Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Lite
If there is one thing (there are more(the use of parenthesis are not one of them)) that sets me off in a post or blog it is the use of LITE to describe a game. San Juan is Puerto Rico-Lite. Railroad Tycoon is Age of Steam-Lite.
The use of Lite is lazy. Comparisons themselves are overused but they are useful to a point. Comparisons help establish similarities between two items and provide a point of reference for the conversation, but the use of the term Lite is disingenuous and lazy.
Lite can be defined as having less substance or weight or fewer calories. I haven't done a nutritional analasis of San Juan and Puerto Rico but I'm guessing that San Juan does have less calories than Puerto Rico.
I suppose my main complaint is that San Juan is a great game unto itself. There are more than a handful of people who played San Juan without first playing Puerto Rico who greatly enjoyed the game. Liking one does not dictate the other.
Now if San Juan were simply a stripped down version of Puerto Rico then perhaps the Lite moniker would be justified. But it is not. It borrows some mechanisms and theme from Puerto Rico, but also has additional components and mechanisms.
I haven't yet played Railroad Tycoon, but by most accounts it is the same situation. Some mechanics remain the same, others are missing and still more are added.
Stop using Lite because you are lazy. Give us a fair and informative critique.
And don't get me started about why people call The Chronicles of Narnia movie Harry Potter Lite.
The use of Lite is lazy. Comparisons themselves are overused but they are useful to a point. Comparisons help establish similarities between two items and provide a point of reference for the conversation, but the use of the term Lite is disingenuous and lazy.
Lite can be defined as having less substance or weight or fewer calories. I haven't done a nutritional analasis of San Juan and Puerto Rico but I'm guessing that San Juan does have less calories than Puerto Rico.
I suppose my main complaint is that San Juan is a great game unto itself. There are more than a handful of people who played San Juan without first playing Puerto Rico who greatly enjoyed the game. Liking one does not dictate the other.
Now if San Juan were simply a stripped down version of Puerto Rico then perhaps the Lite moniker would be justified. But it is not. It borrows some mechanisms and theme from Puerto Rico, but also has additional components and mechanisms.
I haven't yet played Railroad Tycoon, but by most accounts it is the same situation. Some mechanics remain the same, others are missing and still more are added.
Stop using Lite because you are lazy. Give us a fair and informative critique.
And don't get me started about why people call The Chronicles of Narnia movie Harry Potter Lite.
