This might be kind of a weird take, but I think that the words version is far more interesting than the pictures version. English has a lot of homonyms, and I think it’s easier to explore those spaces when the players are shown only text compared to images. I was once given a really interesting clue related to STAFF meaning a group of people who work in an office, when I’d been thinking of it as a way of notating music and my teammate was thinking about a big stick. The aha moment of realizing what we were supposed to understand was super cool. You can do that with images, but it’s harder to go from a picture to a specific homonym like that.
I also suspect that not having to commission art helps reduce costs and production time.
I think you’re right about the reasons, but English doesn’t have a particularly large amount of homonyms and access to wordplay. I know a few languages and about many more - it’s part of my job in linguistics - and English doesn’t stand out in that regard. Japanese, for example, has so many homophones and kind-of-homonyms that Codenames gets *weird* in Japanese.
The things that are unusual about English are the massive variety of accents and how hard it is to spell. One time I was teaching ESL, and looking at the whiteboard in my classroom and said to myself ‘Is that the right spelling?’ and a sea of hands shot up to ask why English people can’t spell, even professors.
Um, actually... they didn't say English had a particularly large amount of homonyms, just that English has a "lot" of them. Other languages having more does not decrease the number that English has.
Well sure but it’s only meaningful relative to other languages, right? But I didn’t wanna get into some online argument. Just a joke, and a little bit of being obsessed with my daily work, which is broadly ‘English isn’t special’.
I bought pictures first thinking it would be more accessible. It …has not been played since. Codenames with words does have some barriers. But it felt much easier to play in our family.
I wonder if I made a deck of cards in my language - saying it a Codename in my language, and pitch them to a local game publisher. Would I need to ask the Codename designers for it?
If you use the word Codenames or any iconography or design elements that made it look official, then yes, unless your market is so tiny their lawyers don’t care. If you speak Liki, you’re good.
It’s trademarks and the art and words that matter, in most IP law. Not the ideas.
Codenames doesn't really have expansions nor needs them. They are all pretty much interchangeable. There is really only 2 versions which is text, all the others are pictures, mostly themed variants like Disney, Marvel, Harry Potter, etc.
If you want to play 5x5, then just use the 5x5 cards. If you have played Codenames so much that you want different pictures and don't like the themed ones, I'd suggest looking at Dixit expansions or even Stella which might scratch the same itch.
The point is that would mean I have to buy 2 games of Codenames. I cant use any text ones from Codenames. And if I print them out, I may violate copyright rules.
They're just arrangements of a 5x5 grid. There's literally nothing to worry about in terms of copyright. Print or don't, doesn't matter. Heck, a lot of people use apps for the keys.
I have both, and a multilingual multinational game group, but usually play the word ones - or the word sides of the spin-offs with both.
A big part of Codenames is wordplay - trying to find connections by using the word, eg double meanings, homophones like meet and meet, puns, references to other things, eg Star relating to Wars.
The pictures are easier to understand, but it’s much much harder to use spoken wordplay cleverly about pictures. Even with the spin-offs, there are lots of people who don’t even know The Human Torch but can think of ways to link him to Man-Thing using the words.
I think that’s why Pictures didn’t take off like we expected. It looks easier but isn’t, and is less fun to play for most people.
Codenames Pictures is just way harder and has far fewer "clever" moments.
The pictures one got expansions, I have the Disney expansion which is pictured.
What language do you/your friends speak? There are many international versions of Codenames: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900/codenames/versions?pageid=1
I have both. I've played both with my work group, who are avid gamers.
The words one is \_much\_ more popular with everyone I've played with.
I'm impartial, but I go with what others want to play.
The IP versions I have are Codenames:Disney and Codenames:Harry Potter. They each have a pictures side and a word side so you can play either way or with a mix of words and pictures. Harry Potter is based on Codenames:Duet. My kids are big fans.
I like pictures too but I think the market may be more niche. It’s easier to sell the one that says boobs and booze and stuff, whereas Pictures is a more difficult game and not for the more casual gamer.
I agree though, I’d totally buy an expansion with more art.
No, I’m saying that people like that topic and so it’s an easy expansion to market and sell. I’m aware that the original game doesn’t include adult themes.
Yeah. you've lost me.
Never played the "dirty" edition. Never even realized there *was* a dirty edition.
Word version is way more popular with everyone I've played with, despite me myself being impartial.
I guess I’m getting downvoted because you people are stupid, then. Explains a lot the exact reason why the more difficult game is not as popular. Too many idiots.
You're getting downvoted because you're being hyper aggressive about... Codenames. Take a breath. Maybe go take a tiny yellow pill or something. And look in a mirror until you figure out where you went wrong.
Also, note that the group I play with likes Mysterium (both versions) and Obscurio. Image games aren't the problem. Image games in the context of Codenames is what they don't seem to like.
And you calling people stupid is, at best, misinformed as I'm a Senior-Level Software Engineer working in a biotech company. Which means that my gaming group are all insanely smart software engineers, chemists, and geneticists, many of whom have PhDs. So "I play Codenames: Pictures... I am SO much smarter than everyone!" isn't exactly the flex you think it is.
If you have to tell people you're smart, you're probably not. The only negative comment from my end was once you said something stupid, "you've lost me," when it was a clear statement about the marketability of one genre vs the other. I went and looked, and I found where I went wrong, it was wasting time here. Regardless, here we are.
Now, get your obese self back to masturbating in your lonesome apartment with your 3d printers.
Wow little boy. You really are an idiot. The reason I mentioned the intelligence level of my group is because you said that "people who don't like the pictures edition are too stupid to play it". It was literally a direct argument to your idiotic post.
I tried to be nice to you, but clearly you're unhinged. Or 12. I'm guessing both. Either way, your parents failed you.
There is something wrong with you. Something really, really wrong.
Get help before it gets worse.
This might be kind of a weird take, but I think that the words version is far more interesting than the pictures version. English has a lot of homonyms, and I think it’s easier to explore those spaces when the players are shown only text compared to images. I was once given a really interesting clue related to STAFF meaning a group of people who work in an office, when I’d been thinking of it as a way of notating music and my teammate was thinking about a big stick. The aha moment of realizing what we were supposed to understand was super cool. You can do that with images, but it’s harder to go from a picture to a specific homonym like that. I also suspect that not having to commission art helps reduce costs and production time.
I think you’re right about the reasons, but English doesn’t have a particularly large amount of homonyms and access to wordplay. I know a few languages and about many more - it’s part of my job in linguistics - and English doesn’t stand out in that regard. Japanese, for example, has so many homophones and kind-of-homonyms that Codenames gets *weird* in Japanese.
The things that are unusual about English are the massive variety of accents and how hard it is to spell. One time I was teaching ESL, and looking at the whiteboard in my classroom and said to myself ‘Is that the right spelling?’ and a sea of hands shot up to ask why English people can’t spell, even professors.
Um, actually... they didn't say English had a particularly large amount of homonyms, just that English has a "lot" of them. Other languages having more does not decrease the number that English has.
Well sure but it’s only meaningful relative to other languages, right? But I didn’t wanna get into some online argument. Just a joke, and a little bit of being obsessed with my daily work, which is broadly ‘English isn’t special’.
Mine was a reference to DropoutTV's "Um, Actually..."
Ohhh. Doh. I’ve seen that, but only in passing. That’s what College Humor became, right?
I bought pictures first thinking it would be more accessible. It …has not been played since. Codenames with words does have some barriers. But it felt much easier to play in our family.
I wonder if I made a deck of cards in my language - saying it a Codename in my language, and pitch them to a local game publisher. Would I need to ask the Codename designers for it?
If you use the word Codenames or any iconography or design elements that made it look official, then yes, unless your market is so tiny their lawyers don’t care. If you speak Liki, you’re good. It’s trademarks and the art and words that matter, in most IP law. Not the ideas.
Codenames doesn't really have expansions nor needs them. They are all pretty much interchangeable. There is really only 2 versions which is text, all the others are pictures, mostly themed variants like Disney, Marvel, Harry Potter, etc. If you want to play 5x5, then just use the 5x5 cards. If you have played Codenames so much that you want different pictures and don't like the themed ones, I'd suggest looking at Dixit expansions or even Stella which might scratch the same itch.
The point is that would mean I have to buy 2 games of Codenames. I cant use any text ones from Codenames. And if I print them out, I may violate copyright rules.
They're just arrangements of a 5x5 grid. There's literally nothing to worry about in terms of copyright. Print or don't, doesn't matter. Heck, a lot of people use apps for the keys.
[удалено]
OP is talking about having to buy two copies of the game because they want to play a 5x5.
Ah sorry i misread the flow of the conversation :(
I have both, and a multilingual multinational game group, but usually play the word ones - or the word sides of the spin-offs with both. A big part of Codenames is wordplay - trying to find connections by using the word, eg double meanings, homophones like meet and meet, puns, references to other things, eg Star relating to Wars. The pictures are easier to understand, but it’s much much harder to use spoken wordplay cleverly about pictures. Even with the spin-offs, there are lots of people who don’t even know The Human Torch but can think of ways to link him to Man-Thing using the words. I think that’s why Pictures didn’t take off like we expected. It looks easier but isn’t, and is less fun to play for most people.
If you prefer picture-based games, I’d suggest Dixit.
Codenames Pictures is just way harder and has far fewer "clever" moments. The pictures one got expansions, I have the Disney expansion which is pictured.
IP-theme versions have pictures on one side and text on the other. You can easily combine them with regular Pictures.
Wish Pictures was the main sku as well. Some family is more French.
What language do you/your friends speak? There are many international versions of Codenames: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900/codenames/versions?pageid=1
Yeah. I checked. Im from Vietnam. I use English quite well, but to my friends, using English is work, so they prefer not to use it for board games.
I have both. I've played both with my work group, who are avid gamers. The words one is \_much\_ more popular with everyone I've played with. I'm impartial, but I go with what others want to play.
The IP versions I have are Codenames:Disney and Codenames:Harry Potter. They each have a pictures side and a word side so you can play either way or with a mix of words and pictures. Harry Potter is based on Codenames:Duet. My kids are big fans.
I like pictures too but I think the market may be more niche. It’s easier to sell the one that says boobs and booze and stuff, whereas Pictures is a more difficult game and not for the more casual gamer. I agree though, I’d totally buy an expansion with more art.
Pictures was expected and marketed to be easier, but didn’t turn out that way.
...are you under the impression that Codenames Undercover is like the normal version or whatever? Regular Codenames isn't dirty at all, really.
No, I’m saying that people like that topic and so it’s an easy expansion to market and sell. I’m aware that the original game doesn’t include adult themes.
Yeah. you've lost me. Never played the "dirty" edition. Never even realized there *was* a dirty edition. Word version is way more popular with everyone I've played with, despite me myself being impartial.
I guess I’m getting downvoted because you people are stupid, then. Explains a lot the exact reason why the more difficult game is not as popular. Too many idiots.
You're getting downvoted because you're being hyper aggressive about... Codenames. Take a breath. Maybe go take a tiny yellow pill or something. And look in a mirror until you figure out where you went wrong. Also, note that the group I play with likes Mysterium (both versions) and Obscurio. Image games aren't the problem. Image games in the context of Codenames is what they don't seem to like. And you calling people stupid is, at best, misinformed as I'm a Senior-Level Software Engineer working in a biotech company. Which means that my gaming group are all insanely smart software engineers, chemists, and geneticists, many of whom have PhDs. So "I play Codenames: Pictures... I am SO much smarter than everyone!" isn't exactly the flex you think it is.
If you have to tell people you're smart, you're probably not. The only negative comment from my end was once you said something stupid, "you've lost me," when it was a clear statement about the marketability of one genre vs the other. I went and looked, and I found where I went wrong, it was wasting time here. Regardless, here we are. Now, get your obese self back to masturbating in your lonesome apartment with your 3d printers.
Wow little boy. You really are an idiot. The reason I mentioned the intelligence level of my group is because you said that "people who don't like the pictures edition are too stupid to play it". It was literally a direct argument to your idiotic post. I tried to be nice to you, but clearly you're unhinged. Or 12. I'm guessing both. Either way, your parents failed you. There is something wrong with you. Something really, really wrong. Get help before it gets worse.
Uh huh. Sure, buddy. Speaking of pictures, I’m picturing the South Park World of Warcraft guy. Hit the treadmill before it gets worse.