Hi everyone (particualarly those who work for Simutronics),

I recently renewed my subscription and noticed that everything I say has a capital letter at the beginning of it and a period at the end of it. I think i understand why you did this, and I'm sure you examined it from all perspectives before implementing it, but I'm not sure this change fits with the character of Dragonrealms.

Dragonrealms is a game that is build areound two things; killing monsters and social interaction. This obviously has nothing to do with hunting, but has a hell of a lot to do with social interaction. The thing about the English language is that it is dynamic; it can be manipulated and molded to appropriately fit the situation. The dynamism is not limited to any particular aspect of the language (spelling, grammar, or even the words themselves), which allows us to have one of the richest literary histories on the planet - one not limited by arbitrary rules.

I very hopefully request that you remove the mandatory period from the end of all my sentences, and possibly even the mandatory capital letter at the beginning; these are two things that are only necessary when forming a complete sentence. Being that the bulk of casual conversation doesn't happen in full sentences, I think it inappropriate that everything I and those around me say is structured in that way. thank youf or your consideration of this matter.


>'hmmm
>You curtly say, "Hmmm."

>You curtly say, "Hmmm."

This is a complete sentence. The subject is 'you', the verb is 'to say', modified by the adverb 'curtly.' The sentence includes a quotation, and ends with a full stop.

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"...I am inclined to think the focus of the [Warmage's] spellbook should be ways to make things explode, to help you make things explode, or to assist your victim in exploding." -Armifer

thank you very much for pointing that out; definitely gave me tools to expand my argument. I'd like to take on Armifer's "serious" post because I assume it contains the fundamental logic behind the update.

>All together, we presume you're pretty good at this English thing. The only reason to fail to use grammar at this point is because you do not respect your own thoughts enough to structure them properly, or because you have not yet learned why it's important to consider what your readers are seeing. There is no roleplaying merit to botching the medium you're roleplaying in, anymore than scribbling on my table-top GM's map counts as adding to the story.

I'd just like to reiterate what i said in my first post....the English language is NOT a constant stream of complete sentences. Armifer's statement assumes that the rules of punctuating complete sentences apply across the entire language, not just complete sentences. I'd like to restate the mosdt provacative part of my previous post:

>'hmmm
>You curtly say, "Hmmm."

and kindly ask a GM to explain how this statement deserves the punctuation it got.


I look forward to your response (Armifer).

the definition of sentence as found on about.com

>A word or group of words that expresses a complete idea. The sentence is the *largest independent unit of grammar*. Conventionally, a sentence includes a subject and a verb. It begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point.

I think we can all agree that this is a pretty decent definition. I also thing we can agree that this doesn't pigeon-hole the entire language.

I'm very happy to see the first letter capitalized and punction placed on the end of a sentence. Despite the fact that this has been implemented, it does not ensure that people will use proper grammar. Verbal communication should contain a subject (implied or otherwise), and also a verb at a minimum. I can not simply say "am" and have anyone understand. But by adding a subject, the communication can be understood. "I am." is a statement of being.

While I can see some merit (for RP purposes) of using incorrect grammar, in most cases I think it's either laziness or a lack of some fundamental understanding of the written and spoken word that is making this an issue. The claim that language is dynamic is to a degree, nonsense. The english language hasn't changed dramatically over the last 100 or even 200 years. Slang has changed, but that doesn't mean that slang has been readily adopted or assimilated into modern culture.

I defy anyone to find any text book or other accepted standard of the written or spoken word that states that speaking in phrases, fragments, and other partial sentences is in any way acceptable.

i suppose we should also remove the capital letter at the beginning of everyones name even though they are proper nouns and i guess i don't need to capitalize the personal prounoun "i" anymore either because language is such a dynamic thing that i think this forced capitalization and punctuation change is infringing on my personal freedom of communication and why cant i just keep going and going without any punctuation whatsoever because its not necessary at all and makes me mad that someone wants to force me to use any kind of sentence structure that would make it easier to be understood instead of rambling like a complete moron


________________________________________

If it helps, just think of yourself as the fluorescent light in the buglamp of life.

- GM Dartenian

>> I defy anyone to find any text book or other accepted standard of the written or spoken word that states that speaking in phrases, fragments, and other partial sentences is in any way acceptable.

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is a good place to start.

I'm sure others can bring up their own favorite written narratives.

---

Rev. Reene

Reene: I WILL BECOME MINILYRAS!
Devan: ... I thought you already were.

I would call books like that accepted standards for narrative fiction, yes. Since that's effectively what we're writing in DR, that's probably a good place to start looking for ideas of what things like speech should look like in DR.

Incidentally, I've yet to read a published narrative that didn't have every sentence and quotation - including informal speech and sentence fragments - capitalized and punctuated.

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Rev. Reene

Reene: I WILL BECOME MINILYRAS!
Devan: ... I thought you already were.

>I can not simply say "am" and have anyone understand.

That doesn't stop Lamarque.

Don't worry, you can still use horrible grammar on the gweth. Good times.

>minor typos are pretty much the same thing as terrible grammar.

I'm glad you agree. I'm really picky about my grammer.