The Glossary Of Video Games
For someone who has never played any (or many) video games, the lexicon of slang used by players can seem to be quite baffling at times, and this is no surprise – much of it is in itself a reference to older slang, and piling confusion on top of confusion can only have one outcome. Just about everyone knows what “graphics” are, and they can have a fairly good stab at what “playability” means, but beyond that it can be a confusing landscape indeed.
“Playability”, for example, has at least one synonym – “gameplay” which might not be immediately obvious to non-gamers. But moving away from the generalities, there is a number of other terms which may cause confusion. A “boss” for example is a character who bars your way between one level and the next, and must be killed. While the other characters you encounter in the rest of the game can be killed with one or two strikes, or avoided completely, the boss may not be.
Then there is the lexicon regarding types of games which one might play. The classic terms are ones such as “beat-em-up” – in which you have to (unsurprisingly) beat up other characters, “Shoot-em-up” – you guessed it and “platform game”, in which you control a character who makes his way, usually horizontally, through a series of screens, leaping from place to place – if he misses a “platform” he will fall either injuriously or to his death. There are other types of game, too – a “sim” (short for simulation) is a game which allows you to recreate an event by means of onscreen characters (although The Sims is a game which allows you to set up your own game universe.