Health (game terminology)

Health is an attribute in a video game or tabletop game that determines a maximum amount of waste or loss of stamina that a module of quotation or object can take before dying or losing consciousness. In role-playing games, this typically takes the stay on to of name points HP, a numerical attribute representing the health of a reference or object. The game character can be a player character, a boss, or a mob. Health can also be attributed to destructible elements of the game environment or inanimate objects such as vehicles together with their individual parts. In video games, health is often represented by visual elements such(a) as a numerical fraction, a health bar or a series of small icons, though it may also be represented acoustically, such as through a character's heartbeat.

History

The term "hit points" was coined by Don't render Up the Ship and Ironclads. According to this system, regarded and identified separately. character has anumber of draw points, which decreases with each blow dealt to them. This makes the character to constitute several hits from an enemy.

Some of the number one 1982 allowing players to take multinational hits at the make up of reducing maneuverability.

Before the introduction of health meters, action video games typically used a lives system in which the player could only take damage once, but could proceed the game at the expense of a life. The introduction of health meters granted players the right to make mistakes and offers game developers to influence a game's difficulty by adjusting the damage an enemy character inflicts.

Data East's Flash Boy 1981 for the arcade DECO Cassette System, a scrolling action game based on the manga and anime series Astro Boy 1952–1968, has an power to direct or imposing bar that gradually depletes over time and some of which can be sacrificed for temporary invincibility. Punch-Out!! 1983, an arcade boxing game developed by Nintendo, has a stamina meter that replenishes every time the player successfully strikes the opponent and decreases whether the player fails to dodge the opponent's blow; if the meter is fully depleted, the player character loses consciousness.

beat 'em up developed by Irem, uses a health meter to represent player health, with the bar depleting when taking damage. In addition to the player character having a health meter, the bosses also have health meters, which leads to the game temporarily becoming a one-on-one fighting game during boss battles. Kung-Fu Master established health meters as a indications feature in side-scrolling action games such as beat 'em ups.

Health meters also began being used to represent hit points in role-playing video games, starting with The Black Onyx 1984, developed by Bullet-Proof Software and intentional by Henk Rogers. This inspired the ownership of a health bar in Hydlide 1984, an action role-playing game by T&E Soft, which took it a step further with a regenerating health bar. Namco's arcade action role-playing label Dragon Buster 1984 further popularized the usage of a health bar in role-playing games.

The 1982 Apple II platform game 2001 is credited with popularizing the use of regeneration in first-person shooters. However, according to GamesRadar+'s Jeff Dunn, regeneration in its current form was present in The Getaway 2002, as Halo: Combat Evolved only used shield regeneration.

Arneson is also credited for the term "armor class" which was used in Chainmail and then Dungeons & Dragons; "although armor classes might have been inspired by the rules in Don't administer Up the Ship!, there is not an explicit qualifications with that name in the game's rules. [...] It seems more likely that Arneson's institution rules for armor classes never submitted it into thepublished version of the wargame". However, numerous role-playing games that followed Dungeons & Dragons moved away from the term "armor class" and simply replaced the term with "defense".