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Questions tagged [terminology]

For questions that ask what a gaming-specific term means, or what the terminology is for a gaming-specific concept.

The gaming community has its own unique set of jargon, often taken as loan words or from popular games. is used for identifying and explaining unique terminology present in many games.

This tag is for questions such as:

While you can ask about multiple related terms in one question, do note that knowledge-repository style questions (those which seek to cover 'all' terms e.g. What do those abbreviations mean in League of Legends?) may be considered 'too broad' and are likely to be closed. Try to limit your question only to the term or terms that you specifically need help with.

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473 questions
107
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4 answers

Why are bosses called 'bosses'?

There were bosses in games ever since 1975, and I don't think I really have to define 'boss' here. But how did the word get stuck? And when was the first time when the challenging enemy was referred to as a 'boss'?
Septagram
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7 answers

What does 8-bit / 16-bit actually refer to?

When talking about retro games, terms like "8-bit music" or "16-bit graphics" often come up. I myself often use these terms, but I'm not exactly sure what they refer to. What do they mean?
Kevin Yap
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96
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8 answers

Where does the concept of "Mana" as a resource come from?

In today's field of gaming, the humble mana bar has become nearly as widespread as the health bar. Everywhere from MMOs to flash games, to traditional turn-based RPGs, Mana exists as a finite consumable resource (often a blue bar) used to cast…
Raven Dreamer
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95
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4 answers

What is kiting?

What does the term 'kiting' mean when used for games? I've seen the term thrown around here and there in reference to a few different games. Are there specific types of games that it applies to?
Doozer Blake
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92
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15 answers

What's the difference between "Bug" and "Glitch"?

I heard about 2 terms defining a game error: "Bug" and "Glitch". What's the difference between them?
John
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74
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2 answers

Why are people who spend a lot of money on video game micro-transactions called "whales"?

Pretty much every game that involves micro-transactions has a large amount of their micro-transaction revenue coming from a very small percentage of their players, the so-called "whales" that spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month on…
Nzall
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74
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3 answers

What does "Game of the Year" actually mean?

Often times, many games have an additional variant named "Game X: Game of the Year edition" or "Game X: GOTY edition". Within the same year, there are multiple games that seemingly have GOTY versions. Obviously there seems to be some discrepancies. …
childe
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50
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4 answers

What is Vanilla?

What do people mean with the term "Vanilla"? I see it more and more often. For example, with regard to World of Warcraft: Which Vanilla achievements will be lost with Cataclysm’s release? And also in this answer about Minecraft. If you're playing…
Damek
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49
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3 answers

What is Stream Sniping?

In this YouTube video, Some streamer says he "doesn't want to stream the game, because he gets stream sniped every day by a Symmetra but they still have a chance to get in." What is Stream Sniping?
Evan Carroll
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49
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2 answers

What exactly is the Masamune sword?

The Masamune sword is featured in many games that I've played over the years, from Soul Calibur to Chrono Trigger to Final Fantasy. It's a sword that is usually surrounded with some sort of magical property or regarded as something very powerful,…
FoxMcCloud
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3 answers

What is the purpose of MMO "maintenance"?

In massively multiplayer games, the servers are routinely restarted, for example EVE Online performs "maintenance" daily, and World of Warcraft performs it weekly. What goes on during it, and why is it necessary?
Nick T
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47
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1 answer

What exactly is a softlock?

I've heard the term "softlock" used a lot, especially in speedrunning contexts, and I have picked up an intuitive vague definition from context. It seems to mean getting the game into a state where winning/progressing is impossible, but the game…
Ryan C. Thompson
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47
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4 answers

What is "radial blur"?

I've thought that radial blur is a form of motion blur that is only applied to mobile objects, not camera movements, but I may be misinformed. Radial blur can sometimes, albeit rarely, be configured in a PC game's options menu. motion blur in…
user598527
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43
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6 answers

In some games, the rank above A is S. What does S represent?

In some (generally Japanese) games, the best rank is S. For example, this question talks about getting an S rank on story battles. Metal Gear Solid 4 ranks their weapons on an SABCDE scale. Does S mean something special? Why is it used?
Steve V.
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42
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3 answers

What defines a JRPG, and how is it different from an RPG?

I've always wondered if JRPG, or Japanese Role-Playing Game, has any concrete definition for it. I'm only curious now because lately I've seen a lot of people referencing Genshin Impact, a F2P MMORPG be considered a "JRPG". Which, to me, sounds…
childe
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