{"id":11606,"date":"2009-06-24T11:42:13","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T09:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/blog\/?p=102"},"modified":"2009-06-24T11:42:13","modified_gmt":"2009-06-24T09:42:13","slug":"game-research-pottery-writing-alphabet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/24\/game-research-pottery-writing-alphabet\/","title":{"rendered":"Game research : pottery, writing, alphabet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have a few more words to add to the yesterday’s post “History of the world through a game<\/a>“.\u00a0 Something that bothered me in several games, but something that never annoyed me enough to look up or express – the connection between pottery, writing, and alphabet.<\/p>\n

\"Pottery,<\/a>
Pottery, writing, alphabet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First of all, why is pottery a required research before writing and alphabet?\u00a0 They seem to have nothing in common.\u00a0 But yet in many history-related strategy games it is so.\u00a0 I never thought much about it, but it just felt wrong.\u00a0 Until today, when I was speaking about this with my wife and she mentioned pottery shards.\u00a0 I’ve heard about them a few times, but never associated pottery with writing.\u00a0 Here is a quote from the almighty Wikipedia<\/a> for you:<\/p>\n

Unglazed pottery shards were used almost as a kind of scratch paper, as ostraka, for tax receipts and, in Athens, to record the individual nominations of Greek leaders for ostracism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This one is clear and out of the way.<\/p>\n

The second thing that bothers me always is the order of research for writing and alphabet.\u00a0 In my silly head, you need the alphabet to write.\u00a0 Alphabet is what separates writing from drawing.\u00a0 Here is the Wikipedia definition of “writing”<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols (known as a writing system). It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as magnetic tape audio.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here is the Wikipedia definition of “alphabet”<\/a>:<\/p>\n

An alphabet is a standardized set of letters \u2014 basic written symbols \u2014 each of which roughly represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which one comes first – alphabet or writing?\u00a0 I don’t know, but it seems that the alphabet is a required research for writing and not the other way around.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

I have a few more words to add to the yesterday’s post “History of the world through a game“.\u00a0 Something that bothered me in several games, but something that never annoyed me enough to look up or express – the connection between pottery, writing, and alphabet. First of all, why is pottery a required research … Continue reading Game research : pottery, writing, alphabet<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,11,62],"tags":[],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-11606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-games","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28530,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2018\/04\/27\/kazakhstan-is-changing-its-alphabet-from-cyrillic-to-latin-based-style-favored-by-the-west\/","url_meta":{"origin":11606,"position":0},"title":"Kazakhstan Is Changing Its Alphabet From Cyrillic To Latin-Based Style Favored By the West","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"April 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"If you think you've ever been involved in a huge and complex project, think again.\u00a0 Slashdot runs the story:\u00a0Kazakhstan Is Changing Its Alphabet From Cyrillic To Latin-Based Style Favored By the West. 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