I used to play a lot of games during my childhood and the "player token" had a pattern: A cylinder/cone with a sphere on top of it. Pawn, start token, player token, we used a lot of names to define it. I have never bothered about naming or knowing what the name of this piece was, cause it was only used as player token.
But now, I can see that a number of newer games (post-2000) use this little humanoid figure as player token or as resource on some games:
Carcassone-meeple.jpg from Wikimedia - You must be asking yourself: And what about this filename? Read the spoiler if it bugs you
I was searching using the words that are at the answer, finally found the Meeple term, and searching for "Meeple" at Google Images leads to a lot of images, including this one that is at the Carcassonne Wikipedia and ocasionally is called Carcassonne-meeple (with a better license to use at StackExchange sites). Acessed Carcassonne's wiki and double-checked the Meeple name, found the wikitionary definition, searched for another reference online using that definition, and the HappyMeeple pointed to wikitionary. But before that, I didn't know that it was one of its players that coined the term and since there is an older game called Europa 1945-2030 that have a similar-but-not-equal humanoid figure i couldn't be sure if there was possibly an older game also using Meeple design, of if the Europa humanoid design was also called Meeple or a variant of it and therefore, other older game using Europa's design. Then I have asked and answered at the same time to spread knowledge. But believe me, I was not aware of the term until i wrote this question+answer, and the image used at this question was decided when I was posting :)
Ok, back to the question. Examples:
- Carcassonne: This figure is used as player points counter and a resource that will be turned into 4 different classes(base game) like a pawn;
- Terra Mystica: This figure is a multi-purpose resource(Priest), depending on your race;
- Tiny Little Quest: You have 3 of these figures in your control, but they are not minions neither resources;
My Question: Is there an official or de facto name I can call this little guy on my image? I am specifically interested in what this particular design of token is called.