>I think radio is in fact the most common term in the UK. Wireless
>certainly and tranny to a lesser extent have a rather archaic feel.
Hm. Tranny... I spent my early childhood in the UK and have no
recollection of the word "tranny". Wireless I only remember coming
across in books - it was always "radio" for me. I remember the term
confusing me no end, as all the radios I'd seen were quite full of
wires - not least of which being the wire that plugged into the mains.
("power" for Americans.)
The whole question of English vs American terminology is something I
find very interesting, as someone who has lived in both countries and
now resides in Canada. My game in perpetual progress deals with this,
to an extent. Here in Canada most vocabulary is basically American,
but spelling is often UK English for certain words. (though not for
others - we're an inconsistent lot, I suppose. Colonized culturally
first by Brits and now by Americans...)
In any event, I sort of feel it doesn't matter much, as long as
potentially confusing things are explained (not too obstrusively) in
context. And as long as the game accepts a sizeable school of
synonyms. My game, for instance, accepts "garbage can" (Canada and
US), "trash can" (US), and "dustbin" (UK). Likewise words like
colour/color, centre/center, etc.
The difficulty comes into culturally-specific questions. As someone
pointed out, not everyone in the US knows what an airing cupboard or a
dumbwaiter are. Likewise the diamond maze in Zork I is completely
mystifying to non-Americans. (or non-Japanese ;) How do you deal with
things like this? I have at least one puzzle that I'm concerned might
be tricky for non North Americans as it relies on certain things
concerning the phone system. Asking the player where he or she is from
seems unnecessarily clumsy. Maybe a little hook that reads the
latitude and longitude of the player's location, for computers that
store such information? :)
- Neil K.
-- 49N 16' 123W 7' / Vancouver, BC, Canada / n_k_guy@sfu.ca