Videogame Culture: Difference between revisions

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The game behind the games. Like any other medium, gamers have a culture all their own, replete with jargon and its own brand of social maneuvering. Be warned: The stuff in here will inescapably [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|ruin your eyesight, twist your spine, and keep America from winning the war]], as it documents scarily obsessive gamer jargon that barely resembles English.

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* [[AI Breaker]] <br />Using a particular aspect of the computer's AI to "cheat" at a game.

* [[After Action Report]] <br />A type of [[Fan Fiction]] for strategy games that involves a blow-by-blow description of a campaign.

* [[Alt-Itis]] <br />A malady that causes a player to compulsively create alternate accounts for a game.

* [[American Kirby Is Hardcore]] <br />When a Japanese game gets to America, the packaging and ads have to look [[Darker and Edgier]] or just '''angrier'''.

* [[Ascended Glitch]] <br />When a glitch or bug is enjoyed so much it gets treated as a legitimate gameplay element.

* [[Attract Mode]] <br />The display a game shows when nobody is playing.

* [[Video Game/Levels/Awesome|Awesome: Video Game Levels]] <br />You know that part, where you have to jump that bit, and then ride that thing, and oh man, it's awesome!

* [[Beta Test]] <br />The video game testing process.

* [[Check Point Starvation]] <br />There are long periods of time between checkpoints or save points.

* [[Cherry Tapping]] <br />Purposely using weak attacks to bring down a powerful opponent, often for humiliation's sake.

** [[Classic Cheat Code]] <br />A sequence of commands that unlocks bonuses.

** [[Konami Code]] <br />A famous cheat code originating in ''[[Gradius]]''.

* [[Complacent Gaming Syndrome]] <br />The phenomenon where players stick to the settings or characters they are used to no matter what.

** [[Abridged Arena Array]] <br />Competitions take place only on select maps, as if the others do not exist.

* [[Copy Protection]] <br />Ways of ensuring you own the game you're playing.

* [[Country Switch]] <br />Where the same game is released in different locations, and programmed to act differently depending on where it's being played.

* [[Cross Player]] <br />A person whose online avatar is of the opposite gender.

* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]] <br />Where you're used to playing with a particular control scheme, then start another game that uses one that's ''almost'' the same, and you keep getting killed because you're pressing the wrong button.

* [[Default Setting Syndrome]] <br />The game offers a wide variety of modes, options, and characters, but none of that matters because everyone's too lazy to use anything other than the defaults.

* [[Emulation]] <br />Running an ''emulator'', which is a program that can play games on a platform or PC designed for other platforms.

* [[Expansion Pack]] <br />Extra material produced for an existing game, either by the game's original production company or by a third party.

* [[Fake Balance]] <br />When concepts are used which, on paper, make a game apper to be balanced, but in reality, it is not.

* [[Fake Difficulty]] <br />When developers use things like [[Luck-Based Mission]] and [[Trial and Error Gameplay]] to create the illusion of a challenge. Or, when it IS challenging, but for the wrong reasons.

* [[Fan Remake]] <br />A (generally freeware) game created by fans of the original game, which attempts to recreate the original game experience.

* [[Fan Sequel]] <br />Where the fan community creates a sequel to a work when the original creators won't.

* [[Fanon]] <br />The set of theories based on that material which, while they generally seem to be the "obvious" or "only" interpretation of canonical fact, are not actually part of the [[Canon]].

* [[Freemium]] <br />You can pay to upgrade your Free account to a Premium account with more perks.

* [[Four Point Scale]] <br />A derisive term for the (supposed) inability of professional game reviewers to give any game a score under 6.0, even if they're nominally using a ten-point scale.

* [[Game Breaking Bug]] <br />A bug that seriously cripples or destroys the ability to continue with a game.

* [[Game Cola]] <br />A [http://www.gamecola.net/ website] devoted to observing video games in a clever and humorous light.

* [[Game Genie]]<br />A cheating peripheral most prominent in the 1980s and 1990s.

* [[Game Mod]] <br />Alterations to a game that were not made by the game's license holder.

* [[It's Short, So It Sucks]] <br />Any game less than 100 hours can't be worth the money I paid for it!

* [[It Gets Better]] <br />Games that start out very slow, with lots of [[Exposition]].

* [[Killer App]] <br />A game that's so good it's a reason to buy the system it's on.

* [[Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Game]]<br />Shoehorning a sexy woman in a commercial to trick players into buying the game ie assuming most gamers are sexually frustrated.

* [[Machinima]] <br />Movies made with images from game engines.

* [[Machinomics]] <br />Like [[Machinima]], above, but of static images instead of movies, in a [[Web Comic]] format.

* [[Manual Misprint]] <br />The game manual is wrong. Hilarity ensues.

* [[Marth Debuted in Smash Bros]] <br />Where a character's crossover appearance in a game will be exported before the character's ''actual'' original appearance, confusing people as to where he/she actually originated.

* [[Microtransactions]] <br />You can spend real-world money for individual pieces of in-game content.

* [[Mission Pack Sequel]] <br />A sequel that's really just extra levels or content for the original game.

* [[Most Wonderful Sound (Sugar Wiki)|Most Wonderful Sound]] <br />[[Final Fantasy|DADADA-DAAA-DA-DA-DADADAAAAAH!]]

* [[Most Gamers Are Male]] <br />Bring on the [[Fan Service]].

* [[Oddball in the Series]] <br />One game in the series which is the "odd man out" for whatever reason.

* [[Old Man Murray]] <br />A vastly influential critical video game website.

* [[Pause Scumming]] <br />Abusing the pause button by pausing at a specific time or pausing repeatedly.

* [[PC vs. Console]] <br />Similar to the [[Console Wars]], this is the never-ending fight between PC gamers and console gamers.

* [[Pinball Spinoff]] <br />When a company creates a pinball game based on a successful franchise.

* [[Player-Generated Economy]] <br />Where games have a trading system that the players develop.

* [[Replay Value]] <br />A measure of how fun a game is after you've beaten it.

* [[Retro Gaming]] <br />An interest in playing older video games.

** [[Compilation Rerelease]] <br />Where publishers bundle several previously released games on one disc and sell it as a compilation.

** [[One Game for the Price of Two]] <br />Take one game, split it into two, and put a few exclusive collectibles in each version, while the rest of the game is identical.

** [[Preorder Bonus]] <br />Where those who preorder a game before it's released get special exclusive bonuses.

** [[Updated Rerelease]] <br />When a bigger, badder, better version of a game is released a year or two after the original, sometimes as an enhanced port on a different console.

** [[Video Game Remake]] <br />Where an older game gets a graphical update, possibly some gameplay tweaks, and is re-released, generally on a newer platform.

* [[Reviews Are the Gospel]] <br />Video gamers tend to place more stock in professional reviews of works than fans of any other medium.

* [[Scrub]] <br />A player of a competitive videogame who adamantly believes that his or her "house rules" should apply to everyone to promote his or her view of "fair play". Most of the said "house rules" are things he or she makes up on the spot and his or her view of "fair play" is "as long as I win 95% of the time".

* [[Self-Imposed Challenge]] <br />A playthrough of a game wherein the player plays under an restriction not required by the game itself in an attempt to increase the difficulty and replay value.

** [[Low-Level Run]] <br />Completing the game with your [[Character Level]] as low as possible.

** [[Minimalist Run]] <br />Completing the game while getting as few items or abilities as possible.

** [[Stealth Run]] <br />Completing a [[Stealth Based Game]] without being discovered.

* [[Sequel Displacement]] <br />Where one sequel ends up being considered where a series "begins" and earlier games tend to be ignored or forgotten.

* [[Sequence Breaking]] <br />Where you can do things in a different order than intended, skipping past "required" events or items.

* [[Shovelware]] <br />Software that's so low-quality, you'll wonder how (and why) it was released at all.

* [[That One Player]] <br />Someone who's so skilled at a game that whenever anyone plays with or against him it's no longer any fun.

* [[That One Sidequest]] <br />Yeah, there's that great sword... but seriously, '''[[Final Fantasy X|less than zero seconds on a Chocobo race?]]'''

* [[Tournament Play]] <br />Professional video game players in national or international competitions for real money.

* [[Translation Style Choices]] <br />The various ways that companies can choose to approach the finicky business of localization.

* [[Urban Legend of Zelda]] <br />A video game rumor that seems ''almost'' plausible and just won't die.

* [[Vaporware]] <br />Computer or video game software or hardware that's constantly hyped but never seems to actually be released.

* [[Video Game Caring Potential]] <br />The game presents characters in such a way to make you care about them past their utility in the gameplay.

** [[Cruel Player Character God]] <br />When a game that puts you in the position of god of that world, and you use it to make peoples' lives hell.

** [[Cruelty Is the Only Option]] <br />When a game's plot ''forces'' you to do horrible things.

 

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[[Category:Videogame Culture]]