A Game by Any Other Name September 11, 2006
Posted by charris in : Community , trackbackA game, in the sense that we are addressing the word, basically refers to a structured activity, bound by rules and actions, intended to engage and entertain. There have been many different games throughout history, from light parlor games like charades of Victorian England to the deadly serious juego de pelota of the ancient Americas. Just as baseball was the all-American game that defined the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, today’s gaming landscape is similarly dominated by video games. Let’s take a look closer look at video games as well as some of the vocabulary you might encounter when talking to gamers.
Gaming Glossary
- Video Game: A game that uses a video display (either a television or a compute r monitor) to present an electronic environment with which and in which the player interacts.
- Computer Game: Video games designed to be played on a computer and a computer monitor. They sometimes offer a higher complexity of interaction because of the additional control inputs from the keyboard and mouse/joystick combination.
- Console Game: Video game consoles are all-in-one devices that attach to televisions and contain the necessary hardware to display games stored on discs or cartridges. Examples are Sony’s Playstation line, Nintendo’s GameCube, or Microsoft’s X-Box line.
- Online Game: Some video games have evolved to a new type of interactive play with or against other people around the world made possible by the Internet. Some video games may include an online mode, while other games can only be played online.
- MMORPG: Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like Everquest or World of Warcraft are examples of a wildly popular genere of online games. These games, built in huge worlds that only exist on game servers, develop cultures, economies, and new social laws as hundreds of thousands of players interact. World of Warcraft, which has attracted young professionals, has even been referred to as the new “golf” of business.
- Card Games: This usually refers to “dedicated deck card games” - those games that use a special set of cards as opposed to a standard of playing cards. The use of dedicated cards allows a new set of interactions within a familiar set of rules. An early example is the French Mille Bornes, designed in 1954.
- Collectable/Trading Card Games: Card games like Yu-Gi-Oh! or Magic are played with a selected deck of cards from a vast library of possible cards. Players have to collect or trade (read purchase, and bring a lot of money!) huge sets of cards to build more powerful decks. Some of the rarer cards may cost hundreds of dollars.
Not only are there many different types of games, each type of game has its own set of genres. There are action, strategy, sports, simulations, role-playing, puzzle and many other styles of games. Some of these, while great fun, are just not appropriate for school libraries. Let’s get that right out in the open. I, as an adult gamer, play games that are not intended for children. They may, for instance, contain content that is not appropriate for children. This doesn’t mean the games are “bad” any more than R-rated movies or books with more mature content are bad. In other cases, it may have nothing to do with content, but may simply be a reflection of rules that are too complex for younger players to understand, or the levels of prior knowledge, reading ability, or processing requirements may just be too advanced for children. This is why it is critcal to check ratings, read reviews, and playtest games before sharing them with any children - including your own!
A Gamer’s Vocabulary
One of the attributes that sets gaming just outside of our comfort zone for understanding is the use of a gaming vocabulary that we aren’t familiar with. Encountering gamers talking about their games is almost like entering a foreign country that speaks a similar language. While it sounds like English, it is a dialect so wrought with gaming terminology that it just doesn’t make sense. Here are some of the words you may hear. Italicized words refer in a definition refer to other words in this glossary.
- Boss: a large monster at the end of a level that must be defeated in order for your character to move forward. Most boss monsters have some sort of hidden weakness that the player must identify and then exploit in order to win.
- Character: The player is the person playing the game, but many games feature a main character that is the in-game manifestation of that player. Some games focus on the role-playing aspect of melding player and charcter while other games force the player to manage multiple characters or to adopt a character viewpoint of a city or even a nation.
- d: This shortened form of dice is used to define a number to sides ratio when calling for the generation of a random number through the use if a die roll. For instance 2d6 refers to the use of two, six-sided dice which provides a random number between 2 and 12. Dice come with a variety of sides including 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, and 100. A great teaching trick is to use 10 sided dice (with the digits 0-9) to create math problems!
- Experience Points (Exp or XP): A measure of a character’s development and progress that typically determines that character’s level. In games that use Exp, a character recieves points for completing tasks, killing monsters or successfully performing other actions. Players may also loose Exp for making incorrect choices or as a penalty for death.
- Level: 1)noun - a distinct section of a game in which certain goals must be accomplished before the character can proceed forward. 2)noun - a designated range of experience points that is usually linked to the power, attributes, and skills of a character or monster. 3) verb - to move forward to a new section of a game or to reach a new range of experience.
- Life: A try. While some games offer a “hardcore” mode where death means a total end to the game and restarting from the beginning, most games have a way to save the progress you have made and allow you to restart from some middle point on a new attempt.
- 1337: An adopted spelling for “leet” which stands for elite. A good player or something well executed.
- Monster (mob): The abbreviation stands for “mobile.” See non-player character.
- Newbie: a new player, usually someone who is learning the game and prone to mistakes. Spelled this way, it is a neutral term with overtones of acceptance for the fact that everyone was once a newbie and being a newbie is the only way to become 1337 - spelled n00b, it is much more rude.
- Non-Player Character (NPC): As opposed to being a character that is player (human) controlled, NPCs are controlled by the game. In many multiplayer games, groups of characters band together to defeat powerful NPCs, or lone players spend countless hours attacking NPCs for experience.
- N00B (Note the zeros for the Os): As with many of the adopted spelling words in gaming, numbers are used to replace similarly formed letters. This is an adopted spelling for a derogatory use of another gaming term, newbie.
- Pwn: This adopted spelling for “own” refers to the total and complete defeat of an opponent. It is often used as a derogatory term usually directed towards a n00b.
Armed with this vocabulary, you are probably ready to tackle some gaming. What games might be appropriate for your library? As a passionate gamer with plenty of experience (and gladly undertaking more “testing” on a regular basis), I will be presenting some ideas on games that could work for you in the next post.
Comments»
You can also find definitions at LibGaming (http://libgaming.blogspot.com/2006/03/more-than-just-video-games.html) and MBMPL (http://www.mbmpl.org/reviews)