General Roleplay Discussion

[randognsac]

If the player can't decipher the difference than that is unhealthy. You, your, him, her, he, she. It shouldn't matter. If you are thinking that using you is being directed towards you than you are playing the game wrong also, imo.

[Arenti]

Using you in emotes is directing towards the player as the emote part is for the player to know what the other one is doing. And seeing as you are not your char there is no reason to use you in emotes as its your char not yourself. So its he/she.

[gejyspa]

If the player can't decipher the difference than that is unhealthy. You, your, him, her, he, she. It shouldn't matter. If you are thinking that using you is being directed towards you than you are playing the game wrong also, imo.

I agree 100%

[Arenti]

And if you don't care about what makes others feel bad, you are playing the wrong game.

[Money]

personally I don't like it when people use you in their emotes, or them, or anything along those lines. I always try use names, or sometimes I'll emote things like *smiles at everyone in the room* (for those who know my charecters you can guess who that is ) . I don't really mind for the reasons you were discussing, but because it doesn't make any sense when you read it. When I read from my characters point of view I don't want to see all these switches between how someone addresses their fellow conversationalist. I just find that it really detracts from the role play. A lot like when people seem to decide to not capitalize their I's all the time, or add punctuation.

[Cdls]

I think it is a matter of how each player personally interprets the I/you and he/she/her/him terminology.

Before, I was living 9 separate lives. Now I'm living one life and writing 11 stories. It's a very big difference, and something as little as him/her - you contributes in a large way the difference, at least for me.

There are many stories/books written in a first person perspective though, does the difference come from actively being a part of the story by writing through your character versus taking a more passive role when you are reading a book?

Using you in emotes is directing towards the player as the emote part is for the player to know what the other one is doing. And seeing as you are not your char there is no reason to use you in emotes as its your char not yourself. So its he/she.

I say that your statement is wrong based on:

taken from Cantr main page:

Playing always from the perspective of each individual character

This actually provides a great argument FOR the I/you usage because if taken literally, what is stated on the main page is telling the player to play from that characters perspective and therefore I/you becomes natural FROM that perspective. So the "there is no reason" argument is kind of invalid. There is a reason, and that reason (or one of them at least) can be found on the main page.


Now, personal preference leans towards use of third person simply because it makes more sense when grouped around other characters. In one on one encounters, I still prefer the third person narrative in emotes because to me it does make more sense, but I do not freak out/mind or even care if the other character uses the first person narrative.

What do you all feel about hybrid use of the two, such as a *I grab her by the arm and pull her towards me* or something similar?

[Doug R.]

If using "you" can be considered bad, using "I" is even worse. I've never seen anyone use I, ever.

[Cdls]

I don't think I have seen it used either, I just wanted to get an idea on what people thought about it.

[mojomuppet]

I might be freaked out by that actually.

[Genevieve]

I have seen "I" in emotes as well as "you" and BOTH freak me out. It makes it hard to keep rping when someone does that. I actually complained to someone and they tried to stop...

[Piscator]

Using "I" actually would make sense if you perceive Cantr as a kind of text adventure in which you tell the program what your char is doing, or in other words answer to the unasked question "What do you do next?". The format in which events are displayed actually gives substance to a more personal view (you see... vs. he sees...)

Using "you" is a totally different issue though as it is completely ambigous if more than two parties are involved. But then again, so is "he" I guess.

(Personally, I always use the third person, with or without the actual pronouns, and the present tense.)

[gejyspa]

Proof positive that "you" is the CORRECT word to use in emotes if there is only one other char present (read from top to bottom)

You skillfully attack a walrus with your bare hands

You see a man in his twenties coming from the library

A man in his twenties points to you

A man in his twenties says "*pointing to her flute* What is that?"

Ummm... the game already refers to everything you see and do in the second person. Why shouldn't the people speaking to you do the same?!?? It's very jarring to suddenly not see "*pointing to your flute*

--gejyspa
EDIT corrected last "her" -> "your" to not completely obscure my point.

[Ryaga]

Not only is "you" very creepy it's incorrect. From the other persons perspective using "your" or "you" doesn't make sense, because their own char emotes in third person.

Top to bottom:
"*He begins to work on a project.*"
"*She also begins to work on your project.*"

Whhhhhaaaat. Unless I'm using "I", obviously "his" or the unigender "their" should be used. Third person should be maintained throughout.

Top to bottom:
"*He begins to work on a project.*"
"*She also begins to work on his project.*"

This is correct, the third person nature of all characters is remained throughout.

[SekoETC]

It would only work if there was some way you could tell the game who the pronouns mean and the game would then change it to "you/your" if your character was the target. That would require some mind reading. Although usually people only use it when interacting with a single person without spectators, but it's still creepy because it obscures the line between player and character.

[gejyspa]

Assuming you are responding to me, Seko, "but it's still creepy because it obscures the line between player and character" could be applied to the already in game prompts.. So are you saying it shouldn't say "You see Smith talking to Jones" "You enter the bath house", etc, because it should be talking to your character not to you?