Complexity is a double-edged sword in game design. Part of the issue stems from the limitations of language. There is only so much that can be conveyed in a formal structure before there either are no words to convey the information necessary or that they choke off the play space and the exploration all games need. There are times when, to avoid that predicament, designers have to employ techniques that separate one state from another.
Advanced Squad Leader is a prime example of a game where typographical notation is used to differentiate a unit’s location. For instance, there’s the difference between units in a hex with a ravine and a unit in the ravine itself. In the game’s parlance, these units may be in or IN the hex to denote how deep the unit is in the ground relative to the elevation’s surface. This notation doesn’t necessarily tell you that unless you’re familiar with the rules since the linguistic use doesn’t change even if the capitalization does. The difference has numerous effects on the game’s mechanics, but it may not change how you hear it spoken. Advanced Squad Leader isn’t alone in this convention.
Enough games and even scholars have made use of slight changes to a word’s appearance that it might not seem like a big deal until you begin to unpack the significance of the act that leads to this. For instance, if asked to spot the difference between wits + subterfuge and Composure + Subterfuge, would it mean anything to you? If you play World of Darkness games, it may very well; for others, it doesn’t possess any meaning beyond the standard definitions given to words.
The carryover from academia is interesting to note here given how many of the newer game designers and not too few of the older waves of game designers have academic training, meaning a great deal of individuals in the industry have been exposed to this capitalization trend. Even if you casually flip through a book or two you’ll see fingerprints of this usage of language of differentiation. The need for specialized vocabulary within the confines of the game drives the trend all the more. There is a sense of not just organization and definition packing of rules and concepts into key terms, but also of a near reverence of the ideals embedded therein. In addition to practicing a form of catachresis, the game designer elevates the ideal to equal the status of proper nouns.
The rules and terms in a game therefore no longer are subject to mere components or grammars, they are now objects of proper ideation simultaneously embedded and apart from their frameworks. These nuanced aspects of the game’s chosen sacred cows generates as much of the complexity as do the formulae governing the math. They also represent part of the state that creates ambiguity and confusion in the rules. For instance, when I say my unit counter is in a hex to another player, the vocalization sounds no different than if the counter is IN the hex’s ravine, foxhole, or blast crater. The modulation would be odd and unnatural at best and grounds for miscommunication at worse.
Linguistically speaking, the implications of the way I’m using a world inform the other players what is being said. The markers in a game like Advanced Squad Leader also help clarify the meaning. There is no sense that a speaker is using words in a reverent manner just because of specialized coding, yet it is in the content to some degree. To draw upon Saussure, the signified and the signifier make a larger portion of the context generate a meaning other than what an observer unaware of the specialized coding of common words expects.
The differentiation of state thus produced is akin in many ways to the phrasings used by religious groups and cults. Given the kinship of play and ritual in the realm of the magic circle, the dual use of language to speak of embedded concepts while still retaining their original meanings imparts upon gaming the communal spirit even through it isn’t treated with the gravitas of those sacred orders. Even if you haven’t thought of gaming in these terms, you’ve likely encountered this with the terms used in one game or sport your friends discussed at some point. This is no different than the specialized jargon used by any group. And here we find the same use of language elevation when words with general meanings acquire additional, specific conceptual meaning where no other words – newly minted or otherwise – will suffice.
This results in a gulf that can widen over time as different meanings accrue for the use of the concept or the jargon’s use to describe the concept between groups. This is the same process as using the term for the idea and as just another word. Hence, a need for brevity to combat the potential for misinterpretation is crucial. This also requires some play with language for the designer to avoid any possible miscommunication between the designer’s rules and the audience. Word choice – and elevation – matters.
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