Gaming Short Hand

Over the years movies have accrued countless visual cues as a short hand to convey meaning to the audience. Black means bad, white means goods, someone who wares glasses is smart, while someone in a cape has power. These can be cliches or tropes, but the point is simple things have deep meaning to the audience, so it doesn't have to be said.
While games are not as old as film, games have gathered a few short hands cues of their own. Anyone who sees a Red Barrel knows, it will explode. It's been that way for a long time now, probably since Doom, and it is so ingrained in us that its hard to do anything else. People Can Fly tried.
Safe's must be hacked, garbage cans can be plundered, and a lot of supplies just lying around means trouble. Can you think of any other video game short hand? What tools do all developers have at their disposal that will always mean the same thing to us?

- If you have two coloured bars, it's a sure bet the red one is your health and the blue one is magic or some other limited special ability.

- If you enter an arena and no clear exit but there is a turret at one end, there are about 300 enemies and 3 tanks waiting for you to get on that turret before they open a door and rush you.

- Glowing red spots on an enemy is an indicator of their weak spot you need to hit for massive damage.

- If someone carries a big weapon that takes a long time before they can swing it, and they need to take a moment's rest afterwards, try dodging out of the way and then hitting them in the back.

- If someone has an exclaimation point hovering over their head, you can bet they have a menial task for you to do.

- If you suddenly lose the ability to run, it's because they have a narrative bit they want to make sure you hear and/or the next part of the level is still loading.

- Some games have an image of a gear and the text "Gearbox Software" when you load them up. This serves as a visual cue to the participant that the game will be terrible.

kuddles wrote:

- Some games have an image of a gear and the text "Gearbox Software" when you load them up. This serves as a visual cue to the participant that the game will be terrible.

Someone was a little too invested in Aliens: Colonial Marine, I fear.

kuddles wrote:

- If someone has an exclaimation point hovering over their head, you can bet they have a menial task for you to do.

In some cases that means detaining you

-Everyone who's not you will want to kill you.

Not universally true, but it probably works in 90% of games. If it doesn't, chances are you can't hurt them.

kuddles wrote:

- Some games have an image of a gear and the text "Gearbox Software" when you load them up. This serves as a visual cue to the participant that the game will be terrible.

Hey there. I don't think I would classify those Borderlands games as terrible.

MountaineerWR27 wrote:

Hey there. I don't think I would classify those Borderlands games as terrible.

That's okay. There's no law against you having bad taste.

kuddles wrote:
MountaineerWR27 wrote:

Hey there. I don't think I would classify those Borderlands games as terrible.

That's okay. There's no law against you having bad taste.

Hey let's use that potential topic derailing idea as a jumping back point. Borderlands has plenty of cues.
-Level Indicators
-Damage Indicators(numbers flying off characters), though I am looking for some more subtle stuff
-Green means acid
-Colors indicating rarity, though having not played many Loot based games these were new to me

Can anyone think of others specifically from Borderlands 1 and 2

easilyBaffled wrote:

Can anyone think of others specifically from Borderlands 1 and 2

Skill trees. The game doesn't stop to explain how you need a certain number of points in a particular section to unlock later skills, because you already played WoW right?

-Bethesda games accurately depict acid flashbacks, without warning corpses might rocket into the sky or plummet to earth.

-At no point can Rockstar unify story with gameplay, this is like combining an alkaline metal with water.

-Your reward for killing 20 Megasheep is the opportunity to kill 30 Ultrasheep.

-Toilet water has magical, restorative properties.

-No one with parents will ever become the savior of the world.

-In World War II soldiers would just sit down and catch their breath to heal wounds from machine gun fire.

-The best cure for amnesia is to kill a whole bunch of things. Why no one is not more disturbed by the fact that a murderous spree seems to unlock repressed amnesiac memories should not be overthought.

-You must always take the long way around, do more quest objectives, work your way through more challenge to get better rewards or opportunities. If there are shortcuts or good loot, they are hidden away.

Scratched wrote:

-You must always take the long way around, do more quest objectives, work your way through more challenge to get better rewards or opportunities. If there are shortcuts or good loot, they are hidden away.

In the Zelda games, a lot of secrets are clearly hidden behing a cracked wall that's just begging to be blown open. Are there any other common tools used to mark a not so secret area?

I think we're veering more into gaming tropes than common "language"...? Unfortunately, beyond red barrels as mentioned in the OP, not much springs to mind. If you see a crate, you expect to be able to smash it. If you see food, you expect it to restore health. Beyond that, much of the language is still borrowed from film, as far as using music and camera angles to communicate.

It is very common to use a "glimmer" lighting effect to draw the player's attention to pickups.

I suppose that an upcoming battle is often telegraphed in shooters by the placement of convenient cover spots, but I don't know if that's intent to communicate so much as unsophisticated level design.

Obvious cracks in walls can be destroyed with bombs.

beeporama wrote:

I suppose that an upcoming battle is often telegraphed in shooters by the placement of convenient cover spots, but I don't know if that's intent to communicate so much as unsophisticated level design.

And in RPGS, it's a large door and a convenient save point.

Find a sudden huge stockpile of ammo/health = boss fight in the next room.

Lighting is used to indicate the proper path/direction. Left 4 Dead is a good example of this.

Fire is a terrifying thing that will destroy everything, but, rest assured, the one clear path through the inferno is the one you should take.

You should wait to scout everything out before touching/interacting with that big thing that's right in the center of the room/in your path.

HP - an RPG derived concept that abstractly represents your unit's plot armor. It's usually a combination of gear, skill, luck, overall health, and sheer willpower.

This is great everybody, and keep on posting your thoughts, but if you would like try this. Find a game you haven't played yet. Don't make it one you really want to play, you should sit and enjoy those. Find a game good or bad; play as much of it as you like, and consciously try to predict what is going to happen and be conscious of your instinctual reactions to the game. Then bring that back here. I wonder if there is stuff that triggers subconsciously that we haven't thought yet.

This is great everybody, and keep on posting your thoughts, but if you would like try this. Find a game you haven't played yet. Don't make it one you really want to play, you should sit and enjoy those. Find a game good or bad; play as much of it as you like, and consciously try to predict what is going to happen and be conscious of your instinctual reactions to the game. Then bring that back here. I wonder if there is stuff that triggers subconsciously that we haven't thought yet.

easilyBaffled wrote:
Scratched wrote:

-You must always take the long way around, do more quest objectives, work your way through more challenge to get better rewards or opportunities. If there are shortcuts or good loot, they are hidden away.

In the Zelda games, a lot of secrets are clearly hidden behind a cracked wall that's just begging to be blown open. Are there any other common tools used to mark a not so secret area?

An 'x' on the ground where digging is required. See Okami, Castle Crashers. In Zelda: The Wind Waker it's short little light beams on the surface of the Ocean, and just dropping a hook instead of digging, but the same effect. Although, I didn't figure that one out right away as when the game told me about that, I was distracted and skipped through the text.

Any slightly (or drastically) discolored section of the world is typically grounds for exploring its chance of hiding something.

If you are given the ability to interact with / collect something, that means you should do so, as that is part of the games mechanics / progress / reward structure.

In any place with a bunch of non-hostile NPCs, if only some can be interacted with, they will usually be worth your time.

Red typically means enemies or hostile forces. Blue or yellow are neutral or allied forces. Green typically refers to your characters or stuff.