Language Inconsistencies
(conceptual and design issues, not typos or punctuation problems)
- The game's application title is "The Witcher Board Game" instead of "The Witcher Adventure Game" as it is referred to everywhere at this point in development (probably "Board" was an early name for it).
- This section is a bit between "reporting issues" as well as "gameplay feedback". As a principle that applies to much more than language, all unnecessary complexity adds up and makes getting into the game worse: new players will be presented with more new and confusing terms early on. Losing players for having confusing terms that don't really make the game better, but simply haven't been worked on enough, is tragic. So, examples where this can be avoided:
=> Gold/Coins/Orens. Usually it's referred to as "Gold", but the units are normally referred to as "Coins". The currency in The Witcher fantasy is Orens, so I think that for flavor you should drop "Gold" and "Coins" completely and always use "Orens". Always using the same symbol and word to refer to the same thing is the way to go when it comes to game mechanics. There's also the bugs when instead of symbol you still see "GoldCoin". I just think it feels too generic, Orens ("Oren" for 1, "Orens" if more) immediately gives it more flavor and is unique to the point where you won't be confusing it with any other mechanic in the actual game.
=> If there are several enemies to choose from in a region, the information isn't too clear, for example: "The current region contains 1x Bronze [symbol]2x Gold [symbol] Choose which enemy to battle" You should add some punctuation to this, especially before and/or after the symbols, because as you can see in this example sometimes there's even spaces missing.
=> "Subquest" (e.g. on all cards quest cards) or "side quest" (e.g. in the tutorial and as the text that appears on screen when they are completed) and it would be better if you use only one of those expressions throughout the game.
=> What is the deal with calling it "XP" and "Development"? Again, either please choose or the other, or perhaps something entirely different. Currently, on the UI there is a card slot for this feature that has each character's icon when it's empty and says "XP" which is confusing when you think about putting cards in it, and the name "Development" is also unclear. It seems to indicate that you can add substantial and permanent value to your character (this is a confusion implicit to calling it "development", which is similar to "experience" or "hero power"). In fact, this is strictly a BATTLE ITEM deck/slot, essentially EQUIPMENT and SPELLS. Picking a single term that makes it clear this is only good during battles (and that you can use 1-2 at most per battle) would be the best way to make sense of this system, to convey what it is about.
=> Clearer terms for wounds and healing would be useful. Is it a "normal", "small" or "heart" (the actual symbol) wound and then a "poison", "poisonous" or "severe" wound? When you rest are you resting or are you healing? Why not just call it Heal? Does Rest have "charges"? Uniform wording on all this would help new players considerably, and improves the quality of the game for everyone.
=> Both "Bye bye !" and "Player left." are very unclear notifications and should both be replaced. Use "Player quit the game." and "Player disconnected." instead. The first times I played, seeing "Bye bye !" made me assume someone was actually talking to me, instead of being a system message. You can avoid any confusion by replacing those terms since "player left" is also very ambiguous, it doesn't tell you he left because he quit or that he left because the connection was lost (that's the actual distinction your current notifications are trying to make). In addition, I personally feel "Bye bye !" is very annoying and too informal, breaking immersion for me.
Last updated: 31/July/2014
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