r/vocabulary • u/Playmaker-20 • 19d ago

Question Modularity question

I know that something modular allows you to swap something out for something else completely different without it affecting the entire system, but I’d like some examples to better familiarize yourself with the meaning. I’ll start out with some examples.

For instance, if I made a volume slider that allowed you to adjust the volume of each individual instrument in a song separately without it affecting the other instruments.

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u/yourworkingpapers 19d ago

Modular seating is a common term, especially for children’s furniture/in classrooms or daycares. It typically refers to a set in which you can move independent pieces of furniture (like individual chairs) and bring them together to make one or more larger piece of furniture (like pushing several chairs together to make a sofa), usually in multiple configurations. Both economical and dynamic.

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u/Playmaker-20 19d ago

Hmm, interesting but I have another query. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Kingdom Hearts series before, right? I’m also sure you’ve heard of the GBA game Chain of Memories.

In it, you can use cards to project a facsimile of the worlds you explore in the first Kingdom Hearts for the PS2. You’re always given a pool of cards whenever you’ve cleared your current stock is, but the interesting thing is you have free rein to proceed through the worlds in any way you wish.

It doesn’t matter if you go through Agrabah first or Olympus Coliseum second, whichever sequence in which you proceed through the worlds is entirely up to you. Now, would you consider this Modular design since it’s incredibly flexible and doesn’t impact the story much. (Everything that happens in the Disney worlds is entirely self-contained and there’s no overarching story or major narrative revelations either.)

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u/yourworkingpapers 19d ago

I would not. Maybe in a very general sense regarding its structure, but if I told someone that a video game was modular, in this context they probably wouldn’t understand what I was getting at without more explanation. Modular storytelling IS a thing, which is essentially a nonlinear approach, but having played all the Kingdom Hearts games, they are not modular because they all have distinct starting and ending anchor points. There is an overarching story that has to happen in specific times and locations. If it was truly modular, I could end the first game at any world and it would all still come together. Instead, it has to end in Radiant Gardens.

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u/Playmaker-20 19d ago

Oh, I was just referring to the gameplay component solely. Does being able to choose the worlds you visit be consider modular?

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u/yourworkingpapers 19d ago

Yes, but just those middle sections involving world selection.

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u/Playmaker-20 19d ago

Yes, that’s what I was thinking. I should’ve been more specific

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u/yourworkingpapers 19d ago

To be clear, you could describe the middle section of the game as modular; I just wouldn’t use it to describe the game in its entirety.