Version "L" of Language Hunt game set

[Willem Larsen]

Hello All,

This version has a new section on sign and gesture.

It also has some corrected typos, and a new cover.

Expect a demo video sometime late next week. Thanks everyone-

yrs,
Willem

[Joel Thomas]

This is cool. It seems like a good way of giving the whole process some structure and consistency so we always have an answer to the dreaded question of "So what do we do now?" It must have been a lot of hard work, so thank you!

There were a couple of things that struck me, though. I know you welcome feedback but still I hope you don't mind:

How does it work if the Game Leader is not the Language Guide? Is the Game Leader supposed to "hunt" the next piece from the Language Guide so as not to kill fairies?

The Free Play moves are interesting. Most of them are hilarious and I particularly laughed out loud at "Distracted by Dinosaur". But I'm not sure what the idea is behind "Sign only", and especially not "Say it in gibberish".

Is this a hunting game or a follow-the-leader game? Maybe I'm missing something but the two seem to be mutually exclusive. I'd always understood "language hunting" to refer to the art of extracting language from a Language Guide (fka Fluent Fool). But the players in this game are being served up whatever is given them by the Game Leader and Language Guide, who are ideally one and the same person. So, where's the hunt exactly?

I know you want to keep the Language Hunters name, so I wonder if you might consider fleshing out the analogy a little. For example instead of a Game Leader and Players you could have the Chief Hunter and the Hunting Party. You could say that the Chief "spots" or "tracks" a bite-sized piece which is then "hunted down" until all in the Hunting Party have "digested" it. Then it becomes a little clearer what you mean in Guideline 9 (page 8) when you say that the goal is to become a Language Hunter: this actually means learning how to be a Game Leader/Chief Hunter, right?

[Willem Larsen]

Joel,

The follow-the-leader game is basically a series of codified hunts
meant to serve as exemplars of good language hunting - players can
then use them to pull language out of live speakers later in other
contexts. Additionally, mini-hunts are naturally happening on the
side, here and there, because of the immersion rounds and ban on
translating - folks are figuring out how to hunt the language they
want by using the form of play they've been experiencing.

The game also takes you far enough into the landscape of the language
that at some point you get to "take-off" speed - you start doing hunts
naturally outside of play, because you have a visceral sense of what
it feels like.

You can also divide up the roles of game leader and language
guide/fluent speaker into two people, therefore creating a needs gap
for hunting language, and run play that way, but it takes more
experience as a game leader.

Therefore, the current version of this game is aimed at someone in the
easiest position - both roles, fluent speaker and game leader, in the
same person. It's just simpler to transmit the idea of play in this
context over the internet, and in a booklet.

Once you've played through a language you already have, it's very easy
to transition to playing through a language you're hunting from a
fluent speaker.

Does this answer this part of your question?

Free Play move "Sign Only" means without voice, just hand signs. I'll
clear that up in the booklet. "Say it in gibberish" means say it, but
replace "yabba dabba ishka goo goo" etc. for the actual language. Keep
the meter, etc.

As far as fleshing out the language hunting analogy by using titles
like "chief hunter", "hunting party", etc., you know, I've played with
that in the past and it has never sat right with me.

I use "Hunting" to mean an exploratory kind of inquiry - which
honestly is a great English metaphor, but rarely translates well. In
Irish we use a word that might translate as "seeking". In ASL
"looking-looking".

Thanks for your questions -

yrs,
Willem

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[Joel Thomas]

Hi Willem,

Thanks for your lengthy explanation. All the best with your Irish immersion weekend, by the way.

Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to meddle, I'm just sharing my first impressions for you to do what you want with them. I know I always need first impressions.

I get that Hunting means "an exploratory kind of enquiry", I was just saying that reading the booklet it wasn't immediately clear to me where the "hunt" is when the Game Leader is just serving everything up for the players to practice. You don't talk about mini-hunts in the booklet, so as a first-time reader I suppose I should see the "hunt" in the point at which bite-sized pieces are introduced. My suggestions about calling the players a Hunting Party and so on was just an idea for making things clearer. By the same token you could just draw attention to the moment when the new piece is introduced or found as the "hunting moment" or "the essence of hunting" or whatever works with your concept. Maybe it's just me, but I would have needed some sort of clarification.

The biggest gaffe I made in my initial foray into WAYK/LH was to say "Now I'm going to say 'What is that?' and you're going to say 'It's a cup'" etc etc because I thought letting fairies live meant not explaining grammar. Maybe it's just me who's slow, but not explaining things is so counter-intuitive that for complete initiates I think the connection between the concepts of "Keep it Obvious" and Guideline 7 "No Killing Fairies" could be made clearer, and perhaps later on there could be more explicit reminders not to kill fairies when "hunting" or providing a new bite-sized piece. But, again, maybe that's just me.

As I say, take all of this with a huge pinch of salt. Maybe I should have held fire on the constructive criticism, I know it can be annoying sometimes. It looks like a great concept and I look forward to seeing whatever videos you take over the weekend, wink wink :)