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Black Market
The Black Market is a concept wherein players may buy or sell items through alternative means. This is often a way to make more money but can often land the player into trouble.
Appears in 93 games
First appeared in Elite
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Dual Wielding
The concept of using two weapons at once, often for more damage at the cost of accuracy, the use of a shield, grenades, or other similar accessories.
Appears in 357 games
First appeared in The Screamer
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Expanding Crosshair
A crosshair which becomes larger when the player shoots or moves which decreases accuracy, discourages shooting on the move and promotes firing in small bursts.
Appears in 90 games
First appeared in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
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Upgradeable Weapon
Weapons can often be upgraded with new attachments, augmentations, or magical enchantments. These upgrades result in the original item being more powerful than originally intended.
Appears in 702 games
First appeared in The Tower of Druaga
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Camping
An age-old, widely-hated strategy in multiplayer games: stay in one spot and kill passers-by. Also refers to a more benign activity in MMOs.
Appears in 201 games
First appeared in Tunneler
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Uncanny Valley
When an animated character graphically looks realistic, but shows poor, unrealistic animations, the result can be very awkward. These instances of almost-human-but-not-quite can appear stilted, off-kilter, or even eery. This is the Uncanny Valley effect.
Appears in 20 games
First appeared in Half-Life
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Health
Health is a value that gauges how much damage players can take in a game before they die or pass out. Also known as life in some games. Health is usually represented by a bar or a percentage instead of an exact amount. Found in most non sport games
Appears in 2594 games
First appeared in Playtron
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User Generated Content
User Generated Content describes any content the end user produces to add onto the content given by the developer. User Generated Content has grown in popularity, with LittleBigPlanet, Forza Motorsport 3, ModNation Racers and Spore being great examples.
Appears in 232 games
First appeared in Lode Runner
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Min-maxing
The concept of minimizing undesirable qualities of a character so as to maximize desirable qualities in order to achieve the most powerful character possible in an RPG.
Appears in 19 games
First appeared in Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn
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Mod Support
Oftentimes developers will release the tools they used to create a title to the fans that play it. This Mod Support allows normal gamers to re-define their gaming experience and share their work with the public, promoting creativity and community.
Appears in 85 games
First appeared in Doom
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Generation Remix
A term coined by J Allard referring to the current generation of gamers that demands personalization in their gaming experiences. i.e., user generated content. Games listed here must contain a feature that allows users to insert brand new content into the game, not just modify or reapply existing content.
Appears in 7 games
First appeared in Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
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Party System
A system in which the player is allowed to control multiple characters. Most commonly seen in role playing games. Can also be used to describe party systems in the MMORPG genre, which brings a group of players together to accomplish various tasks.
Appears in 417 games
First appeared in Space Tactics
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Hammer On & Pull Off
Hammer Ons and Pull Offs (often shorthanded as HO/POs) are Guitar Hero/Rock Band notes that you can play without strumming. They always follow at least one note you do have to strum, then you can continue playing just by pressing the fret buttons.
Appears in 25 games
First appeared in Guitar Hero
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Random Encounter
Enemies that appear out of nowhere and force the player into a battle.
Appears in 218 games
First appeared in Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
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Persistent World
A persistent world is a game environment that is permanent and dynamic. This is seen in many MMO's.
Appears in 109 games
First appeared in Zarth
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Vaporware
A term used to describe a game that has not officially been cancelled, but which has disappeared from the public view, and from which no word on development has been released in a long, long time.
Appears in 63 games
First appeared in A Blurred Line
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Koopa
A very common collection of enemies in the Super Mario Bros. franchise. Some famous Koopas include: Lakitu, Hammer Bro., Bowser Jr., and the King of Koopas himself, Bowser!!
Appears in 85 games
First appeared in Super Mario Bros.
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My Father's Sword
A device by which a character's motivations or expectations are influenced by a suspiciously absent family member.
Appears in 59 games
First appeared in Phantasy Star
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Ragdoll Physics
A physics system used to procedurally generate body movement similar to rag dolls.
Appears in 252 games
First appeared in Earnest Evans
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Vampire
Vampires are undead, nocturnal creatures that subsist on blood. They have superhuman powers and are sometimes able to shape-shift. They are weak against sunlight, foreign objects stuck in and left in their hearts, decapitation and sometimes holy water and crosses.
Appears in 351 games
First appeared in Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds
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Minigame
These are often a departure from the conventional gameplay of a game. There have also been compilations; games including only minigames. The Mario Party series has a lot of minigames, too!
Appears in 880 games
First appeared in Video Action
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Kudos
Points awarded for stylish driving in the Project Gotham Racing series.
Appears in 5 games
First appeared in Metropolis Street Racer
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Peripheral Usage
The use of peripherals has vastly changed the way games are played. This concept includes an array of items, including joysticks, plastic guitars & drum-sets, and specialized printers.
Appears in 185 games
First appeared in Turbo
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Nazi
Members of the German National Socialist Party, which controlled Germany from January 1933 unto the end of World War II in May 1945. Nazis and characters inspired by them are often used as villains in video games.
Appears in 166 games
First appeared in Navarone
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Destructible Cover
Destructible cover is an increasingly popular feature in shooters, even those without cover systems. It is used to encourage creative tactics both in single-player and multiplayer.
Appears in 111 games
First appeared in Gun Fight
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God Complex
A state of mind in which a person (usually a leader or dictator) genuinely believes that they are a powerful god.
Appears in 37 games
First appeared in Lunar: The Silver Star
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Frag
A popular name for the killcount (scoring system) in first person shooters, origin is Doom. The name comes from fragmentation grenades in that these are mainly antipersonnel weapons, the meaning is obscured greatly when referring to frags in games.
Appears in 46 games
First appeared in Duke Nukem 3D
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Cooperative Play
Cooperative play in games allows humans to play together as a team to accomplish a task. Instead of playing against a human opponent, the team must defeat an AI. Cooperative Play in some games also means 2 human versus 2 human, this occurs in some Billiards games. (Scotch Doubles / Doubles)
Appears in 1061 games
First appeared in Basketball
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Loading Screen
Loading Screens are specific screens that are displayed while a game is loading resources so that the player has something to distract them while the game loads. Loading Screens can be images, text or even mini-games - and sometimes a combination of all three.
Appears in 700 games
First appeared in 1942
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Aggro
Grabbing the attention of a nearby enemy NPC. Usually leads to them attacking.
Appears in 93 games
First appeared in The Misadventures of Flink
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Kaiju
Kaiju is the Japanese term for monster or strange beasts, commonly associated with giant monsters such as Godzilla. Kaiju appear as enemies in games, but just as often they are controlled by the player.
Appears in 95 games
First appeared in Crush, Crumble and Chomp!
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Letters Replaced by Numbers in Title
Some games replace letters or words in a title with numbers or symbols, usually to add more of a "badass edge" to them.
Appears in 33 games
First appeared in 2 Hot 2 Handle
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Explosive Arrow
Always a fun time in any game, the explosive tipped arrow puts a great spin on a classic weapon.
Appears in 37 games
First appeared in Rambo: First Blood Part II
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Damsel In Distress
The concept of a helpless female character in desperate need of rescuing by the protagonist, in most cases from a villain, or from a form of impending doom.
Appears in 312 games
First appeared in Sheriff
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Summoning
Summoning involves bringing a distant ally into battle to either perform a single, devastating attack or to fight on the behalf of the summoner.
Appears in 232 games
First appeared in Kool-Aid Man
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Magic
The concept of affecting the universe through supernatural methods, breaking the fundamental laws of science.
Appears in 1359 games
First appeared in pedit5
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Critical Hit
An attack that does more damage than usual, usually affected by random chance and some sort of modifier.
Appears in 275 games
First appeared in Dragon Warrior
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Breast Bounce
The deliberate animation of breasts, meant to titillate as a means to conform to more realistic physics.
Appears in 298 games
First appeared in Sabrina
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Active Time Battle
Battle system associated with Final Fantasy series. First introduced in Final Fantasy IV.
Appears in 37 games
First appeared in Cobra Mission
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Morality System
Moral dilemmas presented to the player that often have a significant effect on the story or other characters.
Appears in 477 games
First appeared in Danchi Tsuma no Yuwaku
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Day/Night Cycle
Environments cycle between day and night, often with effects on other aspects of the game.
Appears in 583 games
First appeared in Super Speed Race V
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Shift Queuing
Shift Queuing is the act of Queuing up a sequence of actions in an RTS by holding the Shift key and selecting multiple actions/movements in sequence, which are then carried out in order. This is done to maximize efficiency while minimizing Micromanagement and allowing the player to focus his attention on combat or other important things.
Appears in 13 games
First appeared in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
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Super Soldier
A supersoldier is a soldier artificially given abilities far beyond those of normal humans. These include increased strength, speed, stamina, intelligence, the ability to fly, the ability to create fire with their mind, etc.
Appears in 62 games
First appeared in Commando
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Push to Talk
In order to chat with others the user must press a button before or while talking.
Appears in 22 games
First appeared in SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs
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