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Why is “deal 6 damage” a legit phrase?


“Destroy target creature.” => why no determiner here?This is a thing not to worry aboutUsage Of The Determiner “This”“x thinks it's people”--why “people” and not “a human”?'Such volume' or 'such a volume'?a state nationalism — why do we need an article?can't understand : WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTIONIs this sentence grammatically complete?Can I use “to bring it”?How to ‘guess’ if a noun is countable or uncountable?Why can not a verb of “To gulp the glass of water with such thirst” be seen?






.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;








27















Hearthstone Fireball Card



I mean, if damage is countable, it should be




Deal 6 damages.




If it’s not countable, then this sentence should be wrong.



Such as saying something like




I drank 5 water.




So... am I missing something here?










share|improve this question
































    27















    Hearthstone Fireball Card



    I mean, if damage is countable, it should be




    Deal 6 damages.




    If it’s not countable, then this sentence should be wrong.



    Such as saying something like




    I drank 5 water.




    So... am I missing something here?










    share|improve this question




























      27












      27








      27


      2






      Hearthstone Fireball Card



      I mean, if damage is countable, it should be




      Deal 6 damages.




      If it’s not countable, then this sentence should be wrong.



      Such as saying something like




      I drank 5 water.




      So... am I missing something here?










      share|improve this question
















      Hearthstone Fireball Card



      I mean, if damage is countable, it should be




      Deal 6 damages.




      If it’s not countable, then this sentence should be wrong.



      Such as saying something like




      I drank 5 water.




      So... am I missing something here?







      grammar countability






      share|improve this question















      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited Aug 2 at 0:53







      Hao Wu

















      asked Aug 1 at 4:16









      Hao WuHao Wu

      3491 gold badge3 silver badges9 bronze badges




      3491 gold badge3 silver badges9 bronze badges























          5 Answers
          5






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          72














          It's domain specific, and not something that would be said outside the context of a game like this.



          It's almost certainly an elided form of the following:




          Deal 6 points of damage.




          (And damage here is a mass noun.)



          In the same way that headlines take liberties with the omission of articles and other grammatical structures, so too is this game using a shortened form of English that's understood in its own context. (With that font size, it looks like the full sentence might not fit within the space allowed by the card.)






          share|improve this answer




















          • 2





            So technically the phrase itself is wrong, but it's acceptable in a certain environment or context?

            – Hao Wu
            Aug 1 at 4:46






          • 12





            Yes, you can look at it that way. Or you could say that in the grammar of the game it's perfectly fine.

            – Jason Bassford
            Aug 1 at 5:14






          • 23





            If I recall correctly, one popular card game (MtG) defined "damage" as a unit, so, in this context, "6 damage" would be correct and saying "6 points of damage" was explicitly discouraged. The card shown in the Q belongs to a game that is heavily inspired by MtG.

            – Ruther Rendommeleigh
            Aug 1 at 13:15






          • 17





            @Arcanist Lupus there are words whose plurals are the same as their singular. This includes many animals, such as "elk", "deer", and "fish" (which can be pluralized as either "fish" and "fishes"), as well as miscellaneous words like "aircraft". Since "damages" in common parlance is used not as a plural, but to indicate financial context, it makes sense that the plural of the emerging countable meaning which abbreviates "point(s) of damage" would be "damage" and not "damages".

            – stellatedHexahedron
            Aug 1 at 14:32







          • 17





            @RutherRendommeleigh All SI units get pluralized; electrical and otherwise. Don't confuse "this is a five-ohm resistor" with "its resistance is five ohms."

            – David Richerby
            Aug 1 at 14:49


















          30














          Generically, because it's established gaming jargon. While the answer by Jason Bassford is almost certainly correct about the origins of this particular bit of jargon, it's gotten to the point now that it's just accepted jargon, so it's what almost everybody uses.



          In a number of cases, the jargon for a particular domain is essentially a distinct grammatical and lexical dialect from the base language it's used in, and should be analyzed as such since it quite often just doesn't make sense otherwise.




          In this particular case, the construct [verb] [number] [attribute or property] is in widespread use in many types of games as a way of concisely expressing a numerical change in state of some specific value within the context of the game. The verb indicates the particular direction of the change (positive or negative), the number is largely universally a positive, and the attribute or property indicates what is being changed.



          So, in your example, 'deal 6 damage' means that whatever entity is being targeted takes six points of damage, but expresses that without needing nearly as many words.



          That kind of concise communication gets really important in a lot of cases because space is often limited when relaying information like this, so fewer words means you can use a bigger font, and therefore make it more easily readable (this is less of an issue in a digital context though than it is with physical games).




          As mentioned above, the origins of this phrase are almost certainly exactly what Jason Bassford outlined in his answer. Exactly pinpointing its origin is somewhat difficult, but I'd be willing to bet that it developed first as verbal shorthand among players of tabletop RPGs (like Dungeons & Dragons) and then got slowly inherited by other gaming contexts (many gamers tend to play more than one type of game). It's long-since become standard phrasing in TCGs and CCGs, likely because of Magic the Gathering (which goes a step further and uses similar phrasing to indicate changes in certain non-numeric properties as well), and that's probably where the usage in your particular case came from (I'm pretty sure the picture is a card from Hearthstone, which took heavy inspiration in a lot of ways from MtG, just like most other TCG type games).






          share|improve this answer


































            9














            As Jason Bassford's excellent answer indicates, "deal 6 damage" is an elided form of something like




            Deal 6 points of damage.

            Deal 6 damage tokens.




            and it's being used here as jargon, perhaps to conserve valuable space on the card.



            The use of jargon also helps with consistency; if one card says "Deal 6 units of damage" and another says "Deal 6 damage points," do they mean the same thing or different things? Players will be confused by the inconsistency. But if the preferred form of the instruction is chosen to be also the shortest possible form — "deal 6 damage" — then it's easier for the author and proofreader to verify that all the cards in the game use that preferred phrase consistently.



            The use of mass nouns for units and stats is widespread in all role-playing and card games. None of these instructions look "weird" to me:




            Collect 2 gold.

            Gain 3 magic.

            Lose 4 dexterity.

            Trade 5 wood for 6 stone.




            Many games take it a step further toward brevity and consistency by inventing icons for each resource in the game. For example, instead of "Gain 1 renown," a game might simply say "Gain 1 👑." Instead of "Gain 1 spending power," a game might simply say "Gain ①."



            Another benefit of using such short phrases (besides space-on-card and consistency) is that they tend to preserve player immersion. The mechanics of the game may deal in "hit points" and "wood cards," but thematically the game deals in actual damage and actual wood. So rather than saying "I'll trade you a wood card for a sheep card," the players want to pretend that they're trading the actual item — "I'll trade you a piece of wood for a sheep." But is it a piece of wood? a bundle of wood? a cartload of wood? The game doesn't tell us. So we just say "a wood" — avoiding the game-mechanical detail of "a wood card" but not committing to any particular real-world-mechanical details either.






            share|improve this answer

























            • I don't know how I read your last phrase as "quantum-mechanical details".

              – user21820
              Aug 4 at 10:22


















            1














            It's a normal imperative sentence



            The subject "You", is normally omitted from an imperative statement.




            [You] give me your passport.




            But we conjugate as if the subject is stated.




            [You] deal 6 damage.




            The singular "deal" agrees with the subject "You".



            It would be the same if the object were countable.




            [You] deal 6 cards.




            So we don't even look at whether "damage" is countable. It's not. Points are countable, but "points of" or "point of" is omitted in gaming slang.




            Deal 6 [points of] damage.

            Deal 1 [point of] damage.







            share|improve this answer


































              -1














              What's really wrong here is the way
              deal is not conjugated as it should be written "deals". Otherwise that's just an order like the dragon is talking to his fireball when he spits it. I'm really confused as why no one noted that before, strictly exhausting themselves to determine if the words "points of" should be added to make this a legitimate sentence. So no this is not good and even really bad.






              share|improve this answer




















              • 1





                It's not the card that "deals* the damage, you do. So "[You] deal 6 damage [to the opponent or creature]".

                – VLAZ
                Aug 3 at 16:39











              • Then there is too much crucial words that are being left off the sentence and it's enough to make this utterly incorrect and interpretation dependant.

                – Yvain
                Aug 3 at 16:43











              • This is an english language forum, not cryptography.

                – Yvain
                Aug 3 at 16:45











              • Too much missing? You can only do stuff to a player or a creature. Further you can subdivide them into friendly and opponent. With no qualifier, any targets are valid.

                – VLAZ
                Aug 3 at 16:45







              • 3





                @Yvain It's an imperative. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood

                – wizzwizz4
                Aug 3 at 17:38













              Your Answer








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              5 Answers
              5






              active

              oldest

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              5 Answers
              5






              active

              oldest

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              active

              oldest

              votes






              active

              oldest

              votes









              72














              It's domain specific, and not something that would be said outside the context of a game like this.



              It's almost certainly an elided form of the following:




              Deal 6 points of damage.




              (And damage here is a mass noun.)



              In the same way that headlines take liberties with the omission of articles and other grammatical structures, so too is this game using a shortened form of English that's understood in its own context. (With that font size, it looks like the full sentence might not fit within the space allowed by the card.)






              share|improve this answer




















              • 2





                So technically the phrase itself is wrong, but it's acceptable in a certain environment or context?

                – Hao Wu
                Aug 1 at 4:46






              • 12





                Yes, you can look at it that way. Or you could say that in the grammar of the game it's perfectly fine.

                – Jason Bassford
                Aug 1 at 5:14






              • 23





                If I recall correctly, one popular card game (MtG) defined "damage" as a unit, so, in this context, "6 damage" would be correct and saying "6 points of damage" was explicitly discouraged. The card shown in the Q belongs to a game that is heavily inspired by MtG.

                – Ruther Rendommeleigh
                Aug 1 at 13:15






              • 17





                @Arcanist Lupus there are words whose plurals are the same as their singular. This includes many animals, such as "elk", "deer", and "fish" (which can be pluralized as either "fish" and "fishes"), as well as miscellaneous words like "aircraft". Since "damages" in common parlance is used not as a plural, but to indicate financial context, it makes sense that the plural of the emerging countable meaning which abbreviates "point(s) of damage" would be "damage" and not "damages".

                – stellatedHexahedron
                Aug 1 at 14:32







              • 17





                @RutherRendommeleigh All SI units get pluralized; electrical and otherwise. Don't confuse "this is a five-ohm resistor" with "its resistance is five ohms."

                – David Richerby
                Aug 1 at 14:49















              72














              It's domain specific, and not something that would be said outside the context of a game like this.



              It's almost certainly an elided form of the following:




              Deal 6 points of damage.




              (And damage here is a mass noun.)



              In the same way that headlines take liberties with the omission of articles and other grammatical structures, so too is this game using a shortened form of English that's understood in its own context. (With that font size, it looks like the full sentence might not fit within the space allowed by the card.)






              share|improve this answer




















              • 2





                So technically the phrase itself is wrong, but it's acceptable in a certain environment or context?

                – Hao Wu
                Aug 1 at 4:46






              • 12





                Yes, you can look at it that way. Or you could say that in the grammar of the game it's perfectly fine.

                – Jason Bassford
                Aug 1 at 5:14






              • 23





                If I recall correctly, one popular card game (MtG) defined "damage" as a unit, so, in this context, "6 damage" would be correct and saying "6 points of damage" was explicitly discouraged. The card shown in the Q belongs to a game that is heavily inspired by MtG.

                – Ruther Rendommeleigh
                Aug 1 at 13:15






              • 17





                @Arcanist Lupus there are words whose plurals are the same as their singular. This includes many animals, such as "elk", "deer", and "fish" (which can be pluralized as either "fish" and "fishes"), as well as miscellaneous words like "aircraft". Since "damages" in common parlance is used not as a plural, but to indicate financial context, it makes sense that the plural of the emerging countable meaning which abbreviates "point(s) of damage" would be "damage" and not "damages".

                – stellatedHexahedron
                Aug 1 at 14:32







              • 17





                @RutherRendommeleigh All SI units get pluralized; electrical and otherwise. Don't confuse "this is a five-ohm resistor" with "its resistance is five ohms."

                – David Richerby
                Aug 1 at 14:49













              72












              72








              72







              It's domain specific, and not something that would be said outside the context of a game like this.



              It's almost certainly an elided form of the following:




              Deal 6 points of damage.




              (And damage here is a mass noun.)



              In the same way that headlines take liberties with the omission of articles and other grammatical structures, so too is this game using a shortened form of English that's understood in its own context. (With that font size, it looks like the full sentence might not fit within the space allowed by the card.)






              share|improve this answer













              It's domain specific, and not something that would be said outside the context of a game like this.



              It's almost certainly an elided form of the following:




              Deal 6 points of damage.




              (And damage here is a mass noun.)



              In the same way that headlines take liberties with the omission of articles and other grammatical structures, so too is this game using a shortened form of English that's understood in its own context. (With that font size, it looks like the full sentence might not fit within the space allowed by the card.)







              share|improve this answer












              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer










              answered Aug 1 at 4:33









              Jason BassfordJason Bassford

              25.4k2 gold badges33 silver badges55 bronze badges




              25.4k2 gold badges33 silver badges55 bronze badges










              • 2





                So technically the phrase itself is wrong, but it's acceptable in a certain environment or context?

                – Hao Wu
                Aug 1 at 4:46






              • 12





                Yes, you can look at it that way. Or you could say that in the grammar of the game it's perfectly fine.

                – Jason Bassford
                Aug 1 at 5:14






              • 23





                If I recall correctly, one popular card game (MtG) defined "damage" as a unit, so, in this context, "6 damage" would be correct and saying "6 points of damage" was explicitly discouraged. The card shown in the Q belongs to a game that is heavily inspired by MtG.

                – Ruther Rendommeleigh
                Aug 1 at 13:15






              • 17





                @Arcanist Lupus there are words whose plurals are the same as their singular. This includes many animals, such as "elk", "deer", and "fish" (which can be pluralized as either "fish" and "fishes"), as well as miscellaneous words like "aircraft". Since "damages" in common parlance is used not as a plural, but to indicate financial context, it makes sense that the plural of the emerging countable meaning which abbreviates "point(s) of damage" would be "damage" and not "damages".

                – stellatedHexahedron
                Aug 1 at 14:32







              • 17





                @RutherRendommeleigh All SI units get pluralized; electrical and otherwise. Don't confuse "this is a five-ohm resistor" with "its resistance is five ohms."

                – David Richerby
                Aug 1 at 14:49












              • 2





                So technically the phrase itself is wrong, but it's acceptable in a certain environment or context?

                – Hao Wu
                Aug 1 at 4:46






              • 12





                Yes, you can look at it that way. Or you could say that in the grammar of the game it's perfectly fine.

                – Jason Bassford
                Aug 1 at 5:14






              • 23





                If I recall correctly, one popular card game (MtG) defined "damage" as a unit, so, in this context, "6 damage" would be correct and saying "6 points of damage" was explicitly discouraged. The card shown in the Q belongs to a game that is heavily inspired by MtG.

                – Ruther Rendommeleigh
                Aug 1 at 13:15






              • 17





                @Arcanist Lupus there are words whose plurals are the same as their singular. This includes many animals, such as "elk", "deer", and "fish" (which can be pluralized as either "fish" and "fishes"), as well as miscellaneous words like "aircraft". Since "damages" in common parlance is used not as a plural, but to indicate financial context, it makes sense that the plural of the emerging countable meaning which abbreviates "point(s) of damage" would be "damage" and not "damages".

                – stellatedHexahedron
                Aug 1 at 14:32







              • 17





                @RutherRendommeleigh All SI units get pluralized; electrical and otherwise. Don't confuse "this is a five-ohm resistor" with "its resistance is five ohms."

                – David Richerby
                Aug 1 at 14:49







              2




              2





              So technically the phrase itself is wrong, but it's acceptable in a certain environment or context?

              – Hao Wu
              Aug 1 at 4:46





              So technically the phrase itself is wrong, but it's acceptable in a certain environment or context?

              – Hao Wu
              Aug 1 at 4:46




              12




              12





              Yes, you can look at it that way. Or you could say that in the grammar of the game it's perfectly fine.

              – Jason Bassford
              Aug 1 at 5:14





              Yes, you can look at it that way. Or you could say that in the grammar of the game it's perfectly fine.

              – Jason Bassford
              Aug 1 at 5:14




              23




              23





              If I recall correctly, one popular card game (MtG) defined "damage" as a unit, so, in this context, "6 damage" would be correct and saying "6 points of damage" was explicitly discouraged. The card shown in the Q belongs to a game that is heavily inspired by MtG.

              – Ruther Rendommeleigh
              Aug 1 at 13:15





              If I recall correctly, one popular card game (MtG) defined "damage" as a unit, so, in this context, "6 damage" would be correct and saying "6 points of damage" was explicitly discouraged. The card shown in the Q belongs to a game that is heavily inspired by MtG.

              – Ruther Rendommeleigh
              Aug 1 at 13:15




              17




              17





              @Arcanist Lupus there are words whose plurals are the same as their singular. This includes many animals, such as "elk", "deer", and "fish" (which can be pluralized as either "fish" and "fishes"), as well as miscellaneous words like "aircraft". Since "damages" in common parlance is used not as a plural, but to indicate financial context, it makes sense that the plural of the emerging countable meaning which abbreviates "point(s) of damage" would be "damage" and not "damages".

              – stellatedHexahedron
              Aug 1 at 14:32






              @Arcanist Lupus there are words whose plurals are the same as their singular. This includes many animals, such as "elk", "deer", and "fish" (which can be pluralized as either "fish" and "fishes"), as well as miscellaneous words like "aircraft". Since "damages" in common parlance is used not as a plural, but to indicate financial context, it makes sense that the plural of the emerging countable meaning which abbreviates "point(s) of damage" would be "damage" and not "damages".

              – stellatedHexahedron
              Aug 1 at 14:32





              17




              17





              @RutherRendommeleigh All SI units get pluralized; electrical and otherwise. Don't confuse "this is a five-ohm resistor" with "its resistance is five ohms."

              – David Richerby
              Aug 1 at 14:49





              @RutherRendommeleigh All SI units get pluralized; electrical and otherwise. Don't confuse "this is a five-ohm resistor" with "its resistance is five ohms."

              – David Richerby
              Aug 1 at 14:49













              30














              Generically, because it's established gaming jargon. While the answer by Jason Bassford is almost certainly correct about the origins of this particular bit of jargon, it's gotten to the point now that it's just accepted jargon, so it's what almost everybody uses.



              In a number of cases, the jargon for a particular domain is essentially a distinct grammatical and lexical dialect from the base language it's used in, and should be analyzed as such since it quite often just doesn't make sense otherwise.




              In this particular case, the construct [verb] [number] [attribute or property] is in widespread use in many types of games as a way of concisely expressing a numerical change in state of some specific value within the context of the game. The verb indicates the particular direction of the change (positive or negative), the number is largely universally a positive, and the attribute or property indicates what is being changed.



              So, in your example, 'deal 6 damage' means that whatever entity is being targeted takes six points of damage, but expresses that without needing nearly as many words.



              That kind of concise communication gets really important in a lot of cases because space is often limited when relaying information like this, so fewer words means you can use a bigger font, and therefore make it more easily readable (this is less of an issue in a digital context though than it is with physical games).




              As mentioned above, the origins of this phrase are almost certainly exactly what Jason Bassford outlined in his answer. Exactly pinpointing its origin is somewhat difficult, but I'd be willing to bet that it developed first as verbal shorthand among players of tabletop RPGs (like Dungeons & Dragons) and then got slowly inherited by other gaming contexts (many gamers tend to play more than one type of game). It's long-since become standard phrasing in TCGs and CCGs, likely because of Magic the Gathering (which goes a step further and uses similar phrasing to indicate changes in certain non-numeric properties as well), and that's probably where the usage in your particular case came from (I'm pretty sure the picture is a card from Hearthstone, which took heavy inspiration in a lot of ways from MtG, just like most other TCG type games).






              share|improve this answer































                30














                Generically, because it's established gaming jargon. While the answer by Jason Bassford is almost certainly correct about the origins of this particular bit of jargon, it's gotten to the point now that it's just accepted jargon, so it's what almost everybody uses.



                In a number of cases, the jargon for a particular domain is essentially a distinct grammatical and lexical dialect from the base language it's used in, and should be analyzed as such since it quite often just doesn't make sense otherwise.




                In this particular case, the construct [verb] [number] [attribute or property] is in widespread use in many types of games as a way of concisely expressing a numerical change in state of some specific value within the context of the game. The verb indicates the particular direction of the change (positive or negative), the number is largely universally a positive, and the attribute or property indicates what is being changed.



                So, in your example, 'deal 6 damage' means that whatever entity is being targeted takes six points of damage, but expresses that without needing nearly as many words.



                That kind of concise communication gets really important in a lot of cases because space is often limited when relaying information like this, so fewer words means you can use a bigger font, and therefore make it more easily readable (this is less of an issue in a digital context though than it is with physical games).




                As mentioned above, the origins of this phrase are almost certainly exactly what Jason Bassford outlined in his answer. Exactly pinpointing its origin is somewhat difficult, but I'd be willing to bet that it developed first as verbal shorthand among players of tabletop RPGs (like Dungeons & Dragons) and then got slowly inherited by other gaming contexts (many gamers tend to play more than one type of game). It's long-since become standard phrasing in TCGs and CCGs, likely because of Magic the Gathering (which goes a step further and uses similar phrasing to indicate changes in certain non-numeric properties as well), and that's probably where the usage in your particular case came from (I'm pretty sure the picture is a card from Hearthstone, which took heavy inspiration in a lot of ways from MtG, just like most other TCG type games).






                share|improve this answer





























                  30












                  30








                  30







                  Generically, because it's established gaming jargon. While the answer by Jason Bassford is almost certainly correct about the origins of this particular bit of jargon, it's gotten to the point now that it's just accepted jargon, so it's what almost everybody uses.



                  In a number of cases, the jargon for a particular domain is essentially a distinct grammatical and lexical dialect from the base language it's used in, and should be analyzed as such since it quite often just doesn't make sense otherwise.




                  In this particular case, the construct [verb] [number] [attribute or property] is in widespread use in many types of games as a way of concisely expressing a numerical change in state of some specific value within the context of the game. The verb indicates the particular direction of the change (positive or negative), the number is largely universally a positive, and the attribute or property indicates what is being changed.



                  So, in your example, 'deal 6 damage' means that whatever entity is being targeted takes six points of damage, but expresses that without needing nearly as many words.



                  That kind of concise communication gets really important in a lot of cases because space is often limited when relaying information like this, so fewer words means you can use a bigger font, and therefore make it more easily readable (this is less of an issue in a digital context though than it is with physical games).




                  As mentioned above, the origins of this phrase are almost certainly exactly what Jason Bassford outlined in his answer. Exactly pinpointing its origin is somewhat difficult, but I'd be willing to bet that it developed first as verbal shorthand among players of tabletop RPGs (like Dungeons & Dragons) and then got slowly inherited by other gaming contexts (many gamers tend to play more than one type of game). It's long-since become standard phrasing in TCGs and CCGs, likely because of Magic the Gathering (which goes a step further and uses similar phrasing to indicate changes in certain non-numeric properties as well), and that's probably where the usage in your particular case came from (I'm pretty sure the picture is a card from Hearthstone, which took heavy inspiration in a lot of ways from MtG, just like most other TCG type games).






                  share|improve this answer















                  Generically, because it's established gaming jargon. While the answer by Jason Bassford is almost certainly correct about the origins of this particular bit of jargon, it's gotten to the point now that it's just accepted jargon, so it's what almost everybody uses.



                  In a number of cases, the jargon for a particular domain is essentially a distinct grammatical and lexical dialect from the base language it's used in, and should be analyzed as such since it quite often just doesn't make sense otherwise.




                  In this particular case, the construct [verb] [number] [attribute or property] is in widespread use in many types of games as a way of concisely expressing a numerical change in state of some specific value within the context of the game. The verb indicates the particular direction of the change (positive or negative), the number is largely universally a positive, and the attribute or property indicates what is being changed.



                  So, in your example, 'deal 6 damage' means that whatever entity is being targeted takes six points of damage, but expresses that without needing nearly as many words.



                  That kind of concise communication gets really important in a lot of cases because space is often limited when relaying information like this, so fewer words means you can use a bigger font, and therefore make it more easily readable (this is less of an issue in a digital context though than it is with physical games).




                  As mentioned above, the origins of this phrase are almost certainly exactly what Jason Bassford outlined in his answer. Exactly pinpointing its origin is somewhat difficult, but I'd be willing to bet that it developed first as verbal shorthand among players of tabletop RPGs (like Dungeons & Dragons) and then got slowly inherited by other gaming contexts (many gamers tend to play more than one type of game). It's long-since become standard phrasing in TCGs and CCGs, likely because of Magic the Gathering (which goes a step further and uses similar phrasing to indicate changes in certain non-numeric properties as well), and that's probably where the usage in your particular case came from (I'm pretty sure the picture is a card from Hearthstone, which took heavy inspiration in a lot of ways from MtG, just like most other TCG type games).







                  share|improve this answer














                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer








                  edited Aug 2 at 12:28









                  Toby Speight

                  1,1795 silver badges16 bronze badges




                  1,1795 silver badges16 bronze badges










                  answered Aug 1 at 15:36









                  Austin HemmelgarnAustin Hemmelgarn

                  5753 silver badges6 bronze badges




                  5753 silver badges6 bronze badges
























                      9














                      As Jason Bassford's excellent answer indicates, "deal 6 damage" is an elided form of something like




                      Deal 6 points of damage.

                      Deal 6 damage tokens.




                      and it's being used here as jargon, perhaps to conserve valuable space on the card.



                      The use of jargon also helps with consistency; if one card says "Deal 6 units of damage" and another says "Deal 6 damage points," do they mean the same thing or different things? Players will be confused by the inconsistency. But if the preferred form of the instruction is chosen to be also the shortest possible form — "deal 6 damage" — then it's easier for the author and proofreader to verify that all the cards in the game use that preferred phrase consistently.



                      The use of mass nouns for units and stats is widespread in all role-playing and card games. None of these instructions look "weird" to me:




                      Collect 2 gold.

                      Gain 3 magic.

                      Lose 4 dexterity.

                      Trade 5 wood for 6 stone.




                      Many games take it a step further toward brevity and consistency by inventing icons for each resource in the game. For example, instead of "Gain 1 renown," a game might simply say "Gain 1 👑." Instead of "Gain 1 spending power," a game might simply say "Gain ①."



                      Another benefit of using such short phrases (besides space-on-card and consistency) is that they tend to preserve player immersion. The mechanics of the game may deal in "hit points" and "wood cards," but thematically the game deals in actual damage and actual wood. So rather than saying "I'll trade you a wood card for a sheep card," the players want to pretend that they're trading the actual item — "I'll trade you a piece of wood for a sheep." But is it a piece of wood? a bundle of wood? a cartload of wood? The game doesn't tell us. So we just say "a wood" — avoiding the game-mechanical detail of "a wood card" but not committing to any particular real-world-mechanical details either.






                      share|improve this answer

























                      • I don't know how I read your last phrase as "quantum-mechanical details".

                        – user21820
                        Aug 4 at 10:22















                      9














                      As Jason Bassford's excellent answer indicates, "deal 6 damage" is an elided form of something like




                      Deal 6 points of damage.

                      Deal 6 damage tokens.




                      and it's being used here as jargon, perhaps to conserve valuable space on the card.



                      The use of jargon also helps with consistency; if one card says "Deal 6 units of damage" and another says "Deal 6 damage points," do they mean the same thing or different things? Players will be confused by the inconsistency. But if the preferred form of the instruction is chosen to be also the shortest possible form — "deal 6 damage" — then it's easier for the author and proofreader to verify that all the cards in the game use that preferred phrase consistently.



                      The use of mass nouns for units and stats is widespread in all role-playing and card games. None of these instructions look "weird" to me:




                      Collect 2 gold.

                      Gain 3 magic.

                      Lose 4 dexterity.

                      Trade 5 wood for 6 stone.




                      Many games take it a step further toward brevity and consistency by inventing icons for each resource in the game. For example, instead of "Gain 1 renown," a game might simply say "Gain 1 👑." Instead of "Gain 1 spending power," a game might simply say "Gain ①."



                      Another benefit of using such short phrases (besides space-on-card and consistency) is that they tend to preserve player immersion. The mechanics of the game may deal in "hit points" and "wood cards," but thematically the game deals in actual damage and actual wood. So rather than saying "I'll trade you a wood card for a sheep card," the players want to pretend that they're trading the actual item — "I'll trade you a piece of wood for a sheep." But is it a piece of wood? a bundle of wood? a cartload of wood? The game doesn't tell us. So we just say "a wood" — avoiding the game-mechanical detail of "a wood card" but not committing to any particular real-world-mechanical details either.






                      share|improve this answer

























                      • I don't know how I read your last phrase as "quantum-mechanical details".

                        – user21820
                        Aug 4 at 10:22













                      9












                      9








                      9







                      As Jason Bassford's excellent answer indicates, "deal 6 damage" is an elided form of something like




                      Deal 6 points of damage.

                      Deal 6 damage tokens.




                      and it's being used here as jargon, perhaps to conserve valuable space on the card.



                      The use of jargon also helps with consistency; if one card says "Deal 6 units of damage" and another says "Deal 6 damage points," do they mean the same thing or different things? Players will be confused by the inconsistency. But if the preferred form of the instruction is chosen to be also the shortest possible form — "deal 6 damage" — then it's easier for the author and proofreader to verify that all the cards in the game use that preferred phrase consistently.



                      The use of mass nouns for units and stats is widespread in all role-playing and card games. None of these instructions look "weird" to me:




                      Collect 2 gold.

                      Gain 3 magic.

                      Lose 4 dexterity.

                      Trade 5 wood for 6 stone.




                      Many games take it a step further toward brevity and consistency by inventing icons for each resource in the game. For example, instead of "Gain 1 renown," a game might simply say "Gain 1 👑." Instead of "Gain 1 spending power," a game might simply say "Gain ①."



                      Another benefit of using such short phrases (besides space-on-card and consistency) is that they tend to preserve player immersion. The mechanics of the game may deal in "hit points" and "wood cards," but thematically the game deals in actual damage and actual wood. So rather than saying "I'll trade you a wood card for a sheep card," the players want to pretend that they're trading the actual item — "I'll trade you a piece of wood for a sheep." But is it a piece of wood? a bundle of wood? a cartload of wood? The game doesn't tell us. So we just say "a wood" — avoiding the game-mechanical detail of "a wood card" but not committing to any particular real-world-mechanical details either.






                      share|improve this answer













                      As Jason Bassford's excellent answer indicates, "deal 6 damage" is an elided form of something like




                      Deal 6 points of damage.

                      Deal 6 damage tokens.




                      and it's being used here as jargon, perhaps to conserve valuable space on the card.



                      The use of jargon also helps with consistency; if one card says "Deal 6 units of damage" and another says "Deal 6 damage points," do they mean the same thing or different things? Players will be confused by the inconsistency. But if the preferred form of the instruction is chosen to be also the shortest possible form — "deal 6 damage" — then it's easier for the author and proofreader to verify that all the cards in the game use that preferred phrase consistently.



                      The use of mass nouns for units and stats is widespread in all role-playing and card games. None of these instructions look "weird" to me:




                      Collect 2 gold.

                      Gain 3 magic.

                      Lose 4 dexterity.

                      Trade 5 wood for 6 stone.




                      Many games take it a step further toward brevity and consistency by inventing icons for each resource in the game. For example, instead of "Gain 1 renown," a game might simply say "Gain 1 👑." Instead of "Gain 1 spending power," a game might simply say "Gain ①."



                      Another benefit of using such short phrases (besides space-on-card and consistency) is that they tend to preserve player immersion. The mechanics of the game may deal in "hit points" and "wood cards," but thematically the game deals in actual damage and actual wood. So rather than saying "I'll trade you a wood card for a sheep card," the players want to pretend that they're trading the actual item — "I'll trade you a piece of wood for a sheep." But is it a piece of wood? a bundle of wood? a cartload of wood? The game doesn't tell us. So we just say "a wood" — avoiding the game-mechanical detail of "a wood card" but not committing to any particular real-world-mechanical details either.







                      share|improve this answer












                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer










                      answered Aug 3 at 15:01









                      QuuxplusoneQuuxplusone

                      4702 silver badges6 bronze badges




                      4702 silver badges6 bronze badges















                      • I don't know how I read your last phrase as "quantum-mechanical details".

                        – user21820
                        Aug 4 at 10:22

















                      • I don't know how I read your last phrase as "quantum-mechanical details".

                        – user21820
                        Aug 4 at 10:22
















                      I don't know how I read your last phrase as "quantum-mechanical details".

                      – user21820
                      Aug 4 at 10:22





                      I don't know how I read your last phrase as "quantum-mechanical details".

                      – user21820
                      Aug 4 at 10:22











                      1














                      It's a normal imperative sentence



                      The subject "You", is normally omitted from an imperative statement.




                      [You] give me your passport.




                      But we conjugate as if the subject is stated.




                      [You] deal 6 damage.




                      The singular "deal" agrees with the subject "You".



                      It would be the same if the object were countable.




                      [You] deal 6 cards.




                      So we don't even look at whether "damage" is countable. It's not. Points are countable, but "points of" or "point of" is omitted in gaming slang.




                      Deal 6 [points of] damage.

                      Deal 1 [point of] damage.







                      share|improve this answer































                        1














                        It's a normal imperative sentence



                        The subject "You", is normally omitted from an imperative statement.




                        [You] give me your passport.




                        But we conjugate as if the subject is stated.




                        [You] deal 6 damage.




                        The singular "deal" agrees with the subject "You".



                        It would be the same if the object were countable.




                        [You] deal 6 cards.




                        So we don't even look at whether "damage" is countable. It's not. Points are countable, but "points of" or "point of" is omitted in gaming slang.




                        Deal 6 [points of] damage.

                        Deal 1 [point of] damage.







                        share|improve this answer





























                          1












                          1








                          1







                          It's a normal imperative sentence



                          The subject "You", is normally omitted from an imperative statement.




                          [You] give me your passport.




                          But we conjugate as if the subject is stated.




                          [You] deal 6 damage.




                          The singular "deal" agrees with the subject "You".



                          It would be the same if the object were countable.




                          [You] deal 6 cards.




                          So we don't even look at whether "damage" is countable. It's not. Points are countable, but "points of" or "point of" is omitted in gaming slang.




                          Deal 6 [points of] damage.

                          Deal 1 [point of] damage.







                          share|improve this answer















                          It's a normal imperative sentence



                          The subject "You", is normally omitted from an imperative statement.




                          [You] give me your passport.




                          But we conjugate as if the subject is stated.




                          [You] deal 6 damage.




                          The singular "deal" agrees with the subject "You".



                          It would be the same if the object were countable.




                          [You] deal 6 cards.




                          So we don't even look at whether "damage" is countable. It's not. Points are countable, but "points of" or "point of" is omitted in gaming slang.




                          Deal 6 [points of] damage.

                          Deal 1 [point of] damage.








                          share|improve this answer














                          share|improve this answer



                          share|improve this answer








                          edited Aug 3 at 23:45

























                          answered Aug 3 at 23:34









                          HarperHarper

                          1212 bronze badges




                          1212 bronze badges
























                              -1














                              What's really wrong here is the way
                              deal is not conjugated as it should be written "deals". Otherwise that's just an order like the dragon is talking to his fireball when he spits it. I'm really confused as why no one noted that before, strictly exhausting themselves to determine if the words "points of" should be added to make this a legitimate sentence. So no this is not good and even really bad.






                              share|improve this answer




















                              • 1





                                It's not the card that "deals* the damage, you do. So "[You] deal 6 damage [to the opponent or creature]".

                                – VLAZ
                                Aug 3 at 16:39











                              • Then there is too much crucial words that are being left off the sentence and it's enough to make this utterly incorrect and interpretation dependant.

                                – Yvain
                                Aug 3 at 16:43











                              • This is an english language forum, not cryptography.

                                – Yvain
                                Aug 3 at 16:45











                              • Too much missing? You can only do stuff to a player or a creature. Further you can subdivide them into friendly and opponent. With no qualifier, any targets are valid.

                                – VLAZ
                                Aug 3 at 16:45







                              • 3





                                @Yvain It's an imperative. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood

                                – wizzwizz4
                                Aug 3 at 17:38















                              -1














                              What's really wrong here is the way
                              deal is not conjugated as it should be written "deals". Otherwise that's just an order like the dragon is talking to his fireball when he spits it. I'm really confused as why no one noted that before, strictly exhausting themselves to determine if the words "points of" should be added to make this a legitimate sentence. So no this is not good and even really bad.






                              share|improve this answer




















                              • 1





                                It's not the card that "deals* the damage, you do. So "[You] deal 6 damage [to the opponent or creature]".

                                – VLAZ
                                Aug 3 at 16:39











                              • Then there is too much crucial words that are being left off the sentence and it's enough to make this utterly incorrect and interpretation dependant.

                                – Yvain
                                Aug 3 at 16:43











                              • This is an english language forum, not cryptography.

                                – Yvain
                                Aug 3 at 16:45











                              • Too much missing? You can only do stuff to a player or a creature. Further you can subdivide them into friendly and opponent. With no qualifier, any targets are valid.

                                – VLAZ
                                Aug 3 at 16:45







                              • 3





                                @Yvain It's an imperative. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood

                                – wizzwizz4
                                Aug 3 at 17:38













                              -1












                              -1








                              -1







                              What's really wrong here is the way
                              deal is not conjugated as it should be written "deals". Otherwise that's just an order like the dragon is talking to his fireball when he spits it. I'm really confused as why no one noted that before, strictly exhausting themselves to determine if the words "points of" should be added to make this a legitimate sentence. So no this is not good and even really bad.






                              share|improve this answer













                              What's really wrong here is the way
                              deal is not conjugated as it should be written "deals". Otherwise that's just an order like the dragon is talking to his fireball when he spits it. I'm really confused as why no one noted that before, strictly exhausting themselves to determine if the words "points of" should be added to make this a legitimate sentence. So no this is not good and even really bad.







                              share|improve this answer












                              share|improve this answer



                              share|improve this answer










                              answered Aug 3 at 16:22









                              YvainYvain

                              991 bronze badge




                              991 bronze badge










                              • 1





                                It's not the card that "deals* the damage, you do. So "[You] deal 6 damage [to the opponent or creature]".

                                – VLAZ
                                Aug 3 at 16:39











                              • Then there is too much crucial words that are being left off the sentence and it's enough to make this utterly incorrect and interpretation dependant.

                                – Yvain
                                Aug 3 at 16:43











                              • This is an english language forum, not cryptography.

                                – Yvain
                                Aug 3 at 16:45











                              • Too much missing? You can only do stuff to a player or a creature. Further you can subdivide them into friendly and opponent. With no qualifier, any targets are valid.

                                – VLAZ
                                Aug 3 at 16:45







                              • 3





                                @Yvain It's an imperative. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood

                                – wizzwizz4
                                Aug 3 at 17:38












                              • 1





                                It's not the card that "deals* the damage, you do. So "[You] deal 6 damage [to the opponent or creature]".

                                – VLAZ
                                Aug 3 at 16:39











                              • Then there is too much crucial words that are being left off the sentence and it's enough to make this utterly incorrect and interpretation dependant.

                                – Yvain
                                Aug 3 at 16:43











                              • This is an english language forum, not cryptography.

                                – Yvain
                                Aug 3 at 16:45











                              • Too much missing? You can only do stuff to a player or a creature. Further you can subdivide them into friendly and opponent. With no qualifier, any targets are valid.

                                – VLAZ
                                Aug 3 at 16:45







                              • 3





                                @Yvain It's an imperative. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood

                                – wizzwizz4
                                Aug 3 at 17:38







                              1




                              1





                              It's not the card that "deals* the damage, you do. So "[You] deal 6 damage [to the opponent or creature]".

                              – VLAZ
                              Aug 3 at 16:39





                              It's not the card that "deals* the damage, you do. So "[You] deal 6 damage [to the opponent or creature]".

                              – VLAZ
                              Aug 3 at 16:39













                              Then there is too much crucial words that are being left off the sentence and it's enough to make this utterly incorrect and interpretation dependant.

                              – Yvain
                              Aug 3 at 16:43





                              Then there is too much crucial words that are being left off the sentence and it's enough to make this utterly incorrect and interpretation dependant.

                              – Yvain
                              Aug 3 at 16:43













                              This is an english language forum, not cryptography.

                              – Yvain
                              Aug 3 at 16:45





                              This is an english language forum, not cryptography.

                              – Yvain
                              Aug 3 at 16:45













                              Too much missing? You can only do stuff to a player or a creature. Further you can subdivide them into friendly and opponent. With no qualifier, any targets are valid.

                              – VLAZ
                              Aug 3 at 16:45






                              Too much missing? You can only do stuff to a player or a creature. Further you can subdivide them into friendly and opponent. With no qualifier, any targets are valid.

                              – VLAZ
                              Aug 3 at 16:45





                              3




                              3





                              @Yvain It's an imperative. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood

                              – wizzwizz4
                              Aug 3 at 17:38





                              @Yvain It's an imperative. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood

                              – wizzwizz4
                              Aug 3 at 17:38

















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