Pet Peeve: 'ICly'

Argent Dawn
81

Delete this :gun:

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82

Did you just assume her gender?!

83

Not sure if Vaxir is he or she at the moment.

Lets settle on “it” for now.

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84

I just Call Vaxir “Trash”.

Looks into the camera as a laugh track plays, slowly getting more distorted until its just static, leaving you alone with the emptiness of your thoughts

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85

I cry. You hurt my imaginary feelings.

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86

The missile knows where it is.

87

Because he knows where he isn’t

88

About the “-…” I think theorically it’s supposed to be for word interruption like:
“She doesn’t wa-…”
To show that the word is not finished, while just:
“She doesn’t wa…”
Makes it sound like ‘wa’ is a word in itself rather than half of ‘wax’?

(Sorry Vaxir, didn’t had a better idea)

89

Being correct is not a crime even if people resent being corrected.

2 Likes
90

Ellipsing an em dash never really bothers me. It’s unusual style but sort of understandable in the context of WoW RP where you’re not sure a hard cut-off will be followed up by another player’s interruption. That sometimes makes it desirable to represent a hard cut followed by a lapse to silence.

Style guides split on closing an em dash with a fullstop too. I can imagine that confusing people. In normal prose you’d have some other punctuation (probably a speech mark) or just be able to close off the sentence with whatever piece of text comes next to make it look more normal. For us that’s not so certain, and an ellipsis is a more usual way to stop your sentence.

Maybe says something about how odd a format text-RP actually is, though.

7 Likes
91

Essentially this. I know I am a serial offender for some odd uses of text, Ellipses being one of them, using certain characters to put -Emphasis- on words being ‘said’, but the fact is, you simply can’t show some elements of normal speech in text based RP. It isn’t the same as a book, where the narrative is solely in the hands of the author, so it does not follow -quite- the same rules. The whole gamut of expression available to us in face to face communication is absolutely stripped down to its bare minimum in text format. It is actually the least effective medium for truly conveying what we are trying to get across. Full audio-visual, as in face to face, is most effective, pure text is the least, and audio only, so basically telephones, falls in the middle. We’re social creatures and place a -lot- of emphasis on pitch, tone, body language and the whole range of things that you simply cannot fully convey with purely text based communication, even if using emotes.

I strongly imagine that’s why some of us do fall into these weird habits that are only necessary, because we’re trying to convey a living, breathing conversation in text format, rather than simply writing a letter or book.

4 Likes
92

Unless you’re mental like me and can’t actually properly read body language or expressions.
Then text becomes the ultimate way to express.

93

Sure, I suppose. I mean people are equally able to show conflicting body language to what they actually are feeling, so it follows that some people will find it confusing or hard to read.

94

Conversation is definitely something that comes across awkwardly in RP. It doesn’t flow naturally; everyone takes their turn, no one can interrupt or interject, and you can just spew out paragraphs on paragraphs of dialogue without pausing for breath or allowing them the chance to respond to certain portions. It’s like talking on Facebook messenger, except in person.

95

My peeve is people who don’t understand the sentiment of this:

In other words, ICly or OOCly simply serves to communicate something IC and OOC doesn’t. People misuse them, for sure, but a sentence such as “I usually find linguistically inflexible people tiresome, OOCly speaking,” wouldn’t make much sense, if it was merely ‘OOC’. Out of characterly speaking, rather than out of character speaking, in this case, makes more sense. You can argue then that it should go at the end of the sentence as to make better sense, but then I oblige you to go to the video above. Rules are important where they’re important. Anywhere else, there’s new ones being made by the minute.

3 Likes
96

I…can’t quite go with that, because it is taking the term to mean something other than it is being used for. In the terms of RP, whether computer based, tabletop or LARP, OOC specifically means “Speaking as the player, not the character” whereas in normal conversation ‘Out of character’ means someone acting counter or abnormally to their normal demeanour.

They’re not quite the same meanings, in fact they’re not the same meanings. It is the same way we would describe an actor as ‘dropping out of character’, and would not describe them as ‘acting out of characterly’, in fact in the latter case we would actually say ‘acting out of character’.

The phrase doesn’t mean the same in an RP sense, as in its natural, usual sense, and therefore the same conventions don’t really apply the same way, because they simply do not make sense if we try to apply them. You can’t do something OOCly in RP, just as you can’t do something ICly in RP. If you are Roleplaying, you are In Character. If you are not Roleplaying, you are Out of Character. So unless it is some bizarre ‘Inception’ type scenario, then you are in a binary state, I am either portraying Brigante, in which case I am entirely IC, or I am not portraying Brigante, in which case I am OOC. I can’t be portraying Brigante in an OOC fashion, He doesn’t exist OOC. Likewise I can’t be myself IC, I don’t exist in WoW, my character does.

I think that’s the difference, the phrases ‘In Character’ and ‘Out of Character’ have different meanings in acting and RP than they do in ‘normal’ speech. Almost like an ‘in house’ technical term, I suppose.

1 Like
97

Dab on them prescriptivists.

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98

He did it OOC and he did it OOCly come across the same, so the ly is wrong and redundant?

99

Adding “ly” is not only incorrect but adds nothing to the meaning of the statement. It’s just poor english.

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100

Pretty much.

The only difference is the activity and context.

Right, assume we’re talking about a chatty, suave person who turns up at a party and is sullen, morose and taciturn. Then we would say “Hmm, they’re acting a bit out of character” -Or- “They’re acting out of character” -Or- “They’re acting out of characterly” Although the latter isn’t the greatest of English, it still just about works.

However, this doesn’t apply to RP. The Context is different. We are players, portraying a character. The direct meaning therefor is that IC is In character, as our character, and that OOC is Out of character, as in the player. The person behind the screen. It is -impossible- for our characters to do things ICly. They just do the things. In Character. That’s their normal default setting, They do the things like they always do.

This is where it gets more complex, Distantpeak has met Brigante, he knows Brigante is naturally a cheery, chatty soul. If he saw him and Brigante, as stated above, was morose, taciturn and not interested in talking, then he would think “That’s out of character for him” It would even make sense to remark upon it in such ways, however he is not OOC, or acting ‘OOCLY’ He is acting IC, in a way that is Out of Character for his normal persona. He’s still IC. If you wander across Brigante running around Drustvar with a giant Bear killing stuff, chances are massively high he is OOC. That’s me, as the player, doing a WQ. Brigante does not IC have a pet bear, and dress like some weird Zandalari male escort. I’m OOC. I’m not Brigante doing something OOCly. Brigante doesn’t come into the equation there, he’s just pixels, that are not IC.

I don’t know if I am explaining it right, but basically when it comes to RP, you can’t do something OOCly, as by definition, the moment you are, you are not Roleplaying, equally if you -are- Roleplaying, you are constantly IC.

I think it is a peculiarity to the hobby.

2 Likes