attributes: female characteres jump higher, some come with a shovel for digging stuff up; others with a spanner (wrench) for fixing cars and the like; Dr Jones Senior and Elsa have a handy code book to decipher hieroglyphics; and Indy has a whip but refuses to go anywhere near snakes. Perhaps one of the most useful is a Bazooka soldier from the German hideout in The Last Crusade, who will happily turn up and blast to smithereens the scenery of the earlier films.

Canon or not?
Any doubts then aren’t about the story, the silly tongue-in-cheek humour, or the characters. Just about the difficulty of some of the jumping, which shouldn’t really be so tricky. It’s not disastrous, as you don’t have to replay anything on dying, just lose lose studs, but it can be demoralizing losing thousands thanks to the fact the camera is fixed but for a few degrees in either direction. Sometimes you have to make a jump at the back of the scene, so to speak, and it’s impossible to judge where to aim your little Indy; even worse, your partner might move unexpectedly, which shifts the camera angle. It is possible to get the jumps right eventually, through a process of trial and error. On the other hand, death is unavoidable if one character is at the edge of a chasm when the other one wanders off in the direction of the drop; the first character, trying to follow, will plunge shrieking to her death over and over till the other one comes back for you.

It may sound like a petty complaint, but it’s intensely frustrating to watch your stud count drain away because you have to try and make a jump several times. It would be a bit mean to say it wasn’t canon simply on that basis, but there’s also the fact that as a two-player game, the sidekick can feel a bit unimportant, these stories not having a persistent ensemble cast like Star Wars. Then again, in Free Play you can both be Indiana Jones. In the end, while it may not quite make the canon grade, it’s nonetheless eminently worth playing.

Rough Guide to Videogames on BBC Radio 2

The national radio spot I've been going on about finally aired last night at around 10.45pm, while the majority of the UK was watching this year's Big Brother Final. That's right, the weekly arts programme presented by Claudia Winkleman, the thinking man's Davina McCall I'm told, was on opposite, um, Davina McCall.

If you missed hearing me talk to Claudia about the Wii, the DS, The Sims and Okami (I meant watercolour painting), my Mum, crisps and shoes, you can still listen online via the iPlayer console. If that doesn’t work, try the Weekender page. The relevant section starts at approx 37 min 44 sec if you like Kraftwerk; if not, then skip right to 41 min 30 sec.

Canon fodder: BRAID

Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade; developed by Jonathan Blow, published by Microsoft

“Braid treats your time and attention as precious.”

“Braid does everything it can to give you a mind-bending experience.”

These quotes from the developer’s website speak volumes about the ambition and commitment lavished on this independent game. Charming, affecting and annoying in turn, it’s a game that can be taken on two levels. You can play it fast straight through, skipping the between-level text, or you can engage with it more deeply and try to penetrate the ambiguous narrative that’s wrapped up with the gameplay.

On the surface Braid is a platform-puzzle game, in which you negotiate your character, Tim, through lush, hand-painted levels, collecting jigsaw puzzle pieces along the way. In many ways it pays homage to Super Mario Bros – in its level design, in interpretations of monsters and scripted in-jokes (see the screenshot below) – and the running and jumping is straightforward for anyone who’s played a platform game before. If on the other hand you’re new to it, you’ll want a bit of practice, but then this is the perfect game to develop those skills, because mistakes are reversible here, thanks to your ability to turn back time. By pressing a button, events rewind along with the music, as the colour fades out, all the way back to the beginning of the level if you like. This allows you to redo any jump you missed.



The manipulation of time is much more than an aid for imperfect gamers, though; quickly becoming central to the gameplay, it’s extended and developed throughout the levels. So while sometimes Tim relies on a shadow version of himself repeating his actions, in other levels moving forward advances time and moving back reverses it. Sometimes a door key remains where you found it; other times it doesn’t. Each change of mechanic brings with it a new mental framework for the challenges to be overcome.

A gaming vocabulary isn’t needed so much then as a head for logic puzzles. Winning each hard-to-reach puzzle piece brings a triumphant rush, but sometimes getting there is difficult enough to be frustrating. If you’re like me, you’ll be tempted sometimes to give up and rush through the door to the next level instead. Just remember that without all the pieces, you don’t see the big picture (in this case, the ending). So it’s worth going back to previous levels, walkthrough in hand, to pick up any you missed.

Eventually inextricable from the gameplay, though, is the narrative, which is conveyed between levels by a handful of pages containing a few lines of text. The archetypal story of boy seeking princess isn’t just for motivation, but represents here the relationship between past and future; it’s about following a dream and examining a failed relationship, about the need to rewind and undo what we’ve done in order to move on, about unreliable memory and regret. Whether the text unerringly hits the right note or not (and I’d say it doesn’t), the sorrow and confusion of someone trying to make sense of the world would be hard to miss.

In the end, though, it doesn’t matter whether you can solve the often frustrating puzzles or not. Nor does it matter if you play in short bursts with dubious success or aim for a perfect finish. It doesn’t even matter whether you “get” it or not. However you approach the challenge of Braid, it’s without doubt a brave, experimental and worthwhile game to play.



Note: Canon fodder is a category covering games not included in the Rough Guide to Videogames' canon. This might be because a game didn’t quite make the grade, or as in this case, it simply didn’t exist at the time at the time of writing.

Winners of the Rough Guide to Videogames

The Guardian gamesblog's competition is finally over and the winning entries have been posted. Check them out.

The first entry, by Neil Golightly, is uncannily like reading a Rough Guide. . . witty, informative and a good read. Perhaps he's a travel writer in the real world. From the sounds of it, I’d like to have played The Longest Journey. But it’s too late for that, especially as I don’t even have a PC right now.

Soon I’m going to be covering some of the other games that missed out on being canon, either because they didn’t quite make the grade, or because they were released after the book’s deadline.