Emoting in the past tense

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Doug R.
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Emoting in the past tense

Postby Doug R. » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:35 pm

Is it just me, or is there a sudden influx of characters emoting in the past tense? All I have to ask is, Why? It's completely unnatural, and reading it is like trying to read with wood slivers stabbing at my eyes. Please, for the love of Pete, stop! You don't talk in the past tense, do you?

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Missy
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Re: Emoting in the past tense

Postby Missy » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:38 pm

Doug R. wrote:Is it just me, or is there a sudden influx of characters emoting in the past tense? All I have to ask is, Why? It's completely unnatural, and reading it is like trying to read with wood slivers stabbing at my eyes. Please, for the love of Pete, stop! You don't talk in the past tense, do you?

Thank you.



I emote in the past tense. Im not going to stop either. It's what my character "did," sometimes, and not what they're presently "doing" just because the post is made in that cantr minute.

Emoting isn't speaking so talking about why someone would emote in past tense and comparing it to someone who talks in the past tense doesn't make any sense.
Last edited by Missy on Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Doug R.
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Postby Doug R. » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:43 pm

Most people, myself included, play in the present , so past tense emotes are borderline horrifying.
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Mykey
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Postby Mykey » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:43 pm

Rather valuable message
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Missy
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Postby Missy » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:45 pm

If you smile, but stop smiling so you can speak, it's *Smiled* How are you?

What's so hard to understand about that?
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Postby Black Canyon » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:47 pm

To be honest, some of the best role-players I have run into on cantr emote in past tense and in my opinion it reads better.

My only problem is that when I am rping with some of those characters I get totally fouled up because I start doing it too and then I'm switching back and forth from past to present tense and then back again and probably sounding like an idiot. :lol:
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Postby Doug R. » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:48 pm

Because I play in the present tense. The past is everything I've read already. What I'm currenty reading is the present. So when you write *smiled* instead of *smiles* it completely destroys the flow of the game and makes me shift OOC to mentally put things the way they should be.
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Mykey
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Postby Mykey » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:52 pm

Let's talk on this theme.
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Postby Doug R. » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:57 pm

Heh, I'm not trying for force anyone, just asking semi-nicely. I'm also interested to see how many agree with me, because past tense emoters seem few and far between (until recently, that is).
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Mykey
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Postby Mykey » Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:01 pm

It is necessary to be the optimist.
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Missy
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Postby Missy » Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:02 pm

Doug R. wrote:Because I play in the present tense. The past is everything I've read already. What I'm currenty reading is the present. So when you write *smiled* instead of *smiles* it completely destroys the flow of the game and makes me shift OOC to mentally put things the way they should be.





It's not like when you a player, see a person *Smiles* You're actually seeing them do it in that moment anyway. A second has already passed by the time you notice the player has posted. Thus it's past tense. You're seeing what the character did, not really what they're doing IMO.


Anyway, I don't do it usually for simple *Smiles.* *Waves* *Tilts of heads* Etc.

And when I do use past tense, it's usually in more defined RP, which is, well, rarely if ever at all done in public.
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Postby Doug R. » Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:03 pm

Missy wrote:You're seeing what the character did, not really what they're doing IMO.


The past cannot happen without the present. By jumping right to the past, you are violating laws of time. My brain simply can't handle current events occuring in the past. Novels can go past tense because they are written as someone telling a story. Cantr is not told like a story. It's like real life. It's now.

Perhaps our brains are wired differently and I can't discourage you, but maybe I can at least discourage some fence sitters that aren't hard-wired one way or the other.
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Postby Piscator » Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:03 pm

As long as Cantr itself uses present tense ( xxx says:) I see no reason for using past tense.
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Missy
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Postby Missy » Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:08 pm

Piscator wrote:As long as Cantr itself uses present tense ( xxx says:) I see no reason for using past tense.



Yes and grammar has never been known to be correct in Cantr. Just because it says

1952-43-06 You see Mark Jones talking to Paul.

Then on 1952-43-09 you log in. You're just now seeing what happened at 43-06, therefor, You saw that 3 minutes ago. You didn't just NOW see it happen.
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Postby Doug R. » Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:10 pm

Piscator wrote:As long as Cantr itself uses present tense ( xxx says:) I see no reason for using past tense.


Spot on! The tense is already set.
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