The figure in the dusty blah blah wearing the bloodied blah

Started by Bestatte, January 19, 2005, 09:10:17 AM


Oh blech, description templates. Nothing would disinterest me more.

Okay edited because I didn't see the numbered part. I STILL think it's not a very good idea. There are people who are terrific with metaphors and similes, and some people who are better at doing just plain sentences. Still others like a combo of both, while even others are lousy writers who need help constantly.

A template would force everyone to write in a similar manner. While it might help keep people from figuring out who plays who, it would eventually make everyone start to look exactly alike after time.

Check out muds that have this sort of thing, and you'll see what I mean.

The "template" wouldn't hinder anyone's writing ability.

Metaphors and similes would still refer to a single part of the body, or the whole body. If it applied to the whole character then it couldn't be edited out,  unless the whole body was hidden, which would just be invis/hide so no one without the proper skills would see them anyway. And because of the numbered arrangement they could organize it however they want.

Show me an example of how this would hinder someone's writing ability. Show me a sample description that would be affected by this, and I'll show you how it wouldn't.

It would take some getting used to in the beginning, but people would get the hang of it.

Maybe there could be four decisions before you write your mdesc.(Though I think only #1 and #4 would be necessary.)

1) Old school(Nothing edited out when appropriate gear is worn)
2) Eyes, nose, lips, hands, etc.
3) Main body parts.
4) Choose the body parts you want to describe from a list:
Quote1.) Hair
2.) Head
3.) Nose
4.) Eyes
5.) Eyebrows
6.) Lips
7.) Cheeks
8.) Chin
9.) Neck
10.) Shoulders
11.) Arms
12.) Torso
13.) Hands
14.) Fingers
15.) Hips
16.) Waist
17.) Legs
18.) Feet
19.) Other(Additional features that wouldn't be edited out)


Select: 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 17, 19

You'd then be prompted to describe each thing seperately, then later on, prompted on the order you wish them to appear.

Quote1.) Hair
2.) Head
3.) Nose
4.) Eyes
5.) Eyebrows
6.) Lips
8.) Chin
9.) Neck
10.) Shoulders
11.) Arms
12.) Torso
13.) Hands
15.) Waist
17.) Legs
18.) Feet
19.) Other(Additional features that wouldn't be edited out)


Select: 1,2,4, 12, and two others of your choice.

Editted to what I would do.
Quote from: Shoka Windrunner on April 16, 2008, 10:34:00 AM
Arm is evil.  And I love it.  It's like the softest, cuddliest, happy smelling teddy bear in the world, except it is stuffed with meth needles that inject you everytime

No, no, a thousand times no. I'm not interested in changing my entire style of writing just to fit a game's code. That's one of the biggest attractions to my coming to Arm in the first place.

A generic, typical description of -mine- using my style of writing:

Dusty-blue eyes flank a broad nose, her high cheekbones angling down toward full lips and a clefted chin.

One sentence describing all the main features on her face.

Now you're telling me I'd have to have a seperate sentence for each part of her face, JUST so her mouth and nostrils can be covered by a veil? Fuggedaboudit. Keep it the way it is, and reinforce the "appropriate" roleplay of people who wear veils and the people who observe them.


It's been covered in the past. Several times, in several threads. I came up with one idea, augmenting someone else's idea, to have *complete* secondary descriptions for when you're wearing a head-covering that obscures the face. Some people liked the idea, most didn't. Now you're suggesting even more limitations to descriptions, by requiring that everyone include each "descriptive part" of their body in a seperate sentence just on the offchance that this particular body part might be covered at some point. I don't like this at all.


Went ahead and nabbed a sample description from the site for a demonstration.

the platinum haired elf

Quote1.) Hair
2.) Head
3.) Nose
4.) Eyes
5.) Eyebrows
6.) Lips
7.) Cheeks
8.) Chin
9.) Neck
10.) Shoulders
11.) Arms
12.) Torso
13.) Hands
14.) Fingers
15.) Hips
16.) Waist
17.) Legs
18.) Feet
19.) Ears added because i forgot
20.) Other(Additional features that wouldn't be edited out)


Select: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 19, 20


Please describe the hair: Long hair, the color of platinum, sweeps back sharply from the forehead of this elven male. The hair cascades down his back, falling nearly to his thin waist in a straight mass of shining white.
~


Please describe the nose: a long, straight nose, that shows just a smattering of freckles on it's surface.
~


Please describe the eyes:His two almond shaped, brown eyes are neatly accentuated by the point of his widow's peak,
~


Please describe the eyebrows: which swoops down nearly to his ivory colored, thin eyebrows.
~


Please describe the lips: Full pouting lips rest under
~


Please describe the ears: Two long, angular ears rear up out of the mass of white hair on the elf's head, once again contrasting with the white of his hair, and complementing the darkness of the rest of his body.
~


Please describe the first misc. feature: All of the white of his hair stands out starkly against the mahogany canvas of his skin, which appears to be naturally dark, but harshly burned by the rays of Suk-Krath into an even deeper shade of brown.
~


What order would you like these features to appear in?
1.)Hair
2.)Nose
3.)Eyes
4.)Eyebrows
5.)Lips
6.)Ears
7.)Other
> 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 7

Long hair, the color of platinum, sweeps back sharply from the forehead of this elven male. The hair cascades down his back, falling nearly to his thin waist in a straight mass of shining white. His two almond shaped, brown eyes are neatly accentuated by the point of his widow's peak, which swoops down nearly to his ivory colored, thin eyebrows. Full pouting lips rest under a long, straight nose, that shows just a smattering of freckles on it's surface. Two long, angular ears rear up out of the mass of white hair on the elf's head, once again contrasting with the white of his hair, and complementing the darkness of the rest of his body. All of the white of his hair stands out starkly against the mahogany canvas of his skin, which appears to be naturally dark, but harshly burned by the rays of Suk-Krath into an even deeper shade of brown.
Is this correct?  No

What order would you like them to appear in?
> 1, 3, 4, 7, 5, 2, 6

Long hair, the color of platinum, sweeps back sharply from the forehead of this elven male. The hair cascades down his back, falling nearly to his thin waist in a straight mass of shining white. His two almond shaped, brown eyes are neatly accentuated by the point of his widow's peak, which swoops down nearly to his ivory colored, thin eyebrows. All of the white of his hair stands out starkly against the mahogany canvas of his skin, which appears to be naturally dark, but harshly burned by the rays of Suk-Krath into an even deeper shade of brown. Full, pouting lips rest under a long, straight nose, that shows just a smattering of freckles on its surface. Two long, angular ears rear up out of the mass of white hair on the elf's head, once again contrasting with the white of his hair, and complementing the darkness of the rest of his body.
Is this correct? Yes




EDIT: Point made, Bestatte. It would be too difficult to properly implement and please the majority of the player-base.

Hmm.

I was against the idea, although I saw it's 'usefulness'  now Im warming up though to that last post.
Veteran Newbie

I like it.
-X-_

> sing (dancing around with a wand in one hand) Put that together and what do you got?  Ximminy Xamminy, Ximminy Xamminy, Ximminy Xamminy Xoo!

Yeah, that looks pretty cool.
your mother is an elf.


Quote from: "Bestatte"Now you're telling me I'd have to have a seperate sentence for each part of her face, JUST so her mouth and nostrils can be covered by a veil?

Why does each number have to be a sentence? Why can't it be a phrase?

Ideally, you should be able to incorporate any desc into this template with minor to no modifications.

If one of those phrases, let's say eyes, is mixed in with a sentence describing other parts of the face, when you stick the sunslits on, the face sentence has a high probability of becoming nonsense unless you spend a lot of time double-checking every possible outfit to make sure it results in a sensible desc.  Me, I like the idea at heart, I really do, but I just don't see it ever being possible.  In fact, I had thought of this before, and thought it was an original idea.  The ideal, of course, is for people to try to roleplay realistically what their chars are seeing.  I think striving for that ideal is the best we're going to be able to manage.

Here's why. We'll use the description already written a few posts above, using the method suggested by the writer.

Quote
Long hair, the color of platinum, sweeps back sharply from the forehead of this elven male. The hair cascades down his back, falling nearly to his thin waist in a straight mass of shining white. His two almond shaped, brown eyes are neatly accentuated by the point of his widow's peak, which swoops down nearly to his ivory colored, thin eyebrows. All of the white of his hair stands out starkly against the mahogany canvas of his skin, which appears to be naturally dark, but harshly burned by the rays of Suk-Krath into an even deeper shade of brown. Full, pouting lips rest under a long, straight nose, that shows just a smattering of freckles on its surface. Two long, angular ears rear up out of the mass of white hair on the elf's head, once again contrasting with the white of his hair, and complementing the darkness of the rest of his body.

Now this elf decides to wear a belt. That goes around his waist. So the second sentence becomes:

QuoteThe hair cascades down his back, falling nearly to his His two almond shaped, brown eyes..blahblahblah.

Now he puts a pair of sunslits on, which cover only his eyes and nose, leaving his lips exposed. The sentence in the middle becomes:

QuoteFull, pouting lips rest under Two long, angular ears rear up...blahblahblah

That's why it won't work as a phrase. Unless as joyofdiscord says, you have an IMM spend hours upon hours going through each application to make sure it doesn't conflict with every possible body-covering combination first.