What do you call a game's playable area?

[Derachi]

I was listening to a podcast the other day, and they were talking about "boards" in Call of Duty. After a bit I figured out they were talking about what I would refer to as "levels." This got me thinking: what nomenclature for playable areas is most popular? If you use something not listed in the poll, please post it in the thread!

 

[Vimto]

Map

 

[sambills]

the gamer zone

 

[Terra Torment]

I was caught of guard by someone calling them boards. Where did that come from?

 

[Jessie]

I guess it depends on the genre. Level for platformers. Map or arena for shooters depending on the type of shooter. World for RPGs.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

Depends on the game. Pac-Man has boards and screens. Call of Duty has stages and maps. Sonic has levels.

There's no general term, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[BurnKnuckle21]

I still say "levels" more than I want. Hard to part ways with the word since I used it so much growing up.

 

[Wamapoke]

wtf is a board. Level if linear, map if open world.

 

[MrConbon210]

I mean highly varies depending on the game. Something like Sonic Mania I would call a stage, Call of Duty a level and Mario Party a board. There's not one term I use as a catch all.

 

[Kinsei]

Depends on the game.

There are
Levels in Mario
Multiplayer maps in Call of Duty
Stages in Castlevania
Courses in racing games
etc

 

[Tambini]

well for Call of Duty single player has levels, multiplayer has maps

 

[Chivalry]

Levels in linear games, maps in open-world games.

 

[verygooster]

I tend to go with "stage" when talking platformers.

More action-oriented games are "missions."

 

[OrangeNova]

Depends on the game.

There are
Levels in Mario
Multiplayer maps in Call of Duty
Stages in Castlevania
Courses in racing games
etc

Click to shrink...

This.

Boards are Mario party, and that's really it.

 

[M. Wallace]

Map

 

[Red Liquorice]

2D: Level, 3D: Area, I think. I've never used the word 'map', it sounds to me like the term that people who play shooty bang bang dudebro games use so it's not in my vocab.

 

[jph139]

By genre for sure. Some games have levels (generally, linear areas that are completed one after the other), some have maps (open spaces that are meant to be explored or navigated by the player). I'd call a single-screen area, like in a fighting game, a stage.

Never a board, though, unless it's specifically aping a board game.

 

[Tohsaka]

Level if it's actually a level-based game like a platformer or something. Map otherwise.

I was caught of guard by someone calling them boards. Where did that come from?

Click to shrink...

When I was growing up, people would call them that in the NES/SNES era.

 

[johan]

I guess it depends on the genre. Level for platformers. Map or arena for shooters depending on the type of shooter. World for RPGs.

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I suppose I do it like this too. Stage for fighting games. I wouldn't call the Witcher 3 maps 'worlds' though, those would be maps 🤔

Maybe if I'm developing I'd refer to them mostly as 'scenes'

 

[Deleted member 36578]

Typically what the genre is, is how I'll refer to it. Platformers, levels. FPS multi player, map. FPS single player, level. Open world, map. So on and so forth.

 

[Canucked]

Depends on the game. Map/Area/Island, whatever for Open world.

Levels for mario
Stage for Street Fighter

 

[Goldenroad]

If the game is structured in levels, or stages, I'll call each level, or stage, a "level". If we're talking about an open world game like The Witcher or Assassins Creed, then a given region I would call an "area". If it's a multiplayer game then it's a "map".

 

[Finale Fireworker]

I use map and level but to me they don't mean the same thing.

A "map" is something you play on (multiplayer shooter, Minecraft), a "level" is something you complete (platformer, campaign shooters). For example, the Facility in GoldenEye 64 is both a level in single player and a map in multiplayer.

The only other thing I can think of is that racing games have "tracks" and fighting games have "stages".

I never use board. Board is a super niche and inexplicable relic of terminology, like calling player characters "toons."

 

[Deleted member 49535]

It depends on the game. Usually map, level or zone (edit: or maybe area actually, "zona" in Spanish).

 

[Nakenorm]

Depends on the game.
Stages are used in fighting games.
Maps in multiplayer games.
Level in something like Sonic or Mario.
Etc etc.

 

[Ultimate Bear Cub]

Never really thought about it till now. Huh. I called them levels or boards in Super Mario, but for other games it depends.

I generically think of arena as the word, but the context changes; Zelda: overworld, dungeon, Mariokart: tracks, Uncharted: sequence, chapter, etc.

 

[hydruxo]

the low cal calzone zone

 

[Weebos]

Singleplayer I call them levels. If its multiplayer or an open world game I'll call them maps.

 

[Bony Manifesto]

I use map and level but to me they don't mean the same thing.

A "map" is something you play on (multiplayer shooter, Minecraft), a "level" is something you complete (platformer, campaign shooters). For example, the Facility in GoldenEye 64 is both a level in single player and a map in multiplayer.

The only other thing I can think of is that racing games have "tracks" and fighting games have "stages".

I never use board. Board is a super niche and inexplicable relic of terminology, like calling player characters "toons."

Click to shrink...

Yep. This is the correct answer.

 

[Rotobit]

entirely depends on the type of game

An open world game would be a "map" or just... "the world"?

Zelda and most JRPGs are broken up into "overworld", "towns", and "dungeons".

Mario and Sonic have levels within worlds, although with Odyssey I'd use "Kingdom".

Smash has "stages", Mario Kart has either "tracks" or "courses", I flip between 'em.

Literally never heard "board" outside of the very literal sense in the likes of Mario Party

 

[Deleted member 36578]

I use map and level but to me they don't mean the same thing.

A "map" is something you play on (multiplayer shooter, Minecraft), a "level" is something you complete (platformer, campaign shooters). For example, the Facility in GoldenEye 64 is both a level in single player and a map in multiplayer.

Click to shrink...

This is a great point. And I too refer to it the same way.

 

[Tavernade]

Level - Linear games
Map - Multiplayer games
Area - Sandbox game

 

[CaptNink]

"Boards"?! I'd stop listening to that podcast.

 

[Gundam]

Depends on the type of game and mode of play.

Singleplayer shooter? Mission or Level
Multiplayer shooter? Map
Platformer? Level or Stage
Fighting game? Stage
Metroidvania? Map, and Zones on said Map
Golf game? Course
Racing game? Track

 

[Deleted member 33533]

Zones and Acts.

 

[Greywaren]

It depends on the game and genre a lot.

For platformers, levels. For multiplayer and sandbox games, maps. For fighting games, stages.

 

[Z-Beat]

Depends on the game

Linear - level

Open world or Shooter multiplayer - map

Fighting - stage

Party game - board

Racing - Course

 

[Derachi]

"Boards"?! I'd stop listening to that podcast.

Click to shrink...

sorry fam I'm bodega hive for LIFE

 

[c0Zm1c]

"Depends on the game" should have been a poll option.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

I was caught of guard by someone calling them boards. Where did that come from?

Click to shrink...

It's mostly from the early '80s. I guess when most games didn't scroll, the term "board" suited the more static levels.

 

[Gunny T Highway]

Depends on the game, but I use either Level, Map, Stage or Zone.

 

[Inugami]

I was caught of guard by someone calling them boards. Where did that come from?

Click to shrink...

Apparently a north-east/new england thing? Seems the only people I've known who've used it came from there and played Atari/NES as kids.


The answer is level. Doesn't matter the genre. "I play that level on Goldeneye". "This level of Mario is hard" etc.

A collection of levels is also called a World, don't @ me.

(edit) The only exception I've thought of is in RPGs, where the term 'level' can be confused with your character level. In which case it's an 'area' or a 'dungeon', but a collection of such is still a World.

 

[Deleted member 197]

When it comes to stages, chapters, missions, levels, etc, i call them missions when speaking spanish which definitely weirds out people sometimes lol, in english it is game and genre dependant.

World for open worlds.

 

[Raccoon]

the real answer is that it depends

occasionally I'll say boards

 

[Derachi]

"Depends on the game" should have been a poll option.

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Has been added!

 

[P-MAC]

I was caught of guard by someone calling them boards. Where did that come from?

Click to shrink...

I'm guessing people who's gaming experience mostly comes from board games like D&D instead of video games?

I can think of one single video game series where this word makes sense - Mario Party.

 

[Secretofmateria]

When i first started gaming many years ago on the super nintendo, i called levels boards, and extra lives man

 

[*Splinter]

I use map and level but to me they don't mean the same thing.

A "map" is something you play on (multiplayer shooter, Minecraft), a "level" is something you complete (platformer, campaign shooters). For example, the Facility in GoldenEye 64 is both a level in single player and a map in multiplayer.

Click to shrink...

This. In practice I probably use level or map depending on genre but if I really wanted to be specific then "map" is for play area, "level" is slightly more tied to the game's structure. You can have multiple levels on the same map, for example.

 

[Anth0ny]

I knew a trick with the super mario bros tape to get a bunch of free guys on the third course

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Apparently a north-east/new england thing? Seems the only people I've known who've used it came from there and played Atari/NES as kids.

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The age range is true but I don't think it was that regionally specific. I heard it where I grew up (West coast of Canada), too. Also "flipping the board" for getting such a high score that it resets the scoreboard to zero.