Game Development & Design

• Procedural Generation: A method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, often used in games to generate complex environments, levels, or scenarios dynamically.
• Emergent Gameplay: When complex behaviours or strategies arise from simple game mechanics, often surprising even the designers.
• Ludonarrative Dissonance: A conflict between a video game’s narrative and its gameplay mechanics.
• Metagame: Strategies or techniques that go beyond the basic rules of the game, often involving community knowledge or "game-breaking" tactics.
• Crunch Time: The intense period of extended work hours near a project's deadline, often criticised in the industry for its negative impact on mental health.
• Game Jam: An event where developers come together to create games within a short time frame, typically 24-72 hours.
• Sandbox Game: A type of game where players have the freedom to explore, create, and interact with the game world without predefined goals or restrictions.

Economics & Game Theory

• Pareto Efficiency: A situation where no individual can be made better off without making someone else worse off, often discussed in economics and game theory.
• Nash Equilibrium: A concept in game theory where no player can benefit by changing their strategy while the other players keep theirs unchanged.
• Prisoner’s Dilemma: A standard example of a game that shows why two completely rational individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so.
• Externalities: A side effect or consequence of an activity that affects other parties without being reflected in the costs of the goods or services involved.
• Public Goods: Products that are non-excludable and non-rivalrous, meaning they can be consumed by many people without being depleted.
• Opportunity Cost: The loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one option is chosen.
• Utility: A measure of satisfaction or value derived from the consumption of goods and services.

Philosophy & Personal Development

• Existentialism: A philosophy that emphasises individual existence, freedom, and choice, often exploring the meaning of life.
• Stoicism: A philosophy teaching the development of self-control and fortitude as a means to overcome destructive emotions.
• Neurodiversity: The concept that differences in brain functioning, like autism and ADHD, are normal variations of human diversity and should be respected as such.
• Socratic Method: A form of cooperative argumentative dialogue to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions.
• Hedonic Treadmill: The observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events.
• Cognitive Dissonance: The mental discomfort experienced by a person who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or ideas.
• Absurdism: The belief that human beings exist in a purposeless, chaotic universe, often associated with existential philosophy.

Anti-Capitalism & Anti-Consumerism

• Planned Obsolescence: A business strategy in which the obsolescence of a product is planned and built into it from its conception, often criticised in anti-consumerism.
• Late Stage Capitalism: A term used to describe absurdities and injustices in the capitalist system, often highlighted in critiques of wealth inequality and corporate behaviour.
• Neoliberalism: A political-economic philosophy advocating for free-market capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in government spending.
• Brand Loyalty: The tendency of consumers to continue buying the same brand's products over time, often cultivated through marketing strategies that can be criticised as manipulative.
• False Scarcity: The intentional restriction of a product's availability to increase demand and drive up prices, often seen as a manipulative business practice.
• Greenwashing: The practice of making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product, service, or company practices.
• Conspicuous Consumption: The purchase of goods or services for the specific purpose of displaying wealth and status rather than for their practical value.
• Commodity Fetishism: A Marxist concept where the social relationships involved in production are obscured by the relationships between people and commodities.

Mental Health & Personal Life

• Masking: The practice of concealing one’s true self to conform to social expectations, often discussed in the context of neurodiversity.
• Burnout: A state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress, often associated with overwork and lack of support.
• Executive Dysfunction: Difficulty in managing and regulating thoughts and actions, commonly experienced by people with ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions.
• Imposter Syndrome: The persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud” despite evident success, often experienced by high-achieving individuals.
• Emotional Labor: The process of managing feelings and expressions as part of a job, often unrecognized and uncompensated, leading to stress and exhaustion.
• Hyperfocus: An intense form of concentration on a particular task, often experienced by people with ADHD.
• Anxiety: A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
• Depression: A common mental disorder characterized by persistent sadness, lack of interest, and a variety of emotional and physical problems.

Miscellaneous

• Gamification: The application of game-design elements in non-game contexts, such as education or marketing, to engage and motivate people.
• Cognitive Load: The amount of mental effort being used in the working memory, often discussed in terms of how game mechanics or user interfaces impact the player.
• Survivorship Bias: The logical error of focusing on successful entities while ignoring those that failed, often leading to overly optimistic conclusions about strategies or behaviors.
• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): The anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often exacerbated by social media.
• Deus Ex Machina: A plot device where a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence, often seen as a narrative flaw.
• Cyberpunk: A subgenre of science fiction that focuses on a dystopian future with advanced technology and a breakdown of social order.
• Solarpunk: A literary and artistic movement that envisions a future where environmental sustainability and social justice are core values.
• Post-Scarcity: A hypothetical economy in which most goods can be produced in great abundance with minimal human labor, making them freely available to all.