IconBuffet | Blog Forum | Request for Your Glorious Feedback (PackRat)

Request for Your Glorious Feedback (PackRat)

Quick question here for the group... PackRat (our new game) has an in-game currency much like IconBuffet's tokens. In fact, in order to keep a handful of similarities between the two, we originally called the currency in PackRat "tokens" as well.

Then we began to wonder if tokens was the best word to use. Maybe we should make up a currency name (risky). Maybe we should go all World of Warcraft and call it gold (boring). We even considered borrowing a real currency name (Pesos) because it sounds kinda fun. However we want to avoid the misconception that this currency is actually worth *real* money — because its not.

So now we're thinking of settling back on "tokens" again. Whaddaya think? You all like tokens? Talks amongst yourselves.

Posted by josh on Jan 15, 2008 in News | 52 comments

bkendall on Jan 15, 2008

tokens make sense particularly if you are hoping on a large portion of the players to come from IB.

robbyrice on Jan 15, 2008

tokens does make sense, but at the same time you wouldn't want people thinking that the tokens they get in PackRat could be used on IconBuffet. There might be some people who would get this idea because the name is the same and the game is from the same guys how do IB. Just my thoughts.

josh on Jan 15, 2008

Yeah, there definitely isn't an overlap in token use from IB to PackRat — and we've certainly thought of that. However, the word does work well.

robbyrice on Jan 15, 2008

I'm all for using the word "token", but I'm wondering if we (the community) could come up with a word that is better suited.

Nice on Jan 15, 2008

how about kento? or nekot? or tarkcap?

Nice on Jan 15, 2008

btw, nekot sounds like neko(=cat in japanese) :P

I think the same "tokens" may be confusing

bkendall on Jan 15, 2008

Credits are a popular form of fictional curreny...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_currencies

nickpixel on Jan 15, 2008

I don't know if it's already being used for anything in the game or not but a word that makes me think of both money and rats is cheese. Of course, cheddar is used more often these days (as in the Royce da 5'9" lyric, "I'm just sellin my game, for cheddar forever, My intelligent brain, is clever when spellin my name") but I think the slang use of both is fairly well known.

travisseitler on Jan 15, 2008

FWIW, credits and cheddar both have my vote!

thisisit3 on Jan 15, 2008

maybe slightly off-topic, but can someone send me the PackRat icon set? :D

eclipse115 on Jan 15, 2008

I think tokens might confuse some people. Coins could be an option. Cheddar sound cool and is very themey but not sure how pluralization works out.

soprano on Jan 15, 2008

What about "yen"?

rossanyl on Jan 15, 2008

I like the "cheese" or "cheddar", flow with the theme there. "Credit" I don't like because it is too associated with real money. No problem for me to use "token".

What about "chip" ?
It is an other name for token and everybody know that "chip" is used in games and usually worth nothing.

dyar on Jan 15, 2008

Chips works. They could even come in denominations and iconic stacks representing your stash.

Whatever you decide on lets not delay the game to implement it, unless of course it's going to be delayed further anyhow.

eclipse115 on Jan 15, 2008

ooooHHHH I like chips .. . and since they are Rats maybe they would represent Potato chips the ultimate Rat currency ;)

helloiamjules on Jan 15, 2008

when i think of "packrat" currency i think of bits. bits of cheese or bits like what was once a kind of currency? kind of a double meaning, eh?

helloiamjules on Jan 15, 2008

oh and for the "token" or bit icon i think of lumps of cheese, kinda like the same look as the gold from the goldminer game if you ever played that lol.

JBVisions on Jan 15, 2008

Doubloons?

louiemctool on Jan 15, 2008

i like cheddar!

wait, what were we talking about?

whazzat? PackRat? what's that?

...

oh...

still like cheddar...

Moirethe on Jan 15, 2008

How about quesos. It's spanish for cheese and sounds like pesos???

Classicsmiley on Jan 15, 2008

How about coins?

Darkneo on Jan 15, 2008

I like Dubloons :)
It gives it a more piratey theme.

rajr19 on Jan 15, 2008

coins sound like their real.

im all for cheddar.

misterhaan on Jan 15, 2008

i also thought of coins, but i also very much like chips

katylava on Jan 15, 2008

my first thought was cheese -- no surprise there. my second was crumbs... but who would play a game for crumbs? so, i vote for chumbs. or cheebits.

eclipse115 on Jan 15, 2008

hmmmm . . . quesos is cool . . .

I vote for chips or quesos ^-^

annikalee on Jan 15, 2008

i personally like tokens because when you read or hear "tokens" you know what they are and what they are for and with something like "quesos" you would have to find out what they are in the game while with tokens you know that they are used for spending

iqon on Jan 15, 2008

ARRRRR, doubloons be fer the rich (gold), pack rats sh'd use piece of eight which be silver.

   Pieces of eight
   The search for the money tree
   Don't cash your freedoms in for gold
   Pieces of eight
   Can't buy you everything
   Don't let it turn your heart to stone
    — Pieces Of Eight by Dennis DeYoung

iconmaster on Jan 15, 2008

Great suggestions, guys.

I'm liking chips, myself...

iqon on Jan 15, 2008

me monkey points out if'n ye use chips they could be diffr'nt values: cow, potato, chocolate, silicon, etc.

Course ye'd be need'n Ponch and Jon pack rat icons.

kymom on Jan 15, 2008

@iqon: ROFLMBO!!

i think some variation on the word "dollar" is called for here and my particular choice would be for "holler" which has a two fold meaning...

It can be a noun (place you live) or a verb (something I do at my kids) and perhaps in the future, it can mean packrat moolah.

Hmm, and that brings to light a whole 'nother possibility.

;Þ

Kuifje on Jan 15, 2008

Chips! Like cheddar as well, but cheddars not so much.

rossanyl on Jan 16, 2008

doubloons? never heard of this before, same goes to holler. I think the term should be as international as possible, no?

Balloonatic on Jan 16, 2008

Well since we are talking rats ... Surely the obvious unit of points would be something like a piece of trash/rubbish/garbage (depending on localisation) ... And the cumulitive total of these should be your trash/rubbish/garbage heap/pile at least that would be my thoughts ... Then things like an apple core or banana peel could be one point ... A tin can or pringles tin could be 5 points and a fish skellaton or a chicken carcass could be 10 points ... At least that's my two cents on the matter

Mr. B

EliGazit on Jan 16, 2008

IB Dollars

fuseunderground on Jan 16, 2008

cheese sounds good, and if you have a lot of it you can build a substantial wedge!

annikalee on Jan 16, 2008

i like doubloons, very pirate-like!

VINZ on Jan 16, 2008

Quesos sound good!!

tamashii on Jan 16, 2008

I lean towards chips myself.

And… LOL@quesos - Brilliance!!

Balloonatic on Jan 16, 2008

Doubloons ... is Neopets Credit system ... somehow I don't think it fits in with IconBuffet

Jahnoth on Jan 16, 2008

I like Chedder. Gimme some chedder! Got chedder? This'll cost chedder. Heh. It's both singular and plural.

Could also go with bread. Moola? Dinero? Shekels? Bucks?

KatieK on Jan 16, 2008

I like chips. Quesos is my second fav.

kralyx on Jan 16, 2008

What about "ducat"?

Jen on Jan 16, 2008

Bottlecaps
Influence
Crowns
Ratinum (taken from star trek ds9 and tweaked to fit)
Twigs or Rocks (pack rats build nests with them)
Shiny(ies) (pack rats love shiny objects and will often drop what they are carrying to pick up something shiny instead)

and here are a few from thesaurus.com
badge, clue, demonstration, earnest, evidence, expression, favor, gift, index, indicia, keepsake, manifestation, mark, memento, memorial, note, omen, pawn, pledge, presage, proof, relic, remembrance, reminder, representation, sample, security, sign, significant, souvenir, symbol, symptom, trophy, warning, warrant