Big words!

[NOFUN]

tl;dr

[maxid]

I hate funny accents typed out l'k' th's b'cuas' i' sh'ws h'w 'n'dooc't'd th' 'r.

What's wrong with say (in a rough, commoner accent) blah blah blah.

An easy way to fix it would be to split accents between rough northern, rough southern and refined northern, and refined southern.  Not really all that on topic, but I hate sitting there trying to decipher your idiotic bullshit, because you can't figure out how to get across that your character isn't speaking perfectly, except by making them an absolute caricature.

[X-D]

HEHE.

I cannot even count the number of times my PC has done this.

em looks blankly at odd talking person for a moment.

tell odd talking person SPEAK SIRIHISH FOOL!

Odd talking person says in rinthi accented sirihish, "Bu' ah 'm.

tell odd talking person Go away.

em pointedly ignores odd talking person from here on out.

[Bilanthri]

Yea, there should be an arm seminar about when and where an apostrophe can be used. It is possible to use them to convey a lazy speech pattern without completely obfuscating your meaning. Sound it out.

Ah don' like tha way yer lookin' at me, grebber.
Mebbe ah'll show ya tha sharp end'a mah sword, huh?

[MeTekillot]

I visualize characters like that as Bad Man from GTA IV.

Example.

[maxid]

Yea, there should be an arm seminar about when and where an apostrophe can be used. It is possible to use them to convey a lazy speech pattern without completely obfuscating your meaning. Sound it out.

Ah don' like tha way yer lookin' at me, grebber.
Mebbe ah'll show ya tha sharp end'a mah sword, huh?

Even this is annoying as shit, just FYI.

[Bilanthri]

I visualize characters like that as Bad Man from GTA IV.

Example.

Hah! Good example, though Badman's speech is strewn with Rasta vernacular which is such a localized dialect that it could almost be considered a different language.

"Ya Rudeboy, lemme tell'a sometin. Ya'see'f fish could keep der mout cloas, dem wouldn' get caught Rudeboy."

Edit: The above isn't really an example of Rasta vernacular, but it was my favorite of Badman's sayings.

[Drayab]

Yea, there should be an arm seminar about when and where an apostrophe can be used. It is possible to use them to convey a lazy speech pattern without completely obfuscating your meaning. Sound it out.

Ah don' like tha way yer lookin' at me, grebber.
Mebbe ah'll show ya tha sharp end'a mah sword, huh?

Even this is annoying as shit, just FYI.

I disagree. Using these two examples,

say (in a rough, low-born accent) I don't like the way you are looking at me, grebber.

say Ah don' like tha way yer lookin' at me, grebber.

The reason I prefer the second one comes from the idea that it is better to show the reader what you are portraying as opposed to telling them. The first one certainly gets the job done, but it is uninspired.

[Ocotillo]

Whenever I have a character with an 'accent' I just pick two or three simple things - dropping 'gs' (droppin', killin'), the traditional rinthi th' for the, maybe one more like saying 'yeh' or 'da.' A consistent accent is far more convincing, and a little less irritating, than just throwing random apostrophes and misspellings everywhere.

[Drayab]

Oh, no doubt about that. Part of my character design process is to decide how they talk, and you know you're pulling it off when other characters do impressions of your character IG and it comes off convincingly.

[maxid]

Yea, there should be an arm seminar about when and where an apostrophe can be used. It is possible to use them to convey a lazy speech pattern without completely obfuscating your meaning. Sound it out.

Ah don' like tha way yer lookin' at me, grebber.
Mebbe ah'll show ya tha sharp end'a mah sword, huh?

Even this is annoying as shit, just FYI.

I disagree. Using these two examples,

say (in a rough, low-born accent) I don't like the way you are looking at me, grebber.

say Ah don' like tha way yer lookin' at me, grebber.

The reason I prefer the second one comes from the idea that it is better to show the reader what you are portraying as opposed to telling them. The first one certainly gets the job done, but it is uninspired.

There is precedent for having accents being simply told to the reader, (southern-accented sirihish) etc.  You're not doing anything but making it more difficult for the player to read.  And accent is something you hear ONLY if your own accent is different.  A guy from the south doesn't hear an accent as being slow sounding (I'm from the south, and stereotypically it's the 'dumb' accent) or uneducated.  You're assuming a standard (properly typed English) that doesn't actually exist, because to a person with the same accent, you are perfectly understandable.  Since you cannot specify that to other rinthis it should be proper English, and to southsiders, it should be a nigh incomprehensible wordvomit, you should use the TELL method of Rping.  

My point is reinforced by the fact that when someone is speaking in the same accent as you?  The code doesn't list an accent.  Quit making your speech harder to read for no reason, because you think it's a cool unique character quirk (its not).  Unless your character is literally brain damaged, the accent they have is going to be related to the people they grew up with and, for the vast majority of people, it's going to be the same/almost exactly the same as the people around you, so there is NO NEED for the stupid shortening.   And, when a person's accent actually does differ?  The code already tells people!



edit: Little stuff, like ya'll, gonna, ain't, lookin', etc. is fine.  But when you start using AH instead of I, or cutting off half the words, you look retarded.  Because people who have the same accent as you (GENERALLY: FUCKING EVERYONE YOU'RE AROUND) will not hear 'ah' they'll hear I.


edit 2: VVVV This, this all day long.  Please for the love of god do this, don't write like a flailing rhesus monkey is attacking your keyboard, just use simpler vernacular. VVVV

[Delirium]

You can use simpler words to convey a simple sentence without having to break out the 'ahs' and 'yers'. Maybe throw in some favorite words or modes of expression.

Yeah, mate, I'm gonna hit the Gaj tonight. Let's get drunk.

vs

Yes, I'll be at the Traders' tonight, if you'd like to share a glass of wine.

[Synthesis]

Y'all is the contraction of you all, and is spelled y'all, not ya'll.

That's all, y'all.

[Booya]

My point is reinforced by the fact that when someone is speaking in the same accent as you?  The code doesn't list an accent.  Quit making your speech harder to read for no reason, because you think it's a cool unique character quirk (its not).  Unless your character is literally brain damaged, the accent they have is going to be related to the people they grew up with and, for the vast majority of people, it's going to be the same/almost exactly the same as the people around you, so there is NO NEED for the stupid shortening.   And, when a person's accent actually does differ?  The code already tells people!



edit: Little stuff, like ya'll, gonna, ain't, lookin', etc. is fine.  But when you start using AH instead of I, or cutting off half the words, you look retarded.  Because people who have the same accent as you (GENERALLY: FUCKING EVERYONE YOU'RE AROUND) will not hear 'ah' they'll hear I.


edit 2: VVVV This, this all day long.  Please for the love of god do this, don't write like a flailing rhesus monkey is attacking your keyboard, just use simpler vernacular. VVVV

Wow - you really hate it huh?

But seriously...what's it like in America? Because here in England each area in cities have loads of different accents, different schools have different ways of speaking, different family quirks, people swing through different varieties of accents mid sentence - all sorts!

It's purely a personal 'taste' issue - not something that can be a right or wrong way to do things. Personally, I find it boring if everyone 'sounds' like educated Americans. I like the fact everybody doesn't speak the same. It adds flavour, adds realism when you have trouble understanding everybody equally, and I don't find it annoyin'.

Make your character have a problem with it and deal with it IC? Or send in a complaint.

Bitching about it on the GDB just makes me w' t' d' i' m', t' b' h. J' t' p' y' o'!

[Drayab]

Maxid, how do you feel about The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin? There are certainly people on both sides of the debate over whether it is 'proper' to write in the vernacular, but at the same time there are few that would equate his writing with wordvomit or rhesus monkey flailing. He serves as an example of somebody that is good at it.

As for the code already handling accents, do you think that everybody that starts with the southern accented talks exactly the same, from the lowest grebber all the way to High Lord Fancy Pants?

[Bilanthri]

Maxid, what began as a comment about sentences being literally unreadable due to flawed punctuation has now become a personal style argument. You clearly have taken offense at the method I choose to convey some character's speech patterns, but the fact remains that it is comprehensible in the form I presented. Just because you assume I am one of those who considers the accents of the Southern US (of which there are quite a few) to equate to "dumb" or "uneducated" does not mean that you should try to prove it being being declarative, reactionary, and vulgar. This, FYI, is "annoying as shit".

[maxid]

Just because you assume I am one of those who considers the accents of the Southern US (of which there are quite a few) to equate to "dumb" or "uneducated" does not mean that you should try to prove it being being declarative, reactionary, and vulgar. This, FYI, is "annoying as shit".

I didn't assume that at all.  I stated a fact that it is typically used to indicate a slower or uneducated person in modern western media.  Sorry you decided to take it all personally or whatever?

Drayab - No, but that is where things like the manner in which you say something (I'm gonna go get drunk vs. I am going to go have a glass of wine) that can indicate somewhat how you're speaking.  As can using say (in a fancy schmancy manner of speaking) blah blah.  Though, there will be little to no variation within 'southern' and 'northern' accents, because each city is less than a million people, and they have had thousands of years for it to unify into one more or less standard accent.  This is not RL.  This is a very small actual population, with a very regimented and regulated society.

[Bilanthri]

Sorry you decided to take it all personally or whatever?

Ahh, my mistake. I read your post wrong. You were just stating your opinion, rather than informing me that my opinion is annoying.

...
Ah don' like tha way yer lookin' at me, grebber.
Mebbe ah'll show ya tha sharp end'a mah sword, huh?

Even this is annoying as shit, IMHO

FTFY

[maxid]

Thought that was understood, when there's a disagreement about things.  Even if my opinion is backed up by experience, and other parts of the game (the fact that accents are already coded into the game, making your opinion on how to rp them entirely objectively redundant, rather than useful in any way shape or form) it is still just an opinion.

[Kalai]

Consider the awkwardness of the phrasing,

'The tall, muscular man says in a rough, low-born accent, in a northern accent,"Let's go to the bar."'

[Ocotillo]

Just because you assume I am one of those who considers the accents of the Southern US (of which there are quite a few) to equate to "dumb" or "uneducated" does not mean that you should try to prove it being being declarative, reactionary, and vulgar. This, FYI, is "annoying as shit".

Drayab - No, but that is where things like the manner in which you say something (I'm gonna go get drunk vs. I am going to go have a glass of wine) that can indicate somewhat how you're speaking.  As can using say (in a fancy schmancy manner of speaking) blah blah.  Though, there will be little to no variation within 'southern' and 'northern' accents, because each city is less than a million people, and they have had thousands of years for it to unify into one more or less standard accent.  This is not RL.  This is a very small actual population, with a very regimented and regulated society.

Doesn't the regimentation of society just encourage differentiation between castes, though?

[maxid]

Doesn't the regimentation of society just encourage differentiation between castes, though?

Absolutely.  Which is why I said the game might benefit from (rough southern-accented sirihish) vs. (refined southern-accented sirihish).  However, the population is also startlingly low, so accents will neutralize.

[Bilanthri]

Thought that was understood, when there's a disagreement about things.  Even if my opinion is backed up by experience, and other parts of the game (the fact that accents are already coded into the game, making your opinion on how to rp them entirely objectively redundant, rather than useful in any way shape or form) it is still just an opinion.

Given that this is a thread dedicated to textual/verbal presentation, I feel inclined to mention that it's all in how you phrase it.

[maxid]

Consider the awkwardness of the phrasing,

'The tall, muscular man says in a rough, low-born accent, in a northern accent,"Let's go to the bar."'

The tall, muscular man says, his speech uneducated, in a northern accent, "Let's go to the bar."  Still a bit awkward, but with clever phrasing it can work, be understandable, and not be super redundant.

[Drayab]

Consider the awkwardness of the phrasing,

'The tall, muscular man says in a rough, low-born accent, in a northern accent,"Let's go to the bar."'

The tall, muscular man says, his speech uneducated, in a northern accent, "Let's go to the bar."  Still a bit awkward, but with clever phrasing it can work, be understandable, and not be super redundant.

Excuse my nitpicking, but there's nothing about the phrase "Let's go to the bar" that implies anything about the speaker's level of education.The reader is left to try to imagine how that actually works, and I'd challenge you to find two readers that imagine it the same way. This is a good example of why it is better to show rather than to tell.