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.