The term was born to refer to a concept that is difficult to define, but easy to understand.
If the content is not appropriate for use or display among your co-workers, it is an easier generalization to interpret.
The term could be "No Safe for Family reunion", "Only For Private Use", etc. But the now famous NSFW ended up becoming popular and today it is understood by the majority of players and developers.
There are many terms that are not literally exact, but are understood.
I believe the term was born, because it just is an euphemism in the cycle of euphemisms to name naughty or adult stuff. Maybe in conjunction with the history of the internet. When it was new, people usually had no computer/internet connection at home, but might have one at work
As long as you use it as such an euphemism, meh, whatever. But if you spell it out, it is useless.
As a tag on itch, the description would read
NSFW, otherwise known as Not Safe For Work. Content that wouldn't be appropriate to be seen by acquaintances walked past your screen.
But this is the tag definition, not the marked as adult metadata requirement definition.
It is very problematic to define something as a thing that is very, very subjective. If you work at an adult toy factory or an actual adult movie studio, what is appropriate to be seen by your qcquaintances? Or what if you work at an elementary school? Could you play a 1st person shooter there?
Also, playing games at work would get you fired in most places. So any game is very unsafe for work. I stand by it. By the literal definition, nsfw is utterly useless. It is also cultural ridden. What might be "appropriate" for your aquaintances to see in the US, might get you in jail in China. What if you visit the site of your companies rival?
Effectifly, nsfw/marked as adult is the 18+ rating here. There are some horror games that have this.
Let's see how I explain myself.
I understand you, the criticism of the word is correct and it is also interesting. The point is not that, but that in reality all our language is created as a social construct.
Many current "tags" are incorrect.
Many people, especially younger ones, if they think of a rogue-like they think of a dodge shooting game that takes place in real time.
As the original game, Rogue is turn-based and on a grid and a rogue-like game should look like "Rogue" and many don't.
Why is the "tag" metroid-vania, if the first castlevania really do not have any element of that genre?
Etc, etc, etc.
Why is the "chair" called "chair"? You can look up the root of the word, but if I tell you "Can you catch me the chair?", you will understand perfectly what I mean and it is because you know what that word means or represents.
Many words we use do not really have a correct literal meaning, but are the product of a popular consensus.
NSFW may not be the most correct word if we analyze it carefully or academically, especially because trying to define these types of games is complex. However, the term as it is currently used, especially in games, makes us quickly realize what type of content is being referred to.
Ahaa, but here it is you are mistaken, or rather, the how/why is the important detail.
the term as it is currently used, especially in games, makes us quickly realize what type of content is being referred to
Why do people know what it means? Because they have previous knowledge of how other people use it and about the context they see the term used, or because they understand the meaning, from the spelled out situation the letters describe?
I dare day, they can't understand the meaning from the words, because it is an abreviation. They do not know the words to begin their understanding. It is like lol. People see other people use it and grasp the meaning from context. Or because someone taught them. Insert Lot's of Love joke here ;-)
It get's worse, if you look for translations. It is internet slang. People just use the same letters, like said lol.
It has no meaning outside of the internet context. Not that I would be aware of. Was reading a Playboy magazine being called "nsfw" back in the day? It probably was inapropriate, but times can be deceiving, as it apparantly once was not considered sexual harrasment, if one would slap the behind of a female coworker.
If I try to take a step back and imagine a person not knowing the internet. And then I would present to the person a term "not safe for work" as an attribute for a thing. What would that person think it means? A faulty piece of equipment? Harzardous goods? Sub par materials suitable for private use, but not safe for work?
While searching for this, it might also have started as not suitable for work, but with abreviations one can never be sure. People being lazy might have prefered a shorter version with safe instead of suitable. The usually pedantic and thourough people at the wikipedia have nothing to say about the etymology, other than it being internet slang and it being used for links, so you know before you click.
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I do not know where you got the dodge shooter meaning for rogue like. That term has been debated since it's beginning with hardcore fans insisting on some meaning in a literal sense, like you described: being a clone of that rogue game. To my understanding there are two elements to being rogue like nowadays. A random "run". And some sort of permadeath of a customizeable character. If your runs get easier the more you achieved, people even call it rogue lite.
But as you said in a way. Words mean what we make them mean. Even if we use them "wrong". For some euphemisms there even is a cycle, as the euphemism starts getting as offensive as the original word it substituted. Who would have guessed (<- sarcasm).
I say this because many games that have bullet-hell and bullet-dodging mechanics are marked as rogue-like. in contrast to the type of mechanics that Rogue or similar games have.
In any case, the topic is interesting, but I think we have already done enough off-topic in this thread, so I left it here, not for lack of interest.
Agreed.
Certain concepts needed a word and "rogue-like" while being too specific, did cover some of them, so those evolved as a meaning from the word, to the spite of hardcore rogue fans. Slay the Spire is a rogue-like, while not featuring most of the concepts of Rogue. It is the repeating random "runs" that differenciate it. You could have that with a shooter, as 600 games here think they do.
