The heart and soul of a video game is the way the game plays. Games have evolved over the years into some set patterns, and many share a lot of common features. Here are some gameplay elements you'll encounter in quite a few of the games released today.

boss n.
A boss is the enemy at the end of a level that a player must defeat to continue to the next stage. Typically, bosses are more graphically elaborate and difficult to defeat than other intralevel enemies.

bot n.
A bot is a computer-controlled player that is designed to behave like a human player. They are implemented by gamers through multiplayer selection screens when it's inconvenient, or not possible to play against an actual human opponent. Bots use AI routines to simulate human actions, but they generally lack in the strategy department. See artificial intelligence in the Development section.

combo n.
A combo is a combination of moves, usually in a fighting game, that can be chained together into an unblockable sequence. Skilled players will have a multitude of combos at their command.

cutscene n.
Cutscenes are periods of dramatic development that intersect the action sequences in a game. They are rendered in still pictures or video and are usually accompanied by some type of dialogue. In most action games, cutscenes serve as the only form of plot progression.

deathmatch n.
The multiplayer mode in the original Doom for the PC was called "deathmatch" by the game's creators, and the term has since become the gaming industry's label for the multiplayer game in all first-person shooters.

frag n.
A kill in a deathmatch game. Like the term deathmatch, the term frag originated in the PC game Doom but has since become a slang term that can apply to a kill in any multiplayer first-person shooter. See deathmatch.

lag n.
See latency.

latency n.
In online multiplayer games, latency describes the amount of time it takes data to be sent from the player's machine to the server and back again. Measured in milliseconds, latency is typically the amount of delay the player will encounter between the press of a button and the resulting action onscreen. For instance, if a player's latency is 100 milliseconds, and the player fires a weapon, the weapon won't register as having been fired in the gameworld until one tenth of a second after the button has been pressed. Latency has traditionally been an issue for only PC players to deal with, but as consoles move into the age of the Internet, it will become an increasing problem on that side as well.

level n.
Also known as "stage" or less commonly "board," a level is one self-contained, consistently themed area of a game. It can contain various enemies, power-ups, missions, challenges, and/or a boss.

miniboss n.
Also known as a midboss, a miniboss is a minor boss character situated somewhere in the middle of an action game level. A miniboss isn't quite as powerful as the boss of a level, but it packs a bigger punch than regular enemies.