Browse Activities groups
themes
entities
concepts
| "Fair" Cheating | All factions have equally balanced access to built-in cheating options. | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 3 games |
| Absolute rulership | Player has absolute rulership of their particular nation, its goals and policies. | notifications | 1990 / 2016 | 71 games |
| Access control | Player manages access control on some degree, such as who is allowed to go where and who isn't. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Acrobatics(Acrobatic gymnasics) | Involves high mobility and complex action requiring full-body coordination. | notifications | 1986 / 2014 | 46 games |
| Action by inaction | The player character does something useful specifically when player does nothing. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Adoption | The alternative to actual procreation, adopting one or more children to be raised by you. | notifications | 2009 / 2018 | 5 games |
| Agriculture (Horticulture)[farming] | Planting seeds, seedlings, etc. and nurturing them to grow until they're edible or otherwise usable, or form parts that are such (e.g. fruits). | notifications | 1981 / 2023 | 72 games |
| Air control[jump steering] | Player has abnormal amount of control over movement while in air. | notifications | 1990 / 2022 | 109 games |
| Air Traffic Control (ATC) | Keeping a safe distance between aircraft and efficient, speedy, and orderly flow of traffic. | notifications | 1978 / 2014 | 72 games |
| Airdash | The protagonist can dash mid-air, causing a sudden burst of speed in the defined direction. | notifications | 2002 / 2023 | 70 games |
| Ambiguous term: Diving | The term "diving" is ambiguous and thus this should not be used as is, see the child tags for more accurate instances. | list_alt | 0 game | |
| Arm wrestling | notifications | 1985 / 2014 | 12 games | |
| Assassinating | Player needs to assassinate specific targets, anyone else is unnecessary or even detrimental to kill. | notifications | 1992 / 2014 | 22 games |
| Astral projection | Projecting one's spirit, soul, or similar outside of one's body for exploration, espionage, or other ghost-like activities. | notifications | 2003 / 2016 | 5 games |
| Astronavigation (Celestial navigation) | Includes a somewhat realistic starfield that can be used for navigation, mapping, or time. | notifications | 1981 / 2017 | 7 games |
| Atmospheric flight | All or part of the flying is done within the gases surrounding any planetary body. | notifications | 1979 / 2021 | 106 games |
| Attack clashing[Weapon clashing;Sword clashing] | Striking a against a melee attack or weapon with your own, either by accident or timing your attack roughly at the same time with the opponent's, has effects beside the base expected from video games. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Backstabbing (Stealth attack) | Attacking people from behind (or otherwise without them noticing you) either allows you to instantly kill them or deal significantly higher amount of damage. | notifications | 1998 / 2022 | 169 games |
| Barricading (Makeshift defenses) | Player can or must build makeshift barricades. Moving furniture, hammering planks on, welding things shut, and otherwise attempting to make entrance as difficult as possible. | notifications | 2003 / 2019 | 45 games |
| Base building | Involves building, maintaining and possibly defending your base of operations. | notifications | 1984 / 2021 | 334 games |
| Blindfiring[blindfire] | Player may fire from behind cover without exposing more than their gun and the hand(s) holding it. Unreliable method, but the purpose is usually to suppress the opposition than the kill them (even if that's also desirable effect). | notifications | 2008 / 2023 | 32 games |
| Block timing | Blocking either requires timing from the player to function at all or provides extra effects when timed, such as stunning the attacker. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Blocking | Player can block attacks, usually with a shield or similar. | notifications | 1993 / 2019 | 173 games |
| Blocking: Sectors[Directional blocking;Sector blocking] | Blocking happens by choosing a sector for the block on top of your facing, rather than generic block stance or action. | notifications | 2008 / 2017 | 6 games |
| Boarding | Forced insertion of individuals on a vessel for whatever purpose. | notifications | 1983 / 2017 | 29 games |
| Boating (Yachting;Sailing) | notifications | 1971 / 2013 | 31 games | |
| Body Piercing | A specific type of body modification whereby holes are punctured in skin in order to hold jewelry. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Bodyslamming | Player character can jump or drop their own body at an opponent, knocking them down or otherwise injuring them. | notifications | 2005 / 2015 | 24 games |
| Bounty-hunting | Player participates in bounty-hunting: locating, capturing and/or killing individuals. | notifications | 1979 / 2016 | 12 games |
| Breath control | Player must control the protagonist's breathing somehow, such as pressing a button down for as long as you need to hold breath. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 2 games |
| Bribing [bribes;bribery] | The player may engage in the giving or taking of bribes. | notifications | 1982 / 2017 | 37 games |
| Building designing (House designing) | Player can or must design a house. Such as how many floors, where and what shaped rooms, hallways, doorways, etc. there are. Furniture, electronics, etc. not included. | notifications | 1985 / 2023 | 80 games |
| Captive exchange (Prisoner exchange;Hostage exchange) | Player can exchange captives somehow. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Capturing | notifications | 1986 / 2013 | 5 games | |
| Cargo jettisoning (Emergency dumping) | Player can trivially jettison their cargo, drop their backpack/bag, or similar. Usually to help move faster or gain increased maneuverability when such is needed immediately. | notifications | 2003 / 2021 | 17 games |
| Cartography(Manual mapping) | Player somehow interactively/manually creates navigation maps by hand in-game, possibly with some minor tools that make it simpler but do not automate it. | notifications | 2007 / 2012 | 4 games |
| Catch 'em Up | Some or all gameplay is colliding with [b]moving[/b] objects (catching them) while other gameplay (if it exist) does not requiring significant player attention. | notifications | 1978 / 2017 | 66 games |
| Ceiling clinging | The protagonist can cling momentarily or permanently to ceilings or other mostly downward facing surfaces. | notifications | 1995 / 2019 | 21 games |
| Ceiling traversal | The protagonist can freely traverse any ceiling or mostly downward facing surfaces. | notifications | 1995 / 2015 | 30 games |
| Character carrying | Player character can carry around other characters who are more or less completely awake, likely only willing ones (allies) or unwilling ones if properly bound. Not when this is limited to specific characters, unless carrying them is frequent. | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 9 games |
| Charging (Ramming;Bullrushing)[bull rushing;bull-rushing] | Player character can charge at their opponents and cause damage, stunning or such with the impact. | notifications | 1982 / 2017 | 53 games |
| Chasing (Tailing)[Following;Pursuing] | Requires chasing or otherwise following someone, either because they're running away or you're trying to find out where they're going. | notifications | 2007 / 2011 | 13 games |
| Cheating | Encourages or requires cheating in the game. | notifications | 2014 / 2016 | 5 games |
| Cheerleading | Physical activity based upon organized routines, in order to direct spectators of events to cheer for sports teams at games or to participate in competitions. | notifications | 2008 / 2011 | 10 games |
| Chemistry (Alchemy) | You can concoct potions and/or create other alchemical substances. | notifications | 1979 / 2018 | 82 games |
| Chemistry: Medicine | notifications | 2002 / 2012 | 8 games | |
| Chemistry: Toxins | notifications | 2002 / 2012 | 7 games | |
| Claiming Area | Object of the game is to claim a whole area. Classic examples are games like Qix and Amidar, but not limited to this kind of sub-genre. | notifications | 1981 / 2022 | 59 games |
| Claiming(Collecting) | To progress, player must collect/claim all or most of some thing - usually objects of certain type, but can be anything - to proceed in each level. | notifications | 1978 / 2021 | 1342 games |
| Clambering(Mantling) | Player can climb onto about waist/chest high objects or possibly higher ones. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 17 games |
| Cleaning | Player spends time washing, mopping, brushing, etc. things clean, or can do so. | notifications | 2002 / 2021 | 20 games |
| Climbing on people[Climbing on characters;Climbing on monsters] | Player can climb on people, monsters, or other characters. | notifications | 2012 / 2016 | 6 games |
| Cloaking (Cloaking field;Stealth field;Cloak generator) | Player can turn themselves invisible - to optical and possibly other sensors - or nearly so. | notifications | 1991 / 2019 | 62 games |
| Coercion(Blackmailing) | notifications | 5 games | ||
| Colonization | Involves colonization of a new continent(s) or even planet(s). | notifications | 1982 / 2016 | 34 games |
| Combat styles (Combat stances) | Characters have access to multiple combat styles they switch between of. Especially if the different styles are required to be used. | notifications | 2002 / 2017 | 18 games |
| Combo break[Combo breaker] | It is possible to break opponents' combos, possibly even in middle of being affected by them. | notifications | 1980 / 2015 | 15 games |
| Combo moves (Combo attacks) | Player can perform some devastating combo attacks and other moves by following a precise sequence of controller actions. Usually the more powerful the combo is, the less it has to do with the combination required to initiate it. | notifications | 1980 / 2018 | 87 games |
| Component jettisoning | Player can trivially jettison components, gear/equipment (such as worn armor), or similar. Usually for similar purposes as jettisoning cargo. | notifications | 2009 / 2017 | 8 games |
| Constructing (Building construction) | Player spends significant amount of time personally building or managing the building of singular object or structure, such as a house, possibly several but each are worked on separately and with equal effort. | notifications | 1979 / 2023 | 53 games |
| Contracting | Player can create contracts that others may try take and complete. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Conversion[converting] | Player can somehow convert creatures, especially enemies/opponents, to their side. | notifications | 1995 / 2016 | 48 games |
| Cooking | The player is able to do some cooking. | notifications | 1986 / 2023 | 131 games |
| Cooperation | Requires cooperation between two or more characters to progress, especially if this is frequent or constant. | notifications | 1981 / 2019 | 164 games |
| Cooperative construction (Co-operative construction) | One player/character can start constructing a building, unit, etc. and another player/character can join in it to help. | notifications | 2007 / 2008 | 3 games |
| Corpse actions | Certain actions can be performed on corpses that are not better described by other concepts. | notifications | 1985 / 2021 | 30 games |
| Corpse harvesting | Corpses and other remainders of dead or destroyed creatures can be harvested somehow. | notifications | 1997 / 2020 | 21 games |
| Corpse looting | Player must search through corpses to gain any valuables they were carrying. | notifications | 1994 / 2020 | 134 games |
| Counter attacks(Riposte)[riposting;counter attacking;counters] | Player has the ability to take advantage of their opponents' attacks and turn them into devastating attacks of their own. The opponents may also be able to do this. | notifications | 2003 / 2018 | 52 games |
| Cover swap | There's a simple way to swap to a nearby cover, usually much faster and more fluidly than otherwise would be possible. | notifications | 2009 / 2013 | 13 games |
| Crafting | Features item crafting. | notifications | 1985 / 2023 | 478 games |
| Crafting: Ammo[Ammo crafting;ammunition crafting] | Player can craft ammunition, energy packs, or similar for their weapons and tools. | notifications | 2011 / 2023 | 28 games |
| Crafting: Weapons (Weaponsmithing) | notifications | 2009 / 2016 | 12 games | |
| Creature designing (Species designing) | notifications | 1997 / 2016 | 10 games | |
| Creature identification | Creatures, be it opponents or otherwise, can be identified better than "animal" or "humanoid". May occur in multiple stages, progressing through taxonomy tree or just have one step. | notifications | 1975 / 2020 | 20 games |
| Criminal activity (Law breaking) | Player can or must break the law in a manner other characters object to, call law enforcers for or even personally try to apprehend you. | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 59 games |
| Crosshair | Gameplay involves moving an on-screen crosshair to shoot or tag enemies | notifications | 1978 / 2002 | 23 games |
| Cruelty | Encourages and/or rewards acts of cruelty. | notifications | 2002 / 2012 | 18 games |
| Cryptography | notifications | 1984 / 2014 | 8 games | |
| Curse Removing (Jinx Removing) | Protagonists can be cursed and have curses removed many times in the game (an occurrence, not a plot point). | notifications | 1 game | |
| Cybernetics (Bionics;Robotic implants;Bionic implants) | Player character can or must work with cybernetic hardware (bionic and/or robotic implants), especially if it's their own. Such as fixing, installing, modifying, or replacing them. | notifications | 1988 / 2023 | 63 games |
| Dashing | A sudden and short run or similar movement. | notifications | 1991 / 2023 | 107 games |
| Dead animation | Player can animate the dead, regardless of the method (such as magic, technology, psychokinesis, etc.). | notifications | 2001 / 2010 | 4 games |
| Deception (Misinformation) | notifications | 3 games | ||
| Deck building | Player can build custom decks. | notifications | 1997 / 2015 | 15 games |
| Decomposing(Dismantling;Deconstructing;Disassembling;Break for parts) | Player can break down objects into base components, regardless if this preserves all that were used in their construction. | notifications | 2003 / 2016 | 13 games |
| Deduction | Deduction plays a central role in gameplay. | notifications | 1979 / 2014 | 21 games |
| Defense breaking (Shield breaking)[defence breaking] | Defenses can be broken, disrupted, or otherwise temporarily or permanently negated. A shield flung aside, struck so hard the person staggers and can't parry for a sec, etc. | notifications | 2000 / 2018 | 44 games |
| Delivering | Player must deliver something to someone. | notifications | 1977 / 2015 | 46 games |
| Demolition | Demolition, purposeful destruction of structures, is a gameplay element (not just incidental). | notifications | 1986 / 2013 | 40 games |
| Designing | A significant portion of the game is spent designing something. | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 7 games |
| Devouring alive | Involves eating some creatures while they're still alive. | notifications | 1993 / 2015 | 24 games |
| Digging (Tunneling) | Involves digging up tunnels and/or chambers in rock or other solid material. | notifications | 1979 / 2019 | 508 games |
| Diplomacy(Foreign politics;Foreign relations)) | Negotiating (trade, immigration, research, law enforcement, military, etc.) treaties, joint operations, and so forth with foreign powers. | notifications | 1980 / 2019 | 59 games |
| Dirty fighting | Fighting using underhanded, amoral, unfair, dishonourable, etc. methods. | notifications | 2013 / 2014 | 3 games |
| Disarming | The protagonist can somehow disarm their opponents. | notifications | 2000 / 2018 | 43 games |
| Disguising | Player can or is required to disguise themselves. | notifications | 1984 / 2015 | 33 games |
| Dismemberment[dismembering] | Limbs get chopped off. | notifications | 1983 / 2018 | 121 games |
| Displays of Affection | Has notable and/or numerous incidents of couples displaying affection. | notifications | 1996 / 2014 | 3 games |
| Distracting | Player can distract others briefly, such as by tossing an object somewhere to cause noise for the enemies to investigate. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 61 games |
| Docking | Player can or must manually dock. | notifications | 1981 / 2015 | 3 games |
| Dodging (Evasion) | Includes movement functionality solely meant for dodging. | notifications | 1978 / 2022 | 431 games |
| Door slamming(Door bashing)[door-slamming] | Kicking, ramming, or doing something else to a door that causes it to swivel violently at someone with the purpose of causing the door to hit them. Causing damage, stunning, and/or knocking them back/down. | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 11 games |
| Drawing | Involves drawing shapes or symbols. | notifications | 1981 / 2021 | 34 games |
| Drifting (Oversteering;Fishtailing;Powersliding)[sliding;skidding] | Ability to maintain momentum while turning, with the turning not affecting direction of the drift (much). Such as a car with which the driver intentionally loses traction for. | notifications | 1998 / 2020 | 37 games |
| Drilling | notifications | 2003 / 2013 | 4 games | |
| Driving | Features driving any land-based vehicle(s) as the whole point, for significant part of the game or prominent side activity. | notifications | 1974 / 2021 | 543 games |
| Eavesdropping | Player can or must secretly listen to the conversations of others, usually gaining some inexplicably useful info in the process. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 22 games |
| Ecology | Ecology (the study of the natural relationships between lifeforms) plays a key role in gameplay. | notifications | 1983 / 2020 | 26 games |
| Educational Content | list_alt | 0 game | ||
| Educational content: Art Techniques | Game teaches techniques for making art (color, texture, depth, shading, perspective etc). | notifications | 1982 / 2009 | 5 games |
| Educational content: Astrology | 0 game | |||
| Educational content: Astronomy | notifications | 1983 / 2008 | 13 games | |
| Educational content: Biology | notifications | 1972 / 2009 | 29 games | |
| Educational content: Chemistry | Game teaches chemistry. | notifications | 1979 / 1995 | 8 games |
| Educational content: Colors | notifications | 1983 / 2011 | 75 games | |
| Educational content: Computer science | Features learning about computer science as a significant theme and element of gameplay. | notifications | 1982 / 1988 | 11 games |
| Educational content: Ecology | The game teaches ecology, the relationships between lifeforms. | notifications | 1980 / 2008 | 26 games |
| Educational content: English language | Game teaches the English language to native speakers of other languages. | notifications | 1984 / 2005 | 51 games |
| Educational content: Finance (Money Skills;Money) | Features learning about, earning, spending, borrowing, lending, etc. of money as a significant theme and element of gameplay. | notifications | 1979 / 2009 | 40 games |
| Educational content: Flight | Game teaches flight skills. | notifications | 1986 / 2000 | 3 games |
| Educational content: Geography | Game teaches geography. | notifications | 1972 / 2014 | 193 games |
| Educational content: Geometry | Game teaches geometry. The measuring of lengths, areas, angles, volumes, size, shape, relative positions, & properties of space. | notifications | 1975 / 2006 | 11 games |
| Educational content: German language | Game teaches the german language for foreigners. | notifications | 1983 / 1990 | 3 games |
| Educational content: Government | Game teaches information about how government works, including politics. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Educational content: Grammar | Game teaches grammar, the rules governing the structure of sentences, phrases, and words of a language. | notifications | 1983 / 2009 | 29 games |
| Educational content: Graphemes (Letters;Syllabograms;Logograms) | Teaches letters (alphabet), syllabograms, logograms or other graphemes. | notifications | 1981 / 2011 | 73 games |
| Educational content: History | Intended to teach about history with qualified accuracy. | notifications | 1983 / 2008 | 54 games |
| Educational content: Life Skills | Game teaches practical skills generally not emphasized in text books or structured education. | notifications | 1984 / 2014 | 26 games |
| Educational content: Logic | Game teaches logic. | notifications | 1981 / 2009 | 73 games |
| Educational content: Machine Operating | Game teaches the player how to operate machinery. | notifications | 1974 / 2015 | 25 games |
| Educational content: Mathematics | Game teaches the use of mathematics (math), the science of patterns, often expressed in numbers and equations. | notifications | 1973 / 2017 | 878 games |
| Educational content: Memory Training | Includes a significant portion of gameplay designed primarily for memory training. | notifications | 1978 / 2010 | 31 games |
| Educational content: Motor Vehicle Code (Educational content: Traffic Code) | Features learning about local statutes, regulations, ordinances and rules that have been officially adopted in a specific state to govern the orderly operation and interaction of motor vehicles upon the public ways. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Educational content: Music | Game teaches music. | notifications | 1978 / 2011 | 48 games |
| Educational content: Numbers | Game teaches about number systems and/or counting. | notifications | 1978 / 2010 | 43 games |
| Educational content: Nutrition | notifications | 2004 / 2008 | 4 games | |
| Educational content: Phonemes | Teaches pronounciations, phonetics, etc. | notifications | 1985 / 1993 | 7 games |
| Educational content: Physical Health | Teaches or helps player practice activities to improve/maintain their physical health. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Educational content: Physics | notifications | 1983 / 2014 | 8 games | |
| Educational content: Programming | Game teaches players how create and/or edit algorithms (computer programs). | notifications | 1979 / 2009 | 50 games |
| Educational content: Reading | Game Teaches reading skills. | notifications | 1978 / 2001 | 95 games |
| Educational content: Religion | notifications | 1987 / 2009 | 9 games | |
| Educational content: Shapes | notifications | 1981 / 2011 | 72 games | |
| Educational content: Spelling | Game teaches spelling. | notifications | 1978 / 2013 | 219 games |
| Educational content: Typing | Game teaches typing skills. | notifications | 1978 / 2021 | 118 games |
| Educational content: Vocabulary | notifications | 1982 / 2010 | 37 games | |
| Ejecting | Player can exit moving vehicle without stopping it, shutting down the engine, etc. causing the vehicle to continue moving with its acquired momentum. | notifications | 2008 / 2020 | 10 games |
| Emergency service | Player functions in scope of emergency service, likely in some government funded civil organization. | notifications | 1983 / 2012 | 17 games |
| Emergency venting (Emergency shutdown;Emergency discharging) | An emergency release of a buildup of something. Often limits operation during the release procedure or even completely disables it. | notifications | 1995 / 2018 | 20 games |
| Emotes (Actions) | Player can perform emotes. Point at things, laugh, hop, cry, etc. Things that by themselves do little, but prompt others to respond, are responses themselves or aid verbal or other cues. | notifications | 2002 / 2019 | 19 games |
| Enchanting | Player can place magical enchantments on objects that adds, changes or removes properties it normally has. | notifications | 1996 / 2015 | 13 games |
| Enemy commanding | Player may, under certain circumstances, command the enemy to do something for them, such as dropping their weapons or surrendering. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Engine shutdown | Player can shutdown their vehicle's engine for whatever reason. | notifications | 1989 / 2015 | 45 games |
| Environmental combat | Player can use the environment to defeat their opponents. | notifications | 1991 / 2018 | 78 games |
| Escape | A significant portion of the story involves escaping from somewhere. | notifications | 1977 / 2024 | 214 games |
| Espionage (Spying) | Gathering of information without knowledge, consent, or being noticed by the target. In some cases, manipulation of information by the same means. | notifications | 1982 / 2018 | 148 games |
| Excretion (Urination and defecation) | Excretion serves some gameplay purpose. | notifications | 1979 / 2019 | 41 games |
| Exploration | Significant portion of player's work is spent exploring areas, examining areas, searching for where various things can be found so they can be later exploited, etc. Best examples of this are when there's no objective markers and player can get lost. | notifications | 1978 / 2024 | 287 games |
| Farming | Nurturing flora and/or fauna for food or otherwise usable materials. | list_alt | 0 game | |
| Feinting[Attack cancelling] | Player can cancel out individual attacks as a feint to mislead enemies (especially other human players). | notifications | 2012 / 2014 | 2 games |
| Fetching (Gofering) | Player must fetch things for someone. | notifications | 1988 / 2015 | 12 games |
| Firefighting | notifications | 1977 / 2018 | 31 games | |
| First aid[first-aid] | Player needs to apply first aid to properly deal with various health problems (such as staunching bleeding). | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 22 games |
| Fishing | notifications | 1975 / 2023 | 365 games | |
| Flap control | Player can or must manually control aircraft flaps. | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 3 games |
| Flicking(Swiping;Flick-based controls) | Uses flicks for all or part of the game control. | notifications | 2010 / 2019 | 7 games |
| Flipping | Player character can turn upside down and operate more or less normally. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Flying | notifications | 1973 / 2020 | 174 games | |
| Flying in caves | You must pilot a flying vessel in confined cave-like spaces. | notifications | 1981 / 2015 | 169 games |
| Foraging | Searching for food sources in the wilderness such as berries, mushrooms, and other non-animal nutrition. | notifications | 1992 / 2023 | 41 games |
| Forging(Counterfeiting)[forgery] | Involves producing and using forgeries, either inauthentic copies or falsified objects (e.g. false/misleading documents) of their own. | notifications | 2013 / 2016 | 2 games |
| Formations (Military formations) | Allows or requires the use of formations, pre or user defined arrangements of people, creatures or vehicles. | notifications | 1995 / 2016 | 64 games |
| Fouling | Player and possibly their opponents can attempt to foul, do something outside the rules of the sport to gain some sort of an advantage while hopefully not being noticed by the referees for it. | notifications | 2009 / 2015 | 8 games |
| Freeform designing | The involved designing happens with very little preset limitations, allowing you to create even completely non-functional things even with all necessary parts used. | notifications | 2009 / 2020 | 8 games |
| Freekick | It is a fundamental of football. | notifications | 2009 / 2010 | 2 games |
| Freelancing (Contract working) | The protagonist sells out his/her services for short-term contract work. | notifications | 1995 / 2023 | 56 games |
| Fuel siphoning | Player can acquire fuel by siphoning it from other usable vehicles. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 6 games |
| Fungiculture (Mushroom farming) | notifications | 2011 / 2015 | 2 games | |
| Furnishing | Placing furniture, electronics and other equipment for use or show. | notifications | 2000 / 2023 | 62 games |
| Gambling(Betting) | Wagering money or some form of valuables in a game chance or something else with uncertain outcome. | notifications | 1970 / 2021 | 198 games |
| Garrisons (Garrisoning) | Player can utilize garrisons, either by building and assigning troops to them or using whatever is already available. | notifications | 1993 / 2016 | 26 games |
| Genetic assimilation | Involves assimilation of genetic material which is used to evolve, mutate or otherwise modfy the characters automatically or something akin to voluntary evolution. | notifications | 2000 / 2013 | 11 games |
| Geology | Game teaches geology. | notifications | 3 games | |
| Geometry | Gameplay requires geometry. The measuring of lengths, areas, angles, volumes, size, shape, relative positions, & properties of space. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Gesturing(Mouse gestures) | Uses gestures for control; moving the controller in vague motions of varying complexity with or without visual feedback. | notifications | 2001 / 2012 | 11 games |
| Gifting (Giving;Object transfer) | Player can give NPCs objects outside of dialogs and other regular item transfer prompts. | notifications | 1995 / 2016 | 3 games |
| Gliding(Slow falling) | Slow falling with significant control over direction, likely for extending jump distance and/or air time. | notifications | 1983 / 2022 | 58 games |
| Grammar | Gameplay specifically and notably requires a knowledge of grammar for the language(s) of the game. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Graphemes (Syllabograms;Logograms) | Players must exercise knowledge of basic written language units to advance. ie: knowing the difference between "b" & "f", "!" & "?", "9" & "3", "ボ" & "ぶ". | notifications | 1985 / 2011 | 4 games |
| Grappling | Player can take a firm hold of opponents to either to throw, incapacitate or somehow physically use them or proceed with more straightforward pounding. | notifications | 1991 / 2016 | 55 games |
| Grave robbing [grave robbery;tomb raiding] | Player can or must rob graves, either the corpses themselves or whatever valuables were entombed with them or both. | notifications | 1996 / 2021 | 44 games |
| Gravity control (Gravity manipulation) | Player can trigger changes in gravity. Reversal and switching on-off are common. | notifications | 2006 / 2017 | 20 games |
| Ground diving | Diving on ground head/chestfirst (though with arms usually ahead of that to reduce impact), often employed in sports such as baseball. | notifications | 2001 / 2014 | 17 games |
| Ground slamming (Ground pounding)[shockwave slam] | An attack performed by hitting the ground with enough force that it produces a shockwave, usually heavier characters either punch or stomp the ground directly while lighter characters usually jump in the air first. | notifications | 1991 / 2018 | 38 games |
| Grouping | Player can create arbitrary groups that either become literal groups or simple shortcuts to selecting them. | notifications | 1995 / 2016 | 76 games |
| Gun clubbing (Butt-stroking;Pistol-whipping;Buffaloing) | Player can use their projectile weapons to attack in melee, usually by hitting their opponent with the butt of a rifle, pistol handle, or in rarer cases with the barrel or body of the gun. | notifications | 1992 / 2016 | 65 games |
| Gun tossing | Player can throw guns or other projectile weapons at their enemies, to hurt, stun, or disorient them. Usually as a last ditch effort. | notifications | 2009 / 2019 | 15 games |
| Haggling | notifications | 1974 / 2012 | 13 games | |
| Healing | Player can or must heal other characters, usually limited to organic beings. | notifications | 2003 / 2018 | 94 games |
| Health draining (Life stealing)[Life draining;Health stealing] | Player can somehow transfer the health of others onto themselves. | notifications | 1993 / 2019 | 41 games |
| Helming(Piloting) | Player controls a watercraft, or is at least responsible for its steering. | notifications | 2011 / 2020 | 4 games |
| Herding | Player can or must herd animals, especially wild animals. Using any means to cause the animals to move in specific direction, to be captured, killed, or simply moved for other purposes. | notifications | 1984 / 2018 | 11 games |
| Hide and Seek | notifications | 2001 / 2011 | 2 games | |
| Hiding (Pursuit evasion) | Player can hide, especially after being noticed and chased. | notifications | 1993 / 2018 | 72 games |
| Hijacking (Commandeering) | Player can hijack or commandeer vehicles. | notifications | 1983 / 2020 | 80 games |
| Hoarding(Kleptomaniacal gameplay;Collect everything) | If the player can pick something up, they must. Simply because that thing, whatever it might be, is necessary for progress. | notifications | 1990 / 2017 | 65 games |
| Holstering (Sheathing;Lowering weapons;Weapon concealment) | Player can or must occasionally holster, sheathe or otherwise lower their weapons or drop a combat stance to avoid unnecessary fighting. Usually to avoid intimidating allies, neutrals, or bringing the ire of any law enforcers. | notifications | 1996 / 2019 | 45 games |
| Hopscotch | An object is tossed on a pattern of numbered spaces on the ground and players hop or jump the pattern according to the object's position. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Hover flight | Player character can fly, ride a flying animal or control a vehicle that can fly but does not require constant forward motion or similar to stay airborne. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 18 games |
| Hunting | Stalking prey, shooting or otherwise killing it, displaying some of its body as a trophy, & eating everything else. | notifications | 1971 / 2022 | 164 games |
| Imprisoning (Taking prisoners;Taking hostages;Taking captives;Arresting) | Player can take prisoners, hostages or other captives. | notifications | 1983 / 2020 | 42 games |
| Improvisation | Player is required to improvise solutions, approaches, or methods. | 0 game | ||
| Infidelity | notifications | 2010 / 2016 | 6 games | |
| Intergalactic travel | Involves traveling between galaxies or similarly distant astral bodies. | 1 game | ||
| Internal resource allocation (Energy allocation;Power management)[resource distribution] | Player can or must manage resource (energy, fuel, oxygen, etc.) allocation within a single system, such as a vehicle. | notifications | 1982 / 2015 | 18 games |
| Interplanetary travel | Involves traveling between planets or similarly distant astral bodies. | notifications | 1977 / 2017 | 44 games |
| Interstellar travel | Involves traveling between star systems or similarly distant astral bodies. | notifications | 1992 / 2017 | 26 games |
| Intimidation[intimidating;threatening] | Player character can somehow intimidate others, especially when this is by their own actions. | notifications | 2004 / 2021 | 27 games |
| Invader Protagonist | The protagonist activity participates in invading. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Investigation | notifications | 1984 / 2024 | 40 games | |
| Investing | Player can invest some of their resources on some endeavour with the expectation that it will eventually give benefits or profit. | notifications | 1975 / 2013 | 20 games |
| Jumping | notifications | 1975 / 2024 | 1747 games | |
| Jury rigging (Makeshift solutions;Item combination)[jury-rigging] | A type of crafting where various items can be combined in some manner to create other items. Unlike crafting, each combination can be done only once, sometimes few more times but in all cases these are situation specific or otherwise limited in usability. | notifications | 1993 / 2015 | 19 games |
| Landing | Player must manually land some aircraft, spacecraft or any other flying vehicle. | notifications | 1971 / 2018 | 148 games |
| Landing gear control | Player can or must manually control landing gear. | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 3 games |
| Leader participation | The leader of the army participates in battles quite intimately, strolling about the battlefield and bringing their skills and abilities in there while also providing themselves as a high value target. This is mostly for strategy games. | notifications | 1995 / 2017 | 73 games |
| Leaning[peeking] | Player can lean left and right to peek around corners without revealing much of their body, either to avoid being detected or to reduce the hitting area for incoming fire. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 76 games |
| Ledges | Player can use ledges to pull themselves up to surfaces higher than what they can jump to, move left and right on them while hanging helplessly from them, or otherwise interact with them. | notifications | 1984 / 2019 | 344 games |
| Light (Illumination) | Light and illumination plays a vital role in gameplay, and not simply by dispelling darkness. | notifications | 1979 / 2015 | 39 games |
| Light dousing (Light extinguishing) | Player can extinguish or destroy light sources or otherwise make them inoperable for a time. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 38 games |
| Limb control | Player somehow controls the individual limbs, or the equivalent of, of the protagonist. | notifications | 2005 / 2009 | 3 games |
| Living Together (Cohabitation) | Features the situation of 2 or more people relating to each other due to their living in the same residence (or choosing this [i]as[/i] a relationship). 'Cohabitation' implies intimacy. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Lock breaking(Lock forcing) | Instead of lockpicking or using a key player can break locked things instead. This may break the entire locked thing instead of just the lock itself however. | notifications | 1996 / 2019 | 16 games |
| Lock picking | Player can or must open locks without damaging them or using the appropriate key for whatever reason. | notifications | 1979 / 2022 | 257 games |
| Lock picking: Feedback(Tumblers;Black box) | Lock picking involves manipulating tumbler or pins inside the lock and identifying correct positions via some form of feedback given by the lockpicks themselves, very close to being a black box minigame. | notifications | 2006 / 2015 | 17 games |
| Lock smashing(Lock shooting) | Locks don't just open with keys or picklocking, but sometimes with brute force too. Often seen as padlocks or chains that you can shoot. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Locking | Player can lock things. Usually doors, sometimes containers. | notifications | 2003 / 2015 | 3 games |
| Logging(Treecutting;Woodcutting) | Cutting down trees and other on-site processing of them that results in logs. Not including woodworking where logs are turned into other objects. | notifications | 2011 / 2023 | 30 games |
| Logic | Gameplay involves logical reasoning. | notifications | 1972 / 2024 | 164 games |
| Logistics (Resource distribution) | Player must build, manage and maintain logistics networks for storage and delivery of resources across their domain and possibly beyond. | notifications | 1983 / 2016 | 52 games |
| Magazine reloading(Magazine filling)[Clip reloading;Clip filling] | Besides reloading weapons, player has to reload the magazines that go into the weapons as well. | notifications | 2012 / 2017 | 10 games |
| Manual harvesting | Player themselves needs to pickup resources instead of it happening automatically on its own or by harvesters. | notifications | 1984 / 2016 | 13 games |
| Manual interaction | Player interacts with the environment manually rather than being given a generic use/manipulate command that produces a precanned result. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 21 games |
| Manufacturing | notifications | 2003 / 2013 | 3 games | |
| Map annotation | Player can add notes on maps for whatever reason, usually to add information that is not present otherwise. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 37 games |
| Marriage (Matrimony;Civil union) | Player character(s) can or must enter into marriage or similar union. | notifications | 1988 / 2019 | 40 games |
| Mathematics | Gameplay requires the use of Math, the science of patterns, often expressed in numbers and equations. | notifications | 1970 / 2019 | 807 games |
| Mediumship(Speaking with the dead)[Speak with the dead] | Involves the player communing with dead or spirits of the dead that normal folk can't quite accomplish, whether this is by being unusual individual or one with esoteric knowledge of such. | notifications | 1994 / 2015 | 2 games |
| Mêlée combat | Fighting unarmed or armed (excluding ranged weapons) at contact range. | list_alt | 0 game | |
| Mercy(Sparing) | Player can show mercy to their enemies and the game recognizes the act. | notifications | 2015 / 2017 | 3 games |
| Metahacking | Involves "hacking" the game you're playing itself (hacking reality, essentially) rather than in-mythos hacking as normal. | notifications | 2014 / 2016 | 8 games |
| Micromanagement | Involves frequently dealing with many small details manually. | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 47 games |
| Mid-air jumping [double jump;triple jump;jumping] | Player character can, for some obscure reason, jump again in mid-air once or more often (during "single" jump), reaching much higher or farther they normally would. | notifications | 1984 / 2023 | 300 games |
| Mind controlling | Player can somehow control the minds of others, either completely or with some restrictions (e.g. not being able to make them do something they'd never consider doing of their own free will, such as suicide or murder). | notifications | 1993 / 2012 | 20 games |
| Mind-reading | The protagonist can somehow "read" the thoughts of others, regardless of how completely or what part of their thoughts or even by what method (be it psychic powers, piece of mind probing technology, magics, or anything else). | notifications | 1995 / 2021 | 10 games |
| Mischief | notifications | 1 game | ||
| Mounted combat | Combat while riding an animal or such. | notifications | 1979 / 2016 | 41 games |
| Multi-tasking | Player is challenged to track and operate two or more disparate elements simultaneously. | notifications | 2006 / 2013 | 11 games |
| Nature control | 0 game | |||
| Naval (Navy command) | Commanding a single or whole fleet of maritime vessels. | notifications | 1978 / 2019 | 348 games |
| Necromancy | notifications | 1 game | ||
| Non-lethal elimination(Knocking out) | Player can semi-permanently (barring they're woken up somehow or significant time passes, such as a whole day) remove opponents without killing them. | notifications | 1994 / 2015 | 30 games |
| Object manipulation (Item manipulation) | Player can somehow fiddle with objects in their hands, such as turning them around, shaking them, etc. | notifications | 1998 / 2015 | 16 games |
| Objective: Elimination (Mass slaughter) | To progress in the game, player must eliminate every single opponent (encountered). | notifications | 1981 / 2016 | 71 games |
| Objective: Find Exit | To progress, all you have to do is find the exit or whatever serves a similar purpose. | notifications | 1984 / 2015 | 45 games |
| Objective: Guide(Escort)[guiding;escorting] | Player must guide someone or something besides the protagonist (if there even is one) somewhere. | notifications | 1987 / 2019 | 46 games |
| Objective: Protect (Defend) | The protagonist must protect someone or something besides themselves for a significant portion of the story. | notifications | 1980 / 2018 | 168 games |
| Observation | Player is tasked with observing things, generally noticing or locating specific things about something, and anything similar. Should only be used when nothing more specific is available and the games focus on this more than usual. | notifications | 2013 / 2016 | 7 games |
| Off-roading | Driving on unsurfaced roads or tracks or on natural terrain. | notifications | 2000 / 2021 | 7 games |
| Orbital flight | All or part of the flying is done in orbit around a planetary body, outside their gaseous atmosphere but close enough to be affected by their gravity. | notifications | 1980 / 2018 | 14 games |
| Paperwork | notifications | 2003 / 2016 | 10 games | |
| Parachuting | notifications | 1983 / 2020 | 34 games | |
| Parkour (Freerunning;Semi-automatic obstacle navigation)[free running;free-running] | Involves parkour or parkour-like action. | notifications | 2001 / 2018 | 40 games |
| Parrying | Player can parry attacks. Not to be confused with blocking. | notifications | 1990 / 2020 | 41 games |
| Particle manipulation | notifications | 2009 / 2010 | 3 games | |
| Patenting | Player can or must patent products, methods, solutions, or anything else and either lock out competitors of a solution or gain extra benefits from allowing them to use them. Possibly even fighting patent infringement. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Peeking | Player can use any non-specific peeking mechanic. | notifications | 2002 / 2016 | 26 games |
| Phonemes | Players must use knowledge of phonemes, pronunciations, phonetics, & such, to make progress. ie: knowing "oo" sounds different in good, than in moon. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Photographing | notifications | 1987 / 2019 | 55 games | |
| Physics | Physics play an important role in gameplay, usually puzzles that rely in understanding or manipulation of physics. | notifications | 1979 / 2024 | 426 games |
| Pickpocketing | Player can or must steal from the pockets, belt or other worn apparel something of value without being noticed. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 52 games |
| Piloting | Player controls an aircraft, or is at least responsible for its steering. | notifications | 1980 / 2020 | 19 games |
| Planarshifting (Planeshifting) | The protagonist can freely shift between two or more dimensions or planes of existence. | notifications | 1999 / 2022 | 15 games |
| Planning | Player can or must create plans of action beforehand which are then carried out with little to no ability to alter the plan while it's being executed. | notifications | 1997 / 2015 | 31 games |
| Player initiated reproduction | A rarity in videogames, that players can choose for their characters to attempt have children. Not to be confused with [[tag:breeding breeding]]. | notifications | 1983 / 2019 | 42 games |
| Poisoning | Player can use toxins to poison enemies. | notifications | 1984 / 2016 | 16 games |
| Poles climbing (Columns climbing) | Player may encounter poles or other column-like objects that they may climb up, down and [i]around[/i] more or less freely. | notifications | 1987 / 2012 | 21 games |
| Possession | Taking control of other characters besides your own through possession, regardless of the specific method. | notifications | 1990 / 2018 | 65 games |
| Postal Service | Protagonist participates in mail or package delivery service. | notifications | 1979 / 2018 | 73 games |
| Postures [Stances] | Player can assume 3 or more different postures from upright to crawling, usually upright, crouched, and prone at minimum. | notifications | 1991 / 2017 | 80 games |
| Premature detonation (Active missile defense) | Player can somehow detonate explosives prematurely, such as shooting the dynamite in the opponent's hand or when they've just thrown it. | notifications | 1997 / 2019 | 24 games |
| Priorities | Player can somehow control the priorities of their controlled characters, units, or anything else. | notifications | 2004 / 2016 | 25 games |
| Prison break | Your task is to break out of a prison or similar institution. Be this the main point or not. | notifications | 1982 / 2016 | 50 games |
| Programming | Player can or must program devices or other things using a language, set of symbols or commands or any other method to perform tasks. | notifications | 1977 / 2021 | 112 games |
| Projectile deflection | Player can deflect incoming projectiles somehow. | notifications | 1989 / 2018 | 47 games |
| Projectile recovery | Player can recover projectiles after firing them, usually arrows or similar. | notifications | 1995 / 2018 | 68 games |
| Prospecting (Mineral exploration) | notifications | 1979 / 2019 | 146 games | |
| Psychic Powers (Psionics) | Player character wields psychic powers. | notifications | 1982 / 2021 | 238 games |
| Public relations | Player must deal with public relations somehow with customers, neighbours, demographics, foreign nations, or such. Generally maintaining amicable or better opinion of yourself, your product, your leadership, your nation, or such. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Racing | You can attend racing challenges, events, or gamble on them. NOT for actual racing sport games as we have that hard-coded. Only for games where this happens only on the side or as completely optional thing. | notifications | 1972 / 2021 | 88 games |
| Reading | Gameplay requires reading. | 1 game | ||
| Recruiting (Unit construction) | Player can recruit, construct or otherwise acquire more people they can control. | notifications | 1983 / 2019 | 132 games |
| Reload (Recharge) | Tools need to be reloaded/recharged occasionally to continue operating. | list_alt | 0 game | |
| Reload: Assisted(Assisted reloading) | Player requires another character (or player) to assist in the reloading process. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Reload: Chambering | Player must manually chamber individual rounds before firing rather than the whole process being automated like magazine swap. | notifications | 2006 / 2015 | 13 games |
| Reload: Interrupt | Player can interrupt the reload process. | notifications | 2009 / 2011 | 2 games |
| Reload: Manual | Player must manually initiate reloading process. | notifications | 1984 / 2023 | 405 games |
| Reload: Multistage | Reloading weapons and such requires more than one action from the player. | notifications | 2012 / 2018 | 4 games |
| Remote control | Player can or must remotely control several devices, bots or vehicles. | notifications | 1998 / 2020 | 47 games |
| Renting | Player (character) can rent things to other players or NPCs. | notifications | 2010 / 2013 | 3 games |
| Repairing | Player can or must repair mechanical, electronic or otherwise artificial entities. | notifications | 1981 / 2018 | 120 games |
| Rescue | Significant part of the plot involves rescuing, or attempting to rescue, one or more people. | notifications | 1980 / 2020 | 1293 games |
| Researching | Involves researching and studying things you find or encounter. | notifications | 1988 / 2020 | 57 games |
| Resource generation | Player is required to generate one or more types of resources. | notifications | 1993 / 2019 | 39 games |
| Resource harvesting (Resource gathering) | Involves harvesting of one or more types of resources. | notifications | 1982 / 2024 | 472 games |
| Resting (Camping;Sleeping) | Player character can or must rest occasionally, usually to combat fatigue or for other restorative purposes. | notifications | 1983 / 2023 | 172 games |
| Restoration | Restoration of some thing to its former state is a major plot element or activity. | notifications | 1995 / 2018 | 6 games |
| Retreating (Tactical withdrawal) | notifications | 1992 / 2016 | 38 games | |
| Retrofitting | Newer technology put into use in older things without having to rebuild the thing from scratch. | notifications | 2010 / 2017 | 9 games |
| Reverse engineering | Studying things until you know how to make them yourself, often involves taking them apart and possibly several times. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Ricocheting (Reflecting;Rebounding) | Core gameplay involves ricocheting, bouncing, reflecting, or some similar thing. | notifications | 1984 / 2015 | 13 games |
| Riding | Animal riding, either as a game element or the whole point. | notifications | 1978 / 2023 | 401 games |
| Road traffic control | notifications | 1987 / 2010 | 2 games | |
| Rolling (Skidding) | Movement works in similar fashion to ball rolling, especially when player controls a ball or a character on a ball. | notifications | 2004 / 2017 | 17 games |
| Romance | Involves romance, either as the whole point or some (optional) sub-plot. | notifications | 1993 / 2019 | 117 games |
| Rooting | Player (and possibly the enemies) can cause other characters to be "rooted" in place for a time, preventing them from moving around but not from acting otherwise (e.g. from shooting, pressing buttons, or such). | notifications | 1998 / 2017 | 30 games |
| Rope swinging | Swinging from ropes, or any other things that serve the same purpose, often to get over death pits. | notifications | 1982 / 2018 | 129 games |
| Routing | Finding, using and designating routes plays an important role in gameplay. | notifications | 2011 / 2016 | 14 games |
| Sabotage | notifications | 1982 / 2014 | 5 games | |
| Sacrificing | Features sacrificial ritual or rituals. | notifications | 1994 / 2017 | 22 games |
| Scavenging (Looting;Plundering) | A significant amount of player's material resources are acquired from pillaging anything that comes across, stealing from the dead, and so forth – rather than by purchase/bartering, being gifted or starting out with it. | notifications | 1994 / 2021 | 119 games |
| Search | Searching for an object, a place, a person or something else is a major element and activity in the story. | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 224 games |
| Selective breeding (Animal husbandry) | Manipulating creatures to produce offspring with specific traits. | notifications | 1989 / 2014 | 19 games |
| Self duplication (Self cloning) | Involves somehow duplicating oneself, by time travel, illusions/magic, mitosis, or something else. | notifications | 2008 / 2013 | 15 games |
| Shapeshifting (Shapechanging) | Player can change their shape, voluntarily or not. | notifications | 1984 / 2022 | 157 games |
| Shield bash[shield bashing] | Player can attack with shields or similar defensive tools normally used only to block attacks with. Sometimes limited to knocking back rather than dealing any damage. | notifications | 1999 / 2021 | 54 games |
| Shooting-gallery | Shooting Gallery is a type of carnival game. That game can be seen at a traveling carnival, charity fund raiser, amusement park, or on a state and county fair midway. | notifications | 1985 / 2020 | 9 games |
| Shopping | Includes shops, merchants, traders or item dispensers where the player can purchase new items. | notifications | 1971 / 2024 | 1774 games |
| Sight avoidance | Player must avoid seeing certain things. | notifications | 2005 / 2015 | 17 games |
| Silviculture[foresting;silviculturing;silvicultivation] | Tending to forests, including planting new trees. | notifications | 1996 / 2018 | 31 games |
| Singing / karaoke | Gameplay involves singing. | notifications | 1986 / 2014 | 45 games |
| Skill sharing (Teaching;Instructing;Training) | Player character can somehow instruct other characters (NPCs or other player characters), teaching them skill you yourself have. | notifications | 2007 / 2009 | 2 games |
| Skinning | Player can remove the skin from dead critters. | notifications | 2001 / 2014 | 12 games |
| Sliding tackle[slide tackling;slide tackle] | A move where you slide feet first at whatever you want to tackle. | notifications | 2010 / 2011 | 8 games |
| Sliding(Butt-sliding;Skidding)[buttsliding] | A move usually accomplished by dropping down on the ground and skidding along for a moderate distance. Applicable regardless of posture or purpose, though commonly used to maintain motion while reducing profile to stay in cover or to enter small crevices. | notifications | 1985 / 2024 | 35 games |
| Smuggling | Transportation of contraband or other goods in or out of a region without knowledge of the law keepers (e.g. customs, tax evasion). | notifications | 1981 / 2015 | 3 games |
| Sorcery (Witchcraft;Spellcasting) | Player character can or must employ knowledge of the arcane, cast magic spells or do other sorcerous deeds. | notifications | 1981 / 2022 | 1301 games |
| Sorting | Gameplay directly involves sorting. | notifications | 1982 / 2014 | 39 games |
| Soul arts(Soul magic;Soul power) | Involves manipulating one's own soul or the souls of others, regardless of method or purpose. | notifications | 2000 / 2018 | 26 games |
| Space Air | Characters are exposed to space acting just as if they are in atmosphere (breathing, speaking, hearing, not decompressing, etc...) | notifications | 1 game | |
| Space flight | All or part of the flying is done in deep space, outside the gravitational effects of planetary bodies. | notifications | 1971 / 2021 | 278 games |
| Space management | Player is challenged to make efficient use of limited space, likely with various artificial constraints that make it difficult. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Spacecraft Combat | notifications | 1971 / 2016 | 77 games | |
| Spacewalking(Extra-vehicular activity)[EVA] | Player moves around in space without the aid of a vehicle. Excluding such activity on surfaces of planets, moons, asteroids, space stations, and such. | notifications | 1999 / 2021 | 26 games |
| Speak with animals | The player can somehow speak with ordinary animals, through magic, some queer turn of fate, or being somehow just so in tune with animals. But not when this is the norm. | notifications | 1989 / 2016 | 14 games |
| Spell designing (Spell creation) | Player can create new spells by combining various effectors together, varying from spell properties (duration, range, power) to effects (burn, heal, create fork) to application methods (by touch, throw, "just happens", etc.) and so forth. | notifications | 1994 / 2016 | 16 games |
| Spelling | Gameplay requires knowledge or practice of correct spelling. | notifications | 1982 / 1985 | 4 games |
| Stealing | Player can or must steal items or wealth from someone. | notifications | 1983 / 2018 | 138 games |
| Stealth (Sneaking) | Stealth may be required or simply possible. Avoid being seen, heard or smelt. Take care where you leave finger & foot prints, dust & even your shadow. | notifications | 1981 / 2024 | 794 games |
| Stealth: Other criteria | Stealth involves some other criteria that has no better tag available. | notifications | 1998 / 2015 | 22 games |
| Stock market | Financial games that mainly deal with share / stock trading, brokerage etc. | notifications | 1970 / 2012 | 103 games |
| Stomping (Curb-stomping)[trampling] | Player can stomp on their (usually knocked down or otherwise incapacitated) opponents, often grievously harming them or even killing them outright. Alternatively this may be used to damage the floor/ground. | notifications | 1984 / 2014 | 15 games |
| Strafing | notifications | 2003 / 2012 | 5 games | |
| Strangling | Player can somehow strangle other characters, with their bare hands or with use of tools such as a garrote, either to kill or otherwise incapacitate them. | notifications | 2000 / 2004 | 3 games |
| Student Protagonist | The protagonist is a student. Perhaps learning to do exactly what the game requires of the character while not necessarily being fully qualified. | notifications | 1989 / 2010 | 2 games |
| Stunning: Moderate | Player character can somehow temporarily incapacitate others, removing them from any consideration for a significant amount of time (e.g. 5 minutes or long enough to ransack several rooms) but not permanently as they rouse from it eventually on their own. | notifications | 1998 / 2005 | 6 games |
| Stunts | Performing dangerous looking feats for an audience (including real or technical judges) and reward (score, cash, bonuses). | notifications | 1979 / 2016 | 31 games |
| Summoning (Conjuration) | Player can summon creatures to do her bidding. These usually (but not necessarily) perish after a set time. | notifications | 1983 / 2021 | 268 games |
| Superjump | The protagonist can jump abnormally high and far. | notifications | 1984 / 2019 | 38 games |
| Superspeed | Player character can move at abnormally high speed (for whatever they are or is). | notifications | 2000 / 2009 | 2 games |
| Suppressive fire | Any form of activity that degrades the target's performance, commonly sustained weapons fire directed at them. | notifications | 2006 / 2016 | 25 games |
| Survival | Has an overarching goal of surviving. | notifications | 1977 / 2024 | 168 games |
| Swimming | Involves swimming or otherwise traversing through watery bodies without the aid of any vehicles. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 348 games |
| Tackling | notifications | 2005 / 2012 | 5 games | |
| Tagging(Target marking) | Player can tag targets, usually other NPCs, to signify something. | notifications | 1982 / 2017 | 34 games |
| Tailoring (Crafting: Clothing) | notifications | 1 game | ||
| Task syncing (Plan syncing)[task synchronization;plan synchronization] | Player can synchronize certain parts of a plan, task queue, or such so whatever or whoever is carrying out the plan will perform their task in sync with others. | notifications | 2007 / 2015 | 10 games |
| Taunting | Player can taunt their potential enemies. | notifications | 1983 / 2013 | 17 games |
| Taxi | Player picks up customers and delivers them to their desired destination, usually with better pay the faster you get them there. | notifications | 1984 / 2008 | 33 games |
| Taxonomy(Enemy classification;Creature classification;Monster classification)[enemy types;creature types;monster types] | Characters can identify and categorize the creatures they encounter. Likely automatic and based on related skills if any. | notifications | 1975 / 2021 | 48 games |
| Teaching (Training) | Player must somehow teach or train characters or creatures. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 9 games |
| Telekinesis (Psychokinesis) | Player can manipulate objects at a distance, whether this is by psychic powers, magic or by some other means. | notifications | 1994 / 2019 | 70 games |
| Teleporting | Player can teleport. Always or after acquiring a device, skill or spell that accomplishes it. | notifications | 1981 / 2019 | 116 games |
| Teleswap(Teleport swap) | Two characters can swap positions at significant distances. | notifications | 2010 / 2013 | 11 games |
| Temperature control | notifications | 1987 / 2015 | 3 games | |
| Tethering | Player can attach moving objects to something immobile. | notifications | 2014 / 2015 | 4 games |
| Thoroughfare construction (Road construction;Rail construction) | notifications | 1993 / 2018 | 37 games | |
| Time change | Player can change what time it is, usually swapping from day to night and back, or with greater control. | notifications | 1994 / 2018 | 5 games |
| Time control(Time manipulation)[Time shifting] | Player has limited control over time, moving it forwards, backwards, pausing/stopping it and so forth, excluding only actual time travel or simple alterations of overall speed of time. | notifications | 1991 / 2020 | 37 games |
| Time freeze (Time stop)[time freezing;time stopping] | Player can freeze time for everyone except themselves and perhaps a few other elements in the environment. Usually momentary. Rarely can be undone at will. | notifications | 2006 / 2018 | 9 games |
| Time management | Involves planning and enforcing time spent on various activities. | notifications | 1991 / 2018 | 82 games |
| Time travel | Travelling across time to the past or to the future. Excluding minute time shifting. | notifications | 1979 / 2023 | 471 games |
| Timed blocks | Blocking at a specific time provides additional effects such as stunning the attacker, or is simply required for blocking to work at all. | notifications | 2018 / 2019 | 8 games |
| Tool interaction (Gun interaction) | Includes more interaction with whatever tools the player has besides plain use. | notifications | 2006 / 2013 | 7 games |
| Tool side swap(Tool hand swap)[Weapon side swap;Weapon hand swap] | Player can trivially swap on which side of the body a tool, gun, or whatever is held, usually for the purpose of rounding corners with the thing going in first instead of your body. | notifications | 2005 / 2014 | 8 games |
| Torture | Involves torture, especially cases where the player takes active part as the perpetrator. | notifications | 1999 / 2017 | 51 games |
| Tournament (Contest) | Gameplay involves the player taking part in some kind of competitive tournament. | notifications | 1989 / 2000 | 19 games |
| Towing | Vehicles and other large objects can be towed, hauled or otherwise dragged off. Usually done with a towing hook or other rope/chain like set-up. | notifications | 2009 / 2016 | 9 games |
| Tracking | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 4 games | |
| Trading | Features buying and selling goods to and from merchants, manufacturers, regular customers, prospectors, potential enemies and others for profit. | notifications | 1974 / 2024 | 354 games |
| Traffic control | notifications | 1984 / 2010 | 5 games | |
| Training | Player can train others or send them to training, trading out some time out of work for increased efficiency or new capabilities later on. | notifications | 2012 / 2015 | 11 games |
| Trap disarming (Trap dismantling;Mine defusing) | Player can disarm or dismantle set traps, especially those not set by the player. | notifications | 1991 / 2017 | 60 games |
| Trapping | Player can set up traps, either to capture, wound, kill, tag or otherwise affect the creature(s) that set off the trap. | notifications | 1979 / 2018 | 235 games |
| Treasure hunt | notifications | 1981 / 2022 | 20 games | |
| Trespassing | Player can or must trespass on areas where they have no right to be in, prompting a call for law enforcers, local guards or even personal attempt to apprehend or subdue the player character. | notifications | 2001 / 2018 | 35 games |
| Triage[triaging] | Player has more things to do than they have resources to handle and thus must effectively prioritize tasks and actually let some cases go unhandled, or hope they can still have time for them after handling the most pressing matters. | notifications | 1994 / 2014 | 11 games |
| Trophy hunting | Hunting animals and removing and keeping parts of them that have little or no value in terms of living and only serve as reminders of having killed the thing. Commonly significant parts of the animals, such as horns, tusks, antlers, teeth, or such. | notifications | 1998 / 2009 | 2 games |
| Tumbling (Rolling) | Player can tumble, roll head over heels on the ground more or less controllably. | notifications | 1994 / 2019 | 106 games |
| Typing | Major gameplay element is simply typing text, as opposed to using hotkeys or controllers to accomplish actions. | notifications | 1978 / 2021 | 49 games |
| Unarmed fighting (Hand-to-hand combat)[unarmed combat] | The protagonist can attack with fists, claws, or by some other method using their bare hands, feet or other limbs or body parts. | notifications | 1979 / 2022 | 967 games |
| Undertaking (Entombing;Engraving;Cremating;Holding funerals) | Player can or must perform funeral customs on the dead. | notifications | 2005 / 2008 | 4 games |
| Underwater diving | Humanoid character(s) spend air limited time underwater with or without equipment. | notifications | 1975 / 2021 | 295 games |
| Underwater walking | Walking (or otherwise moving) along the bottom of a body of water while completely submerged. | notifications | 1990 / 2018 | 41 games |
| Unloading | Player can remove the ammo loaded into a weapon, batteries from electronic devices, or otherwise remove similar components for use in something else. | notifications | 1994 / 2015 | 24 games |
| Vaulting | Player can climb over certain objects, such as fences, without using jumping or similar functions. | notifications | 2008 / 2020 | 70 games |
| Virtual articulation (Digital articulation) | A simulation heavy control mechanism where player has extensive control of a limb with possibly abstraction with fingers and similar manual dexterity related tasks. | notifications | 1998 / 2015 | 15 games |
| Waiting (Loitering;Idling) | Player can voluntarily skip time, often at an extreme accelerated rate or instantaneously. | notifications | 1996 / 2015 | 21 games |
| Walking (On foot;Ambulation)[running;jogging] | Player can or must move about on foot, regardless of speed. | notifications | 1977 / 2024 | 4119 games |
| Wall climbing (Wall scaling) | Involves scaling vertical surfaces without the aid of ladders or similar aides. | notifications | 1980 / 2020 | 126 games |
| Wall clinging | The protagonist can cling momentarily or permanently to walls or other mostly sideways facing surfaces. | notifications | 1990 / 2020 | 67 games |
| Wall jumping | Pouncing off walls to reach greater heights. | notifications | 1985 / 2020 | 204 games |
| Wall sliding | A safe method to reach places below when you can't climb on walls, by gaining friction from a vertical surface to reduce or completely eliminate any harm you'd come into without it. | notifications | 2008 / 2017 | 40 games |
| Wall traversal | The protagonist can freely traverse any wall or mostly sideways facing surfaces in any direction. | notifications | 1999 / 2012 | 24 games |
| Wall-hugging | The protagonist can lie flat against a wall for one reason or another. | notifications | 2001 / 2014 | 10 games |
| Wallrunning | Player is able to run short distances on the walls, usually to sides avoiding something or as some other mechanic. | notifications | 2002 / 2019 | 50 games |
| Warp travel (Warping;Hyperspace;FTL travel;Superluminal travel) | Includes any method of travel that breaks known laws of physics by usually exceeding the speed of light or using alternate dimension - such as hyperspace, subspace, etc. - to achieve effects similar to it. Excluding outright teleportation. | notifications | 1974 / 2024 | 104 games |
| Weapon combining | Player can combine 2 or more weapons so they function together simultaneously or separately via alt fire. | notifications | 2011 / 2013 | 4 games |
| Weapon designing | notifications | 2013 / 2014 | 4 games | |
| Wilderness survival | Features wilderness survival as either the main or side activity. Fighting against starvation, dehydration, and any other difficulties you might encounter when living out in the back without the safety nets of modern society. | notifications | 1988 / 2018 | 27 games |
| Wind control | Player can more or less control wind. | notifications | 2006 / 2018 | 6 games |
| Word input (Textual control;Typed-in commands;Text parser) | Player controls the game or part of the game by typing in text in some form. Could be simple commands or whole sentences. | notifications | 1970 / 2021 | 4612 games |
| World rotation(Level rotation) | Player is required to rotate the world around, with implicit effects on gravity direction changing with it. | notifications | 2009 / 2017 | 11 games |
| Zoning(Functional zoning) | Instead of designating building places of pre-defined structures, player defines zones on which such can be built or what uses certain areas are for. | notifications | 1997 / 2018 | 39 games |
| Educational content: Foreign language | Game teaches a foreign language. | notifications | 1983 / 2016 | 59 games |
| Stunning (Incapacitating)[knock out;knocking out] | Player character can somehow temporarily incapacitate others, removing them from any consideration for a short while. | notifications | 1981 / 2018 | 167 games |
| Assault Course | Players must traverse some form of assault course | notifications | 1 game | |
| Audience Participation | These games with zero or more main players can not only be watched by an audience, but the audience can interact as well. | notifications | 2 games | |
| Bartering | Uses bartering (swapping/trading of goods and services) as a significant economic tool (as opposed to trading mainly with a currency). | notifications | 1975 / 2019 | 55 games |
| Black Box gameplay | A significant portion of gameplay involves discerning what the player is not shown by observing the effects of manipulating or interacting with said unseen elements. | notifications | 1972 / 2020 | 208 games |
| Blinking | Player specifically controls eye blinking, for whatever reason. Clearing vision, vision worsening with extended time without, etc. | notifications | 2008 / 2019 | 5 games |
| Body dragging [body carrying] | Player can or must carry or drag unconscious or dead people or other creatures about. Usually to hide them so others do not find them and raise an alarm. | notifications | 1986 / 2020 | 92 games |
| Bone breaking | You can break bones from people without killing or dismembering them. | notifications | 2003 / 2015 | 13 games |
| Bounty placing | Player can place a bounty on something or someone. | notifications | 2003 / 2009 | 3 games |
| Bullet time(Adrenaline time;Focus time;Frozen time;Dead time) | Player can somehow trigger temporary slow motion, giving them more time to assess their situation, aim their weapons, and so forth. | notifications | 2001 / 2018 | 50 games |
| Color matching | Matching or selecting specific colors is part of gameplay. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 162 games |
| Communication (Social) | Any tags relating to communication between players, player characters or possibly even with NPCs. | list_alt | 0 game | |
| Composite attacks | Includes foes that virtually require a sequence of different attacks to be defeated. | notifications | 1991 / 2016 | 10 games |
| Creating (Constructing)[creation;construction] | Anything dealing with creating new objects or things. | list_alt | 0 game | |
| Dialog: Questions to Answer | [i]General gameplay[/i], not just DRM, character creation, saving, etc, includes questions the player must answer. These answers also have effects. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Door peep | Player can peep through doors, via keyholes, cracking them open slightly, via devices (e.g. wire cam), magic, extraordinary senses, or by whatever other means. | notifications | 2006 / 2018 | 34 games |
| Educational content: Propaganda | Non-impartial information intended to change the attitude of a the target toward some cause or position. | notifications | 1980 / 2015 | 43 games |
| Embezzling | Embezzlement is rightfully and legally accepting funds authorized for a certain purpose but then secretly spending those funds on a different purpose. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Energy draining(Mana draining) | Player can somehow transfer the energy of others onto themselves, either when they're still alive or after they've perished. Including draining non-character energy sources. | notifications | 1993 / 2010 | 2 games |
| Executing | Player can initiate execution(s) | notifications | 1978 / 2014 | 5 games |
| Fall-off transitions | Falling out of the play field results in transitioning to a different area. As opposed to death. This can coexist. | notifications | 1983 / 1991 | 10 games |
| Forethought Required | Not planing ahead can lead to irreparable consistences, is extremely detrimental to advancement or will end the game immediately. | notifications | 1974 / 2021 | 595 games |
| Gerrymandering | The dark art of redrawing boarders to artificially favor and/or marginalize selected groups. Named for Gov. Elbridge [b]Gerry[/b]'s 'sala[b]mander[/b] shaped' districts | notifications | 2007 / 2016 | 2 games |
| Group actions(Group combo moves;Teamwork)[Paired combo moves;Team moves;Team actions] | Includes actions that can only be performed with 2 or more characters working together. | notifications | 2008 / 2017 | 11 games |
| Hacking | Players can or are required to hack or otherwise tamper with computers and other electrical devices. Usually accomplished by some puzzle minigame. | notifications | 1983 / 2020 | 238 games |
| Immolation | Setting someone on fire, purposefully and their reacting in a somewhat realistic manner. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Interrogating | Formally/Officially questioning someone, especially a suspect or especially in the course of investigating a crime. | notifications | 1985 / 2015 | 14 games |
| Meat shield (Human shield) | The player character can use the bodies of other characters - dead or still living - as shields. | notifications | 1981 / 2020 | 74 games |
| Memory | Challenges player's ability to memorize things - regardless what those are, such as patterns, shapes, placement, sounds, etc. - either short-term or long-term. | notifications | 1972 / 2016 | 289 games |
| Negotiated Conflict Resolutions | In short, players can resolve conflicts and advance without violence. It may be talking, bribing, magical, technological, or any other means than violence | notifications | 1981 / 2015 | 17 games |
| Numbers | Numbers themselves are featured. | notifications | 1974 / 2016 | 68 games |
| Pathfinding | Computer controlled characters often need to avoid obstacles while traversing the game world. | list_alt | 0 game | |
| Politics | Establishing and enforcing policies, treaties, and other government related things within a nation. | notifications | 1980 / 2019 | 38 games |
| Power throw (Gravity gun) | Player character has the ability (or a tool that accomplishes the same) to pick up rather ungainly objects and toss them forcibly somewhere, usually to lethal effect. | notifications | 2004 / 2019 | 62 games |
| Projectile destruction | Player can destroy projectile attacks somehow. This may also include NPCs doing the same. | notifications | 1983 / 2014 | 2 games |
| Pyromania | Suggestive of or directly involves Pyromania Disorder (compulsion to start fires for gratification or release of mental tension). | notifications | 1982 / 2013 | 2 games |
| Real Estate | Player is involved in the buying, selling, transfer, and/or development of land and buildings for the purpose of financial gain (likely their own). | notifications | 1982 / 1984 | 5 games |
| Real Robot | Games designed to make a machine in the real world react to it, typically a 'robot' character. The real machine may also be able to affect the game. | notifications | 1984 / 1985 | 3 games |
| Repulsion (Prodding;Pushing)[kicking] | Player can exert a force that pushes everything away from them, either in front of them or all around. | notifications | 1984 / 2016 | 58 games |
| Resource control | Simply controlling a resource point, structure or such brings those resources to the player, no resource delivery is needed. | notifications | 1998 / 2015 | 30 games |
| Resource processing | Involves processing of resources, converting one resource into another and so forth. Such as ore to ingots, cotton to fabric, flour and water to dough, sugarcane to sugar, etc. | notifications | 1998 / 2023 | 39 games |
| Resuscitation (Resurrection;Raising dead;Re-animation) | Player can somehow resuscitate fallen allies, either on the spot or by bringing their corpse to some doctor or miracle worker. | notifications | 1982 / 2020 | 111 games |
| Shape matching | Matching or selecting specific shapes is part of gameplay. | notifications | 1984 / 2020 | 12 games |
| Spectacular Crash | Crashes are emphasized more then necessary or replayed for no practical reason. The player may even need to take special action to recover from a crash | notifications | 1979 / 2020 | 22 games |
| Stationary | The played character(s)/object(s) might pivot, lean, dodge but they otherwise remain firmly attached to their location in some way. | notifications | 1980 / 2016 | 46 games |
| Stealth: Light (Illumination;Darkness) | Player's ability to sneak around is affected by how bright the area is. | notifications | 1998 / 2018 | 61 games |
| Stealth: Line of Sight | Player character's ability to sneak around is affected by the line of sight of NPCs. | notifications | 1983 / 2021 | 188 games |
| Stealth: Smell | Player's ability to sneak around is affected by how they smell (what they smell like and how strongly). | notifications | 2 games | |
| Stealth: Sound (Audio;Noise) | Player character's ability to sneak around is affected by the sounds they make. | notifications | 1998 / 2021 | 143 games |
| Stealth: Touch | Not for noting that direct touch by the player spoils sneaking. Player's ability to sneak around is affected anything else enemies can feel. | 1 game | ||
| Taming | Animals or monsters can be tamed to be kept as pets or minions. | notifications | 1998 / 2023 | 23 games |
| Task queuing (Command queuing)[task queue;command queue] | Player can queue tasks for completion. | notifications | 2000 / 2016 | 31 games |
| Touchscreen gameplay | Any tags that describe gameplay elements that were primarily invented for touchscreens. | list_altnotifications | 2007 / 2008 | 5 games |
| Trampling (Roadkilling) | Player can injure or kill NPCs by walking or driving [i]over[/i] or on them. | notifications | 2003 / 2020 | 93 games |
| Turn Timer | A limit of some sort is imposed on a player to limit the time they take to finish a turn. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Visual memory | Challenges player to memorize how or what things look like. | notifications | 1 game | |
| Water jumping | Player can somehow jump from water surface without having anything solid beneath their feet to produce that jump. | notifications | 1996 / 2018 | 32 games |
| Winding (Reeling) | Player must supply unmonobase control to simulate winding or reeling some sort of line. | notifications | 1993 / 2019 | 15 games |