Concepts

7196 Concepts: Grid; Compact

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 341 games

First appeared in Final Fantasy II
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 81 games

First appeared in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Upgradeable Weapons

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 632 games

First appeared in The Tower of Druaga
Camping

Camping is when an individual or group stays in the same general area typically with the mentality of putting the opposing players at an unfair disadvantage.

Appears in 216 games

First appeared in Tunneler
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 25 games

First appeared in Indigo Prophecy
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 2250 games

First appeared in DND
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 178 games

First appeared in Lode Runner
Min-maxing

The concept of minimizing unwanted skills and maximizing wanted skills to achieve the best character possible in an RPG.

Appears in 23 games

First appeared in Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn
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 72 games

First appeared in Doom
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 5 games

First appeared in Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
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 365 games

First appeared in Space Tactics
Hammer Ons & Pull Offs

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 26 games

First appeared in Guitar Hero
Random Encounter

A glitch found in many RPGs which repeatedly forces the player into combat situations when they are walking around an area such as a dungeon, cave, or overworld map. Some gamers defend random encounters for aiding the player in leveling up, but most consider it an annoyance.

Appears in 209 games

First appeared in Star Raiders
Persistent World

A persistent world is a game environment that is permanent and dynamic. This is seen in many MMO's.

Appears in 110 games

First appeared in Hydlide 3: Yami kara no Houmonsha
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 51 games

First appeared in Battle Rage 3D: The Robot Wars
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 83 games

First appeared in Mario Bros.
My Father's Sword

A device by which a character's motivations or expectations are influenced by a suspiciously absent family member.

Appears in 67 games

First appeared in Phantasy Star
Ragdoll Physics

A physics system used to procedurally generate life-like body movement.

Appears in 253 games

First appeared in Motocross Madness
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 280 games

First appeared in Transylvania
Minigames

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 762 games

First appeared in Video Action
Kudos

Points awarded for stylish driving in the Project Gotham Racing series.

Appears in 6 games

First appeared in Metropolis Street Racer
Peripherals

The use of peripherals has vastly changed the way we play games. From simple gamepads and joysticks, through to plastic guitars and drum-sets that take up all the space in our living rooms!

Appears in 180 games

First appeared in Turbo
Nazis

Often used as generic, evil enemies, the Nazis of gaming are often either an extreme version of members of the German National Socialist party from the mid-thirties, or the military opponents in WW2-shooters.

Appears in 128 games

First appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark
Destructible Cover

Destructible cover is an increasingly popular gameplay element in shooters, uniting destructible environments with cover mechanics to discourage overly defensive play. Just like you, that piece of concrete isn't going to last forever.

Appears in 116 games

First appeared in Gun Fight
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 32 games

First appeared in Lunar: The Silver Star
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 50 games

First appeared in Doom
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.

Appears in 863 games

First appeared in Balloon Gun
Loading Screens

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 526 games

First appeared in 1942
Aggro

Grabbing the attention of a nearby enemy NPC. Usually leads to them attacking you.

Appears in 92 games

First appeared in The Misadventures of Flink
Kaiju

Kaiju is the Japanese term for monster or strange beasts, commonly associated with giant monsters such as Godzilla. This theme has often appeared in games where the play has to battle or even play as a huge monster. An example would be 'Lard Lad' from The Simpsons Game.

Appears in 80 games

First appeared in Crush, Crumble and Chomp!
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 32 games

First appeared in 2 Hot 2 Handle
Explosive Tipped Arrows

Always a fun time in any game, the explosive tipped arrow puts a great spin on a classic weapon.

Appears in 45 games

First appeared in Rambo
Damsel In Distress

The concept of a helpless female character in desperate need of rescuing by a male protagonist, in most cases from a villain, or from a form of impending doom.

Appears in 258 games

First appeared in Sheriff
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 222 games

First appeared in Kool-Aid Man
Magic

The concept of affecting the universe through supernatural methods, breaking the fundamental laws of science.

Appears in 1192 games

First appeared in pedit5
Critical Hit

An attack that does more damage than usual, usually affected by random chance and some sort of modifier.

Appears in 262 games

First appeared in Dragon Warrior
Breast Bounce

The deliberate animation of breasts, either in an exaggerated fashion meant to titillate, or as a means to conform to more realistic physics.

Appears in 230 games

First appeared in Fatal Fury 2
Active Time Battle

Battle system associated with Final Fantasy series. First introduced in Final Fantasy IV.

Appears in 32 games

First appeared in Final Fantasy IV
Moral Decisions

Moral dilemmas presented to the player that often have a significant effect on the story or other characters.

Appears in 411 games

First appeared in Nobunaga's Ambition
Day/Night Cycle

Environments cycle between day and night, often with effects on other aspects of the game.

Appears in 539 games

First appeared in Super Speed Race V
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 14 games

First appeared in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Super Soldier

A supersoldier is a soldier artificially given abilities far beyond those of normal man. These include increased strength, speed, stamina, intelligence, the ability to fly, the ability to create fire with their mind, etc.

Appears in 72 games

First appeared in Sasuke vs Commander
Push to Talk

In order to chat with others the user must press a button before or while talking.

Appears in 29 games

First appeared in SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs
Physics Manipulation

Physics play an important part in this game in solving puzzles and/or combat. Notable examples include the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2, and the Force Powers from Star Wars: Force Unleashed.

Appears in 125 games

First appeared in Kagirinaki Tatakai

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