"something-RPG"

Xenoblade Chronicles

My word, it's another big one. Categorising and labelling all the different flavours of Role-Playing Game can feel like a fool's errand thanks to the hybridisation and proliferation of RPG systems throughout video games at large. There's an assortment of letters you can place before your bog-standard RPG which frequently bleed across subgenres.

So what's the problem?

Disagreements over edge cases on the RPG Venn diagram seem to cause the biggest problems. Is a tactical-RPG the same as a strategy-RPG? At what point does a regular RPG tip over into action-RPG territory? Is hack-and-slash its own genre? What if visible numbers tumble out of enemies as you hit them? Does the perspective of the camera change things?

These are the granular discussions which fuel many a forum debate. The Zelda series is a big point of contention. Is Breath of the Wild better described as an action-RPG, a third-person action-adventure game with RPG elements, or should we come up with a new term entirely? "It's a Zelda game, innit!" might do the job, but that's not very useful if you've never played one (we're told these people exist).

"walking simulator"

Best Switch Walking Sims

Typically (although not always) applied to first-person games where your primary interaction with the game world isn't conducted through a gun barrel, the objective in a walking sim isn't simply 'eliminate enemies'. The term has been reclaimed to a certain extent from its original usage to denote an FPS with the 'S' gouged out and replaced by boring things like 'narrative' and 'exploration'. Pff! What's a game if you can't shoot stuff, right?

So what's the problem?

As with other catch-all genre terms, it arguably says more about what a game isn't than what it is. We used the term for lack of a better, snappier alternative to describe a list of fascinating, cerebral games — and it's useful in that context — but it suggests to the reader that the game is 'just' about walking and poking around a prefab world with limited interactivity when they're often so much more than that.

"beat" / "finish" / "complete"

Doesn't Count

A very old chestnut. Did you 'beat' Super Mario 64, like it was an opponent to get the better of? Did you 'finish' it, like a race? Personally, we tied a bow on the game and 'completed' it, but the verb you use to signify reaching the end of a game can rub some people the wrong way.

So what's the problem?

There's no big problem here, it's just fun to hear the difference. Anecdotally, we tend to hear more gamers in the US saying they've 'beaten' games, but it's all the same, really.

Perhaps it's more interesting to consider how gamers are linguistically hung up on the exact amount of a game you played. If you watched a film or read a book, the implication is that you did so until the end; with games you have to state explicitly that you made it over the finish line (to the point where '100%' becomes a verb, with optional addendum — 'no warp whistle' or 'in Insane mode', that sort of thing).

You wouldn't someone to misunderstand and think you played only the first five minutes, or failed to reach hour 35 where the game supposedly 'gets good', would you? Tsk, call yourself a gamer?...

What do you say to your pals when you reach the end of a game?

"gamer"

Awesome Kid Meme

Are you a gamer? We're gamers, here. We like to game. Do you even game, bro?

So what's the problem?

For some people, they'll say they're a 'gamer' and not give it a second thought; for others the term carries baggage that they'd rather avoid, or they think it sounds childish or transgressive in some way. 'Player' isn't a workable alternative (saying "I'm a player" has other connotations) and "I'm a game-player" just sounds odd.

It doesn't help that the word is used to advertise products which are often garish or needlessly adorned with vents, neon trim and the like. Not always, of course, but generally the 'gamer' version of anything will have gaudy LEDs embedded somewhere and an edgy name: 'X-TREME' or something with numbers and a 'Z' in it. Gamers don't sit in 'normal' chairs or drink 'regular' soda, you see. Gamers guzzle gamer juice and chomp through bags of gamer chips to fuel epic gaming sessions, collecting gamer tokens to unlock sweet gamer skins to show everyone they're a true gamer!

For players who don't identify with any of that (or any of the other unfortunate connotations conjured by the word), it's a tricky label to use.

Do you call yourself a 'gamer'?

"interactive entertainment"

The Lawnmower Man
Image: New Line Cinema

The term 'game' implies win and fail states and arguably limits the scope of what's on offer from amazing technology. 'Interactive entertainment' is a much grander, inclusive umbrella term for all styles of digital experience. Surely we'd be better off binning the word 'games' altogether, no?

So what's the problem?

It sounds too large and airy a term to be useful day-to-day. It's applicable to so many things, you end up wading through a digital quagmire when you use it. It's useful for sweeping generalisations or industry division names (hello Sony), but saying you're a fan of 'interactive entertainment' would raise more eyebrows than if you just say you're a gamer.

Nope, when all's said and done, we'll stick with good ol' fashioned (video) games, thank-you-very-much.


Are your feathers suitably and neologistically ruffled? What video game-related words grind you gears? We've mainly stuck with terms where their exact definition is a sticky point, but there are plenty of other nuggets of vocabulary that wind gamers up. 'Roadmap', perhaps? 'Day One Patch'? 'Exclusive'? 'Code-in-a-box'? Let us know below.