phony accents

[Edda]

As far as I know, accents are something that you can pick up from listening to someone with a diffrent one speaking a language you know.  That makes sense, just like in real life, but in real life it takes careful listening and also practice.  In Arm it seems like you'll just one day know a diffrent accent all of a sudden (I might be wrong about that).

But in real life, even if you don't know the correct way to speak in an accent you can still *try* to fake it.  And even if you are fairly good at it someone fluent in the language can usually tell if your accent is genuine or not.

My suggestion is that after you've heard an accent a bit it goes in your accent list, and depending on your accent skill vs. the listeners accent skill (or language skill, I'm not sure which would make more sense) the message would come up:  blah blah blah says something in a rinthi accent.......or blah blah blah says something in a phony rinthi accent.

I think this could give many fun RP opportunities, like "hey jerk, you making fun of the way I speak!" or "You ain't from around here, are ya pardner?"  or many other fun responses to someone realizing a certain individual is faking their accent for some reason.

I don't know anything about how Arm is coded or coding in general, whether this would be hard or easy, but I think it would be fun and add even more depth to a remarkably deep world.

[joyofdiscord]

I really like the sort of possibilities you imagine here, and your idea is very well thought out, but I personally think the current code already accounts for these situations.

You can already fail your accent even after branching it on your list, so that possibility does exist.  If it became available much sooner, improvement formulas would likely have to be seriously tweaked to keep everyone from becoming master impersonators.

And you can still pretend and fake accents before branching them, simply using command emotes: say (feigning a rinthi accent).   Some players will probably even play along as believing it, while others, probably most, will play as seeing through it.  You just won't have a coded chance of completely fooling someone, which is fine, since you don't have the linguistic skill to do that yet.  That chance should be reserved for those who have really developed the skill since, as we've discussed on this board before, faking an accent believably, enough to fool locals, is difficult, significantly more difficult than learning an entire foreign language to fluency.

[Hymwen]

You can already fail your accent even after branching it on your list

Really?

[Edda]

you can still pretend and fake accents before branching them, simply using command emotes: say (feigning a rinthi accent)

You're idea gave me this idea: if you're going to emote a faked accent, don't give it away so obviously(unless you want it to be obvious) but do something like:

say (in a slurred rinthi accent) or say (in an unusual rinthi accent)

That could give other players the chance to decide if they think you're faking it or just talk funny (more funny than those poor rinthi guys usually talk)

So now we're moving away from coded descussion and into RP descussion.  Maybe this topic needs to be moved.

[spawnloser]

Just because people are suggesting RP solutions doesn't mean the topic should be locked.

Yes, Hymwen.

You can fail at an accent skill, just as you can fail at any language skill.  You also don't get a message letting you know, just like in real life.  When you get the accent skill showing as an option, think of it as being able to realistically portray the accent, but sometimes you'll slip.  Noone is a master imitator out the gate, hmm?

Personally, I think the accent code could use a little work, but at the same time, I know it took some work just to get it to the point it's at now.  I remember when you needed staff intervention to get accents changed...and if you wanted to change back, needed yet more staff intervention.

I'm happier with the way it is now than it used to be, but just about anything could stand some improvement, yes?

[Flaming Ocotillo]

Yes, Hymwen.

You can fail at an accent skill, just as you can fail at any language skill.  You also don't get a message letting you know, just like in real life.  When you get the accent skill showing as an option, think of it as being able to realistically portray the accent, but sometimes you'll slip.  Noone is a master imitator out the gate, hmm?

Everyone knows accents don't fail, but you made some people second guess themselves with your really confident-sounding misinformation.

[joyofdiscord]

I briefly looked for the post I based my own claim on, but didn't turn it up right away.  Now you've motivated me, since I pride myself on remembering these sort of things, and I don't make claims of fact unless they are verifiable:

Misinformation?

[Hymwen]

I have never seen it happen, ever, not one single time. I've played and played with characters who moved to a different area and started using that area's accent as soon as they learned it, and a fail has never occured.

This is the same situation as a recent thread where imms confirmed that you get a message when communicating with someone who's gone. I tested it. Result:

Code Select Expand

You say, out of character:
    "Just a moment. I want to test something real quick, if you don't mind. Could I ask you to go gone for a moment? Just type 'gone testing'"

The *censored* is gone testing.

>tell *censored* OOC testing
You say to *censored*, in sirihish:
    "OOC testing"

You say, out of character:
    "Thanks."

[flurry]

n/m   Joyofdiscord beat me to it.

[flurry]

I have never seen it happen, ever, not one single time. I've played and played with characters who moved to a different area and started using that area's accent as soon as they learned it, and a fail has never occured.

Would you be able to tell if you failed?  With some skills, you can't.  I don't know how it works for accents.

[Hymwen]

I should be able to tell if someone else failed, and sometimes failing yourself will result in a reaction from others.

[Cale_Knight]

I've never actually seen an accent fail, though I have interacted with plenty of folks I know to have been using fake accents.

I wonder if that bit of code is actually turned on.

[Wish]

Never seen accents fail, my own or others.

[Fathi]

I've never seen an accent fail, either.

[Wish]

I guess spawnloser has!!

[spawnloser]

The accent you start with, you start with at 100%, I would wager.

I am fairly certain that a staff member has said that accents can fail.  They are skills.  You don't have to get them to 100% before using them.  (shrug)  Personally, I'd rather assume that they can fail and be proven wrong than the other way around.

You could also ask if they can fail in Ask the Staff, but I am fairly certain that the answer will either support my claim or be one of those 'Find out IC' sort of answers.

[Morfeus]

I honestly think that "never see failing accent" is because there are not too many people speaking in "other" accent. I might be terribly wrong, indeed.

[Lizzie]

The help files are subtly written and a little vague but it seems to me that once you know an accent, you know it. Since it takes a very long time to \"get\" the accent that isn\'t your own in the first place. Plus you have to be fluent in the language the accent is from. If I interpret it right for example you have to be good with Bendune before you can learn the tribal accent. But once you have spent all that time learning Bendune, and the extra time being exposed to the tribal accent, once you know it, you know it.

This would explain a certain inconsistency with my PC\'s learning curve perfectly since she learned an accent of one thing, even though she was exposed to a different accent that is natural for a different language entirely and over all this time of exposure still hasn\'t learned that accent. Because the people who speak with that accent very rarely speak in their native language when my PC is around, so my PC hasn\'t had a chance to pick up that language yet. But she has been around them almost constantly when they\'re speaking her language with that accent.

[Fathi]

I'm still patiently waiting to see if my character can learn accents at all. Everyone around her suddenly picks it up and is like, "OH HAY COOL!"

Is there something you actively have to do in order to learn it? I thought it was just listening to people, but it's been quite a few ingame weeks...

[Hymwen]

You just have to hang around people who speak with that accent. Wisdom is a huuuge factor though. I've had a character with exceptional who learned northern accent after two RL days in Tuluk. I've heard of a character with poor wisdom who didn't learn northern accent after living there for 2 RL months.

If you really must learn the accent though, I think you can set up a few lessons with somebody actually teaching you (through roleplay) how to pronounce the words and such, send it to the staff, and they might grant you the accent.

[Fathi]

You just have to hang around people who speak with that accent. Wisdom is a huuuge factor though. I've had a character with exceptional who learned northern accent after two RL days in Tuluk. I've heard of a character with poor wisdom who didn't learn northern accent after living there for 2 RL months.

If you really must learn the accent though, I think you can set up a few lessons with somebody actually teaching you (through roleplay) how to pronounce the words and such, send it to the staff, and they might grant you the accent.

Thanks. Although it's not that big of a deal. I was just curious. I'd rather make sure I know all this stuff -before- something comes up with this character or a future one, ya know?