You know, that thing, what’s it called?
Jargon is prevalent in every aspect of our lives. From learning the basic terminology in school (noun, verb, addition, subtraction) to terms that differ radically depending on context; ‘I have a theory on that,’ verses ‘the Theory of Gravity.’ Learning how to interpret jargon and understand what is being said is vital for eliminating confusion in communication. This is extremely important in game design for creating a functional and useful user experience.
I can’t speak for other designers, but one of our reoccurring problems here is using terms that are both evocative for allowing players to immediately understand what they are referencing, while being useful and easy to remember. In an industry that uses so many similar mechanics and physical components, defining exactly what you mean is important.
Look at Dominion. In 2008 Rio Grande Games unleashed an entirely new genre of tabletop game to the world with the deck builder Dominion. It took things that were familiar, cards, drawing, discarding, shuffling, then mixed them all together in a brand-new way. Imagine you have a game of Dominion set-up in front of you and are sitting across from a player who has never played or seen it before, then you tell that player ‘Draw a card.’ Well, that player is going to have some confusion.
Vanilla Dominion has 10 randomized Kingdom Card piles, 3 Currency Card piles, 3 Victory Card piles, a Trash pile and a Curse pile. Add to that two additional piles for each player (draw and discard) and you are a looking at 18 (+ 2 per player) piles that a card can be drawn from. Luckily, Rio Grande has pretty good instructions and clear labeling methods. But, that doesn’t spring out of thin air.
People comment on the thin theme of Dominion, but it has a use for separating out what cards go where and what their functions are (Kingdom, Currency, Victory, etc.) This labeling and terminology allows players to compartmentalize what they need to focus on at given times, “When I draw a card it is from my Draw pile, when I Trash a card it goes into the Trash pile, not the Discard pile. Discard and Trash are two separate functions.” These allow for players to quickly pick up on concepts and move into the meat of the game.
In our game, Heir to the Throne, we had a few discussions figuring out what to call the Court Drama deck because it has so many different types of cards within it. Not only that, but Attack and Restoration cards had their own rules and needed to be worked and reworked so that it felt natural to players that they would use the proper terms for clarity and communication. Oftentimes, on game design Facebook groups people will ask for advice on what terms to use. This is very common and you should never assume what makes sense to you will make sense to the players.
Now, unfortunately, at the end of the day a lot of players will replace your clever terms with more generic terms. I tell people not to get too attached to their cool terms because players will call it a Draw pile and a Discard pile instead of ‘Gathering Power’ and ‘Spent Energy.’ However, let the players replace your cool terms, don’t get lazy; it can and will make your life harder. I’ve played many games where the game terms are so generic that it leads to confusion because the way they use ‘Ignore’ and ‘Counter’ run contrary to common usage. That leads to lots of rule questions and errata after printing. But, that’s a discussion for play testing and listening to your testers.
The moral of this story is make sure your terms are clear and consistent.
By Dan Blakney
Amber Dreamscapes 