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Games that are little more than extensive cinematic sequences in which the player has little interaction with what is happening onscreen. This notion of a cinematic game is epitomized by laserdisc arcade classics such as Astron Belt, Dragon's Lair and Bega's Battle.
Voice Acting is the art of providing voices for characters in games, television shows, films, radio programs, and other forms of media.
Back in the 1980s, some arcade games utilized LaserDisc players to add pre-rendered video to the action. Pioneer would attempt to use the same technology in a home console with the LaserActive.
Quick Time Events show up in all sorts of games as an attempt to make cutscenes interactive. Press the buttons displayed on-screen before time runs out, or else.
FMVs are pre-rendered videos used in place of real-time graphics. Using FMV was an attempt to make videogames look "more like movies", sometimes with CGI animation and others with live-action actors speaking directly to players. The downside is that FMV requires a lot of disk space, and live-action FMV in particular can look terrible by comparison.
The concept of purchasing media and having it delivered over the internet. No physical representation of this content is given, and although the content resides on the user's hard drive they are typically granted a license to the product, rather than ownership of it.
Cutscenes that cannot be interrupted or bypassed through player interaction.
This concept is for games in which at least one of the main characters is male.
A digital distribution service owned by Valve Corporation. Originally created to distribute Valve's own games, Steam has since become the de facto standard for digital distribution of PC games.
Hand-drawn or computer-generated animation.
Female characters who are designed with highly idealized figures and proportions, outfits that are revealing and/or form-fitting, and prone to ending up in completely over-the-top poses designed to show off their bodies.
The opposite of open-ended gameplay, linear gameplay uses scripted events, Quick time events, cut scenes, and a restricted path to tell a story exactly how the writer intends, and control elements of the action.
Game Over originally appeared in pinball machines, and later, arcade machines. When players lose at a game, it is game over.
Games which have served as the basis of a comic book or vice versa.
The artifical production of "human" speech by computers in games or other software
A game with fake interactivity will present the player with a choice, but will prevent further progress, such as by repeating the choice, until the player selects a specific answer.
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.
You don't know how to play our game, so we'll teach you how.
A non-interactive sequence within a game most often used for plot advancement.
An eight legged arachnid. Some make webs to catch prey and some are poisonous. None have made a web grand enough to be called a parlor, though.
Bats are small, very social flying mammals. They may frequent caves or haunted houses.
To elude, escape, or get away from. Some games require players to escape from some people or things to perform some objective or avoid death.
Referencing a TV show, celebrity, song, trend, historical event, etc. is one of the easiest ways to get a laugh. This can be either a throw-away gag, like the name of an achievement, or the main subject of the game.
In games, fire can be an obstacle, a tool, a weapon, or a solution. Just don't play with it...unless you really want to.
Sure, these days have almost every game sporting the newfangled 3D, but way back when, everyone had to live with plain old 2D. 2D, or two dimensions, limit the game to scrolling backgrounds, but some games even now make use of this basic concept.
The concept of affecting the universe through supernatural methods, breaking the fundamental laws of science.
It's arguably the one move that symbolizes the medium to those outside it. The ability to jump, be it onto a building, a platform, or a skull, is one of the all time most important abilities ever put in a video game.
A heads-up display is a graphical overlay of vital information used in most modern games.
The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League as a member club of the league's American Football Conference West division.
The concept of lives in video games evolved to let the player get a second chance after failing once. The most recognizable symbol is the heart.
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