A Plea to SocietyFollow

I've been playing this game for as long as it's been around in North America. I'm positive I've met some of the nicest people in the entire world on this game. I'm sure many of these nice people also have a high degree of intelligence.

Why, then, do better than 95% of the people in this game have the most god-awful grammar? Almost nobody capitalizes their sentences. No one uses a punctuation mark at the end of their sentences unless asking a question, or using multiple exclamation marks. Commas are completely forgotten, or excessively used in the wrong places. No one seems to know what an apostrophe is.

Then there's netspeak. I hope the boiler room in AOL headquarters explodes now that they've unleashed this pox upon the world. I know for a fact that when most of you type "lol", you aren't really laughing at all. You aren't even smiling. You just type "lol" out of habit. As a person who knows how to read, I read what I see. When someone types "lol", I don't think "Oh, that person's laughing out loud." I think, "lol" as in "Lollapalooza". "rofl" is read as "roffle", "lmao" is "lum-ow", etc. When people laugh, they say "Ha ha ha", or "Heh heh heh". No one says "Laughing out loud!". And they certainly don't do it with the frequency the general net community does. I mean, really, it must be nice to be so happy that you laugh out loud at virtually everything.

Abbreviations. "ur" being substituted for "your" or "you're" is the one that broils my scrod the most. Again, reading what I see, I read "ur" as "URRR, I KNOW NO TYPING HOW DO I DO IT?? URRRRRRR". Personally, I don't see how many of you can do this. It actually takes me longer to type "ur" than it does to type "your" or "you're". Indeed, it takes more effort from me to type incorrectly in general.

Very often, I read these forums and see people actually practicing good writing habits. Then I see them talking in-game, and it's almost like a different person is writing. It seriously boggles my mind.

Of course, there are times when I can understand not taking extra care with the appearance of your writing. If English isn't your first language, in the middle of a battle, or if you lost your hands in an industrial accident and have to type with your nose, then I can understand where your writing may not be perfect in every way. Maybe you have webbed fingers. Maybe you play on PS2 and you're too cheap to buy a USB keyboard. Fine, you're forgiven.

Really, I would be happy if everyone just capitalized and punctuated their sentences. I feel like I see nothing but the middle of everyone's sentences when I talk to people in this game. The eradication of netspeak acronyms would make me the happiest Tarutaru in Vana'diel. I have no problem with game-related abbreviations (like DRK for Dark Knight, etc.), even though as a life-long gamer, PT has always meant "point" to me. I realize "PT" meaning "party" was probably started by the Japanese players.

Yes, I know that you pay your $15 a month or whatever, and you can type any way you want. This is nothing more than a rant, born from a year and a half of pent-up frustration from trying to decipher the words of people who are supposedly speaking the same language as me. And I know that this argument is as old as the Internet itself. Those of us who still know what the home row is need to keep fighting the good fight, though. Finally, I know I'm not gonna win the Nobel Prize in literature any time soon, but the important thing is I at least try to write correctly.

That's all I wanted to say.

Eekiki casts Barfire.
Eekiki gains the effect of Barfire.

Your asking too much of the world. Nobody really wants to type correctly, since many people come home from a stressful job/school day (For people that have a desk job or comp. lab at times in the day) and just wanna kick back. Nobody wants to type "the good way," its kinda like revisiting what makes you stressed out all day... but anywho thats just what I think, my opinion doesn't count for much.

Edited, Thu May 26 18:08:00 2005 by xPhlankxx

cuz it dont matter.

In case you weren't just being sarcastic, the home row consists of the A, S, D, F, J, K, L, and ; keys on your keyboard. For people who touch-type, it's where your fingers rest when you aren't typing anything.

Edit: Agh, you beat me to it, Min. Don't worry too much about it, though. I have a never-ending supply of patience. ^_^

Edited, Thu May 26 19:27:01 2005 by Eekiki

Do you speak with perfect grammer and everything when you speak? Probably not. Well people in FFXI use web lingo to get emotion shown quick and easy. I would much rather type..

"woot i beat maatz *** in G5 lol" (Which I am going to do soon for blm hopefully!)

than

"O yay! I won my battle against Maat in Geneaki number 5. (and I feel good)"

Not only does the grammer correct one look incredibly gay, it took me about 4x longer to type.

So go see a phychiatrist, get that Obsessive Compulsive thing fixed, and get over it.

TY

err... I mean Thank You

I really didn't know what home row was

<--- fastest 6 fingered typer in the west

As I said, I'm patient to a fault about some things. I'm certain you've never seen me correcting people's spelling and grammar in LS chat. ^_^

I just had to rant, and now I can continue to silently tolerate it for a further year and a half.

eh hehe yeh i dont see u do it. u know how our ls chat can sometimes be... x.x bleh. (i think it happens especially when people just woke up or are really tired from playing all night :p)

and yeh liq, i'll agree with you there. your you're and ur >.> sometimes i wonder why people who have spoken english since.. ever?.. can't speak it correctly (or in this case, type it correctly)

pardon my caps and puncs, just too lazy to fix it. just finished tons of editting x.x gagagagaga

I'm hoping you anticipated flames because this issue has bean beaten into the ground (dead horse).

However, with replies like Zaryun's, maybe it was to deflect the heat from the people who think AOL speak will be mainstream in the future. Only a small percentage of the population would even know what roflmao would mean.

edit: omgwtfbbq forgot 's on Zaryun xD

Edited, Fri May 27 14:36:42 2005 by Jaffar

Yes, they were speaking the same English as we are today. I can still read and understand the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence (even if the government can't). And I highly doubt anyone listened to Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address and thought "omg wut a *** lolz".

Netspeak is not English at all. If you don't believe me, look it up in the dictionary. The closest you'll find is the word "loll", which means, "to act or move in a lax, lazy, or indolent manner". Kind of fitting, isn't it?

And yeah, I was expecting to get flamed more. Really, I was expecting a torrent of "STFU"s (stuffoo) to be thrown in my direction.

One of the excuses many Japanese players like to use for the rash of "JP ONLY" search comments is that many of us butcher our own language, and they don't want to waste their energy trying to figure out what we're saying. It would really be nice to give them one less excuse to ostracize us.

Sorry to rant more (and to bring up another age-old argument), but the notion that English is deteriorating just made me mad again.

Edit: Pillgrim brought up a compelling point, but I guess was too afraid to post his thoughts publicly, so he sent me a PM.



Touche, Pillgrim...Touche... /nod

Edited, Fri May 27 15:35:20 2005 by Eekiki

OMG! wat r u talking bout'? I use teh bestest grammar on teh server! Pwned! woot! I is the secksiest and you suxors


Honestly, grammar has no proven relation to intellect, proven study guy. Do some google on language syntex... On another note the use of all the above grammar is just a small sample of what happens in every sub-culture, it's own adaption and use of language and culture. You should feel special to be a part of this unique experience, not pissed at some spelling...

While I see absolutely no reason to capitalize letters when I'm typing in game, my spelling is usually 100%. I simply don't want to take the time to write it all out "correctly", I aced my English classes long ago.

However, when somebody is writing something on this (or any) forum, I feel it's best to use correct spelling and punctuation so that people can easily read what you've got to say (and paragraphs, for the love of god people, use paragraphs).

That being said, I'm actually a bit of a spelling police when it comes to LS chat. I have a few pet peeves for words that are commonly misspelled (like misspelled!), but grammar I can deal with. People are trying to get the point across in as few keystrokes as possible, and I understand that. Sometimes, especially in a party, you need to give out orders (or requests, depending on the situation) to people quickly to avert death or a link.

Thats a bit ****. I'm willing to bet you are an English Lit major that prefers the use of British grammer because you prefer words to be aesthetically pleasing even if they do lack content. A good friend in college was one of "those"; fantastic writer, nice guy and very **** retentive.
Perhaps, you might want to consider that technology is advancing far more rapidly then humanity can keep up. Another option, is that you may want to consider that the form of communication used on the internet could well be defined as a language or even a dialect similier to Ebonix. (I can already imagine the proverbial can of worms I have just opened)
-Devils Advocate