I'm Gonna Say It

[Bufo]

Illwinter Games,

Please release Trade and Taint, it would be magical. I know concerns have been raised about its ability to be sold but many fans like myself would like to see what you all have been hiding! Love you guys, would be willing to participate in crowdfunded development. Thanks for all you do.

Respectfully Yours,
-Buford

[Polochon]

I have to say I'm also looking forward to play Trade and Taint. Having some infos about its development would be great, or at least knowing if it will ever be available to play or not. It sounds like a very ambitious project and it might feel like the game will be forever unfinished, but I don't mind playing an unfinished game if it's already fun.

I'm also willing to participe in a crowdfunding, or paying for an alpha/beta/ early access. It's quite common nowadays.

[Emphyrio]

The title should change as "taint" is a dirty slang word.

[Perro Grande]

Originally posted by Emphyrio 👌:

The title should change as "taint" is a dirty slang word.

Definition of taint (Entry 1 of 2)
transitive verb

1: to contaminate morally : CORRUPT
scholarship tainted by envy
2: to affect with putrefaction : SPOIL
3: to touch or affect slightly with something bad
persons tainted with prejudice

[✏pencils✏]

I would really love to see this game as well, or any Illwinter project :).

[Emphyrio]

Originally posted by < blank >:

Originally posted by Emphyrio 👌:

The title should change as "taint" is a dirty slang word.

Definition of taint (Entry 1 of 2)
transitive verb

1: to contaminate morally : CORRUPT
scholarship tainted by envy
2: to affect with putrefaction : SPOIL
3: to touch or affect slightly with something bad
persons tainted with prejudice

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=taint

[Eerywax]

Urbandictionary overrides and erases all other meanings. Resistance is futile.

[Perro Grande]

Originally posted by Emphyrio 👌:

Originally posted by < blank >:

Definition of taint (Entry 1 of 2)
transitive verb

1: to contaminate morally : CORRUPT
scholarship tainted by envy
2: to affect with putrefaction : SPOIL
3: to touch or affect slightly with something bad
persons tainted with prejudice

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=taint

Ah yes 3035 random people on the internet make up the definitions of words now... Yes I am sure as a society we all agreed to this and this is how it is you are right, my bad, anything on urban dictionary is bad and cannot be used for naming.

[Althaea]

Dictionaries are descriptive works, not prescriptive ones. In other words, they describe language rather than define it: defining languages, when it happens, tends to involve considerable effort on the part of a particular nation-state. Language and terminology evolves constantly over time and it can take time for dictionaries to update themselves accordingly. Moreover, dictionaries may have limited scopes: they might exclude casual language or slang entirely, or devoted to one particular dialect or another.

I'd strongly recommend against picking fights over something so arbitrary. I'd strongly recommend against picking fights generally, but especially in this case.

The use of the word "taint" as slang is well attested, but that doesn't necessarily make it unsuitable for the title of a video game. There's a fairly large collection of everyday words used as sexual slang in some part of the world or another.

Those who giggle at the name will do so. Those who don't, won't. That's really all there is to it. If y'all would get back on topic now, please, I'd appreciate it.

[Bufo]

Originally posted by Althaea:

Dictionaries are descriptive works, not prescriptive ones. In other words, they describe language rather than define it: defining languages, when it happens, tends to involve considerable effort on the part of a particular nation-state. Language and terminology evolves constantly over time and it can take time for dictionaries to update themselves accordingly. Moreover, dictionaries may have limited scopes: they might exclude casual language or slang entirely, or devoted to one particular dialect or another.

I'd strongly recommend against picking fights over something so arbitrary. I'd strongly recommend against picking fights generally, but especially in this case.

The use of the word "taint" as slang is well attested, but that doesn't necessarily make it unsuitable for the title of a video game. There's a fairly large collection of everyday words used as sexual slang in some part of the world or another.

Those who giggle at the name will do so. Those who don't, won't. That's really all there is to it. If y'all would get back on topic now, please, I'd appreciate it.

You seem to have an idea of whats going on in Illwinter world. Do you believe there is any hope of TaT being released? Don't want to beat a dead horse.

[Parasol]

Side note...

Originally posted by Althaea:

defining languages, when it happens, tends to involve considerable effort on the part of a particular nation-state

From there it seems like a language would only truely become a language when a nation-state says so, which imply a very institutional definition of what a language is. I would say a language is a cultural product and can live without institutions, even if states and instutions can certainly have a serious impact. I might be wrong, but it seems to me that the actions of nation-states were generally about suppressing any linguistic diversity to accomplish the homogeneity the ruling classes desire, by selecting a language : in that way, I agree, nation-states certainly tend to define what is the "elected" language.

[Bufo]

Honestly I think the name is pretty alright, gets right to the point and the abbreviation TaT is iconic enough to be recognized within the community.

[Kamiyama]

The urban slang exists alongside the accepted dictionary definition, like all slang does.

You can't just say "this is what this word means now" when there is hundreds of years of books that have been using that word completely differently all this time.

Slang is often temporary. 50 years ago our grandparents used different slang words than what teenagers are using today. Trying to use the same slang in conversation would just cause confusion. Imagine Al Capone trying to hussle a modern day New Yorker. They might get some of it, but it would be laughable.

The dictionary definition has lasted hundreds of years and will likely continue to last hundreds of years still.

[freek_o_nature]

Originally posted by Althaea:

Dictionaries are descriptive works, not prescriptive ones. etc. etc.

I know it's a bit butt-kissy, and that I'm not exactly a model poster anyway, but I really do appreciate the quality of your comments; I just like how well-thought-out they tend to be. If I could now remove my face from your posterior, I'd like to ask, since

Originally posted by Bufo:

You seem to have an idea of whats going on in Illwinter world

is it possible that there's a linguistic quirk at work between English slang and Swedish? I don't know what languages the devs speak, I only Googled that Illwinter's head office is in Sweden, but I know that English slang can sometimes evade non-native English speakers—I mean, I'm sure they have words in Swedish for those "alternative definitions," I'm just curious if maybe an English slang word like "taint" represents something that they'd know as a wholly different word, even as another slang word. (Not to derail, but my English nana always called her cat "♥♥♥♥♥," even when we giggled like Hell about it, just as an example...EDIT: Haha I can't even write it on Steam, I forgot about that, plz no ban)

P.S. I'd still buy it!

[Bufo]

This is not how I envisioned this discussion going

[Althaea]

Originally posted by Bufo:

You seem to have an idea of whats going on in Illwinter world. Do you believe there is any hope of TaT being released? Don't want to beat a dead horse.

I don't want to second-guess J&K too much. I don't think it's impossible that we'll get a TaT release at some point, but probably not anytime soon.

Originally posted by freek_o_nature:

is it possible that there's a linguistic quirk at work between English slang and Swedish? I don't know what languages the devs speak, I only Googled that Illwinter's head office is in Sweden, but I know that English slang can sometimes evade non-native English speakers—I mean, I'm sure they have words in Swedish for those "alternative definitions," I'm just curious if maybe an English slang word like "taint" represents something that they'd know as a wholly different word, even as another slang word.

Swedish people, as a rule, have next-to-native levels of fluency with English. The only real error I've seen Illwinter make is to coin the term "pikeneer" by assuming that was the proper translation of "pikenerare". Of course, last I checked, the Hoburg Pikeneer page of the Conquest of Elysium 4 fandom wiki was the highest result on Google.

I just don't think it's considered a big deal. The use of the word Taint comes from being alliteration with "trade" and also from the same word they've used for at least twenty years to describe the influence of Horrors.