You mention it as a configurable hint. Is it the same level as changing water displays to blue height numbers (and visibly different blue for "on the level below")?
No. If the name could change dynamically during the game, you'd have to carry along all different "iron ores" because there might be a prohibition on magnetite but not hematite. "Iron ore" would be affected but not "iron ore".
Same with already built items from one "iron ore" that would mysteriously be different from another "iron ore".
That's a can or worms better left untouched.
The world would be generated with
fewer materials and some of these materials having different (simpler) names.
Yes, it's a bit like training wheels.
Reviewers also dig that stuff. A reviewer has
very limited time to learn
and play the game and if every single rock you encounter requires referring to the manual, the game's score goes down. Tough, but such is life.
Some
will see "that geology business" as artificial, fake complexity. An attempt to forcibly educate them might just push them into a
fell mood.
It's awesome if the game
has an "expert mode" where the whole environment is a bit richer with a better suspension of disbelief but it should not be required.
Of course, one or two very good materials (or alloys - whatever) would
only be available in "expert mode". Hehehe.
See? There's no harm in nudging players towards a bit of education. =P
This feature could easily extend to other areas as well, limiting the selection of (trade) items or even creatures to a more manageable number.
Call it difficulty levels or whatever. Simply a measure to cut down the games
massive complexity to an easier to grasp feature set.
Once the player is comfortable with these features, he plays on "medium" with more options and fun stuff.
I only singled out geology because that's the first
completely incomprehensible thing a new player would probably encounter.
If the RAW entry is of a "too high" difficulty level, it is not read but discarded. This thing does not exist in the game in any shape or form.
Jagged Alliance 2 had something like that. A "More Guns" game option .
So instead of having maybe the 3 most common assault rifles in the game, you would also encounter more exotic ones like a Steyr AUG.
Some players simply
don't care for extreme complexity in such details. The game plays exactly the same whether you have 3 or 8 different assault rifles.
And it's a single player game. If a feature increases the fun (not dwarven fun!) factor for a group of players without reducing it for everyone else, the game is simply
better because of it.
I think I'd rather just have more detailed info when viewing the material with the k key, or a geology section in the help menu. I don't think we should dumb down the game (its kinda educational), but making things easier to understand with more complete descriptions and such would be nice.
I'm not against better information but that still leaves one more layer of abstraction between the mineral and the smelted metal.
Just because a game is more accessible to the beer and pretzels gamers doesn't mean it's a worse game because of it.
After all, (at least in theory =) the point of a game is to sell as many units as possible. And if Billybob doesn't care to learn any more geology beyond "dirt" and "rock", that should be fine as long as he buys the game and enjoys playing it. =P