This page was created to compile all the words I use to analyze video games in my reviews and Youtube videos. Some early videos will use a different word for the same term; this page can be understood as the most current version of my dictionary as well as its relation to comparative methodologies.
by Bernard Suits
Games are comprised of 4 main elements or "fundamental forces:"
The Goal(s) - Prelusory (before game conception), Lusory (after game conception i.e. winning), and Postlusory (life virtues)
Means - Lusory (within the rules) & Antilusory (breaking the rules)
Rules - Constitutive (what defines the game) & Skillful (what wins the game often)
Lusory Additude - the acceptance of constitutive rules such that the activity made possible by acceptance can occur.
by Marcus Carter, Martin Gibbs, and Mitchell Harrop
Orthogame - Lusory Goals, Lusory Means & Constitutive Rules
Metagame - Prelusory Goals, Antilusory Means & Skillful Rules
Paragame - Postlusory Goals & Macrogames (Archetypal Lusory Attitudes)
Similar to primary colors, these groups may be referred to as the primary games.
Sport Games - humility in loss.
Field Games - physical constitution.
Board Games - political or statistical comprehension.
Video Games - virtual immersion or flow.
Net Games - the "mall," "ball," or "wall."
The lusory goals and the primary games can each be better understood with an integrated context of the other. The orthogame is the most easily understood variant, summed up by the expression, "playing by the book." Metagame is familiar to a lesser extent, usually referring to a social conception of quality and strategy within a roster of static options; sometimes it is etymologically attributed to an acronym for "most effective tactics available," but this ostensibly omits anti-lusory means from the equation. Simply put, if one's pre-lusory goal were to win the game at all costs, the anti-lusory means of cheating would not be stricken from their available tactics.
Paragame is a very unknown concept, and its post-lusory referent of "life virtues" is hard to summarize succinctly. For example, let us take the axiom, "to have fun." Classifying this value as either pre-lusory or post-lusory is contingent on the emulsification of skill and virtue. That is, whether the player can define their fun with skillful play and victory, and yet still have fun in spite of achieving those ends.
A lusory attitude is defined by an acceptance of constitutive rules, and thus macrogames involve the synesthetic constitutive rules of any and all orthogames, metagames, and paragames currently being played by a group of players.
A "Net Game" refers to a wide variety of online spaces and interactions. It is a higher order term than multiplayer video games which also includes social media, but it necessarily excludes real world interactions due to an abstraction of personal space. Real social dynamics, however, are an omnipresent metagame that supersedes basically all human endeavors, including Net Games and other macrogames. This super-structural metagame has been more formally titled "game theory," a mathematical analysis of outcomes rooted in the pre-lusory goal of survival.
"Plegana" is to "games" what "cinema" is to "movies;" on some level the terms are interchangeable, but usually implying higher quality when used as a declarative, e.g. "Bubsy 3D is plegana."Additionally, a more emic term has been coined with the collective denotation akin to "filmography" or "discography," that being "gamography."
敏 (Nimble) / Nerve games have an iterative process that motivates mastery.
Implicit games involve an iterative process that is virtually identical and repeatable aside from the player's decisions.
Explicit games involve an iterative process that is contingent on momentous factors such as an online lobby of a particular match.
脳 (Brain) / Mind games have an expression of causality that motivates understanding.
Implicit games involve a causality of inductive reasoning, where the logic matters less than the existence of a solution.
Explicit games involve a causality of deductive reasoning, where the logic is paramount to receiving the solution.
血 (Lineage) / Grain games have a set of independent and dependent societal variables that motivate simulation.
Implicit games involve societal variables within a divine authoritarian perspective.
Explicit games involve societal variables within a human authoritarian perspective.
気 (Spirit) / Heart games have a personal model of identity that motivates devotion.
Implicit games involve characters who are defined by the player's range of decisions.
Explicit games involve characters who are defined by a discretely played out narrative.
旅 (Journey) / Land games have an aesthetic collage of locations that motivate adventure.
Implicit games have detours that aren't expected to be explored to reach the end.
Explicit games have detours that are expected to be explored as a means of victory.
Beaters have movement-based inputs or contexts of striking a "scoring" target. The target can be anything from a combat opponent to a musical beat.
Mazers have movement-based inputs or contexts of traveling trivially and non-trivially. For instance, Mario can trivially move left or right in most contexts, and non-trivially, he can jump in the air only when he is not already airborne.
Sitters have movement-based inputs or contexts of obligated minimalism. Think “idle” games, but also consider the validity of shorter periods, such as waiting for the blocks to fall in Tetris.
Banters have perspective-based inputs or contexts of using and understanding language, either for social or strategic purposes.
Spotters have perspective-based inputs or contexts of precision and observation. This is an interface used in many first-person games, but also includes certain puzzle games.
Crafters have perspective-based inputs or contexts of sharing original creations. For me, the sharing method is critical so that “browsing the gallery” becomes a game action.
Helpers have perspective-based inputs or contexts of co-operation with another player. These are unique in being defined almost completely by contexts rather than inputs due to the difficulty of a shared controller system, though asymmetrical designs are still fairly unexplored beyond tank simulation hobbyists.
Tempo: Coraggio (Slow) - - - - - - - - - - Andatura - - - - - - - - - - Lancetta (Fast)
Play sessions are any lengths of time playing the game or arguably watching it with fully directed attention; they are technically sensitive to context, but for the purposes of defining the terms above, they can be brought to discrete lengths. Attributing moods operates within a "full retroactive" scope of the paragame and post-lusory goals, whereas mechs are observed in the "anonactive" scope, meaning an instantiated sample of the conditions of the orthogame and the immediate lusory goals.
Overall, intervals of time are a crucial dimension in classifying different states of a video game. Super Mario Bros. 3 and Metal Gear Solid 3 may seem like radically different game, yet with the new scheme they would both classify as Nerve mazers. For this distinction we might attribute "tempo" to mechs; Lancetta (lit. hand, pointer) can denote a quick tempo such as for games heretofore named platformers, and Coraggio (lit. courage) is for the slower, more deliberated tempo of a stealth game.
An interesting phenomenon occurs with the alleged mechanical action of a helper, which actually wavers along social pressures. Several helper mechanics are other mechs that sustain their effectiveness in the orthogame through cooperative compliance. Banter is a set of mechanics that have a uniquely potent infusion with helper concepts, where typically banter refers to scripted interactions with the game's world and characters.