SE: Please tone it down a hair

[Lux_Rayna]

Leveling is a completely different beast though...

Story text is definitely NOT something you should make longer just for the sake of taking up time...

You can say this about anything, story is not the only thing that shouldn't commit this sin.

Leveling is a type of time sink... I KNOW you are not suggesting the dialogue in the game be a time sink... Even YOU can't be that silly...

The point is precisely that its not a time-sink at all. Five paragraphs of text is not a time-sink. It will take you roughly anywhere from 60 seconds to 2 minutes to read. Do you really define 2 mins of reading a time-sink? Seriously? As I said before, ppl can stomach doing all kinds of monotonous and repetitive activities for hours because they like them. They cry for more grinding, cry for long-lasting content, etc etc. Different strokes for different folks right? Yet for some reason taking a couple minutes to read is a huge waste of time, a huge time-sink, and should be shortened so that it takes a max of 15 seconds to process whatever is being said. What sense does this make? That is just impatience, and is definitely no basis for judging the writing quality or content. I'll reiterate, the internet has destroyed ppl's patience for actually reading anything beyond a paragraph. I know you play a game to play, not read, but rpg's have always had a lot of exposition. If you don't like reading you are in the wrong genre. Skip it if you don't want to read it, but those of us who enjoy the literary aspect of the RPG are quite happy to take an extra 2 minutes to read a story. If you want to know whats going on find a summary.

[Rydin]

You can say this about anything, story is not the only thing that shouldn't commit this sin.



The point is precisely that its not a time-sink at all. Five paragraphs of text is not a time-sink. It will take you roughly anywhere from 60 seconds to 2 minutes to read. Do you really define 2 mins of reading a time-sink? Seriously? As I said before, ppl can stomach doing all kinds of monotonous and repetitive activities for hours because they like them. They cry for more grinding, cry for long-lasting content, etc etc. Different strokes for different folks right? Yet for some reason taking a couple minutes to read is a huge waste of time, a huge time-sink, and should be shortened so that it takes a max of 15 seconds to process whatever is being said. What sense does this make? That is just impatience, and is definitely no basis for judging the writing quality or content. I'll reiterate, the internet has destroyed ppl's patience for actually reading anything beyond a paragraph. I know you play a game to play, not read, but rpg's have always had a lot of exposition. If you don't like reading you are in the wrong genre. Skip it if you don't want to read it, but those of us who enjoy the literary aspect of the RPG are quite happy to take an extra 2 minutes to read a story. If you want to know whats going on find a summary.

I wouldn't mind a long read if it was impactful...
5 paragraphs that can be summed up in 1 sentence... I'll pass
If there are 5 paragraphs... I should walk away with so much to think about

[Lux_Rayna]

I wouldn't mind a long read if it was impactful...
5 paragraphs that can be summed up in 1 sentence... I'll pass
If there are 5 paragraphs... I should walk away with so much to think about

That depends on the goal of the text. In FFXIV's case, the dialogue is not meant to be art, but to be an expression of life. Life is full of meaningless 5+ paragraph conversations. You hear them every day, you even make them yourself. These conversations are often not designed to invoke enlightenment upon your listeners, but rather talk for the sake of talking; after all, talking is fun. If Eorzea is, indeed, supposed to be a world full of life and character, it would make sense for there to be plenty of meaningless conversation and lots of blather. No one is forcing you to read it all, you can easily just pick out the important nuggets and tune the rest out...often like what we do in real life. Its supposed to be entertaining, not a literary masterpiece. I find it entertaining, as do others who enjoy reading for the sake of reading. Obviously you do not enjoy reading purely for the sake of reading, so please feel free to /ignore what Eorzeans have to say. This does not translate into "this crap needs to be revisited," as there are plenty who like the extra touch and extra effort to bring a world to life.

[Rydin]

That depends on the goal of the text. In FFXIV's case, the dialogue is not meant to be art, but to be an expression of life. Life is full of meaningless 5+ paragraph conversations. You hear them every day, you even make them yourself. These conversations are often not designed to invoke enlightenment upon your listeners, but rather talk for the sake of talking; after all, talking is fun. If Eorzea is, indeed, supposed to be a world full of life and character, it would make sense for there to be plenty of meaningless conversation and lots of blather. No one is forcing you to read it all, you can easily just pick out the important nuggets and tune the rest out...often like what we do in real life. Its supposed to be entertaining, not a literary masterpiece. I find it entertaining, as do others who enjoy reading for the sake of reading. Obviously you do not enjoy reading purely for the sake of reading, so please feel free to /ignore what Eorzeans have to say. This does not translate into "this crap needs to be revisited," as there are plenty who like the extra touch and extra effort to bring a world to life.

Yea.. but in real life no EVERYONE talks like that... the entire world isn't so verbose

[Lux_Rayna]

Yea.. but in real life no EVERYONE talks like that... the entire world isn't so verbose

Not every npc in eorzea is verbose either. I know I've randomly talked to quite a few of them. Quest npcs are verbose, but they should be. You better have a really good damn reason why you need me to go to x place to do y amount of things instead of you just doing it yourself. But really verbosity is a trait of Eorzeans, even if not all of them are like that. It is what makes Eorzeans who they are, despite being from entirely different places and belonging to different races. Course if you hate Eorzeans for their verbosity, so be it, but thats what makes Eorzeans who they are. Love it or hate it, it is a quality of the game that really brings the place to life. Just look at all the discussion it spawned!

[Rydin]

Not every npc in eorzea is verbose either. I know I've randomly talked to quite a few of them. Quest npcs are verbose, but they should be. You better have a really good damn reason why you need me to go to x place to do y amount of things instead of you just doing it yourself. But really verbosity is a trait of Eorzeans, even if not all of them are like that. It is what makes Eorzeans who they are, despite being from entirely different places and belonging to different races. Course if you hate Eorzeans for their verbosity, so be it, but thats what makes Eorzeans who they are. Love it or hate it, it is a quality of the game that really brings the place to life. Just look at all the discussion it spawned!

But thats the thing... many of them aren't even clear on the quest specifics....
If the journal didn't have any words or a journal map... would you EVER know where to go or what the hell was going on?

[Lux_Rayna]

But thats the thing... many of them aren't even clear on the quest specifics....
If the journal didn't have any words or a journal map... would you EVER know where to go or what the hell was going on?

When I pay attention yes, but you'd have to read pretty closely in order to get the message, and some quest npcs don't give a clear message at all. In that case, they might need to be redesigned to give quest specifics without the use of a journal if it bothers you that much. This would, of course, add an additional paragraph. I'm quite certain you do not want more text lol.