The worst words in videogaming

[MankeyMan]

It seems to me that there are always a few key words that I look out for when reading a videogame review or a post about videogame, that tend to tell me whether a game is worth getting instantly. I'm not talking about your run of the mill alets like 'Rubbish,' and 'Crap.' I'm talking about the dirtiest words you could give to a videogame. Like:

Port
Multi format
Movie Licence

Now of course, there are exceptions to these rules, as many people will attest to, but as a general rule of thumb, which words do you tend to look out for when finding out about a videogame?

[Alex Kidd]

I don't look so much for keywords, but HOW they describe it.

If all they talk about is graphics, sound, and the ability to kill a guy with a spoon, and don't mention actual GAMEPLAY, I have a feeling it's real turd.
Now I don't just mean if ONE person says that, but if EVERYONE is saying it.

Same goes for how I decide whether I wanna see movie or not.

To this day I STILL refuse to watch The Matrix.
Everyone I know has seen The Matrix. when it was new, it was all the rage, when they released that "Revisted" DVD, it was all the rage.
All everyone talked about was special FX, not ONE person mentioned a part of the movie they liked that actual had something to do with plot development.

I'm not sayin the movie has no plot, cause I never seen it, but just the fact so many 'fanboys' think special FX are what makes a movie and these movie makers fed them with a silver spoon to rake in dough, is what irks me.

Alex Kidd

[ManekiNeko]

Acclaim. They make good toilet paper, though.

JR

[Britboy]

Actually, the only word that annoys me is "videogame", used in place of the correct "Video game". That's like saying "naveloranges" or "computergames" or "racingcars", it's just wrong without the space.

[Zaxxon]

Simulation, RPG, real-time strategy. = nap time

[ashbourn]

turned based strategy

[Atari7800]

"port" isn't necessarity a bad word...

The X-Box version of Silent Hill 2 is a port of the original PS2 game, and it's better in several respects.

The Saturn port of Castlevania features several new characters and levels, making it superior to the original PSX game.

The Saturn version of Tomb Raider began development way before the PSX game, but the PSX game looks better and sold 10x as much (though that had alot to do with the PSX user base)

The N64 port of Resident Evil 2 surpasses the original PSX game in every respect except video quality, and is better than the DC and GC games in terms of special features.

[badinsults]

Edutainment

[rbudrick]

Videogame, not video game, is grammatically correct, dumb as it looks.

-Rob

[ManekiNeko]

Alex: I didn't want to see The Matrix either, but it turned out to be a pretty good movie with (surprise, surprise!) a very imaginative storyline. I don't want to give anything away, but they do explain what The Matrix is, and it's much more logical than you would expect.

JR

[IGotTheDot]

Army Man
and usually any game with the phrase 3-D in the title.

[Captain Wrong]

Simulation, RPG, real-time strategy. = nap time

Heh heh heh.

Arcadey, arcade-ish, 16-bit, etc.=I'm probably gonna like it.

[MankeyMan]

"port" isn't necessarity a bad word...

The X-Box version of Silent Hill 2 is a port of the original PS2 game, and it's better in several respects.

The Saturn port of Castlevania features several new characters and levels, making it superior to the original PSX game.

The Saturn version of Tomb Raider began development way before the PSX game, but the PSX game looks better and sold 10x as much (though that had alot to do with the PSX user base)

The N64 port of Resident Evil 2 surpasses the original PSX game in every respect except video quality, and is better than the DC and GC games in terms of special features.

Now of course, there are exceptions to these rules

[IntvGene]

For shooters, I look for the words BOTS and MULTIPLAYER CO-OP to tell if I want it or not.

But, otherwise I hate reading "UNLOCKABLE / HIDDEN COSTUMES" (read palette scroll). MINI-GAME does nothing for me also. I also laugh at the over-used word "EPIC" when describing RPG storylines.

For PC games, the most important part of any box / review are the specs... and how unfair it is that my computer never makes the cut. That's what I like about the consoles.

It reminds me of the best DVD "feature" that they advertise: Interactive Menus.

[Britboy]

Hm, my American Heritage writer's complete dictionary says that "Video game" is correct and that "videogame" is incorrect.

[Raccoon Lad]

NES + THQ = utter crap.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

"Camera angles" will chase me away screaming most of the time. I don't want to play anything where I need to worry about having different camera angles. I want to play a game, not direct a smegging movie.

[Griking]

I'd have to say that the term "3D" in general turns me off nowadays. There's just certain games that aren't supposed to be 3D.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Yeah, here in Argentina, everybody says "Fichines" instead of Arcade, and fichines it´s a horrible word

[Britboy]

Is Fichines a direct translation, or does it have some other meaning?

[zmeston]

Hm, my American Heritage writer's complete dictionary says that "Video game" is correct and that "videogame" is incorrect.

As written in "The Elements of Style," an invaluable resource for videogame journalists (right after "Digital Press Collector's Guide 7"), "The steady evolution of the language seems to favor union: two words eventually become one, usually after a period of hyphenation."

I use the compound word videogame, so I'm either at the forefront of evolution or just impatient. Salon.com uses the hyphenated video-game, the only outlet I've found that does so.

-- Z.

[davidbrit2]

Personally, I find the scarlet letter of video games to be a particular name. A name that conjures up images of trite story lines, unreasonably linear gameplay, and infuriatingly frequent random battles. That name is Squaresoft. It's a crime that they call any of there products Role Playing Games, as that would imply you actually have some control over the sequence of events. They might as well just call Super Mario Bros an RPG. It's interesting that Square's only good games have been action games rather than horribly long adventure games: 3D World Runner (NES,) Slalom (also NES,) and Einhander (PSX.)

I'll take Bemani over that other boring crap any day.

Okay, flame away. ;-)

[zmeston]

I'd have to say that the term "3D" in general turns me off nowadays. There's just certain games that aren't supposed to be 3D.

Which genres do you feel aren't supposed to be 3D?

I've always been intrigued by the insistence of some players (especially fighting-game guys) that 2D is better for certain genres, when the reason most early games were 2D was because that's all the technology allowed. Even in the '70s and '80s, game designers and programmers were constantly attempting 3D presentations, trying to overcome visual limitations to present a more compelling experience.

A 2D fighting-game guy once explained his preference as a gameplay issue; he said 2D fighters played better because the camera view was unchanging, allowing the players to precisely judge when and where to punch/kick/block. I kind of understood what he meant, although I've never been a hardcore fighting-game guy.

Puzzle games seem to play out better in 2D -- I never really got into the 3D iterations of Tetris, for example -- but puzzle games are also the only genre that's essentially unreliant on visuals.

-- Z.

[Chunky]

eBay

[Britboy]

Hm, my American Heritage writer's complete dictionary says that "Video game" is correct and that "videogame" is incorrect.

As written in "The Elements of Style," an invaluable resource for videogame journalists (right after "Digital Press Collector's Guide 7"), "The steady evolution of the language seems to favor union: two words eventually become one, usually after a period of hyphenation."

I use the compound word videogame, so I'm either at the forefront of evolution or just impatient. Salon.com uses the hyphenated video-game, the only outlet I've found that does so.

-- Z.

Oh no, not an Element of Style user! I hate that rag, it sacrifices everything in the name of brevity! No offense, but Elements of Style would shorten anything in order to save a space on a headline. Personally I don't think two words always have to become a compounded pair just because they are constantly used together. Until videogame with no space it makes it into the dictionary proper, I stand by my statement :P