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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8936361" data-attributes="member: 6790260">I think we both know that only discussion can actually bear that out. As in, this question is EXTREMELY easy to turn into a catch-22 trap against me, and I think we both know that. However, as a very loose heuristic, a term has an obvious fault if it is:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Actively vulgar or uses actual terms of abuse (epithets, insults, etc.), because that's always a problem.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Directly comparing to something objectively really bad (like specific actual wars, genocide, racism, etc.) and an element of game design, because it's pretty much impossible for an element of game design to be THAT bad without, y'know, being <a href="https://www.metalsucks.net/2015/08/21/advanced-discrimination-dragons-critical-look-varg-vikernes-myfarog-rpg/" target="_blank">actual racism</a> (warning! Contains actual racism!), genocide denialism,or the like, in which case, don't compare, just call a spade a spade.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Openly pejorative in some other way that isn't the above, e.g. calling something "training wheels" is pretty openly saying that it's for immature players who haven't learned to play the proper way.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Clearly leaving no room for positive alternatives, e.g. if some style is being called "honest X," the only meaningful alternative to "honest" is...well, a lack of honesty. It's one thing to explicitly say one considers a particular approach to involve deception; it's quite another to say that all alternatives to a given approach must be deceptive.</li> </ol>And, for a negative example (since I gave a positive example of "obvious fault" above): "Combat as War" vs "Combat as Sport."I heavily do not like these terms. They have been heavily used by people who love what they call "CaW" and dislike what they call "CaS," usually (and rather blatantly) over the protests of those who like what is being called "CaS" and do not like it being referred to by that term. However, these terms are not obviously faulty. Calling something a sport is not on the same level as calling something "training wheels," even though to my ears that is the intent of the term (because "war" is serious, while "sport" is just a lark, something casual.*) "CaW/CaS" is clearly not a term of abuse in general, it isn't referencing anything objectively really bad, and it is at least prima facie allowing that approaches other than "Combat as War" are legitimate. Hence, as much as I dislike this pair of terms, they do not have an obvious fault; it requires significantly more effort to articulate whether they are faulty, why, and what should be done about it.*Worth noting, "casual" is sometimes used as a term of abuse in video gaming circles, to indicate that the person/group labelled "casual" does not have valid opinions or doesn't actually care about the game, just playing for trivial jollies rather than "real"--challenging--gameplay. You see it mostly in competitive gaming and MMOs, but it also shows up in stuff like FromSoft's "we made this to be super hard" games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring. Stuff in the vein of the infamous "you cheated not only the game, but yourself" meme.</blockquote>

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