Underground ludonomastics

Read now noted scholar and game designer Nick Montfort’s epic post on the etymology of “Zork.” Nick gives a number of possible origins for the word; here’s my favorite:

The letters [on a Belgian keyboard] are laid out just as they are on a French typewriter, in the AZERTY scheme. As you can see, if you’ve learned to type the word “WORK” on a typewriter like this, and someone then substitutes a British (or US) typewriter without your noticing, and you then try to type that word without looking at the keys, you’ll type “ZORK.”

Other possible origins include the ubiquitous TMRC jargon and a Lin Carter novel.

Nick frames his research as etymology (the study of word origins) but it’s also a work of onomastics—the study of how things get named. Specifically, it’s ludonomastics (to coin a term): the study of how games get named. Leonard Richardson wrote a series of blog posts entitled “How Game Titles Work”, which, as far as I’m concerned, is the founding document of the field, and should be required reading for anyone interested in studying games.

You may also be interested to read an interview with Nick Montfort concerning interactive ficiton, and in particular his book Twisty Little Passages (which is highly recommended).

—Adam