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A New Lexicon of Game Words
Scarecrow
skâr'krō'n.
A scarecrow, in videogames, is a lazily-implemented virtual barricade. Like their reality counterparts, a game’s set of scarecrows are deterrents that, if ever challenged, would fall apart.
Scarecrows reveal themselves on the perimeters of a play area and typically freeze the player’s movement before giving a tenuous explanation of why they cannot progress any further. Rhetoric from scarecrows usually attempt to convey a necessity for remaining within the play-area (“you haven’t spoken to the wise man yet”) or present a fictitious danger of progressing (“that volcano looks active, better avoid it for now.”)
The inherent annoyance of scarecrows lies in their incompatibility with the themes and mechanics of a videogame. Their emergence in an adventure game, for example, will belittle the protagonist’s often-heroic demeanour due to the fact that a scarecrow cannot be ignored or overcome. Moreover, a scarecrow will temporarily suspend a game’s impression of freedom.
"So let's get this straight; I'm pretty much a big deal around here, and you're a scarecrow. I slay giants, you sit on a rock. I'm trying to save your own daughter's life, and you wont even budge from your seat. Do you not think that maybe, jusy maybe, one of us is being very stupid?".jpg)
Groundhogging
grownd'hôg'ingv.
Groundhogging is a commonly-loathed sequence of three inevitabilities in modern gaming: difficulty spikes, set-pieces and save-points.
Any explorative game will need to, at some point, suspend the action and seize control of the player’s viewpoint to more effectively present drama or information. This process will be used in numerous ways, such as panning a camera up a hill to show its path, or fixing a view on a boss that’s in the process of rising from its slumber.
These moments, though initially welcomed sources of information and spectacle, have a habit being unskippable and placed between a loading point and difficulty spike. It is here where they can groundhog; repeating themselves after the player dies and reloads, again and again and again. This often leads to a remarkable level of frustration on the player’s behalf, which ironically leads to more impatient and reckless gameplay, resulting in further deaths.
In the gaming era of cartridges there was once a useful cure for this. If struck by a particularly nasty dose of groundhogging the player could take the cartridge from the console and bite into it before throwing against a wall.
“Look, I appreciate what you’re doing, but would you please stop with the groundhogging. I get it; you have powers. I know this may totally shock you, but I figured that out the first time you flew into a room and brought me back to life.”
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Subscribe To Edge Magazine / Corrections / Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
good article, certainly provided a couple of chuckles at the descriptions here, some of which are 'so true!.
had a good example of a finger feat the other day when i was playing ikaruga for a while and was finding it hard to get past the 3rd level, probably went through about 30 attempts getting to roughly the same point every time, then from out of the blue, i completed the game whilst gettting the highest score ive ever recorded which was almost 10 million above my previous one, i was lost for words for a good minute afterwards just trying to comprehend what supreme being took control of me for that 20 minute bout of awesomeness! have tried to beat that PB since doing it and i cant even get near the score, which to me sums up a finger feat pretty well!
My brother and I always refer to a scarecrow as a “plot-block.” Like, if a random guard tells me I can’t enter a certain area, “awww, I’ve been plot-blocked!” (Of course, it’s always weird to see one random guard blocking a major intersection for a lengthy period of time, but that’s game logic for you.)
There was a wonderful scene early in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door where you’re walking down a street to an important plaza, and a Toad girl shouts at you not to move, because she’s lost her contact lens. Then, no matter what direction you move in, you’ll step on her contact lens. After that, she’ll demand you buy her something specific (I don’t remember what it was), and until then, she’ll keep blocking your path. Go to the store where they sell that item, and... they’re closed! It was funny because it was like the developers were admitting, yeah, it’s a plot-block, so we thought we’d at least make it creative.
Damn, poor Doak. First you call his latest game cameric, then you name a huge annoyancy from his masterpiece after him!
I think it would be much better to just refer to 'Doaks' as 'Natalyas'. The name Natalya is inherently tied to 'Doaks', whereas the name Doak is not. E.g., if someone would have referred to an NPC as a 'Natalya', I would have instantly known what he meant, without reading this article.
Awesome article, gearing gaming up for some more serious debate, nothing spells that better than it's own lexicon!
One particular aspect of game play has struck me quite a lot recently (especially since playing sand box games and Mirror's edge) and that is the impulse to leap from a ledge not knowing whether the drop is 5 feet or 50 feet. Considering I used to suffer from vertigo this compulsion may in fact say more about my own psyche rather than gaming exactly, but I think it must be something experienced frequently within gaming. It reminds me of a concept by Jacques Lacan called the "death drive", but I don't believe it is exactly the same thing. I've tried working this into a something which isn't just a neologism, here goes:
Fīdere dip
To commit a Fidere Dip or Trusting Dive is the compulsion which gamers experience when given the ability to leap from potentially high areas often causing damage or death. The stress within a Fidere Dip is the element of trust, ergo the unknown. A player fully aware of the distance s/he is about to drop, dive or fall is not one of faith or trust, it is known and therefore a completly different thing altogether.
Compulsion to commit a Fidere Dip is something which was born with 3D action adventure games, for example the Tomb Raider series, but is seen most prominently within Sand Box games for example, Crackdown. Because the Fidere Dip is a compulsion it is not therefore not a calculated action, it is typically not something which is intended to further the gamer's progress throughout the game.
Until recently the ability to commit a Fidere Dip may be something considered a bi-product of a gamer's freedom within a game environment, but it could be argued that EA Dice's recent release Mirror's Edge is a game partially built around the notion of the Fidere Dip. By forcing players to run and leap across roof tops at the fastest possible speed often resulting in a Fidere Dip in order to evade pursuing
enemies or avoid confrontation.
homeralisis
the paralisis that occurs when you see you are about to fail, and know you should try to avoid an obstacle or danger, but cant pull your self away from the series of jumps, or combo attack..
eg, sliding around a corner in mario kart, you see a banana in your path, but do nothing to avoid it, as your racing line is perfect!
Abuite
the noise created when two people are competing against each other and all the noise is sucked out of the room and replaced with absolute quite
usually lasts around 30 secs to 1 min then you realise you may be taking things a little bit too serious.
'we were both playing fight night and giving it all cheap talk but by round five i was consentrating so hard on winning i was ABUITE'
"Watching the final round of the Soul Calibur 4 tournament you could certainly say that there was an Abuiteness within the room" Yeah I like that, it captures an atmosphere which until recently is reffered to as "tension", far to ambigious and mundane for such a Abuite situation!
rofl. that's funny and a good read. here is my contribution:
Gamestinct
The acnowledgement and observation of gaming stereo types which can be seen and noted out by an observer whilst watching someone play a game the observer has never played. this is usually done by a gaming insticnt, or gamestinct. Such examples are:
Instinctively knowing how to progress though a level, i.e. activate lift, hit switch, solve simple block puzzles, useage of vents.
Instinctively knowing where the enemies weak spot is. I.e. armoured shell enemy - weak spot underneath it.
Knowing that weapons have a secondary fire/charge shot.
This is most common when a non gamer is being watched by a veteraned gamer. Gamestinct has increased due to the wii.
Common example for me (very recently) whilst watching someone play star wars: force unleashed on the wii:
'Me: Look, don't bother trying to climb it, it won't work, just acivate the lift'
'n00b: What lift?'
'Me: that lift there... no, not that one, it's broken, the other one.... see, told you.'
'n00b: how did you know that?'
'Me: Gamestinct'
I liked cameric, arenaitus, permeaodd and doaks the best. Some seemed a little dumb, but whatever. It was a good read. Coining words and phrases is hard.
Actually Permeaodd is my favorite. I may start using it :)