When writing, or communicating in text, it's important to space ones words, phrases and paragraphs.

It's also important to use good punctuation. This not only allows the reader to properly descern the tone and intent of the message, but it allows them to digest the information quickly and efficiently.


Example:
What they say...
Person tells you 'warrior is on the eastern'

Is this a question or a statment?

What they mean...
Person tells you, 'Warrior is on the eastern?'

It was a question, granted it was a poorly worded one, but clipped phrases are common when a player is under stress. This can garble communication, as is, but with out the correct punctuation it can have dire consequences.

Then of course there is the fact that it makes you look ignorant.

Newbie appearing person tells you 'hey would you like to come with me and my friends i am going to take bob and terry to kill chucky and taylor'

I for one pretty much assume you are someone I don't want to travel with if you can't take the time to consider how you OOC actions may be affecting my IC interplay. I won't go out of my way to kill or mame your character because of the way he speaks, but I will go out of my way to pretend that they don't exist. I won't engage you in RP/PK, nor will I consider you for grouping etc. I will be sure to tell my groupmate who may be looking for a third, to over look you using an IC justification, that you are ignorant/unskilled/dangerous to the well being of the party/etc.

You can look at this two ways, perhaps more; This guy is nuts! (Or should I say, 'this guy is nuts') or, you can accept that by not making an honest effort to present your text based messages in clear form, to your fellow player, you are in effect, shallowing our submersion into the game.

I think you will find that the pest players, both PK and RP, are cognizant of how they appear to others. A misspelling here and there or a forgotten question mark are forgivable. But if you do not care enough to make an effort, why should I invest any more time into you, when I am really trying to develope a character others want to be around/Have as an Enemy/Call ally.

I truely hope that this letter makes it to some of you, and convinces you to relook at the RP aspect of CF. I call on you to work on bettering yourself, your fellow players and the game it's self.

Pro

P.S.I'm sure, if this isn't deleted there will be my usual fan club who will call me a hypocrite do to poor grammar, spelling, punctuation in this post, but I make the disclamer that I don't have any sort of word processor.

I'll go ahead and more-or-less second this post. While there are certainly things far more important then your sentance structure and punctuation when it comes to gauging a character, it IS a factor. If I'm visible and I get two tells from two characters I know nothing about, and one says "Greetings Lord Aarn, may we speak?" and the other is "greetings can we speak", I'm totally going to talk to the first guy.

You can overcome bad grammar in many ways, namely by roleplaying a good character. But all things being equal, half-way decent grammar makes for a better character then bad grammar.

Aarn

In a somewhat related comment, try to keep each line of your role at 80 characters or less, so it formats half-way decently. Please?

Uh, yeah. Pro pretty much hit the nail on the head in describing my feelings on this subject. Especially about my reactions IC to such people

Except I probably wouldn't have put it so nicely. Heh.

Let's see your poorly worded question example again:

>Example:
>What they say...
>Person tells you 'warrior is on the eastern'
>
>Is this a question or a statment?
>
>What they mean...
>Person tells you 'Warrior is on the eastern?'

Now, read the both examples, ignoring the question mark. What you forgot to notice that that the capital letter in the latter message helps to see where the new sentence starts. In other words: You'll be able to read the message quicker, as you see from the capital letter from where it begins, not having to read through the person tells you. Instead, you can read 'Person' and jump to the next capital letter to see the message. If I recall correctly, this is the reason why the sentences are started with big letters in the first place.

I can read either of those perfectly easily and I don't remember ever having failed to grasp what someone is trying to say because of capital letters being lowercase.

Personally, I'd far sooner have someone like Brumbalin who doesn't capitalise than someone like Ral, that does.

If you use capitalization IC, you'll get so used to it that you don't have to think about it. I agree that RP is more important, but using capitalization IC is a fairly small thing that gives a good impression about your character and the player behind him. It also increases the comfort of your fellow player. From two players that RP equally well, I like more of the one who bothers to use capitalization and punctuation. While RP is more important, it isn't as trivially about bothering to do the one little thing.

I'll admit, I am a grammar nazi, but there are reasons. Take this:

"I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse..."
and
"I had to help my uncle jack off a horse..."

Obviously, there is a HUGE difference between the two. In CF particularly, words like Herald and Empire could have entirely different meanings depending on the capitalization.

As far as punctuation, there is a difference between:

"I want to eat Jack"
and
"I want to eat, Jack" (sorry for the poor example - it's late)

One of my favorite is the difference between:

"A woman, without her man, is nothing."
and
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."

Hyphens are equally important. It's easier to read re-enter than reenter. A man-eating bacteria is a nasty germ, but a man eating bacteria needs to clean out his fridge more often.

Of course, I'm the type of person who yells at the "10 items or less" sign, but still. Proper grammar and punctuation is, believe it or not, important.

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"In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri."