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An
action (or
move or
control) in
gaming is an
action/
move/
control
a
player
character can do within the game. Most characters are
pre-animated<ref>
Digital
characters learn to move,
BBC News, June 25, 2002</ref> through
scripting
(
artificial intelligence),
inverse kinematics, or
motion
capture.<ref>
How do the
characters in video games move so fluidly?,
How Stuff
Works</ref>
Video games
In
arcade,
computer, and
video games,
such actions include (in order of
commonality):
Run: Running was perhaps the first action in a game,
though it was just "moving". Games like Pong and Pacman moved at one speed. Pick up (and later
put down): Picking
objects up (or just "pick-ups") in the game world usually meant just "running"
(moving) the character over the item; later games actually animate
the character to, depending on the kind of character (humanoid, etc), bend over, lean down, crouch
down, etc to pick up the object. Most games still do the
"run-over" approach, however. Colossal
Cave Adventure (1978) was the first game to feature
objects that could be picked up, used, and dropped (and that could
be carried by an NPC).<ref>Mark J. P. Wolf, Bernard Perron, The
Video Game Theory Reader, 2003, Routledge, ISBN 0415915880</ref>
Jump: Jumping (and
jumping
puzzles) became more prevalent during the platform game era with
games like Pitfall! which also combine jumping with
grabbing onto things in order
to: Climb (ladder,
pole, rope, rock/wall, etc): Climbing also became more
prevalent with platform games like Donkey Kong. Attack: A generic action for attacking like shooting/firing a
weapon, hitting, punching, kicking, throwing Crouch: Crouching (or ducking)
was also introduced in platform games. Use: Another generic action that performs various things
like picking up (or putting down) something (see above), inserting
something (like a key) into something else (a door), etc Walk: As games became more sophisticated, walking (vs.
running) became necessary, like to avoid falling off edges in
Tomb
Raider. Lie
down on stomach (also called prone) is used mostly in first person shooting games but
was also introduced in platform games like Contra.Fighting games tend to
have more complicated actions involving
combination
moves like
flips,
twists,
somersaults, etc. Other actions
include
desperation and
special attacks and
signature
and
finishing
moves.
Driving/racing games obviously have
driving-related actions like steering, acceleration
("running"/"walking"), breaking (stopping)
As games became (and
become) more complex, more and more actions/moves were (are) added,
approaching the level of complexity of
human positions,
facial
expression, and other
expressions.<ref>
Book Excerpt: 'Better Game Characters By
Design' ,
Katherine Isbister ,
Gamasutra, June 2,
2006</ref> An example of player character move evolution is
with
Tomb Raider where, in the original
1996 game,
Lara Croft, had
fewer moves than in the
2007 remake,
Tomb
Raider: Anniversary.<ref>
Lara rises from ‘Tomb’ with some new
moves,
Monty
Phan,
Newsday, June 26, 2007</ref>
See
also
Actions per minute Action point
Game
controllerReferences
Mark J. P. Wolf, The Medium
of the Video Game, 2002, University of Texas Press, pp.
63,80-1,6;116-133, ISBN 029279150XFurther reading
David M.
Bourg,
Glenn
Seemann, AI for Game Developers, 2004, O'Reilly Media, ISBN
0596005555External links
Video Game Buttons, basic moves
and cheat codes for various games 3D Game Comparison, includes lists
of moves for various games (like most of the Tomb Raider
series) for comparison
Wikis
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