Hi Jon! Thank you for pointing this out, I have now updated the article (and the Chinese version, too, which had the same error). Also glad to hear I’ve been able to contribute to your learning!

Yes, that’s a great idea! With hindsight, the game should probably have been written in a way that reduced the amount of new words in the opening paragraph. Of course, it will contain more new vocabulary than most other passages (as do the opening paragraph of any graded reader I have looked at), but the “shock” could have been reduced somewhat. Perhaps it would even be a good idea to deal with the first paragraph separately before actually playing the game, such as by studying it as any other text prior to starting the game.

Something else I did with words or phrases that I felt were useful and wanted students to retain: I introduced those words in other settings in weeks that led up to playing this game together. Many words I introduced in context, as we played, but to lower the amount of new vocab they’d encounter, I felt some could productively be introduced in advance. The opening paragraph of the game, in particular, has several terms and phrasing like that.