SE: Please tone it down a hair

[whoopeeragon]

IMO...

There, shortened 95% of the posts in this topic. This one included.

[Altanas]

There, shortened 95% of the posts in this topic. This one included.

SE should hire you as editor to the writing team

[Matsume]

IMO...

There, shortened 95% of the posts in this topic. This one included.

Fuuuuuuuuuny, but so true...

[Zaaku]

There, shortened 95% of the posts in this topic. This one included.

IMO...

There we just shorted the forums by 95% lol

[Imakun]

I'm italian and I'm studying foreign languages (English and Spanish) at a local University. I can say with complete honesty that I consider myself skilled enough when it comes to the English language. Enough to hold a proper conversation with anyone about quite a wide array of subjects, at least. And yes, I did read Shakespeare.
Now in XIV I really appreciate the use of the English language, as it really helps me in developing my language skills further.
Still I do find it a bit overwhelming at times, and that doesn't help the flow of the game at all. Having to stop reading and reach for the dictionary is no fun when all I want is to accept a simple secondary quest and move on.
All the different accents being used are a great help to me too, but as someone said before, they tend to become too thick sometimes.

And I agree with the extreme verbosity and length of NPC's monologues too, they simply talk too much and give us too much information in too little space. Maybe they could consider books or a new "Lore section" somewhere in the game, I don't know.

This game is localized in four languages if I remember correctly (I am still wondering why Spanish is not one of them though), and none of them is my native language.
What I'd like is a slight toning down in the "fancy talking" department. It is indeed a great thing when learning is fun, but this is still a game and a MMORPG too.
I mean, there must be a way to retain the exquisite dialogues without trying too hard and making the majority of the playerbase just spam the Enter key.

[Wevlum]

Well if the writing gets dumbed down there goes any incentive for me to do the quests that have crappy rewards.

/sigh

[Altanas]

Another issue is that a lot of the Lore is being lost.

Given the nature of the game being an MMO, its fair to say players may take breaks from the game depending on real life matters. Someone who takes a break will just forget much of the lore. In that regard it would be appropriate for a lot of the Lore to be immortalised in in game books or a lore section as the above poster points out.

A lot of the writing is going to waste in unrepeatable dialogs (well except the Primal guy he just wont go away lol) in which case it will be forgotten (and the Journal only contains brief summaries).

From an immersion perspective, I would rather find out about the Lore in part from conversations but also from stumbling across inscriptions on landmarks, monuments, books, items etc. A solution would be to strip down the conversations and plant the info elsewhere.

Perhaps expanding/reevaluating the concept of the Adventurers Journal is a way to go - it should start off blank and fills in with mountains of text and pictures as you progress/adventure in the game. Categories could include the obvious: factions, npcs, places, beastiary. And the journal should look like a book not just a menu^^

That way Lore buffs can have their fill and people who just want to fight on can go through the bare minimum.

[Eagleheart]

<(^-^)< ^(~-~)^ >(^.^)> Yadda yadda yadda I'm a jerk who talks too much and demotes everyone who doesn't agree with me to uneducated dolt status who should keep their traps shut in my presence.


Every single Eagleheart post ever. There aren't that many yet each one is so full of self loving misplaced superiority that is makes me upturn my hands in mock surprise at every turn. At Rokien makes me laugh every once in awhile.

I have only spoken my opinion on your behavior. Apparently, it rings true.

[HiirNoivl]

Another issue is that a lot of the Lore is being lost.

Given the nature of the game being an MMO, its fair to say players may take breaks from the game depending on real life matters. Someone who takes a break will just forget much of the lore. In that regard it would be appropriate for a lot of the Lore to be immortalised in in game books or a lore section as the above poster points out.

There's a webstie that someone made just for that, but I've lost the link to it. ; ;

[Soukyuu]

The dialogues are fine as they are. If you don't want to read them, don't. If you have troubles understanding them, work on your English skills.

I'm neither a native English speaker nor am I studying English at the college/university.
So why am I not having problems understanding the dialogues (or monologues)? Except maybe the Limsan ones?

Too many people just blank out the moment they stumble upon an uncommon word (instead of looking it up for example) and just end up skipping the whole text, then complaining the text is too hard to understand.