You said:
labyrinth |ˈlab(ə)rɪnθ|noun1 a complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze: a labyrinth of passages and secret chambers.
Sounds pretty much the same to me. Isn’t Metroid Prime a 3D maze? Isn’t Metroidvania a Sidescrolling maze like the dungeons in Zelda 2?
The reason why word masters do not use dictionary terms like a blunt instrument is the word master knows that words evoke different emotions and imaginations. A dictionary definition is the ‘letter of the law’, but it is not the ‘spirit of the law’.
The above is a maze. Give this image to any child, and they will instantly understand it. Much earlier games used ‘maze gameplay’, such as Pac-Man, because it was understandable. You do not get disorientated in a maze like the above.
When your perspective is inside the maze, and it is all in 3d, you get the above. Maze gameplay will not work in 3d unless it is a simplified corridor shooter (like a FPS).
Young people keep interpreting the posts here incorrectly. The reason why I chose the words ‘maze’ and ‘labyrinth’ to differentiate a 2d maze gameplay versus a 3d maze gameplay is that it better communicates the point. A ‘maze’ paints the imagery of a child scribbling a line through a maze image from a coloring book. A ‘labyrinth’ more paints the imagery of a mythology hero putting down string at the entrance as he wanders off to fight the minotaur.
People go through life with different mindsets. Some people just want to be comfortable in life. Other people want to be ‘right’. Yet, other people want to ‘win’.
In a business context, the only proper mindset is that of ‘winning’. When someone runs around thumping the dictionary as final arbiter of the right way and wrong way to use language, they are not looking at it from a ‘winning or losing’ point of view, from a more tactical point of view.
It is a huge hump from people to leave behind their ‘comfort’ personality or ‘right and wrong’ personality for the ‘winning and losing’ personality that defines salesmen, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and all the major movers-and-shakers. When someone tells me, “You cannot define quality as sales,” they are telling me they do not wish to embrace the ‘winning and losing’ context. If your product flops, that is a losing product. If you say, instead, “My product was just such great quality that it went over everyone’s heads. The problem is that people do not appreciate high culture products like mine.” This response is a dodging of reality and shifting the person to a ‘right and wrong’ context of life. The people do not like his product because they are ‘stupid’.
Remember, I am not making posts here to enthrone myself on a mountain of righteousness. My context is about ‘what wins and what loses’ in the grand scheme of things. When it comes to word usage, the mission is to communicate and paint out a point. In some cases, this involves even inventing brand new words (such as ‘birdmen’).
