Summoned is a great term, but it's lossy compared to "enters the battlefield". The entire change there compared to "comes into play/leaves play" was that "enters the battlefield" is more dynamic and adds fantasy to the action. Same can be said for "dies".
The fantasy is encapsulated with the name, art, & flavortext. The game rules should be as simple and concise as possible.
As a replacement for "enters the battlefield", it's just not as dynamic as it wants to be. You'd be surprised at how much retention it gives to the game when you're forcing players through action-based terminology like this. It breeds mental interaction. The more lossy a term is, the less interaction it breeds, and the less 3 dimensional (and more 2 dimensional) the gaming experience becomes.
Association thru interaction will cultivate retention, and dynamic language is accomplished thru simplicity.
Personally, I think that this problem only exists truly for people who toil over the term hundreds of times in short periods of time (creators of cards).
For anyone unawares, Reap is quite prolific in the Custom Card forums, and many of their designs are quite challenging. I recommend giving them a look.
For the record, the fantasy is a product of emulation; a culmination in the level of interactivity and dynamic interactions (verbal/literature) fantasy context.
When you boil down terms into bland and monotone functions, you are taking the D&D gaming table, and turning it into an IRS paperwork table.
We're not at the game shop anymore?WE'RE BACK AT WORK?!!
OMG WAKE ME UP FROM THIS!
It's exactly this. Very important to keep people in the fantasy realm and keep the game actions as interactive as possible to preserve the life of the game.
The more you simplify things, the more interaction you're taking away. You are losing stimulation.
For the overstimulated, this might seem and feel good. For the gamer seeking that stimulation for life, you have killed the game experience for them.
Very important to keep people in the fantasy realm
I mean, they still let you on the CAC forums after things like Contravoyance and Deus Ex Machina, so... seems like the fantasy is intact.
Shortening "When this creature enters the battlefield" with a word or symbol would allow them to cram more words on cards, so its probably going to happen, as much as I'd not like it myself.
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Latest proof this forum is a trashfire:
Your authoritarianism will be the reason the company suffers another 60M in losses.
For the record, the fantasy is a product of emulation; a culmination in the level of interactivity and dynamic interactions (verbal/literature) fantasy context.
When you boil down terms into bland and monotone functions, you are taking the D&D gaming table, and turning it into an IRS paperwork table.
We're not at the game shop anymore?WE'RE BACK AT WORK?!!
OMG WAKE ME UP FROM THIS!
It's exactly this. Very important to keep people in the fantasy realm and keep the game actions as interactive as possible to preserve the life of the game.
The more you simplify things, the more interaction you're taking away. You are losing stimulation.
For the overstimulated, this might seem and feel good. For the gamer seeking that stimulation for life, you have killed the game experience for them.
I'm sorry you don't like it. The game necessarily includes both abstract/evocative terminology you have to learn the in-game meaning of ("battlefield", "flying", "library") and things like power and toughness, which use numerical values instead of "weak", "strong" etc. It can't all be abstract "stimulation", as you describe it, because then it's not a game with rules that can be played competitively. But obviously it shouldn't be your IRS spreadsheet thing either.
It's the same for D&D. Some DMs would happily say, "You deal 12 damage to the orc. It's only got 5 hit points left." Others would want to keep those more mechanical aspects of the game away from the players: "Your swing gravely wounds the beleaguered orc." without including any numbers. Magic doesn't really get the option to keep information from players because all players have to be clear on the game state for it to be a game you can play competitively.
The trade-off has to be including what gives the game flavour, while still letting you play it as a game e.g. how many hits could you take from an unblocked creature with 'medium' power? I think players would disagree.
I'd argue that giving designers more space for words on their cards by keywording ETB actually opens up design space - and I've seen some of your wordier efforts in the CCC forum, so hopefully you can appreciate that aspect even if you think it's less flavourful. After all, Magic isn't trying to be an RPG. And mechanically, a keyworded or shorter version of ETB is just as 'interactive' as it was before - at least in the sense that people usually use that word in the context of MTG - you can still respond to the trigger, still blink the creature to get another trigger etc.
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"Did you think to kill me? There's no flesh and blood within this cloak to kill. There is only an idea. Ideas are bulletproof." - V, V for Vendetta. Alan Moore
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The fantasy is encapsulated with the name, art, & flavortext. The game rules should be as simple and concise as possible.
Association thru interaction will cultivate retention, and dynamic language is accomplished thru simplicity.
For anyone unawares, Reap is quite prolific in the Custom Card forums, and many of their designs are quite challenging. I recommend giving them a look.
When you boil down terms into bland and monotone functions, you are taking the D&D gaming table, and turning it into an IRS paperwork table.
We're not at the game shop anymore? WE'RE BACK AT WORK?!!
OMG WAKE ME UP FROM THIS!
It's exactly this. Very important to keep people in the fantasy realm and keep the game actions as interactive as possible to preserve the life of the game.
The more you simplify things, the more interaction you're taking away. You are losing stimulation.
For the overstimulated, this might seem and feel good. For the gamer seeking that stimulation for life, you have killed the game experience for them.
I mean, they still let you on the CAC forums after things like Contravoyance and Deus Ex Machina, so... seems like the fantasy is intact.
Shortening "When this creature enters the battlefield" with a word or symbol would allow them to cram more words on cards, so its probably going to happen, as much as I'd not like it myself.
I'm sorry you don't like it. The game necessarily includes both abstract/evocative terminology you have to learn the in-game meaning of ("battlefield", "flying", "library") and things like power and toughness, which use numerical values instead of "weak", "strong" etc. It can't all be abstract "stimulation", as you describe it, because then it's not a game with rules that can be played competitively. But obviously it shouldn't be your IRS spreadsheet thing either.
It's the same for D&D. Some DMs would happily say, "You deal 12 damage to the orc. It's only got 5 hit points left." Others would want to keep those more mechanical aspects of the game away from the players: "Your swing gravely wounds the beleaguered orc." without including any numbers. Magic doesn't really get the option to keep information from players because all players have to be clear on the game state for it to be a game you can play competitively.
The trade-off has to be including what gives the game flavour, while still letting you play it as a game e.g. how many hits could you take from an unblocked creature with 'medium' power? I think players would disagree.
I'd argue that giving designers more space for words on their cards by keywording ETB actually opens up design space - and I've seen some of your wordier efforts in the CCC forum, so hopefully you can appreciate that aspect even if you think it's less flavourful. After all, Magic isn't trying to be an RPG. And mechanically, a keyworded or shorter version of ETB is just as 'interactive' as it was before - at least in the sense that people usually use that word in the context of MTG - you can still respond to the trigger, still blink the creature to get another trigger etc.