The term you're trying to force everyone to use in a specific way is only used in that way within a specific field.
The term that matters for my point is, ultimately, the term "curve"
Curve, in the context of any graph, means a line on the graph. That is one of it not just in psychology, but in every scientific field, and in the media, and the military, and in business, and in pure math, and in philosophy, and colloquially too.
In common language, it has a different definition.
No, even in common language, "curve" means a line on a graph, in the context of a graph. And I've said in almost every post that the context I'm talking about is only graphs, not conversation.
So if it's titled "
Learning curve" then the
curve in the graph needs to be a
curve of
learning. If it isn't, then the graph is simply wrong, because your title is lying. It would be equally wrong if it were a graph labeled "shoe size curve" that plotted foot odor. Or a "temperature curve" titled graph that plotted rainfall. Or a "Height curve" titled graph that plotted caloric intake.
If and when you actually plot the curve that you promised in your title (a learning curve plotting learning, duh!), then what you get for dwarf fortress is a shallower curve than for other games. Therefore, in graphs titled "learning curve graphs" a learning curve can
only be shallow for a difficult to learn game.
In a
verbal conversation, things can be totally different. A "steep learning curve" can refer to a difficult to learn game in non-graphed conversation with zero issues or confusion. I agree. But that is not what I'm talking about.