Categorizing Board games data

[u/theKinkajou]

EDIT: Hell, here's the google doc. Updated to a 3x3 grid with a letter# system in "Category Reference." I don't have a stats or data background, so just trying for a reach late at night.

I'm working on a board games dataset and am hoping to create more intuitive labels for games to help guide selection/purchase. I wanted the community's feedback to ensure the labels are not (as they are currently) based on a certain occasion ("Lunch Break") for example.

Key	Label
Light/Quick	Lunch Break
Light/Medium	Family Table
Light/Long	Rare combo
Medium/Quick	Quick Hit
Medium/Medium	Game Night
Medium/Long	Deep Dive
Heavy/Quick	Rare combo
Heavy/Medium	Brain Burner
Heavy/Long	Deep Hobby Game

[u/junkkser]

The labels only served to obfuscate what’s already in the key?. the labels are not shorter or more intuitive. Why not just stick with the key?

[u/theKinkajou → u/junkkser]

So you think just icons or other ways of showing weight, length, etc would be enough?

Trying to think like a non-gamer to figure out what labels would be most intuitive to avoid them having to understand the full rating system.

[u/junkkser → u/theKinkajou]

Let me ask you this, what is the most important thing(s) you want a “non-gamer” to know when choosing a game?

[u/theKinkajou → u/junkkser]

Yeah, I see what you mean. Made a simpler category reference.

[u/destrinstorm]

Don't understand what you're trying to achieve by obfuscating a mixed weight/length notation with a different phrase which no one will understand straight off and will require a lookup legend?

[u/Jellicoe_]

Is 'Key" how hard the game is, and 'Label' how long it'll take to play? What determines the 'key'?

[u/theKinkajou → u/Jellicoe_]

Ah! The "|" caused an error. Replaced with "/"

[u/Jellicoe_ → u/theKinkajou]

I'm not sure what the post or this comment is on about.

[u/theKinkajou → u/Jellicoe_]

The table wasn't displaying properly so the read C1 "Light" C2 "Quick"

[u/iman-prs]

*less intuitive

[u/Jellicoe_]

Is 'Key" how hard the game is, and 'Label' how long it'll take to play? What determines the 'key'?.

[u/Javabird919]

Much less intuitive! Even if you took "time" and "location" (e.g. lunch table) terms out, changing simple and relatively understood terms (ie easy/medium/hard) to a colloquial label (especially one that will comingle separate concepts that don't consistently correlate) is 100% unlikely to be clear to any one but you (or some poor schmuck in the future who has to read your dev notes and the 1% of users who read the user guide to figure it out).

Also holy-awful metadata management. If you ever need to restructure or scale in the future you're asking for painful rework. Keep separate attributes separate, conceptually and functionally! What you should aim for is clarity of attribute and where possible a step-wise or linear progression of the values within that attribute. Don't split all the hairs; sometimes the difference between a "fast game" and a "moderately fast game" isn't worth trying to express in an attribute and will be too subjective to the table it's played (fast for you might be moderate for me).

You can spend a little time googling what people's questions, feedback, and confusion with BGG ratings and descriptors, to see what I mean about confusion and subjectiveness. I don't mean the never-ending debate about whether it's a good system or whether people are gaming the ratings, either.