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Moral dilemmas presented to the player that often have a significant effect on the story or other characters.
Dialogue trees are a feature through which the player selects responses from a list of choices, eliciting reactions from NPCs and determining the path of the conversation and story.
The limitations of early gaming hardware, especially in the 8-bit and 16-bit days, made animated story sequences impractical for many games. One popular alternative was to convey the story through a series of still images, often with text and music alongside them.
What lies ahead, and is distant from the present.
Murder is the act of ending the life of another living thing against its will without the sanction of a higher governmental authority, such as the casualties that result from acts of war. It is generally intentional, at least in a legal meaning, but not necessarily.
Special codes or button combinations used to gain powers or advantages in a game. Generally hidden.
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
Game Over originally appeared in pinball machines, and later, arcade machines. When players lose at a game, it is game over.
Everything you need isn't always spelled out for you on the map. Sometimes even the map is not there till you go explore it.
Side-scrolling games present the world as viewed perpendicular to the direction the characters are facing on screen. With a heavy focus on lateral movement, objectives are often met by moving from one end of a stage to the other.
Games that have had an Original Soundtrack album released.
Dragons were originally messengers from heaven, according to early Buddhist texts. In games, they can be among the most fearsome of adversaries, but there are some exceptions.
War is a series of organized conflicts carried on by force of arms between two or more nations or groups. Whether it never changes or has already changed is up for debate.
Humans are bipedal, sapient primates capable of abstract reasoning, language, and emotions.
8-bit can be a reference to actual computing power, or it can be a retro look for videogames that want to recall a bygone era.
A game that uses a mixture of 2D & 3D techniques. Commonly used to describe the use of either 3D graphics restricted to a 2D perceptive, or 2D graphics used to fake the appearance of a 3D perceptive.
These games take the select button literally. Pushing up and down (or any other button) to select an option will do nothing.
If a person is made of metal and has circuitry instead of a circulatory system, then their game belongs on this list.
Vertical scrolling is when the screen scrolls along the y-axis. In a vertical scrolling game the player usually starts from the bottom of the screen and moves up. They are also almost always presented in a top-down perspective.
Non-linear level design where the player is able to freely traverse the game world and choose where and when to visit certain areas in the game.
An unofficial translation of a video game, created by people not associated with the original development team.
Point and click is an interface featured in a specific kind of adventure game, where players click on objects and characters to interact with them.
Turn-based games divide game actions into distinct parts, called turns. This gives the player time to strategically choose actions as the battle or events unfold.
Romance in video games can either be interactive, in which the player attempts to woo another character, or an unchangeable part of the story of a given game.
Content released frequently, every release contains a small portion of a whole story.
Game mechanics traditionally found in role-playing games that are incorporated into a non-RPG title.
The process by which characters reach a new level, gain greater attributes, and learn more abilities. It usually involves earning enough experience points by completing a variety of tasks such as quests or by "farming" such as killing other characters for their experience points.
A boss fight is a culminating challenge that pits the player against one or more enemies representing a greater threat and/or difficulty than those previously faced. These scenarios typically feature unique antagonists.
Games that can be played with a CGA monitor and graphics card. CGA, Color Graphics Adapter was the first generation of color graphics for the IBM PC.
Experience Points are part of a character advancement system commonly found in RPGs. These points are generally gained by defeating an enemy or completing a task.
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