Nornagest comments on Open Thread April 11 - April 17, 2016 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Clarity 10 April 2016 09:01PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 13 April 2016 05:32:05PM 4 points [-]

Games typically will avoid pronouns and just use the character's name. It's not hard because most of the dialogue in games is addressed to the player and is not two NPCs talking about the player.

Are there any games which encourage a you/thou distinction?

In English the only reason to use thou would be some fake medievalism along the lines of Ye Olde Electronics Shoppe. But I wonder how things work in e.g. French where tu/vous distinction is alive and well.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 13 April 2016 09:25:34PM -2 points [-]

I was thinking about chat between players.

Comment author: Nornagest 13 April 2016 10:19:59PM *  1 point [-]

It's hard to get players to use specific speech patterns, and harder to teach them to get it right. I've worked on a game which tried to get players to use pseudo-Elizabethan prose (in a particularly ham-handed way, granted), but in practice what happened was the people who didn't care just used natural speech, and the people that did used whatever butchered old-timey dialect they thought would be appropriate for their character. Most people didn't care.