So what's the deal with everyone bothered by fiddliness in games? No really!? Most games have stuff you have to mess around with - pieces all over the board, drawing tiles or bits, etc. And, honestly, I'm sort of tired of hearing about games being 'too fiddly'. I love fiddly!
Well, I thought I did. But then I wondered: what exactly is 'fiddly'? Once I started looking into it, everyone seemed to think 'fiddly' means something different. And, often, 'fiddly' seems to be associated with something 'bad' in relation to evaluating and describing games although I didn't really see that at all.
If I'm going to be writing more game reviews, I really want to make sure what I'm saying comes across clearly without ambiguity. And, although I like the word fiddly quite a bit (because to me it means a game has lots of bits that you might have to move around a lot) it seems there is too much confusion in it's usage.
So, my first stop was the dictionary (well, several online dictionaries rather). Here are some 'official' definitions I found:
FIDDLY
- Small and awkward to do or handle (www.dictionary.com)
- Requiring dexterity to operate (www.wiktionary.com)
- Requiring close attention to detail : fussy; especially : requiring an annoying amount of close attention (www.merriam-webster.com)
- Difficult and annoying because you have to make small complicated movements with your fingers (www.macmillandictionary.com)
- Difficult to do, especially because you have to deal with very small objects (www.ldoceonline.com)
- صعب (www.almaany.com - arabic)
- Requiring dexterity to operate (www.allwords.com)
- U.K.: tricky to do; difficult to do, handle, or use, usually because intricate work with the hands or small objects are involved (encarta.msn.com)
- Nitpicky, detailed, fine, small, repetitive, possibly boring. Usually used in reference to a task. (www.urbandictionary.com)
- Complicated or detailed and awkward to do or use (oxforddictionaries.com)