What irks you most in game text?

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Which text effect (or error) in video games makes you cringe the most?

I don't really care
2
4%
Random misspelling: thde for the
3
6%
One word becoming another: breed for bread
1
2%
Apostrophe capital: ship's for ships
4
8%
Common switch error: They're/their/there, two/too/to, etc.
8
16%
Covering substances up: juice for beer, candy for drugs
4
8%
Covering curses up: Dang, dern, shoot, jee whiz
3
6%
Spoilers: "Hi, Magic Emperor Ghaleon!"
4
8%
Verb tense: "They runned the other way!"
2
4%
Awkward: "All your base are belong to us."
2
4%
Dialects: "Oi bugger ze booshter shtrap!"
1
2%
Lack of capitalization: "i have you now quark."
3
6%
Pop references: Clinton? Tootsie roll pops?
2
4%
Inability to adjust text speed: So... slow...
10
20%
Roleplayer: *siiiiigh*
0
No votes
Other
1
2%
 
Total votes: 50

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What irks you most in game text?

Post by Sonic# »

I decided to make a poll.

I had RPGs in mind, mainly, but any video games are applicable where there are text boxes or significant amounts of displayed text. If you can think of any others, I can add the option. And I've made it so you can select three options, in case there are a few you consider equally bad.

I'll put my choices up later.
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Werefrog
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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by Werefrog »

I picked dialect, mostly because it gave me flashbacks to Chrono Cross. I can stand it when it happens occasionally, but when it's a constant thing it just gets annoying. The worst part is when they do crazy dialects in place of giving a character personality in some other way. I guess it's also to what degree they do the dialect. For instance, I was okay with Chongara from Arc the Lad, but some of the stuff from Chrono Cross just went overboard.

The other stuff can get annoying too, but this is the one that annoys me the most.

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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by GhaleonOne »

Spoilers would probably come first, followed by text speed, and lastly the double switch. I'm not amazing at grammar, but that one just annoys me. Specifically you're/your and there/their/they're.
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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by phyco126 »

Covering up Curse words and other naughty language, Covering up substances such as Beer and Drugs, and finally the inability to change the speed of the text scroll. I really hate that.

See, I don't care about grammer or spelling if it is kept to a minimum, going over board *coughL:Lcough* is a bit different. Still, whoopty do, no period, suddenly the whole world has gone stupid, cities burn, and our lord Xenu (or whatever that alien's name is) has returned to rule again. :roll:

talking lik tis though kinda irt8s me though cause lik im not totally on @ surger buuuuuzzzzzzz hahaha isnt tat funy cum on ya no its funnyz
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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by Werefrog »

phyco126 wrote: talking lik tis though kinda irt8s me though cause lik im not totally on @ surger buuuuuzzzzzzz hahaha isnt tat funy cum on ya no its funnyz
That's the way my sister talks when she's on the Internet. It makes me sad.

Phoenix Wright had a character that speaks in l337 occasionally. That actually didn't bother me too much.

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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by Kizyr »

I picked these three:
One word becoming another: breed for bread
Apostrophe capital: ship's for ships
Common switch error: They're/their/there, two/too/to, etc.

If you're writing something for the public, in English, you should know your own language. It's more the apostrophe and common switches that irritate me the most, because that's stuff that folks are supposed to learn in elementary and middle school, and you can't chalk it up to dialect differences or colloquial usage--it's just a plain mistake.

A few are passable, but they're still things that can be cleared up very easily by someone just taking the time to proofread the script.
Werefrog wrote:
phyco126 wrote: talking lik tis though kinda irt8s me though cause lik im not totally on @ surger buuuuuzzzzzzz hahaha isnt tat funy cum on ya no its funnyz
That's the way my sister talks when she's on the Internet. It makes me sad.

Phoenix Wright had a character that speaks in l337 occasionally. That actually didn't bother me too much.
It wasn't bad because it was part of his character... It was also really hilarious when he kept using internet slang.

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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by Imperial Knight »

The one that probably irritates me the most is inability to change the speed of the text scroll. It's especially irritating when there's a long passage of text and I can read it much faster than it scrolls. I also voted for the apostrophe capital and common switch.

Spoilers in the game's text would also have quite a bit of potential to annoy me, but I can't really recall ever having encountered any. I didn't cast a vote for pop culture references because I don't really mind them so long as they're done right (i.e. so that the line still makes sense in the context of the game world) but when they're done wrong I do find them to be quite intrusive.

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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by Dark_Fairy »

I didn't pick any of the spelling choices because I really don't mind spelling errors, just as long as there aren't too many.

What I did choose was (#1 being most hated):
2. Covering substances up: juice for beer, candy for drugs
3. Pop references: Clinton? Tootsie roll pops?
1. Inability to adjust text speed: So... slow...

1. I usually read pretty fast. I get annoyed if I can't adjust text speed to my liking. I also hate when I've gotten killed or something and I have to watch the "special scenes" over again and I can't skip over them. Especially if I've heard/read them about 5 or more times.

2. Ok, if I'm playing a game and the character is drinking juice or eating candy it would be a little hard for me to take the game seriously unless it was meant to be that way.

3. It really doesn't make since for a game to have pop references if it has nothing to do with the setting of that game. I love Lunar to death, but I could of done without the pop references...even if some of them were amusing.

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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by Alunissage »

All typographical and proofing errors seem about the same to me: apostrophes, wrong word, capitalization, etc. There generally isn't one that sticks out as worse than the others.

I love the covering up of words because it cracks me up every time, when I notice it at all. The popularity of soda in Chrono Trigger didn't bother me. The food and beverage substitutions in Lunar Legend were funny and actually rather fit with Lunar's general absurdity of things like wizards losing their magic wigs. And my opinion on profanity is already well-known. Besides which, the phrases like golly gee and dern help point up the ridiculous ages in RPGs, with all the heroes being 15.

Slow text speed drives me nuts. I read very quickly and always set the text speed to the fastest possible on any game I play. I do have a harder time reading quickly if I'm watching someone else play, though.

Pop refs tend to annoy me when I notice them, which isn't that often if they're done right. I thought the Wheaties bit in TSS was funny and totally missed the Welcome to the Dungeon bit (because I only heard the song it references a week or two ago, heh). But EB went way overboard. It's the sort of thing that's funny the first time it's done and pretty much never again. On the other hand, I reread Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment last week and got the reference to the actual meaning of "Ich bin ein Berliner!" which I'd missed the first three or four times. If games could achieve the balance of pop refs found in Discworld then I'd be fine with it.

I've now forgotten the rest of the poll options. Oh, dialect. Can be funny, can be overdone. The main one that strikes me as overdone is Hans spouting Spanish (!) in Growlanser II, but that's in part because I first played it without English voices and so just about ALL the voices sound wrong to me now. And I'm enjoying watching my husband replay Chrono Trigger and seeing that Frog is the only one of his era to speak in Medievalese. But it kind of works for the setting, as does Ayla's speech.

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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by MetalFRO »

I put "other" - actually the worst part is not the text, but the annoying "beeping" noise many games make as the text scrolls through the text box. If game manufacturers knew how utterly banal that was, and how many hours gamers would be spending cursing their names for including such an annoyance, they might be more inclined to stop doing it.
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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by Sonic# »

MetalFRO wrote:I put "other" - actually the worst part is not the text, but the annoying "beeping" noise many games make as the text scrolls through the text box. If game manufacturers knew how utterly banal that was, and how many hours gamers would be spending cursing their names for including such an annoyance, they might be more inclined to stop doing it.
Oh my yes. This is especially true of games like Harvest Moon. I didn't mind so much in some games (Earthbound), but that's because it's full of quirky sounds anyway... it honestly blends in. But with others, it just about makes me not want to talk to people. Of course I do in Harvest Moon, because that's the point. ;)
Alunissage wrote:I love the covering up of words because it cracks me up every time, when I notice it at all. The popularity of soda in Chrono Trigger didn't bother me. The food and beverage substitutions in Lunar Legend were funny and actually rather fit with Lunar's general absurdity of things like wizards losing their magic wigs. And my opinion on profanity is already well-known. Besides which, the phrases like golly gee and dern help point up the ridiculous ages in RPGs, with all the heroes being 15.
Yeah, I can see that. Especially the last point about the ages. It's never irked me. Sometimes it's more of a neutral reaction, like, "Oh, there's no beer at the Inn in Harvest Moon." Sometimes, like with Kyle's fondness for certain drinks, it's fairly amusing.
Kizyr wrote:If you're writing something for the public, in English, you should know your own language. It's more the apostrophe and common switches that irritate me the most, because that's stuff that folks are supposed to learn in elementary and middle school, and you can't chalk it up to dialect differences or colloquial usage--it's just a plain mistake.
I mainly pick on the grammatical issues myself, along with the text speed issues. I think that's distinct from picking on dialects or accented speech... they can be quite correct even though they don't follow the same rules. And I'm not talking about some easily missed misspellings, like judgment/judgement. But... yes, if it's a professional product, proofread your text! Pay a poor English major who cares about their writing (an English major is no guarantee of clean writing). Pay me to do it, even!

(Incidentally, I'm not sure how much companies pay for proofreading and such. Is that something that gets looked for in beta testing? Is the answer to the real question and the implied one both "sometimes"?)
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"Than seyde Merlion, "Whethir lyke ye bettir the swerde othir the scawberde?" "I lyke bettir the swerde," seyde Arthure. "Ye ar the more unwyse, for the scawberde ys worth ten of the swerde; for whyles ye have the scawberde uppon you, ye shall lose no blood, be ye never so sore wounded. Therefore kepe well the scawberde allweyes with you." --- Le Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory

"Just as you touch the energy of every life form you meet, so, too, will will their energy strengthen you. Fail to live up to your potential, and you will never win. " --- The Old Man at the End of Time

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Re: What irks you most in game text?

Post by AlexHiro4 »

I absolutely HATE slow text speed! I understand some people read slowly, but that's not me. At the very LEAST they should have a variety of text speeds in the game settings. If you can take the time to create a nice long RPG with tons of animation and storyline you can CERTAINLY take the time to add a few extra options to the settings. It always astounds me when I run across games with this problem.
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