What reading level are most games written for?

[Azure Trance]

Just as an example, MS Word rates your post at a 9th-grade level. I would have guessed slightly higher.

I wonder, is reading level often on par with writing ability?

 

[Psion]

Some works I have read (Winter Runes comes to mind) I would say are a bit difficult to extract the meaning from, and thus I would say college reading level. This is not a good thing.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I wonder, is reading level often on par with writing ability?

I would tend to think those had a higher reading level would be better writers than those with lower levels. However, not always, since the ability to read and comprehend written material does not always mean a person has the creativity to concoct a story. But I suppose if they were writing something technical, or relating to a field of study.

 

[DMScott]

3.xE is definity set to a lower reading level than 1E

Perhaps, but I wouldn't bet money on it. Back in the early 90s, the first time I ever had access to a writing style analyzer, I typed in a couple of paragraphs from the 1E DMG as an experiment. It came out with a low rating because the sampled text was "turgid", which I remember gave me a chuckle. Clarity of writing usually counts at least as much as using big words.

The analyzer might have been overly critical, though - as I recall I couldn't find any reasonably interesting writing that got a good score. A report I was working on for work had a bunch of stuff flagged as "hackneyed/overused". I don't remember any of the other analyzers I've used being quite so critical.

 

[Ranger REG]

I believe the average reading level for Americans is 4th grade.

Some RPGs I know are at the reading level of 9th grade, including D&D 3e.

 

[johnsemlak]

Some works I have read (Winter Runes comes to mind) I would say are a bit difficult to extract the meaning from, and thus I would say college reading level. This is not a good thing.

I haven't read Winter Runes (it's on the way, actually) but it may be that it's simply bad writing as opposed to college level writign, if it's difficult to extract the meaning from.

BTW an example of a magazine written for the college level is the Economist. It's very well written but can be dense for some.

I hope Winter Runes is good; I've ordered it

 

[jerichothebard]

Fairly young I would think. There is no difficult math ...

Now that Thac0 is gone...

 

[jgbrowning]

Microsoft Word can tell you what grade level text is when it does a spell check, but I don't know whether it works strictly on multi-syllabic words, grammar, or what. I do know that it strikes me as being reasonably accurate.

From the help file:

Readability scores
When Microsoft Word finishes checking spelling and grammar, it can display information about the reading level of the document, including the following readability scores. Each readability score bases its rating on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence.

Flesch Reading Ease score
Rates text on a 100-point scale; the higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. For most standard documents, aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70.

The formula for the Flesch Reading Ease score is:

206.835 – (1.015 x ASL) – (84.6 x ASW)

where:

ASL = average sentence length (the number of words divided by the number of sentences)

ASW = average number of syllables per word (the number of syllables divided by the number of words)

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score
Rates text on a U.S. grade-school level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. For most standard documents, aim for a score of approximately 7.0 to 8.0.

The formula for the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score is:

(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) – 15.59

where:

ASL = average sentence length (the number of words divided by the number of sentences)

ASW = average number of syllables per word (the number of syllables divided by the number of words)

The section on feudalism I wrote for A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe comes up at 10.6 grade level. It's about as complex as I'll ever write.

joe b.

 

[mearls]

Mike Mearls's books are recommended for a single 10th-level reader with ranks in the English skill. If you prefer group over solo play, a party of 6 - 8 5th-level readers should find his books a challenge. If the party is particularly large or well-equipped, characters with an average level of 3 can attempt to read this material. Regardless of party level, it is recommended that at least one character of the reader class with at least 4 ranks in English accompany the party. In addition, a cleric will be useful to turn any undead commas or semi-colons.

On a more serious level, I have no idea what level my writing falls into. Hopefully, it's somewhere between 'passable' and 'enjoyable'. As far as big words go, I was once asked to replace 'equiangular' with something less arcane. I also sometimes need to self-edit some CS-related words, such as instantiate. I did use algorithm in a recent Dragon article, which made sense, since the article did include an algorithm rendered in plain 'ole English.

 

[3d6]

The spells chapter, at least, comes up as a 9.5 on the Flesch-Kincaid grade level scale.