Health (game terminology)

Health or vitality is an attribute assigned to entities such as characters or objects within tabletop role-playing games and video games, that indicates their continued ability to function while damaged or injured.[1] Health is usually measured in hit points or health points, shortened to HP which lowers by set amounts when the entity is attacked or injured. When the HP of a player character or non-player character reaches zero, that character is considered either dead or incapacitated and barred from taking further action. In single player games, running out of health usually equates to "dying" and (in the case of a player character) losing a life or receiving a Game Over. In some games, such as those with cooperative multiplayer, it is possible for an ally to revive a character who has reached zero HP.

A health bar, a possible representation of the health of a character.

Any entity within a game could have a health value, including the player character, non-player characters, and objects. Indestructible entities have no diminishable health value. Health might be displayed as a numeric value, such as "50/100". Here, the first number indicates the current amount of HP an entity has, and the second number indicates the entity's maximum HP. In video games, health can also be displayed graphically, such as with a bar that empties itself when an entity loses health (a health bar), icons that are "chipped away", or in more novel ways.[2][3]

History

The term "hit points" was first coined by Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson.[4][5][6] While developing Dungeons & Dragons with Gary Gygax based on the latter's previous game Chainmail, Arneson noticed that it was more interesting for players to manage small squads than a large army. This also allowed them to act out the role of each squad member. However, this approach had one drawback: according to the rules of Chainmail, the player rolls the dice during each battle, and depending on the number rolled, the character either kills the enemy or is killed. Because players did not want to lose the characters they had become accustomed to, Arneson created a "hit point" system based on similar mechanics previously used in Don't Give Up the Ship and Ironclads.[4][6][7][8] According to this system, each character has a certain number of hit points, which decreases with each blow dealt to them. This allows the character to survive several hits from an enemy.[4]

Some of the first computer games to use hit points are Rogue (1980),[9] in which health is represented by a fraction,[10] and Dungeons of Daggorath (1982), which includes an audible heartbeat influenced by the player character's condition.[11] One of the first games to use a graphical indicator for health points is Nintendo's 1983 arcade title Punch-Out!!. The game includes a "stamina" scale that replenishes every time the player successfully strikes the opponent and decreases if the player fails to dodge the opponent's blow. If the scale is fully depleted, the player character loses consciousness.[12] Namco's 1984 title Dragon Buster is considered the first game to have popularized the use of a health bar. Before the introduction of health points, video games used a life system in which the player could only take damage once, but could continue the game at the expense of a life. The introduction of health mechanics granted players the right to make mistakes and allowed game developers to influence a game's difficulty by adjusting the damage an enemy character inflicts.[13]

Usage

In action video games as well as in role-playing games, health points can usually be depleted by attacking the entity. A defense attribute might reduce the amount of HP that is lost when a character is damaged. It is common in role-playing games for a character's maximum health and defense attributes to be gradually raised as the character levels up.[14] In game design, it is deemed important that a player is aware of it when they are losing health, each hit playing a clear sound effect. Author Scott Rogers states that "health should deplete in an obvious manner, because with every hit, a player is closer to losing their life."[3] The display of health also helps to dramatize the near-loss of a life.[15]

Regeneration

Player characters can often restore their health points by consuming certain items, such as health potions, food or first-aid kits.[1] Staying a night at an inn fully restores a character's health in many role-playing video games.[16] In general, the different methods of regenerating health has its uses in a particular genre. In action games, this method is very quick, whereas role-playing games feature slower paced methods to match the gameplay and realism.[15]

Some video games feature automatically regenerating health, where lost health points are regained over time. This can be useful to not "cripple" the player, allowing them to continue even after losing a lot of health. However, automatically regenerating health may also cause a player to "power through" sections they might otherwise have had to approach cautiously simply because there are no lasting consequences to losing a large amount of health. To strike a balance between these extremes, many games have implemented a hybrid system, whereby the player only automatically regenerates health to a certain point; they must seek other means (such as traditional pick-ups) to restore the rest.[17]

This mechanic initially appeared in action role-playing games, with early examples including the Hydlide series, the Ys series,[18][19] and Woody Poco.[20] In Woody Poco, the rate at which health recharges is based on food level.[20] In Hydlide and Ys, the player character has to stand still for their health to automatically regenerate.[21] This system was popularized in first-person shooters by Halo: Combat Evolved (2001),[3] though regenerating health in The Getaway (2002) has been cited to be more comparable to later use of the mechanic in first-person shooters.[18]

Display
Heart-shaped icons can indicate the amount of health a player has left.

The way health is displayed on the screen has an effect on the player. Many games only show the health of the player character, while keeping the health of enemies hidden. This is done in the Legend of Zelda series, Minecraft and Monster Hunter series to keep the player's progress in defeating their enemy unclear. In these games, the fact that the enemies are being damaged is indicated by their behavior.[22] On the other hand, many fighting games, such as the Street Fighter series, use easy-to-read health bars to clearly indicate the progress the player is making with each hit.[23]

It is common in first-person shooters to indicate low health of the player character by blood spatters or by a distorted red hue on the screen, attempting to mimic the effects of wounding and trauma. These visual effects fade as health regenerates.[24]

References
  1. Moore, Michael (2011-03-23). Basics of Game Design. CRC Press. pp. 151, 194. ISBN 1439867763. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  2. Antista, Chris (2010-08-17). "The 10 most creative life bars". GamesRadar. p. 2. Archived from the original on 2014-12-28.
  3. Rogers, Scott (2010-09-29). Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 276–277. ISBN 0470970928. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  4. Rausch, Allen (August 19, 2004). "Dave Arneson Interview". GameSpy. Archived from the original on August 22, 2004. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  5. Carreker 2012, p. 334.
  6. Fannon 1999, p. 249.
  7. Witwer 2015.
  8. Tresca 2010, p. 54.
  9. Costikyan 2013, p. 46.
  10. Rogue instruction manual, Epyx
  11. Barton, Matt (February 23, 2007). "The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 1: The Early Years (1980–1983)". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on April 19, 2007. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  12. "Glass Joe Boxes Clever". Computer + Video Games. Future Publishing: 47. August 1984. Retrieved 2015-01-02.
  13. "Gaming's most important evolutions". GamesRadar. October 8, 2010. Archived from the original on January 18, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  14. Nickogibson (2012-09-12). "What is an RPG - Intro to RPG Games". Slideshare. Retrieved 2015-01-09.
  15. Fullerton, Tracy (2008-02-08). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press. pp. 72, 73. ISBN 0240809742. Retrieved 2014-12-19.
  16. Duggan, Michael (2011). RPG Maker for Teens. Cengage Learning. pp. 109, 141. ISBN 1435459679. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  17. Moriarty, Jonathan (2010-12-02). "Video Game Basics: The Health Bar". Baltimoregamer.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2012. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  18. Dunn, Jeff (2012-11-15). "Stop, Drop, and Heal: The history of regenerating health". GamesRadar. Retrieved 2015-01-08.
  19. Sulliven, Lucas (2014-03-10). "Top 7… Games you didn't know did it first". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on 2015-01-08. Retrieved 2015-01-08.
  20. Szczepaniak, John (2015-11-04). "dB-SOFT Gaming 101". The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers. 2. ISBN 978-1518655319.
  21. Szczepaniak, John (7 July 2011). "Falcom: Legacy of Ys". GamesTM (111): 152–159 [153].(cf. Szczepaniak, John (July 8, 2011). "History of Ys interviews". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved 6 September 2011.)
  22. Martindale, Jon (2012-10-03). "Let's Kill off Health Bars". Kit Guru Gaming. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  23. Novak, Jeannie (2013-04-11). The Official GameSalad Guide to Game Development. Cengage Learning. p. 31. ISBN 1133605648. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  24. Call, Josh (2012-11-02). "Disposable Bodies: Cyborg Regeneration and FPS Mechanics". In Voorhees, Gerald A.; Call, Josh; Whitlock, Katie (eds.). Guns, Grenades, and Grunts: First-Person Shooter Games. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 1441191445. Retrieved 2014-11-21.

Bibliography
  • Carreker, Dan (2012). The Game Developer’s Dictionary: A Multidisciplinary Lexicon for Professionals and Students. Cengage Learning. ISBN 1435460820.
  • Costikyan, Greg (2013). Uncertainty in Games. MIT Press. ISBN 0262018969.
  • Fannon, Sean Patrick (1999). Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer’s Bible. Obsidian Studios Corporation. ISBN 0967442907.
  • Tresca, Michael (2010). The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0786460091.
  • Witwer, Michael (2015). Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 1632862042.

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