Big words!

[AmandaGreathouse]

The way I see it: Coded accents are there for a reason.

And if you choose to add the comma soup to your pc's speech...

What the hell reason is there for it to be in a psi? That's not verbal. That doesn't involve ANY accent.

Do you really think that the words are different from what they actually are on such a pervasive level?

I dislike the comma soup speech because it is, indeed, as has been pointed out, redundant.

But more worrisome is the Way messages.

Back on the original topic:
I was using words like 'responsibility' and 'obligation' at 2, before I could even pronounce them right, and
and understanding what they meant, too. So I don't see how it would test the limits of believability for a
person who is grown and illiterate vs a child and illiterate to use them.

[Kalai]

Generally if I have a weirdly-accented psi (as opposed to one just with odd patterns of thought) it's entirely by accident. 

[Nao]

I love and adore accents that are spelled out. Writers do it all the time. There's a reason to not leave regional accents to the player - they're not just there to add flavor to individual characters, but to actually give a hint to where the character is coming from. It needs to be recognizable by all characters as 'northern', 'southern' or something else, but you'd have a hard time trying to get players to all type out the same northern or southern accent.

[Celest]

I love and adore accents that are spelled out. Writers do it all the time. There's a reason to not leave regional accents to the player - they're not just there to add flavor to individual characters, but to actually give a hint to where the character is coming from. It needs to be recognizable by all characters as 'northern', 'southern' or something else, but you'd have a hard time trying to get players to all type out the same northern or southern accent.

I also to think it's a mistake to assume that every person that speaks with letters or sounds eleminated is actually speaking with an accent. A lot of them may have speech impediments or strange dialects. It also helps to get the "feel" of the character, and leaves more room for your emotes to describe things they do instead of things they say. Example: "say (with a mushmouth speech impediment, tapping a finger to ~knife) Hey, I'm going to skewer that kebob and have a meal later, okay?" you could do, "say (tapping a finger to ~knife) 'ey, 'm gonna skewer tha' kebab'n 'ave me a good meal later, yeh?" Now, when you say it properly and use the say emote to "describe" how they're talking - to me anyway - it just loses a lot of the feel of the character, and their speech mannerisms and behavior. I think part of what makes a good character is the impression that they leave on others, and by specifying your own speech mannerisms you take out as many interpretive differences between you and them as possible.

If you can't understand them because their typing is weird... RP it. Say that their accent is so thick, or that you couldn't understand. You never know, maybe they're trying to RP someone with a speech impediment or accent so thick that they can't be understood, and it's easier than appending -every- say or tell emote with something that states that. It's also true that what's hard to understand to some may not be to others, so stating objectively in an emote that it's hard to understand them seems like a less favorable option than letting the players decide for themselves.

[Ocotillo]

From Help Accents -

"Accents are a manner of speaking characteristic of a region or city. On Armageddon, when a character chooses a starting location in the Hall of Kings, they are given the virtual accent of that location. This means when they speak, people from other regions may be able to tell which region they are from. Using region specific words and slang is still highly encouraged, but this feature gives a coded indication of where someone is from."

[AmandaGreathouse]

Words and slang aren't the same thing as sticking commas in speech like a pincushion though.

[maxid]

From Help Accents -

"Accents are a manner of speaking characteristic of a region or city. On Armageddon, when a character chooses a starting location in the Hall of Kings, they are given the virtual accent of that location. This means when they speak, people from other regions may be able to tell which region they are from. Using region specific words and slang is still highly encouraged, but this feature gives a coded indication of where someone is from."

Holy shit I can do it too.  And actually be relevant!!!!

[Ocotillo]

Think both are kind of relevant, really. You're right: the code already shows an indication of what sort of accent you have. The help file then goes on to emphasize that the code is not a substitute for all further depiction of your speech.

I have no interest in defending the strawman extremes people can take accented speech to, but the help file pretty clearly suggests that it's not just allowed but encouraged to do a little bit to dress up your speech.

[maxid]

There was no argument that slang/IC words were an element.  The docs state, specifically, that you can and should add 'region specific words and slang.'  If you are going to phrase it in a way that suggests that you can/should apostrophe soup, then I'll point out that that is not, at all, what it actually says.  As AmandaGreathouse did.

[Synthesis]

Y'kin 'ave me 'postrophes when ye pry'em from me cold, dead fingers, mate.

[musashi]

I say fight fire with fire.

Whenever you see someone doing the apostrophe shuffle ... do the same thing but use some other random character from your keyboard.

I s%e you% apo%tro%he an% ra%se y%u a per%ent%ge sy%bol!

[Celest]

There was no argument that slang/IC words were an element.  The docs state, specifically, that you can and should add 'region specific words and slang.'  If you are going to phrase it in a way that suggests that you can/should apostrophe soup, then I'll point out that that is not, at all, what it actually says.  As AmandaGreathouse did.

The docs don't state that adding your own speech impediments, slurs, or mannerisms is verbotten, and I see nothing that says all non-slang/region-specific speech must be kept into say emotes or else the player will be flogged. This just seems like another case of people getting mad that other people aren't RPing the way they want.

[musashi]

Honestly I haven't seen people do it in forever. It was a fad in the 'rinth for awhile, and now it's just a running gag. Like Bynners and the Shield Wall.

[Jdr]

and dwarfs speaking like this

[maxid]

The docs don't state that adding your own speech impediments, slurs, or mannerisms is verbotten, and I see nothing that says all non-slang/region-specific speech must be kept into say emotes or else the player will be flogged. This just seems like another case of people getting mad that other people aren't RPing the way they want.

Those should be rarer than they are, and far more legible.  If you want to go through the trouble of making something that unique, you should be willing to make it fun to interact with.  Imagine you were deaf RL.  Apostrophe salad, and strangely typed words are going to be near incomprehensible.  Imagine you're ESL, again, it's going to throw you for a larger loop than it should.  Especially since, for the most part, that person is actually talking -really close to what you easily understand ICly.- 

My argument against every over letter being an apostrophe, and every third word being some crazy variation (I to Ah, for example) has been strawmanned into me not wanting any variation.  And that's not the case.  But keep it legible people!  It's a text based game, not everyone is privy to the same background in english, and western media as you, and you are potentially making this game HARD on them, just to add some vague sort of flair to make your character omg special.  There are a dozen ways to alter the way your character speaks, that don't render the actual words difficult to read.  And the occasional apostrophe, for a cut off g, or what have you, at the end, is perfectly fine.

[musashi]

and dwarfs speaking like this

No dude ... all dwarves do speak like that. 

[Zoltan]

I don't think I've ever been too egregious in my scattering of apostrophes, but yeah... I'm going to keep doing it. The coded accents simply aren't enough, and I'll be damned if I'm putting clunky command emoted accent descriptors in my tells every time I use them.

AGH made a pretty good point about the Way. However, I usually end up writing those things out in my PC's "voice" simply out of habit. I tend to do thinks in their voice too, to better keep myself in character. Speech patterns are extremely important to me because they make up the majority of my interactions through my character. For both my enjoyment and ease of play with others, I try not to make things too indecipherable.

[Barzalene]

I don't think I've ever been too egregious in my scattering of apostrophes, but yeah... I'm going to keep doing it. The coded accents simply aren't enough, and I'll be damned if I'm putting clunky command emoted accent descriptors in my tells every time I use them.

AGH made a pretty good point about the Way. However, I usually end up writing those things out in my PC's "voice" simply out of habit. I tend to do thinks in their voice too, to better keep myself in character. Speech patterns are extremely important to me because they make up the majority of my interactions through my character. For both my enjoyment and ease of play with others, I try not to make things too indecipherable.

Fuck that Zoltan. You broke the game!

Turns out the apostrophe madness is all Zoltan's fault.

[Nao]

Speech emotes for speech variations leave very little room for interpretation. If my speech is a little off for my background, I want other PCs to notice that there's something off and leave the interpretation to them, not blatantly tell them that he sounds slightly rinthi-ish or more educated than he should be. I also don't want every Amos at the bar to notice just because they see the speech emotes. Especially not when they're not sitting at the same table or can't understand what he says.

Imagine you're ESL, again, it's going to throw you for a larger loop than it should.  Especially since, for the most part, that person is actually talking -really close to what you easily understand ICly.- 

My argument against every over letter being an apostrophe, and every third word being some crazy variation (I to Ah, for example) has been strawmanned into me not wanting any variation.  And that's not the case.  But keep it legible people!  It's a text based game, not everyone is privy to the same background in english, and western media as you, and you are potentially making this game HARD on them, just to add some vague sort of flair to make your character omg special. 

Hmm. ESL people need a pretty good grasp of English to play an RPI in the first place. I tried dragging some friends into mudding, but it never worked out because of their English skills. If you're worried about them, you need to ban words like swarthy, aquiline and anything else that I've never come across outside of a MUD. I remember reading the main description of a character and still having no idea what the guy looked like.

Accents really aren't all that bad. My first character on an RPI was a SOI goblin. They butchered speech to an insane degree. I had to look at says twice because I had never seen this before. This wasn't a problem because I picked it up pretty fast. It later helped cover up my own grammar mistakes (I feel like I'm allowed to make some).

[MeTekillot]

I'd be pretty happy if I encountered a dwarf that was consistently well spoken.

[musashi]

I'd be pretty happy if I encountered a dwarf that was consistently well spoken.

I have seen some dwarves that spoke like lovable retards in sirihish, but became very eloquent when speaking their own language. I thought that was kind of cool.

[Reiloth]

I use apostrophes when I want my character to sound Southern. He isn't going to the bar, he's goin'.

I had a few rinther characters that used apostrophes pretty extensively. If you don't like it, try to come up with an IC reason to kill my character and eliminate the problem. I ain't gettin' rid of my dang-nabbed 'postrophes, neither.

[maxid]

I use apostrophes when I want my character to sound Southern. He isn't going to the bar, he's goin'.

I had a few rinther characters that used apostrophes pretty extensively. If you don't like it, try to come up with an IC reason to kill my character and eliminate the problem. I ain't gettin' rid of my dang-nabbed 'postrophes, neither.

So if I don't like an OOC aspect you forcibly inserted into the world, unnecessarily, since there is a coded 'southern accent' and there's logically no reason for Allanak you sound like the southern united states... I should ICly kill your character?

Just so I'm clear on what you're saying.

[Saellyn]

I'm pretty sure if you hate the way he talks ICly, it's IC to kill him for it. Just saying.

[Kalai]

My dwarves are decently-spoken, it's other characters who get some weirdness thrown in. This may be because they're exposed to and influenced by a whole mismash of accents and get it all mixed up.  But there's no 'in a mishmash of southern-rinthi-tribal-northern accent'.