SE: Please tone it down a hair

[Atoli]

When I started to play FFXIV I thought it would be a good idea to play it in English so monster names etc. would be the same. I gave up after I arrived in Limsa (yep, after ~5 min into the game) because I couldn't understand a word.
The "pirate speech" was so over the top that I couldn't understand a word since I'm not a native English speaker.
Since then I've seen lots of texts from Quests or NPCs in wikis or on the forums and it's mostly so epic-mysterious-old-high class-over the top that I'm forced to have a dictionary beside me to find out what the text is about.

For people who learned English well enough to hold everyday conversations this kind of speech is horrible.
But playing in my native language now, I enjoy that the NPCs speak differently from normal speech..so doing away with it would be wrong too.
Just..dumb it down a little bit please..?

[Elexia]

Explain to me how is it that those paragraphs of text are relevant to your character

No wonder you have problems with the dialog in this game or dialog in general lol. People really don't understand the concept of flavor text? Especially to flesh out certain things?

tl;dr version of the people in support of making one-line dialogs:

Exposition is a lost art in western gaming and has to go!

[Lux_Rayna]

No wonder you have problems with the dialog in this game or dialog in general lol. People really don't understand the concept of flavor text? Especially to flesh out certain things?

You can count the number of good novels most people here have read on one hand.

[Elexia]

You can count the number of good novels most people here have read on one hand.

That's being generous honestly :\ lol

[Rydin]

No wonder you have problems with the dialog in this game or dialog in general lol. People really don't understand the concept of flavor text? Especially to flesh out certain things?

tl;dr version of the people in support of making one-line dialogs:

Exposition is a lost art in western gaming and has to go!

Too much exposition can completely derail a good story.... Every good author knows that the reader doesn't need an information dump every 2 pages
You have to find balance. FFVII was full of exposition, Every time you got to a city, the party would sit down and discuss the plot thus far...
Honestly though... most of what is being said is no exposition. It's taking way too long to get to the point... like all NPC's have "Beataroundthebush-itis"

[HiirNoivl]

Rydin you're feeing a troll. Don't bother responding to that one.

She's already decided your a moron and will just make fun of you for 4 pages.

[Elexia]

Rydin you're feeing a troll. Don't bother responding to that one.

She's already decided your a moron and will just make fun of you for 4 pages.

^ This makes you seem more like a troll to be honest. Seriously, it seems like people are more in favor of dialog that goes like:

"I'm the bad guy, I'm going to drop Dalamund of Eorzea. Why? ...Cuz I'm the bad guy?"

Rather than him going into detail of his motivations..aka exposition because it would be "to the point."

[IStolzI]

No wonder you have problems with the dialog in this game or dialog in general lol. People really don't understand the concept of flavor text? Especially to flesh out certain things?

tl;dr version of the people in support of making one-line dialogs:

Exposition is a lost art in western gaming and has to go!

I get that you're trying to show how smart you are throughout this topic, but really for someone who's accusing others of having poor reading skills you're clearly not even trying to understand the complaints.

People understand the concept of "flavor text," "immersion," or whatever else you want to call the way the NPCs talk. The problems are that a) it is over the top, and b) it is entirely too much. I don't have a problem with the pirates in Limsa talking like pirates. I do have a problem with it being so over the top that it comes off more as corny or silly than interesting. This also makes it hard to get interested in the story line.

As for the second problem, it goes on too long. This is a problem because it makes people lose interest in what's going on. Since you turned this into a "westernerz iz dumb" thing, I will use FFXI as an example. I enjoyed going around the cities and talking to the different NPCs and getting a feel for where I was and the different environments. In XIV I don't. I would like to, but I don't because I know I will end up trapped in text about someone's lost cat or practical joke addiction.

Skillfull writting isn't just about trying to make use of extremely complicated sentence structure or use of words that may impress some readers. It is also important to make them care and keep them interested. This game doesn't do that for most people. Sure some great novels are increadibly difficult to read, but there are others that are just as good with extremely basic writting... one example that comes to mind is Ernest Hemingway.

tl;dr - I agree with topic and I think most players would. Elexia is just being snooty.

[Elexia]

I get that you're trying to show how smart you are throughout this topic, but really for someone who's accusing others of having poor reading skills you're clearly not even trying to understand the complaints.

People say "it takes too long to get to the point", yet you can guarantee people would complain if NPCs said much of nothing at all either.

tl;dr - I agree with topic and I think most players would.

Considering most MMOs barely have a storyline nowadays? Obviously most would agree with less story and more loot. People didn't even care for when Bioware spoonfed you story through voice acting, people still complain "there's too much x."

The problems are that a) it is over the top

Fantasy game.

b) it is entirely too much

Subjective. Some people like a good read.

Since you turned this into a "westernerz iz dumb" thing

This is what you stated, don't inject anything into my post. If you've played a lot of western games lately, you'd realize very quickly exposition has become a lost art in a lot of the writing of the games, this has nothing to do with intelligence.

Skillfull writting isn't just about trying to make use of extremely complicated sentence structure or use of words that may impress some readers.

It's about fleshing out your characters. If your character is complex (hence people are on the fence if for example the Vans are truly good or evil) it can't be conveyed properly by "getting to the point in one sentence."

[Soukyuu]

It's not the reading comprehension issue... (Well, maybe it is for some... I can't speak for everyone)
For me it's when speeches go on for too long... you lose interest...

Well, the OP was speaking specifically about SE using "complicated words", which clearly speaks of a comprehension problem to me. Comprehension seems to be a bigger problem for people of all languages nowadays, maybe because the media are more interested in a dumb population which is easier to steer, which results in a general "dumb down" for everyone, even people who were capable of more at the start.

May I remind you of the trouble people had with the word "cumulative" used in the legacy campaign description? That's one of the examples...

Every single NPC in the game seems to ramble on forever, taking way longer than needed to make their point...
It detracts from pulling people in to the character development that is going on
Does the game need long speeches? Yes... but from EVERYONE? no

I don't mind long dialogues and I don't think they are boring. The problem is, people want to rush things to get to the next piece of content, and having to click through the text is an annoyance to them - so they want to dumb it down. Or at least that's what it looks like to me.