Why is WotC Changing the Terminology, Again?
General forum
Posted on Feb. 24, 2024, 4:46 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
It appears that, in Bloomburrow, WotC shall be shortening "enters the battlefield" to "enters," but I do not understand why they are doing that; how much space on each card will they save by doing that? This is similar to how they shortened "add to your mana pool" to simply "add ;" does this mean that the term "battlefield" shall no longer exist in the game's terminology?
What does everyone else say about this? Why is WotC changing the game's terminology, again?
DemonDragonJ says... #3
legendofa, I suppose that that makes sense, but does WotC seriously think that their players are unable to read verbose cards?
Actually, that reminds me of how "target player discards a card from their hand" was shortened to "target player discards a card," so I imagine that this is a similar situation.
Also, I know that WotC has already explained this, but why was the term "mana pool" removed from the game's terminology?
February 24, 2024 7:03 p.m.
As I see it, it's less about the players' ability to get through a verbose card, and more about text clarity and conciseness. Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick? (Never seen the show, only know it through meme osmosis.)
There's no functional difference between "Add to your mana pool." and "Add ." The phrase "unspent mana" also got introduced--compare Kruphix, God of Horizons to Horizon Stone. Clearing out jargon and tightening stock phrases help keep the game accessible and allow more complexity when they want to add it.
February 24, 2024 7:12 p.m.
wallisface says... #5
The simple answer is that games evolve over time. And games shouldn't be shackled to potential wording-mistakes of their past. Wotc have deemed that this is a text-improvement for cards, and considering how much text is on cards these days, simplifying even small sentences counts.
February 24, 2024 7:15 p.m.
With just about every set being the wordiest set in Magic history and the conventions of Magic design meaning that everything must be verbosely written out with almost no condensing of information, I'm fine with them trying to reasonably shave on words. For example, Marvel Snap makes cards much less wordy by phrasing the ETB equivalent as just "On Reveal: ___" rather than having to reiterate the name of the card.
They used to have to tell you that abilities happened when a thing went to the graveyard, now they just say "dies."
February 24, 2024 9:33 p.m.
Last_Laugh says... #7
They'll save 14 characters worth of space (per etb effect) on a card to fill that card with even more words lol. Power creep is real.
February 25, 2024 3:38 p.m.
I guess it could help with some things like sagas that can get a little crowded, but if it's really just to combat cards being wordy, then I have to say that it's a pretty bad answer. Maybe it's just me, but I think that most players don't dislike the literal number of words on cards, but how many effects something has. I don't know how many times I forget that Questing Beast has vigilance, or that Urza, Lord High Artificer creates a token, and these are the first things in the text. It's not a problem of words, it's a problem of, this card does X insane things, and sometimes you forget that for some reason it does more too.
I mean, these phrases may not be necessary really, but if they are cutting clarification to make space for more effects per card and make gamestates harder and harder to keep track of, then yeah, it's a pretty tonedeaf change.
February 25, 2024 10:06 p.m.
They could just bring back "comes into play" to go along with the retro frames they're playing with again.
February 25, 2024 10:42 p.m.
Last_Laugh is 100% right. This is being done so they can add more words to the cards. It's technically not needed, but reads weird because in english most of the time the word "enters" is used it is followed up by a description of what is being entered.
February 27, 2024 11:29 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #11
Do we... want more text on cards? [laughing/grimacing]
February 27, 2024 11:46 a.m.
Last_Laugh says... #12
FormOverFunction probably not, but after 30 years of them designing cards I'm sure they've got random cards out the wazoo that wouldn't quite fit on a card that now work. We're also pretty jaded as a community and the power/complexity creep is probably pretty necessary to have a set sell well nowadays (otherwise I'm buying singles) and ultimately all these decisions are profit driven.
February 27, 2024 11:55 a.m.
Crow_Umbra says... #13
"Milling" wasn't an official keyword for years, but was a colloquialism most players were familiar with from Millstone. "Mill" becoming a keyword in recent years I think is along the same lines of saving space where possible.
There's various different examples of game text changing & being updated for stuff like clarity, conciseness, and tone. We don't "bury" creatures or permanents anymore. Pretty sure "remove from the game" simply became "exile" at some point.
February 27, 2024 12:13 p.m.
Crow_Umbra I'm not against them making a change to the wording, but I disagree with how they've gone about this. While technically correct grammar, "enters" is almost always followed up by some sort of descriptor. What would have been better in my book is if they treated it more like landfall. If a card has an etb effect it would be easy enough to template that with "Enters -" and then a description of the etb effect. I think that would read more naturally and be more understandable.
February 27, 2024 3:59 p.m.
Crow_Umbra says... #15
That templating would be kind of cool Abaques. Too bad Emerge is already a keyword, as it could have been used for "Enters - " as you suggested.
With the timetable that WotC typically operates on, in terms of designing sets about 2-3 years before they hit store shelves, I wonder if in the next few years we will see a more definitive keyword for "Enters - ", kind of like how "Mills" was adopted from player vocabulary to keyword.
February 27, 2024 5:02 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #16
Waiting for “ETB” to get the same treatment as “mill”.... it’s what we’ve said for years now...
February 27, 2024 8:32 p.m.
To make whiners whine. Also... Why are people upset over this?
legendofa says... #2
The term "battlefield" also is included in "put onto the battlefield" (Aether Vial, I don't see this one changing), "return to the battlefield" (Not Dead After All, changing this would cause confusion with "return to hand" effects), "each ____ on the battlefield" (Ancestral Mask, this probably could change without too many problems), "from the battlefield" (Ashiok's Reaper, I don't think "dies" is going to become universal, and the starting zone jas to be defined), and probably several others, so "battlefield" as a zone and rules term isn't going anywhere.
It's being shortened probably because there's only one game zone that is "entered." There's no cards that refer to entering the graveyard or entering your hand, so there's little risk of ambiguity. And card texts are becoming longer, so clearing out some of the clutter isn't necessarily a bad thing.
February 24, 2024 6:35 p.m.