| Melted cheese burns, and painfully subjective language blurs otherwise good game chats (I know, I've done it plenty myself). |
i don't think it's the language that's subjective, but rather the perception. i'd say the term cheese has a clear enough meaning, as stormbringer describes above:
| to use underhanded measures in order to gain an advantage against one's opponent at all costs |
the first time i used this term was when i played magic: the gathering. a cheese deck was composed entirely of cheap, direct damage spells (most notably, lightning bolts). i don't think that in this specific instance, such decks were "underhanded" per se, but rather simply lacking imagination: it was cheese because the tactic was one of winning at all costs (the cost being your opponent's enjoyment of the game). i felt the major cheese tactic in Starcraft was the zergling rush.
i'd say that it is not the word that is subjective. indeed, lacking true agency, words cannot have subjectivity. it's not the word that is subjective, but the people using the word. what is cheesey to one person might seem like a perfectly reasonable tactic to another. personally, i don't think it is, or should be, as hot a debate when it comes to GalCiv2 because it's not a multiplayer game, and those who cry cheese might be taking their metaverse scores too seriously. but then, that's simply my subjective opinion.
