Challenge: The range of skills required to master a game. Such skills can include reflexes, hand-eye coordination, pattern memorization, the ability to memorize and execute strategies, the ability to process information rapidly, and the ability to work within a team. The more skills that are required to master a game, the more challenging it is. Based on this definition, you may not find it surprising that I believe the most challenging game ever released is 1998's StarCraft expansion pack Brood War. Do note that I am not arguing a game with a low challenge level (such as the simple rhythm games that have dominated the genre since its creation in the late nineties) does not preclude a game from being difficult or possessing depth.

Complexity: The number of rules and variables that must be understood in order to play the game at a competent or intended level. The larger the rule set, the more complex the game is. Make note that while many of the best games (i.e. the Civilization franchise) can become fantastically complex, many games stifle their depth by providing too many options to the player. In the pursuit of providing an illusion of depth, the developer or creator will often fail to make sure that all of these options are useful. A mainstream example would be 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which provides so many options that only a few are actually useful and viable at their highest level of play.

Depth: Quite simply, the range of skill created by a video game between the best players and the worst players. The deeper the game mechanics, the wider a range. Little surprise "What constitutes depth?" and "What mechanics provide depth?" are questions that are both highly subjective to interpretation.

Difficulty: The restrictions imposed on the player by the game. How little margin for error does the game grant the player in completing tasks? That’s why they call them difficulty levels. Difficulty levels adjust variables. How hard enemies hit, how many lives you get. The proper difficulty level encourages and facilitates the intended use of the game mechanics. If the game is too easy, you end up with 2004's Cave Story, where you can ignore the game’s fascinating weapon mechanics and gung-ho your way through the game world. If the game is too hard, players will shun diverse combat schemes in favor of the “cheapest” attacks, a reboot of Ninja Gaiden where the Flying Swallow becomes your only friend. In the eighties, developers passed on complex rule sets that they did not have the technology to create and chose to make their games difficult, prolonging the shelf life of these exceptionally short games by assuring the player would have to master the game mechanics in order to complete them. And thus, the age of "Nintendo Hard" was born. Providing difficulty levels that appeal to players of all skill levels is very difficult. Today, most video games hand off the work in balancing the difficulty level to the player. Developers often focus on multiplayer modes, using matchmaking systems that facilitate the creation of matches that pair players of equal skill.

Gunplay: The interaction of player movement and weapon use between two or more players in a first-or-third-person shooter. The niche, diseased cousin of "gameplay". The term is used on this web site in order to denote the decline of meaningful player interaction in modern first-person shooters, as "two guns per player" and cover-shooting mechanics have become increasingly popular means of dealing with the inferior input presented by a controller.

Hitscan: Any weapon in a first-person shooter where the "bullet" travels immediately from the weapon to the target, such as the Shock Rifle in Unreal Tournament, the Railgun in Quake III: Arena, or the Sniper Rifle in Halo. May also refer to weapons featuring an exceptionally high velocity of fire, such as those featured in military first-person shooters.

Traditional Video Game Industry: The portion of the video game market encompassing home and portable video game devices, boxed computer video games, and the arcades. These were the three original outlets for the distribution of commercial and amateur video games. As internet browser-based computer video games and mobile phone games become more popular, as the audiences for the traditional platforms become older and more bitter, this term will become more important.

Coming soon: More boring shit!