I read the history first, and then looked at the game at OP's link.

I was actually a little disappointed in the loss of the Buddhist terminology. Master, koan, mondo, etc. They've been replaced with "Moderator", "exam" etc.

While I understand the reasoning (unfamiliar words will turn people off, also there's a smattering of cultural appropriation), moderator and exam seem so... sterile.

Great piece. Game design is such a fun topic for me. I was frustrated at the strange incentives in the default rules for the game "Bananagrams" so I've been doing some thinking about how to improve it. This story has confirmed something I already suspected - I'm not going to get far without trying out new rules in a real game!