Week 3 – Initial ideas and glossary of terms

The keyword that came to my mind at first was games. Next I wanted to find some points to discuss from my favorite games (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Detroit: Become Human, League of Legends, Red Dead Redemption 2).

What impact does sound have on a game? Sound has an impact on the gaming experience. 

What are some of the areas to start with? The sense of impact from the attack sound effects and the immersion that the game gives to the player by using sound to create a realistic environment. 

Aside from the technical factors of increasingly detailed sound production and increasingly high definition graphics, how does a game go about shaping a realistic world? A sense of randomness(During the game, players may enter the same game scenario several times, but the sound they hear should be different each time)? Or a group of flexible NPCs with a story? 

These are all very confusing to me right now. I need time to sort them out, but that doesn’t stop me from going ahead and putting together a glossary of terms.

Glossary of terms：

virtual camera system: In a 3D video game, a view of a 3D virtual world is created and rendered by controlling a series of cameras.

Third-person view: A view seen from behind or slightly above the character in a video game. This viewpoint allows the player to see the game character they are controlling.

first person view: In a video game, the player’s view from the perspective of the game character. If the game character is driving a vehicle or aircraft, the view is from the driver’s seat in the cockpit.

Quick time event (QTE): A way to end a game in a video game. The player is instructed to perform an action incorrectly or not to perform any action at all, which will result in the mission failing and then lead to the end of the game.

Dialogue tree: Also known as a conversation tree, it is a game mechanic that is mostly found in adventure games and role-playing games(RPG). When talking to an NPC, players can choose what they want to say and advance the conversation until it ends.

Open world Game: A gameplay mechanic in video games. The player is free to explore the map without encountering invisible walls and loading screens common in linear level design.

Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA): A branch of the strategy video game. Players are divided into two teams to compete against each other, and the characters they control can level up and increase their abilities over the course of the game. The ultimate goal is for your team to win, and the conditions for victory vary from game to game.

Action-adventure Game: A hybrid type of video game that combines core elements of action and adventure games with both real-time interactive gameplay and situational problems for the player to solve.

Massively multiplayer online game (MMOG): An online game with a large number of players on the same server. Players can cooperate or compete with each other on a large scale, and sometimes interact with people from all over the world.

Role-playing game(RPG): A form of gaming in which the player takes on the role of a character, participates in that character’s story, and makes choices at certain points that affect the subsequent development of the story.

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG): A video game that combines a role-playing game(RPG) with a massively multiplayer online game(MMOG). The player takes on the role of a character and controls that character in an online game world that continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline or away from the game.

Video game: A computer game that relies on a graphical display. Visual feedback is generated by interacting with a joystick, controller, keyboard or motion-sensing device. This feedback is displayed on a display device, for example, a television, monitor or virtual reality headset.

Immersion: The player feels that he or she has really entered the world of the game. This is the effect sought by video games, especially role-playing games(RPG).

Non-Player Character(NPC): Any character in the game that is not controlled by the player. And they have a predetermined set of actions that may affect the game and is sometimes responsible for moving the plot forward. Of course most NPCs exist because the setting of this game world requires them.