johnlawrenceaspden 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: johnlawrenceaspden 16 April 2016 03:36:51PM 0 points [-]

Cabinet Minister: On se tutoie?

Mitterand: Si vous voulez.

Actually it's dying out in French (or possibly going back to being a singular/plural distinction rather than a familiar form), I sound gloriously stuffy because I'm not very good at the tu forms and tend to call people vous even once I've been properly introduced. My French teacher said "You will never know anyone French well enough to call them tu, so there's not much point in learning that, except for the exam". That was probably true in the 1950s.

In Greek and German it's even worse, the second person singular and plural are both familiar, for friends and family only. With strangers you have to say things like: "Would the gentleman care for a glass of beer", and sound like some sort of creepy servant.