Gaming issue glossary

Vox's glossary of gaming terminology.

They’re not just games

I’m quick to say “It’s only a game” to those who get a little too serious about a sporting event or a little too into some friendly competition. But while working on this issue of Vox, I’ve realized that gaming is hardly just a game. For some, it’s a way of life. For others, it’s a way to create or maintain relationships. For a few, it’s an increasingly lucrative industry.

On the job with a pinball wizard

By day, 32-year-old Adam McKinnie works as an economist for the Missouri Public Service Commission. But by night, he’s a pinball player extraordinaire. To revive the scene in Columbia, McKinnie founded the Columbia Pinball Revolution. He also travels across the U.S. for tournaments. Vox talks to the national competitor about his game, player name and long-term goals.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Doc hunt

You could track how video games figure into the public imagination simply by watching what movies say about them. When games began to be acknowledged as a storytelling medium and — dare I say it? — art form, the movies about them underwent a telling transformation: They’ve evolved from quick, thoughtless cash-ins on a fad (à la Super Mario Bros.) to analyses of the medium’s impact on the cultural landscape.

A new grip on rehab

Rated ‘E’ for exercise

Steadily decreasing grades, falling asleep during class, dropping after-school activities. Spending the majority of free time playing video games and becoming irritable and temperamental when told to stop. As reported by an April 2007 Harris Interactive poll, an estimated 8.5 percent of 8-18 year olds are addicted to video games and exhibit the above symptoms.

It’s my turn to play

"Start a family game night” has been a popular slogan for Milton Bradley to promote playing board games at home. With the new computer and video game systems being created and board games put on the back burner, the phrase could become “Start a family video game night.” Today, instead of sitting at the dinner table playing a rousing game of Scrabble, many parents are playing video games with their children as a new means of bonding.

Kings and queens of strategy

Not every game of chess is as exciting as the final moments of Searching for Bobby Fischer, but many devotees have just as much passion and drive as the movie’s main characters. There are numerous stereotypes of chess players: the nerdy misfits, the loner savants, the decrepit old men playing in the park. But this game’s fans don’t fit into any mold.

Girls who game

Controllers in hand, Robbie Hill perches on the edge of the couch. Like a skilled assassin, Hill shoots off the heads of slack-jawed zombies and an axe-wielding hermit with ease. Moments later, a scream shatters her cool exterior as a giant armed with a chainsaw lops off her character’s head. She falls back into the folds of the couch, exhales and smiles. Adjusting her rimless glasses, Hill brushes her bangs out of her eyes.

Tabled obsessions

A dozen middle-aged men crowd around a large table in the middle of Mark Burton’s gaming store, Valhalla’s Gate. Burton announces: “There are no special rules and no scenarios. This is an all-out bloodbath!” And with an anti-climactic “go,” miniature models of robotic soldiers spill onto the table and are quickly arranged to resemble platoons in an epic battle.

For every age

Choosing age-appropriate video games for kids can be a challenge. Start with these recommendations from commonsensemedia.org.

Where virtual meets reality

The Stardust Café is lively tonight and crawling with decked-out groupies, rocker chicks and vampires. A young guy with an acoustic guitar is playing a cover of Hootie and the Blowfish’s “Let Her Cry.” This is all real ­— but only in Second Life, a virtual reality platform simulator launched five years ago. It gives people a chance to meet other users from around the world. Their avatars, personalized virtual characters, live a life away from the 9-to-5 grind as rock stars, models or even private detectives.

Off-screen games

Many of today’s most popular face-to-face games borrow key components from past trendsetters. Here’s a look at some of the influential ancestors of the gaming world.

What’s next?

Since the first home video game console, Magnavox Odyssey, was introduced in 1972, product developers have been pumping out systems like mad. Visuals are becoming more complex and lifelike with each new system. But the question remains as to what the future will provide in the realm of gaming. Features web exclusive content.

Bent on experimentation

Green, silver, bronze and black are the colors on a circuit board. Although they might not be the colors of conventional beauty, adhering to those norms isn’t at the heart of circuit bending. But oddity, experimentation and unpredictability are. The people who do this renegade circuit redirection are using the electronics of sound to make the music they want to hear. Features additional audio clips and videos.

Guess who games?

Gaming, in a multitude of forms, has long been blamed for a host of social ills. In the 1980s, Dungeons & Dragons was widely associated with Satanism, and Tom Hanks starred in Mazes and Monsters, a made-for-TV movie about a college student who goes insane and then vanishes after participating in an eerily similar role-playing game. In the 1990s, teen violence was regularly blamed on video games, even after juvenile crime dropped and game sales continued to rise. A decade later, that old adage about there being no such thing as bad press seems fitting. According to a 2007 survey by the Entertainment Software Association, sales of U.S. computer and video game software swelled to $7.4 billion in 2006. That’s an impressive 300 percent increase from 1996.

Table-Top Gamer: Patrick Nolan, 38

(Web Exclusive) During the week, Patrick Nolan works for the Missouri Book Service. But every weekend, he assumes command of a small but vicious militia of warriors, robots and fantastical creatures. Each Saturday, he visits Valhalla’s Gate gaming store with his bag of multi-colored dice and his case of figurines to battle his many adversaries, who also double as friends.

Turning work into play

(Web Exclusive) Tired of dumbbells and treadmills? Some rehab specialists recommend incorporating the Nintendo Wii into fitness and recuperation programs. The engaging games distract patients from the truth that they are working out — or working at all. Check out the old and new motions for getting into a Wii bit better shape.

Negin Rising

(Web Exclusive) Negin Farsad was more exasperated than excited when her cohort Gaby Alter temporarily interrupted work on The Israeli-Palestinean Conflict: A Romantic Comedy to hear a friend’s interview on the radio. Of course, that was before she heard who the subject was: Damian Hess, aka MC Frontalot, progenitor of nerdcore hip-hop. That interview spawned in Farsad the idea for a new project.