[Lets choose] the ENworld un-word of 2008

[FireLance]

I think my vote would go to "balanced". Some people seemed to think that everything had to be balanced in order for a game to be fun.

I think that the rilmani create them to counter the people who think that a balanced game must be dull and boring.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Some people seemed to think that everything had to be balanced in order for a game to be fun.

For some people, it's probably true, right?

God forbid I use a videogame analogy -- the only videogame I play is Rock Band -- but I know players and designers of fighting games who think that the ultimate goal is to make all of the characters balanced. As I said, I don't play, but as a novice playing another novice, I'd be pretty annoyed if I had no chance with Sonya against Scorpion. (Yes, that game, the original, is the last fighting game I played. On Sega Genesis.)

RPGs are obviously different, but for at least some people -- lots of whom are 4E fans -- balance is pretty important to their fun. And I can understand it. I want balance, too ... I just enforce it (as DM) or trust my DM to enforce it (as a player).

As an aside, for all the "verisimilitude" haters, if you can give me another word in the English language that has the same precision of meaning, I'll be glad to use it instead. If you can't, calling for it to be "un-worded" is --------ing ---hat-ish in the ---her----ing extreme.

(Are you trying to fill in the blanks? Are you? Be honest!)

 

[D.Shaffer]

Verisimilitude.
1. the appearance or semblance of truth; likelihood; probability: The play lacked verisimilitude.
2. something, as an assertion, having merely the appearance of truth.

Everytime someone has a criticism, that seems to be the buzzword of choice. Often used as shorthand for 'I dont like it' without really explaining why. Even when used correctly, I'm kind of sick of seeing it pop up in everything.

*leafs open a thesaurus*
Authenticity, Credibility, Genuiness, Plausibility, Realism

 

[wedgeski]

"This!"

The combination of "Ooh! Ooh! Me too!" with "I'm too lazy to write even one complete sentence!" is just annoying as hell.

Thi---

No, I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to do it.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

*leafs open a thesaurus*
Authenticity, Credibility, Genuiness, Plausibility, Realism

And yet none of those words actually means the same thing as "verisimilitude." Surely you haven't missed all the threads in which some poor sap used "realism" when he meant "verisimilitude" and got 20 sneering replies explaining to him that "fireballs and elves aren't realistic, you stupid bastard." Have you?

"Verisimilitude" is an extraordinarily precise word. I have the vocabulary of God, and I don't know of another word with the same meaning. Sure, you can get the meaning across with phrases -- "internally consistent realism," for instance -- but not with one word.

I'd be in favor of shortening it, though, because that's just how lazy I roll. "Dude, healing surges offend v-tude!"

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I know i´m nothing special just because i started this thread but... the deeper idea of this was to look at the words we´ve used and smile about their over-importance and heavy misuse.
Smile, you know. Remember together, laugh how serious we took this stuff. I mean, don´t we already have enough threads a la "they changed cheese to meat in FR, how i hate it, let me tell you!"? Do we need flamewars about word usage?

 

[ExploderWizard]

Its really hard to pick a winner here. All this videogamey, simulationist, nerd rage is breaking the thread's versimillitude. Come on peoples, we have to make up our minds if we want a terms thats teh awesome as opposed to being stuck with one thats full of fail.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Its really hard to pick a winner here. All this videogamey, simulationist, nerd rage is breaking the thread's versimillitude. Come on peoples, we have to make up our minds if we want a terms thats teh awesome as opposed to being stuck with one thats full of fail.

This.

 

[Stoat]

Its really hard to pick a winner here. All this videogamey, simulationist, nerd rage is breaking the thread's versimillitude. Come on peoples, we have to make up our minds if we want a terms thats teh awesome as opposed to being stuck with one thats full of fail.

This.

Hey! You guys stop dumbing down the thread.

 

[Mallus]

Everytime someone has a criticism, that seems to be the buzzword of choice. Often used as shorthand for 'I dont like it' without really explaining why.

It's usually a shorthand for "I like my lack of realism better than yours".