PSX: An abbreviation for Sony’s PlayStation console. Actually based on an early
name for the system, the PlayStation X. Nonetheless, the abbreviation stuck. However,
Sony does not like you calling their newer system the PSX2.
Public Relations: A wing of the marketing department whose primary job is to hype
a company’s upcoming games in the press by readying press releases, screenshots, and
other information. They also can be quite helpful in granting permission to use
screenshots in books such as this one.
QA: SeeQuality Assurance.
Quality Assurance: This is the process of testing a game to make sure that it is
bug-free and plays reasonably well. The quality assurance cycle or period is the time
when a nearly complete project is extensively tested just prior to release. In large com-
panies, the quality assurance department or team performs that testing.
Rail, On a: SeeOn a Rail.
Real-Time: Anything that is computed or rendered for players while they wait, such
as graphics and pathfinding. This differentiates something from being pre-computed
before the actual gameplay is taking place. Can also differentiate a game from being
turn-based.See alsoTurn-Based.
Real-Time Strategy: A currently popular genre of games, including such titles as
Command & Conquer,WarCraft,Total Annihilation, andMyth: The Fallen Lords. This
term is typically emphasized to differentiate these RTS games from turn-based strat-
egy games such asCivilization,X-Com: UFO Defense, andAlpha Centauri.
Real-Time 3D: Describes 3D graphics that are rendered while the player is looking
at them, so that as the player moves around the world, many different views of objects
and configurations of the game-world can be generated on the fly.Unrealuses real-time
3D graphics whileMystuses pre-rendered 3D graphics.See alsoPre-Rendered.
Release Candidate: A build of the game the development team believes may be the
one that can be shipped. A release candidate is generally tested for at least a few days,
optimally a week or two, to determine if it is bug-free enough to be acceptable to the
publisher. It is not uncommon for a particular product to go through five or more release
candidates.See alsoAlphaandBeta.
Role-Playing Game: Games based on the type of gameplay established by pencil
and paper role-playing games such asDungeons & Dragons. Those original non-com-
puter games were so titled because in them players took on the roles of characters of
their own creation and guided them through a fantasy world. Much of the gameplay in
RPGs depends on the players role-playing these characters who often had personalities
different from their own. Ironically, most computer role-playing games often contain
very little of the role-playing aspect of traditional RPGs, instead choosing to concen-
trate on the combat mechanics and fantasy setting.
RPG: SeeRole-Playing Game.
RT3D: SeeReal-Time 3D.
RTS: SeeReal-Time Strategy.
Scripted: In terms of a game, scripted typically refers to AI behaviors that are
planned in advance to allow the AI agents to look clever in specific situations in a level.
668 Glossary