Yes, I get a bunch of these "thinky thoughts", as my wife calls them, from time to time. Stuff not worthy of a separate blog post, but also things that make me go "hmmm...."
So here we go, a compilation of curious thoughts that I couldn't quite get rid of.
***
What is the appeal of The Cult of the Damned?
I get that there are some people who are psychotic and are so in love with death that they'll seek the Cult* out, and that there's the occasional person who wants power so badly they'll sacrifice everything about their human form that they'll willingly become a lich, but come on. All these people in Scholomance, the Plaguelands, and supposedly throughout Azeroth as Cult members?
What is it; do they throw great parties or something?
 |
| Looks like they could use a keg of beer and some red solo cups. Or at least a television with Mario Kart running in the background. From thelurkerlounge.com. |
***
Black Diamond would make a great name for an 80s rock band. I've mentioned that in a few Blackrock Depths runs, but only us old folks find it amusing.
***
If there was one thing that a Mage in WoW would dispel, you'd think it'd be a Magic debuff. But no, it's "Remove Curse". Go figure...
***
Every time I play Star Trek Online, when you talk to an NPC for a quest, there's just something about their eyes that is so unnatural that it creeps me out.
 |
| When the eyes shift from left to right... It just looks like an alien pretending to be human. From Playstation Nation. |
***
People who write quest text should be forced to read it out loud as if they were talking to someone. If nothing else, it would force them to write quest text that actually sounds like a conversation rather than what passes for quest text these days.
Have you ever tried reading quest text out loud? It can be an incredible struggle to do just that. At the same time, it's supposed to be a conversation, so it should just flow properly like as if you were speaking to your buddies.
But you know what? It only rarely sounds normal.
If there's one thing that the SWTOR writers nailed, it's the quest interactions. Those cutscenes for questing are absolutely dead on, particularly in the original "vanilla" SWTOR areas.
I'd strongly recommend reading everything you write out loud, at least in your head. Conversation and dialog always need to be checked for natural speech rhythms, intonation, flow and so on but all text could do with a read-through for musicality. If prose is jarring, skittery or fractured it should be by intent not accident.
ReplyDeleteYes, pretty much this.
Delete"You've shown yourself a dependable , . Dependable, and not afraid to get your hands dirty, eh?"
That second sentence especially makes me cringe. Who says "eh?" at the end of a sentence?