What word to use for negative effects

[Mr.Monkey]

11 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

send to user to find the definition to a dictionary.

Exactly and it is even worse if the definition of malus in the dictionary says that it is a genus of a plant XD

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

20 hours ago, bb said:

The basic meaning of "bonus" in latin is "good" and it does not mean "advantage" in Latin, that is only what english (and other languages) made it.

In Latin malus is the exact oposite of bonus, so for that reason malus seems a logical choice.

Malus (and bonus) have also some more meanings (in Latin) than only "bad" or "good": malus also means "damaging", "defective", untrustworthy, meaningless and disadvantageous. I see enough meanings in here to vote for "malus".

I am not talking about Bonus' definition in Latin, I am talking about it's English context in a video game. "Malus" has no English context at all except in science, which use Latin.

 

In a video game context (or any similar context) a bonus is advantage given to a player or entity over another player or entity. A penalty is a disadvantage in a gaming context. In English.

Edited May 25, 2016 by wowgetoffyourcellphone