Glossary - Warp

Warp is an online video game term that means teleporting from one place to another on the map. It is also known as a teleporter or portal. Warps might be purposely installed inside puzzles by game developers.

The instance of players with very low pings losing their online game and appearing elsewhere (due to a bad connection) is also called a warp in online video strategy games.

Warps in Video Games

Portals can be used to be protected from danger in sections of an online video game. However, teleportation situations can be the correct path or punishment for the players depending on their acts (cheating or not-cheating in the game). In several video strategy games, users can only use portals to travel to the places that they have visited before. Therefore, a player has to go to an area by a normal road at least once.

Origin of the Term 

It is not clear which video game has used portals for the first time. However, later they became famous by Super Mario Bros. 

Disadvantages of Portals

  1. Teleportals sometimes may discourage discovering new places in a video game. They may also impoverish the user's knowledge about the mechanisms of spatiality. 

  2. Portals may not work in the same way all the time. Therefore they can teleport the user to the same location once, twice or a few times.

  3. Due to the versions of portals (one-track or two-track), they can teleport gamers someplace with no way to come back.

Definition of Warp Zone

It is a specific place or area where players go to get to someplace more easily in video games. This area is a mysterious portal or passage which is accessible to players. Discovering warp zones might become a common goal of a video gaming session, and can be used as various checkpoints.