Talk:Health (game terminology)

Role-playing

I'd love to create a subsection specific to tabletop role-playing games within the "Usage" section. I'd need to get some sources for that, though, particularly ones that are not limited to Dungeons & Dragons. I found this one] thus far and am looking for more. If someone happens to find anything, please post it here. It would be nice if the article could cover non-videogame related content better. I don't know too much about role-playing games mechanics, so my knowledge on this topic will be limited. All I know is that it seems to be hard to describe the abstractions and various mechanics of hit points in RPGs clearly and simply... ~Mable (chat) 11:40, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

I do find a lot of specific examples using this Google search, but those are only limitedly usable without commiting WP:SYNTH... ~Mable (chat) 11:45, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

• This one seems game-neutral: link

Difference between lives and health, and other things

The article has been rewritten a lot, there is still some information I think the article would benefit from having. The main thing on my mind is explaining the difference between lives and health. The biggest difference here is that with loss of health the player character usually if not always stays where they are doing what they were doing, although they may or may not be momentarily stunned. They don't lose their location or progress made in game. Loss of health doesn't stop gameplay but loss of a life is different. The character dies as such, disappears or falls down as a corpse etc. If the character has more lives the character will usually not continue where they were standing but from a previous location, such as beginning of current stage, last in game check point or save point etc. Often progress made just before losing a life, but after the last check point/save point is lost, a level may reset as such, this doesn't happen with loss of health, although not true with all games especially multiplayer ones, with other player characters on screen.

Another thing I think could be mentioned is the limit of maximum health limit. It's vaguely touched on or can be inferred, but it's not explained clearly like it could be. It is well known there may be a current maximum health, if health is lost, consuming items or doing something else may increase health but only to the maximum limit, no more. However, other items/spells/tasks/events leveling up etc can increase the maximum health limit to a higher amount that regular health packs or items don't do.

I'd like to mention some games or game types it is the norm that recharging health is never possible like in vast majority of fighting games although not all, increasing health simply doesn't happen at all, other than being beaten and starting a round again.

I wouldn't call this original research, just themes common to many games, like health itself is. Although finding sources, be they first or third party may be difficult. Although is noticing something yourself no matter how obvious the very definition of OR, if it's unsourced?  Carlwev  04:17, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

During the last rewrite, which I did about a year ago, I put most of my effort into describing health through reliable sources with a minimal amount of original research. It was difficult to find good sources at times, though, so some aspects may be a bit vaguely described. The way health works can also vary from game to game, making it a bit more difficult to speak universal truths. To go by them one by one anyway:

• Looking at the first paragraph of the lead section, health is described as a value: an attribute is a "piece of data" according to its article. This article states that "When the HP of a player character reaches zero, the player may lose a life ..." as the main reason to keep track of health. It isn't until the "usage" section that the way in which health "depletes" is really discussed. Honestly, I personally feel like the article never suggests that losing HP affects gameplay. Let the articles on lives deal with what happens to a player when they lose one. "Something bad happens if a player loses all its HP" is probably the best thing we can see about this... Or so I feel.
• Maximum HP could probably be defined better, yes. I might not have made the functional difference between "current HP" and "maximum HP" perfectly explicit in the lead section, though I think it is clear enough for any person who plays games. More complex aspects of this, such as how one could raise one's maximum HP, would need some sources, I suppose.
• Not being able to regenerate health in every game is probably something that should be stated in the "Regenerating health" section, I agree. If only I had a source for it...

I know these are all somewhat tame examples of original research. I'm usually particularly strict when it comes to OR and if I had written this article today, I would have removed the two "citation needed" segments. But I won't stop you if you want to add that not all video games feature regenerating health mechanics or if you want to make the difference between maximum and current HP more clear. It isn't "original thought" or synthesis to say these things, though it is "new analysis" of video games in some sense. I'm not making any sense anymore ^_^; The problem is that these things are "too obvious" to be described by gaming news outlets. Perhaps they're also too obvious to be described in detail on Wikipedia? ~Mable (chat) 10:10, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

"DPSer" listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect DPSer. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Not a very active user (talk) 06:20, 10 April 2020 (UTC)

Article title

Discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Video games#Title of Health (game terminology) (not watching, please {{ping}}) czar 02:47, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

Armour Class

Why does armour class redirect here when this article doesn't even mention it? Amphioxi (talk) 13:44, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

It was there, but it was removed a while ago:[1] BOZ (talk) 02:07, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

@Amphioxi: I partially restored/modified the section - essentially, the bit I was able to source. The more specific parts (naval battle game origins, Dave Arneson adds it to D&D, it spreads to RPGS from there, etc) could be restored if sources are found. Sariel Xilo (talk) 19:34, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

Feels very iffy to be included here. It has no direct relation to health as a topic, any more than any other stat an RPG might use. It's not the same as say, a Constitution stat may play a role in determining your health. -- ferret (talk) 19:48, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

It's part of the game balance around health; it is specifically part of the mechanic on if a character takes damage or not. Defense is essentially the opposite of regeneration of health. Separately, AC was merged here (thus the redirect) although it doesn't appear that was an AfD decision so it might make sense to move it elsewhere. Sariel Xilo (talk) 20:12, 23 February 2022 (UTC)