SE: Please tone it down a hair

[Teakwood]

An example of Old English, by the way, for those who seem to be confused:

Cnut cyning gret his arcebiscopas and his leod-biscopas and Þurcyl eorl and ealle his eorlas and ealne his þeodscype, twelfhynde and twyhynde, gehadode and læwede, on Englalande freondlice.

And ic cyðe eow, þæt ic wylle beon hold hlaford and unswicende to godes gerihtum and to rihtre woroldlage.

Ic nam me to gemynde þa gewritu and þa word, þe se arcebiscop Lyfing me fram þam papan brohte of Rome, þæt ic scolde æghwær godes lof upp aræran and unriht alecgan and full frið wyrcean be ðære mihte, þe me god syllan wolde.

The dialogue is flowery, peppered with archaisms and local flavour, which either: are confusing and overwrought, or: add an immense amount of character and weight to the in-character world they're trying to establish, modulo one's opinions on purple prose.

But it's not "Old English". It's not even Chaucer's English. Hell, it's more modern than Shakespeare's English, with a few deliberate archaisms thrown in here and there.

(Unless you count Roegadyn given names. Those are, in fact, inspired by Old English, which is why they are all spelled so ridiculously.)

[UmJammerSully]

Fortuitous for we are bestowed with a myriad of wonderous options in this magnanimous world. Perchance the enlightened citizens of Eorzea shall be graced with literary concepts becomming to their most esteemed stature. Mayhap, those befuddled by the complexities of such literary yarns can find a quantum of solace in other avenues of pleasure. (Or a dictionary)

There is nothing at all difficult about the reading level of XIV. Perhaps you need to bring your reading level up, rather than have the writing fine-tuned to something more appropriate for grade schoolers.

On the contrary, the dialogue in this game is -incredibly excellent-.

Please do not 'tone it down' for illiterate mouthbreathers who will be spamming Enter through cutscenes one way or the other.

Please.

Once you guys are done with smelling your own farts, maybe you can accept that long, drawn out and convoluted monologues do not make for interesting reading for most players and do not make compelling stories or interesting characters.

[Zumi]

I agree the writing is so horrible I just spam enter and skip lots of cut scenes. Most of it is not easy to understand. In FFXI I actually read the quests and stuff but FFXIV I just skip that stuff.

[Caliburn]

An example of Old English, by the way, for those who seem to be confused:



The dialogue is flowery, peppered with archaisms and local flavour, which either: are confusing and overwrought, or: add an immense amount of character and weight to the in-character world they're trying to establish, modulo one's opinions on purple prose.

But it's not "Old English". It's not even Chaucer's English. Hell, it's more modern than Shakespeare's English, with a few deliberate archaisms thrown in here and there.

(Unless you count Roegadyn given names. Those are, in fact, inspired by Old English, which is why they are all spelled so ridiculously.)

There is no need to be pretentious. I'm not suggesting the characters actually speak Old English. I'm saying there is a certain vibe/concept SE seem to be going for which is reminiscent of clichéd medieval/fantasy speech.

[Kijimuna]

"These opinions mean about as much to me as a festering bowl of DOG SNOT!"

[UmJammerSully]

There is no need to be pretentious.

Par for the course with this thread. Half these people aren't interested in trying to make compelling arguments or anything, they've just found a golden opportunity to stroke their own e-peens and jumped on it.

[HiirNoivl]

There is no need to be pretentious. I'm not suggesting the characters actually speak Old English. I'm saying there is a certain vibe/concept SE seem to be going for which is reminiscent of clichéd medieval/fantasy speech.

But it's not, that's the thing. There's not a "thee" to be seen. But here's the problem. Let's take Nael's lieetl speach here. Referring to Dalamud:

Such a wondrous radiance...both magnificent and terrible. Truly, the soul can harbor no doubt that this is the light of creation! Even you must recognize that.

Then referring to what I just did:

Garlemald owes you a great debt, adventurer. Wholly without our prompting, you have now felled the primals of both fire and wind. Such ability and devotion commands even mine own respect.

Then after laughing for no reason.

You would do well to see reality for what it truly is─cold, cruel, unforgiving. No words could do justice to the great deeds that I have done, nor the countless hardships I have endured in their doing.

Uh huh...

Corpses litter the fields and choke the streets, and still your gods remain silent─utterly indifferent. Such gods are not fit for worship. As they gaze impassively upon our corpses, so let us gaze upon theirs. The gods are dead to us─we have no need of them.

I don't care about that. Get to the point.

So please, by all means, persist. Struggle to your heart's content. Struggle however you see fit. Struggle long. Struggle oft. And when at last you tire of struggling...summon up your courage and struggle some more!

/doze

For with every act of defiance, another drop of Eorzea's lifeblood shall be given over to the red moon. The crystals, the land, the primals─the power of all shall burn bright and shine down upon this realm a glorious purifying light!

There's the point! There it is! Yaaay!

And yet.... there are two more paragraphs left to read

SE is trying to shove hours of game-time's worth of lore into a single speech.

After killing Garuda, do you care about Darnus's views on religion? Do I really need to read the word "struggle" 6 times in a single sentence? What does his tales of derring-do have to do with anything?

[bobbygunz]

I don't read... any... of the text.

Not because I can't, but because I don't care. The variation of NPC speech ranges from upper class, to common, to pirate and... yeah that's it. None of the characters are likeable or memorable. I don't give a damn about that mithra Mary Sue singer/dancer character, for example, and I don't see why I should. Also, the voice acting is atrocious; the accents are clichéd beyond all belief.

I wish SE would make this world more quirky and unique rather than clawing at some overused, clichéd idea of medieval- and 'British'-ness.

Wow, go play Guild Wars 2 or any other Western MMO and talk to me about cliché.

[Majidah]

But it's not, that's the thing. There's not a "thee" to be seen. But here's the problem. Let's take Nael's lieetl speach here. Referring to Dalamud:

Such a wondrous radiance...both magnificent and terrible. Truly, the soul can harbor no doubt that this is the light of creation! Even you must recognize that.

Then referring to what I just did:

Garlemald owes you a great debt, adventurer. Wholly without our prompting, you have now felled the primals of both fire and wind. Such ability and devotion commands even mine own respect.

Then after laughing for no reason.

You would do well to see reality for what it truly is─cold, cruel, unforgiving. No words could do justice to the great deeds that I have done, nor the countless hardships I have endured in their doing.

Uh huh...

Corpses litter the fields and choke the streets, and still your gods remain silent─utterly indifferent. Such gods are not fit for worship. As they gaze impassively upon our corpses, so let us gaze upon theirs. The gods are dead to us─we have no need of them.

I don't care about that. Get to the point.

So please, by all means, persist. Struggle to your heart's content. Struggle however you see fit. Struggle long. Struggle oft. And when at last you tire of struggling...summon up your courage and struggle some more!

/doze

For with every act of defiance, another drop of Eorzea's lifeblood shall be given over to the red moon. The crystals, the land, the primals─the power of all shall burn bright and shine down upon this realm a glorious purifying light!

There's the point! There it is! Yaaay!

And yet.... there are two more paragraphs left to read

I think there's a group of people who are way too arrogant to realize that even people in the old DIDN'T SPEAK LIKE THAT.
The language in the streets wasn't the same as one in an old english play. Peasants and commoners didn't speak in such convoluted manner.

It seems like every single weaver, blacksmith and orphan in the streets of Eorzea is a playwright who for some reason are reading out loud to anyone who passes something they wrote.

Funniest thing is that they speak of things that aren't even reflected in the world... but that's a whole different matter and I don't want to derail the topic.

[Starlord]

But it's not, that's the thing. There's not a "thee" to be seen. But here's the problem. Let's take Nael's lieetl speach here. Referring to Dalamud:

Such a wondrous radiance...both magnificent and terrible. Truly, the soul can harbor no doubt that this is the light of creation! Even you must recognize that.

Then referring to what I just did:

Garlemald owes you a great debt, adventurer. Wholly without our prompting, you have now felled the primals of both fire and wind. Such ability and devotion commands even mine own respect.

Then after laughing for no reason.

You would do well to see reality for what it truly is─cold, cruel, unforgiving. No words could do justice to the great deeds that I have done, nor the countless hardships I have endured in their doing.

Uh huh...

Corpses litter the fields and choke the streets, and still your gods remain silent─utterly indifferent. Such gods are not fit for worship. As they gaze impassively upon our corpses, so let us gaze upon theirs. The gods are dead to us─we have no need of them.

I don't care about that. Get to the point.

So please, by all means, persist. Struggle to your heart's content. Struggle however you see fit. Struggle long. Struggle oft. And when at last you tire of struggling...summon up your courage and struggle some more!

/doze

For with every act of defiance, another drop of Eorzea's lifeblood shall be given over to the red moon. The crystals, the land, the primals─the power of all shall burn bright and shine down upon this realm a glorious purifying light!

There's the point! There it is! Yaaay!

And yet.... there are two more paragraphs left to read

I find nothing wrong with how they speak, I find it Fascinating!