Terminology Discussion

by Hawke Robinson — published 2018/12/04 00:42:00 GMT-8, last modified 2022-11-12T08:28:55-08:00
This page lists considerations for terminology to attempt standardization of language. This is just an early draft for discussion.

 

 

 

Mode, Form, Format, Modality, Medium/media, content, semiotic represntation... ?

 

Tabletop versus live-action versus computer-based versus solo adventure books/modules.

 

Medium/media

 

Literal English definitions

 

Definitions from other disciplines

 

 

Application to RPG

 

 

 

Mode

 

 

Literal English definitions

 

Definitions from other disciplines

 

 

Application to RPG

 

 

 

Modality

 

 

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Definitions from other disciplines

 

 

APA Dictionary

 

n.

1. a particular therapeutic technique or process (e.g., psychodynamic).

2. a medium of sensation, such as vision or hearing. See sense.

 

 

 

 

Application to RPG

 

Tabletop (TRPG)

Live-action (LARP)

Computer-based (CRPG)

Solo Adventures Books/Modules (SABM)

 

 

Medium

 

 

Literal English definitions

 

Definitions from other disciplines

 

 

Application to RPG

 

TRPG: Verbal, textual, visual, auditory, written

LARP: physical, verbal, visual, auditory (some written, optional)

CRPG: electronic interface (desktop, laptop, mobile device, goggles, projector, hologram, neural-electronic interface, etc.)

SABM: Physical books and modules (may optionally be available in electronic format like a PDF, but is primarily a book-list or classic gaming module, form.

 

Media

 

 

Literal English definitions

 

Definitions from other disciplines

 

 

Application to RPG

 

 

 

Form

 

 

 

Literal English definitions

 

 

Oxford

NOUN

  • 1The visible shape or configuration of something.

    ‘the form, colour, and texture of the tree’
     
    mass noun ‘the flowers of this shrub are remarkable both in form and colour’
     
     
    1. 1.1 The body or shape of a person or animal.
      ‘his eyes scanned her slender form’
       
       
       
    2. 1.2mass noun Style, design, and arrangement in an artistic work as distinct from its content.
      ‘these videos are a triumph of form over content’
       
       
       

  • 2A particular way in which a thing exists or appears.

    ‘essays in book form’
     
    ‘energy in the form of light’
     
     
    1. 2.1 Any of the ways in which a word may be spelled, pronounced, or inflected.
      ‘an adjectival form’
       
       
    2. 2.2mass noun The structure of a word, phrase, sentence, or discourse.
      ‘every distinction in meaning is associated with a distinction in form’
       
       
    3. 2.3Philosophy The essential nature of a species or thing, especially (in Plato's thought) regarded as an abstract ideal which real things imitate or participate in.
       
       

  • 3A type or variety of something.

    ‘sponsorship is a form of advertising’
     
     
     
    1. 3.1 An artistic or literary genre.
      ‘a form is as good as the writer who chooses it’
       
       
    2. 3.2Botany A taxonomic category that ranks below variety, which contains organisms differing from the typical kind in some trivial, frequently impermanent, character, e.g. a colour variant.
      Also called forma
       

  • 4mass noun The customary or correct method or procedure.

    ‘an excessive concern for legal form and precedent’
     
     
     
    1. 4.1count noun A ritual or convention.
      ‘the outward forms of religion’
       
       
       
    2. 4.2count noun A set order of words; a formula.
      ‘a form of words’
       
       

  • 5A mould, frame, or block in or on which something is shaped.

     
     
    1. 5.1 A temporary structure for holding fresh concrete in shape while it sets.
       
       

  • 6A printed document with blank spaces for information to be inserted.

    ‘an application form’
     
     
     

  • 7British A class or year in a school, usually given a specifying number.

    ‘the fifth form’
     
     
     

  • 8mass noun The state of a sports player or team with regard to their current standard of play.

    ‘they are one of the best teams around on current form’
     
     
     
    1. 8.1 Details of previous performances by a racehorse or greyhound.
      ‘an interested bystander studying the form’
       
    2. 8.2 A person's mood and state of health.
      ‘she seemed to be on good form’
       
    3. 8.3British informal A criminal record.
      ‘they both had form’
       

  • 9 British A long bench without a back.

     

  • 10 US Printing 

    variant spelling of forme

  • 11 British A hare's lair.

 

 

 

 

Definitions from other disciplines

 

 

APA

form–function distinction

a distinction between two fundamentally different ways of analyzing language, one with respect to its structural properties (form) and the other with respect to its communicative properties (function). For example, a formal analysis of the utterance Where are the pencils? would point to the use of whereand the auxiliary verb be to frame a wh- question and the agreement between that verb and the subject pencils; a functional analysis would need to judge whether the utterance is a request for information or a request for action. 

 

 

 

Application to RPG

 

 

 

Format

 

 

Literal English definitions

 

 

Merriam-webster

1: the shape, size, and general makeup (as of something printed)

2: general plan of organization, arrangement, or choice of material (as for a television show)

3: a method of organizing data (as for storage)various file formats

 

Oxford

NOUN

1 The way in which something is arranged or set out.

‘the conventional format of TV situation comedies’
 
1.1 The shape, size, and presentation of a book or periodical.
‘the format is A4 on newsprint’
 
‘(as modifier, in combination) large-format paperbacks’
 
1.2 The medium in which a sound recording is made available.
‘he has just re-issued the collection in CD format’
 
1.3 Computing A defined structure for the processing, storage, or display of data.
‘a data file in binary format’

 

 

 

 

 

Definitions from other disciplines

 

 

Application to RPG

 

 

  • Verbal (TRPG)
  • Physical (LARP)
  • Virtual (CRPG)
  • Textual (SABM)

 

 

 

Content

 

 

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Application to RPG

 

 

 

Structure

 

 

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Application to RPG

 

 

Category / Categorization

 

 

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Application to RPG

 

 

 

Schema

 

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Application to RPG

 

 

 

 

Semiotic Representation

 

 

 

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Definitions from other disciplines

 

 

Application to RPG

 

 

 

Interaction Pattern

 

 

 

 

Literal English definitions

 

Definitions from other disciplines

 

 

Application to RPG

 

 

 

List of role-playing game modalities

 

All under RPG.

 

TRPG

 

 

LARP: Live-action role-playing game.

Noun versus verb.

Noun is acronym Live-Action Role-Play, LARP all caps.

Verb is lower case "larp", and all verb variants such as larping.

 

 

 

 

CRPG, or maybe ERPG? Electronic Role-playing games, would include anything that involves electronic devices of any kind, in addition to computers, mobile devices, accounts for Audio-only RPGs (ARPGs?)

Many different variants to ERPG/CRPG.

 

ARPG: Audio Role-Playing Game, example Kronos: https://www.academia.edu/15010436/A_classification_of_audio-based_games_in_terms_of_sonic_gameplay_and_the_introduction_of_the_audio-role-playing-game_Kronos 

 

SCRPG: Solo computer-based RPG.

 

MCRPG: mulit-user computer-based RPG. or just MRPG?

Multi-user, possibly networked, but not "online" via web or other Internet interface. For example LAN (Local Area Network) based hosting. Though not an RPG, Warcraft II would be an example that initially was IPX-only protocol, and only later offered TCP/IP which made it accessible over the Internet.

This could also include split-screen games that allow more than one player on the same monitor/television (examples?).

 

MUD: Multi-User Dungeon

 

 

MUSH: Multi-User Shared Hallucination

 

 

MOO: MUD, Object-Oriented

 

 

ORPG: Online RPG

 

SORPG: Solo online RPG

 

MORPG: Multi-user Online RPG. Must be accessible by more than one player simultaneously over the Internet through some kind of electronic interface. This is for the ones that were smaller in scale, typically only around 4 to less than 100 players. If more than 100 players, more in the category of massive multiplayer?

The opensource version of Ultima Online (UOX) comes to mind, if I remember correctly it was limited to 64 players per server.

Of course others like Never Winter Nights 1 & 2, (Baldur's Gate?), and others, that allowed a handful of players (and sometimes optionally the GM) to interact through the game in turn-based or real-time role-playing scenarios.

 

 

MMORPG: Massive Multiplayer Online RPG

A la Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, EVE Online, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Role-playing game modalities diagrams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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