History Main / CallAHitpointASmeerp

[[folder:Pinballs]]
* The [[LicensedPinballTables licensed pinball game]] ''Pinball/DoctorWho'' labels each ball as "Part 1/2/3", a reference to the serials of [[Series/DoctorWho its parent franchise.]]
* In addition to your score, ''Pinball/JohnnyMnemonic'' lets players accumulate "gigabytes", which are used to increase the end-of-ball bonus value and try to become The Cyberpunk.

* In Creator/DataEastPinball's ''[[Pinball/TheWhosTommy The Who's Tommy]]'', the game modes are called "Union Jacks".

* The WesternAnimation/AdventureTime card game, Card Wars, has a system similar to tapping cards, referred to as "flooping." You floop a card to use its effect, and activate it (basically turn it the other way) if it's used for combat. It should be noted that the episode this card game comes from had it as more or less a parody of card games like Magic.
* TabletopGame/{{Netrunner}} plays this trope. Some of it is inevitable due to the asymmetric nature of the game, but it's also applied to the parts that aren't; draw, discard, and hand have six names between them.
* At the beginning of a match in the Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Trading Card Game, both players set aside the top 6 cards of their deck face down as their Prize Cards. Whenever a player knocks out an opponent's Pokémon, they take one of their Prize Cards. As soon as a player claims all 6 of their Prize Cards, they win the game. Prize Cards, therefore, simultaneously represent the player's score, as well as the opposing player's "life" and the status of their team (a reference to the Pokémon video games, where players can only carry up to 6 Pokémon with them at a time).

* ''VideoGame/KidIcarus'' uses hearts as currency, and strangely enough has a credit card as well.

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** Starting with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', characters no longer "die" when they run out of HP, but "swoon" or are "[=KOed=]." This was probably because this is where real plot lines became a staple with characters dying. This should remove the question of "Why don't they just use a Phoenix Down?" but many people don't notice the distinction. The fact that the spell to restore [=KOed=] characters is still called "Life" probably contributes to this.
** Final Fantasy in general is very inconsistent with how downed characters are referred as. While ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' had "Swoon", ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' made a bit more sense by referring to characters with 0 HP as "Wounded". ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' literally referred to downed characters as "Dead", which also brought up debate over why Aeris can't be brought back with a Phoenix Down. By ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' and later, "KO" is always used to described a downed character rather than being outright dead.
* ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' calls its hitpoints [=DME=], or Divine Materialize Energy, representing Lenneth's ability to temporarily grant the dead souls accompanying her physical form. Later games in the series have living party members, and so revert to normal HP.

* ''Destiny of an Emperor'' for the NES revolves around you recruiting famous generals from the Three Kingdoms' Period to fight for you. Instead of hit points, your generals (and enemy generals) have "soldiers" that represent the number of, you guessed it, soldiers who follow and fight for the them. Instead of magic spells, there are tactics, which consume "tactical points."
** The fact that your HP are actually your soldiers becomes a clever gameplay mechanic - as you take damage and become low on HP/soldiers, your damage output decreases because, in-universe, your general has fewer soldiers to attack with.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' and the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series have "flower points" for magic points, and the latter series furthers this with "heart points" for hit points and "star power" for LimitBreak points.
** The first two games in the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series has "star points" for experience, whereas experience points in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' look like [[ScoringPoints old-fashioned arcade-style point bonuses]].
** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' games have called Mana different names: ''Superstar Saga'' and ''Dream Team'' used Bros Points (BP), ''Partners in Time'' didn't use mana, and ''Bowser's Inside Story'' used SP for Special Points, while the remake returns to the standard BP, calling them Brawl Points for Bowser.
** ''Mario and Luigi'' also gives the brothers 'Stache Points, which serve as a combination of Skill/Luck (raising chances of Critical Hits) and Charisma (lowering store prices, presumably by impressing the shopkeeper with the moustaches in question). When Bowser's playable in ''Bowser's Inside Story'', he has equivalent Horn Points.
* The obscure {{UsefulNotes/NES}} RPG ''Legend of the Ghost Lion'' uses "Hope" to represent the main heroine's CharacterLevel, "courage" for her [[LifeMeter hit points]], and "dreams" in place of [[ManaMeter magic points]] (which are primarily used for SummonMagic).
* The ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' series has PP rather than MP, since the characters are using psychic powers rather than magic spells.
* The ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' series uses Psynergy in the place of Magic and thus replaces Mana Points (MP) with Psynergy Points (PP).
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'' uses macca as its in-game currency, much like in the other games. However, its implication is nothing short of genius. Macca is a form of energy used by demons which is compatible with the batteries on the Mobile Base. Because the protagonists are on a sensitive mission deep in another world, the player is charged macca to make up the difference in using the ship's energy to treat injuries or synthesize new equipment (aka: buy items). They can also use [[OrganDrops forma harvested from demons]] to synthesize new equipment and break down old items into energy to gain more macca (aka: sell items). In short--it's a complete and immersive justification for an RPG economy and a total aversion of AdamSmithHatesYourGuts.
** The health stations on the world map don't get an explicit reason why they need macca to run, but a bit of thought points out that they aren't hooked up to anything, so you'd have to charge them yourself - and since you already know that macca can run your ship's batteries...

* In ''VideoGame/LunarDragonSong'', experience points are called "Althena's Conduct."
* In ''Videogame/TheLogomancer'', the premise is that battles are [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath rhetorical debates]] rather than life-or-death conflicts, so this applies to everything by necessity. Defense is "confidence", HitPoints are "willpower", special attack is "elocution", and so on. This extends to skills and other gameplay elements as well, which are all named based on rhetorical techniques and terminology.
* In ''VideoGame/UncommonTime'', consumable items are named after musical notation -- {{Healing Potion}}s are "Sharps", mana potions are "Flats", and so on. Weirdly, they actually ''do'' seem to be literal potions, just given odd names.

* The ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' duology uses "Solar Noise" (''I'') and "Solar Data" (''II'') rather than the usual Moon Phases, and Experience is called "Karma". Completely justified in-game for all three cases.
* ''VideoGame/SeventhDragon'' uses "Life" (LF) to refer to HitPoints. Somewhat downplayed with Mana (MN), which refers to MP, although it's still a deviation from the usual RPG jargon.
* ''[[VideoGame/MadouMonogatari Madou Monogatari: Big Kindergarten Kids]]'' switches out the common gold currency for ''cookies''.
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', the "barrier" that Tera Raid Battle bosses can use is never called as such -- it being put up is referred to as "energy [beginning to] gather around" the boss, and it being broken is the boss "[breaking] its stance".

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Anathema}}'', players' health is measured in "anathema", rather than health or hit points.

** This has the rather amusing side effect that [[SpoonyBard minstrels]] are the game's healers. Instead of physically curing your wounds, though, a minstrel heals you by singing a really really inspiring melody.

%%** big fish in a small pond, anyone?

* The first two ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' games used enemy alarms as an analogue to lives: even outside of missions or sections where the player was absolutely required to stay undetected or immediately fail the mission, the mission would fail anyway if they got detected three times during the course of it. The only other difference between these and regular VideoGameLives was that guards would start wearing body armor after the first alarm. ''Chaos Theory'' and beyond did away with this.
* ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' does this in an interesting way in that there is apparently ''no'' term for the setting's currency. When currency is brought up (such as when mission objectives tell you how much money's worth of stolen goods you need to collect,) only the amount is referred to.

* The XCOM from ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' is a military organization tasked with defending the Earth from aliens. As such, [[CharacterLevel levels]] are called ranks, and are named [[NewMeat Rookie]], Squaddie, Corporal, [[SergeantRock Sergeant]], Lieutenant, [[TheCaptain Captain]], [[MajorlyAwesome Major]], and [[ColonelBadass Colonel]]. Leveling up is called earning a promotion.
** Ditto for ''VideoGame/{{XCOM2}}'', except that the troopers with PsychicPowers use a more fantasy sounding rank system (ending up pretty much the same thing as the regular troopers, just with different names such as Magus being pretty much equivalent to Colonel) and XCOM's AttackDrone use knightly ranks, both being a MechanicallyUnusualClass. They still "earn a promotion" instead of levelling up.

[[caption-width-right:350:"You gained a love" doesn't quite roll off the tongue in the same way, unfortunately.]]

* Creator/{{Gottlieb}}'s ''Pinball/JamesBond007'' was a timer-based pinball game that allowed players to keep playing as long as they had some "Time Units" -- seconds -- left on the clock.

* ''VideoGame/RootsOfPacha}}'':
** The game has "Contributions" in place of money since it takes place during prehistoric times, long before currency was invented. The produce and resources that you would normally "sell" in other {{Farm Life Sim}}s are actually added to the tribe's potluck, which is used as payment for services such as researching upgrades.
** Quests are called "Smoke Signals" and are symbolized by a campfire. When someone has a quest for you, they come up with a new "Idea" and share it with you.

* ''VideoGame/{{Roots of Pacha}}'' has "Contributions" in place of money since it takes place during prehistoric times, long before currency was invented. The produce and resources that you would normally "sell" in other {{Farm Life Sim}}s are actually added to the tribe's potluck, which is used as payment for services such as researching upgrades.

* The ''VideoGame/StarTrekStarfleetCommand'' series uses "Prestige" as its currency. Wanna upgrade your ship? Congratulations, you've just gone from being the most famous captain of a scout ship to being just an unknown Constitution-class officer.
** big fish in a small pond, anyone?
* Similarly, the later games in the VideoGame/SilentHunterSeries use renown to pay for upgrades, new submarines and rebasing.
* ''VideoGame/StarControl'' uses "crew" in place of hit points. Every time the ship is struck, you lose some crew. Ships with larger crew complements therefore have more "health". Rather than currency, "Resource Units" are used to purchase (build) new ships or get more crew, and trading with other races is done on a barter system rather than with money (although the Melnorme do use a system of "Credits" when trading, nobody else uses these Credits).

* ''VideoGame/AirCombat'' and ''VideoGame/AceCombat2'' have fuel meters that act as disguised timers; no matter how fast the player flies, the meters depleted at a steady rate, with missions that had more strict time limits starting you at half fuel or less instead of making it deplete faster. Later games switched to a traditional timer.

* With the exception of the first game in the series, in ''VideoGame/{{Risen}}'' your ExperiencePoints are called "Glory" instead, most likely because the setting involves [[WelcomeToTheCaribbeanMon caribbean pirates and sailors]] and their glory-hound mentality.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' series has PP rather than MP, since the characters are using psychic powers rather than magic spells.

* In VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet, the "barrier" that Tera Raid Battle bosses can use is never called as such -- it being put up is referred to as "energy [beginning to] gather around" the boss, and it being broken is the boss "[breaking] its stance".

* Conversely in ''Videogame/{{Bayonetta}}'', Halos serve the same purpose as Devil May Cry's red orbs, being quite literally the halos looted off the many, many angels Bayonetta murders in the line of duty. These are used to pay Rodin for his various services. Bayonetta 2 introduces combatable demons, which exactly like Devil May Cry drop crystalized demon blood referred to as Orbs, but are treated 1:1 as Halos by the game when collected.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' games, Drake and Chloe don't ever take bullet damage. The red splotches that appear onscreen when they're "hit" actually represent their luck gradually running out. Take too much "damage", and an enemy will finally get a clear shot and kill them instantly. This explains how their luck regenerates over time.

* ''TabletopGame/FATECore'': Characters have two Stress meters for the physical and mental damage they can absorb without personal harm, which [[AfterCombatRecovery reset at the end of every Scene]]. Damage in excess of their Stress capacity inflicts Consequences with potentially much more long-term effects.

Some games, however, try to avoid some of these conventions because they don't fit in with the genre. For example, [[SuperHero superheroes]] don't usually [[TreasureHunter collect loot]] or use [[ItOnlyWorksOnce expendable items]] like {{healing potion}}s, [[CriticalExistenceFailure realistic characters don't function normally up until the brink of death and then suddenly die]], resurrection doesn't exist in all settings, and lots of character types wouldn't use money to buy items. But what if the genre of game calls for something like that, or the designers want or need such a mechanic for balance?

** ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Used with the game mechanics of the in-universe video game [[TheGamePlaysYou SBURB]]. For example, the seldom-appearing Health Vials at [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005683 full health]] appear as a bar in a background bar of gel of a color appropriate to the character, and [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005687 the bar empties and leaves the gel]] as players get hit. The system for leveling up, referred to as climbing one's echeladder, increases the "gel viscosity", making it harder to knock the vial out of the gel. Warning: examples used include heavy spoilers.

* The ''Superman Returns'' video game, while a dud otherwise, at least had a novel idea for not removing Superman's invulnerability, while still making him have to take care - it is ''Metropolis itself'' that is his "health meter", and if too much damage is caused to his surroundings during a fight, he loses.

** The trend continues in the spin off/spiritual successor ''VideoGame/EldenRing'', changing the context of why we can respawn with lore reasons that the ''[[RunicMagic Rune]]'' that is apart of the titular ring and responsible for controlling death for all things has been stolen, so we as can not truly die. A new experience monetary hybrid known as "Runes" are pieces of the Elden Ring itelf, and the specialized item dropped by the boss that can be used to gain a lot of Runes or a special weapon/spell is now referred to as a "Remembrance". The game also gives us a replacement to the Estus with two variants based on if you're restoring health or "FP", like in Dark Souls 3. Known as the "Flask of Crimson Tears" for Health and "Flask of Cerulean Tears" for FP. Much like their Souls counterparts Flask can be upgraded, but now have a special enemy for each type spawn in the world, that if killed will restore a charge. Most notable change though is the bonfire replacement is called a "Site of Grace", a self-standing ray of golden light that appears at certain places and can point the player toward the next major objective in the area. Lore wise, the Grace is notable in that some {{NPC}}s mention how they use to be able to see the Graces, but can no longer though some will seek it out still. On top of all those, they've added mini-check points called "Stakes of Marika", which now allow those who wish to re-fight a boss after losing an easier and quick path back then coming from the nearest Grace. They've also added a new system of FP using skills called "Ashes" with two variants one to summon helpful monster {{NPC}}s known as "Spirit Ashes", notably separate from summoning {{NPC}}s like in other games and the other variant to give weapons special skills called "Ashes of War".

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' introduced Holy Power for the Paladin class in 4.0/ ''Cataclysm''. It works similarly to a Rogue's Combo Points, with a few major exceptions: it's generated and spent by relatively few abilities, it accrues on the Paladin instead of his target (which allows the points to be generated by attacking one enemy and then spent on another,) and the points cap out at three instead of five. For whatever reason, this angered a small section of the playerbase who thought the two were too similar. Presumably any resource generated by any action, spent with any other action and stored up to a small cap would generate similar complaints from players.

* At the beginning of a match in the Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Trading Card Game, both players set aside the top 6 cards of their deck face down as their Prize Cards. Whenever a player knocks out an opponent's Pokémon, they take one of their Prize Cards. As soon as a player claims all 6 of their Prize Cards, they win the game. Prize Cards, therefore, simultaneously represent the player's score, as well as they opposing player's "life" and the status of their team (a reference to the Pokémon video games, where players can only carry up to 6 Pokémon with them at a time).