Re: [spoon-discuss] A name for... things

[Daniel Lepage <dplepage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday, April 9, 2003, at 04:17  PM, Orc In A Spacesuit wrote:

> We have many things in the ruleset.  Players.  Gremlins.  Societies.  
> Entities.  Objects.  The Yeti.  Etc.  One thing that would help with 
> standardization would be a term that could be used for "Anything that 
> acts on its own/does stuff/performs actions".  This would include 
> players and gremlins and societies and such.  And an adjective to put 
> out front would be good, to show those that are on the grid.
>
> I have searched long for such a term.  In the Uber, I defined "entity" 
> as having that meaning.  But I have found a term that may be better, 
> whether in the Uber or not:
>
> Volitional.
>
> That means, roughly, "acts of its own volition".  A definition I found 
> elsewhere, is: "An object that has the ability to move, and/or talk. 
> Usually it refers to humans, and other sentient and sub-sentient 
> races, but it could also refer to a talking statue or a walking 
> enchanted table."
>
> So... it's a long word, but considerably shorter than "player, 
> gremlins, the Yeti, Barney..." etc lists all over the ruleset, list 
> that will have to change every time a new type of volitional pops up, 
> if they don't use a standardized term.
>
> What do you think?  Should we define certain kinds of things to be 
> "Volitional"?

I tried to define such objects as 'entities' once, and that got shot 
down. But if you'd like to try, go ahead. I'll vote for it.

--
Wonko

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