I've created a simple business-themed trading game prototype that has 3 different resources in it. I'm currently representing each resource with different colored wooden cubes: Red, White, and Blue. Mechanically, the three resources are exactly the same. In playtesting, I have introduced the resources by color name, and, when players are making trades, they make offers such as "I'll give you 1 red for 1 white." I have considered and some playtesters have suggested naming the resources to be actual businessy things (e.g. have a black cube that's called "oil"). I'm hesitant to make the switch. There seems to be a trade-off of simplicity vs. immersion.
Advantages to Naming by Color: Ease of play. When I want to trade away some red cubes, I immediately understand what to call them: "Red." No confusing jargon to remember.
Advantage to Naming by Theme: More immersion. When I make my trades, I feel like I'm an actual businessman because I'm trading actually valuable resources (e.g. "Oil").
One additional factor in this quandary is component-based. Lets say I go for naming by theme. Do I still use wooden cubes, or do I design tokens to represent the resources? I intend to eventually publish this game on the Gamecrafter. Wooden cubes may be more cost effective, but specially designed tokens may be easier to identify.
Thanks. Good point. I did not consider that. Now I'm trying to think of the best names for each resource. The challenge now: thinking of resources that sound equal in value; all three are the same mechanically, so I can't have one sound more valuable than another. Most resource games don't have this problem; in most,the resources are mechanically different and the resource name implies something about those unique mechanics (e.g. Iron makes metal things because that's how the real world works).
That brings me to another effect of naming by color: color names imply equality. How can I effectively imply equality using more thematic resource names?
Resources I can think of now that could work with the big business theme: Oil, tobacco, corn, weapons, clothing, electronics. Doing a combination of three of those could work, but I'm somewhat tempted to make the game about businessmen trading different colored dyes just because it makes implying equality with naming easier. Not sure if the absurdity of that is a good thing or a bad thing.