@Salome offers to trade you smiles curio piece of the Leprechaun Pot Curio Set for second lock of frosty mane curio piece of the Frosty Mane Curio Set. Type AGREE if you wish to accept this offer.
You have agreed to the trade!
Salome tells you, "Smiles, for the Lady who grants me them."
I went to reincarnate. For some reason, the Portal wouldn't accept Loboshigaru (uppercase L) as a race I could use. It had to be lowercase. I didn't figure this out until I had liched.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
TRADEMASTERS NEWS #480 Date: 7/29/2015 at 20:17 From: the Charites, the Administrators of Crafts To : Everyone Subj: Contractions
Greetings, Trademasters.
After lengthy deliberation We have decided to introduce a new guideline regarding the use of contractions within designs. Contractions are words such as "it's", "that's", "they've", and might appear in sentences like so: "red ribbon runs across the silk that's been pinned to the skirt".
We have decided, effective immediately, to prohibit the use of such words in designing. We are keen to ensure that the design guidelines never feel as if they are restricting your creativity, and do not believe that this ruling will do so. Rather, We hope that it will enrich the work of you and your very talented designers, and ensure that descriptions flow elegantly.
This ruling is additionally retroactive. As such, We will be going through existing designs to ensure that they are in accordance with it. We will change nothing other than the contraction itself: our above example would become "red ribbon runs across the silk that has been pinned to the skirt". This will take Us some time and We are grateful for your patience as We attend to doing so.
HELP TRADEMASTERS has been updated to reflect this change. As always, should you have any questions, you may message Us.
The Charites
Penned by My hand on the 5th of Klangiary, in the year 418 CE.
The only real drawbacks to that decision are pretension, sentence flow, and breaking if the design was build with a poetic meter, such as a pentameter or in haiku or limerick format. Though admittedly we shouldn't be designing in poem, it's occasionally a fun thing to do. (I occasionally try to sneak the dropped in as a haiku.)
Mhmm, I don't think that contractions automatically worsen the flow of a sentence. There certainly are cases where they are over used, but it's probably not for the best to go back and find/replace contractions in old designs, or to completly ban them in future designs.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
TRADEMASTERS NEWS #480 Date: 7/29/2015 at 20:17 From: the Charites, the Administrators of Crafts To : Everyone Subj: Contractions
Greetings, Trademasters.
After lengthy deliberation We have decided to introduce a new guideline regarding the use of contractions within designs. Contractions are words such as "it's", "that's", "they've", and might appear in sentences like so: "red ribbon runs across the silk that's been pinned to the skirt".
We have decided, effective immediately, to prohibit the use of such words in designing. We are keen to ensure that the design guidelines never feel as if they are restricting your creativity, and do not believe that this ruling will do so. Rather, We hope that it will enrich the work of you and your very talented designers, and ensure that descriptions flow elegantly.
This ruling is additionally retroactive. As such, We will be going through existing designs to ensure that they are in accordance with it. We will change nothing other than the contraction itself: our above example would become "red ribbon runs across the silk that has been pinned to the skirt". This will take Us some time and We are grateful for your patience as We attend to doing so.
HELP TRADEMASTERS has been updated to reflect this change. As always, should you have any questions, you may message Us.
The Charites
Penned by My hand on the 5th of Klangiary, in the year 418 CE.
After lengthy deliberation that evidently did not include players, this is an idea that is an unneeded use of time and resources. I do not recall using contractions in any of my designs but I still disagree with your decision, with all due respect, please reverse it.
TRADEMASTERS NEWS #480 Date: 7/29/2015 at 20:17 From: the Charites, the Administrators of Crafts To : Everyone Subj: Contractions
Greetings, Trademasters.
After lengthy deliberation We have decided to introduce a new guideline regarding the use of contractions within designs. Contractions are words such as "it's", "that's", "they've", and might appear in sentences like so: "red ribbon runs across the silk that's been pinned to the skirt".
We have decided, effective immediately, to prohibit the use of such words in designing. We are keen to ensure that the design guidelines never feel as if they are restricting your creativity, and do not believe that this ruling will do so. Rather, We hope that it will enrich the work of you and your very talented designers, and ensure that descriptions flow elegantly.
This ruling is additionally retroactive. As such, We will be going through existing designs to ensure that they are in accordance with it. We will change nothing other than the contraction itself: our above example would become "red ribbon runs across the silk that has been pinned to the skirt". This will take Us some time and We are grateful for your patience as We attend to doing so.
HELP TRADEMASTERS has been updated to reflect this change. As always, should you have any questions, you may message Us.
The Charites
Penned by My hand on the 5th of Klangiary, in the year 418 CE.
After lengthy deliberation that evidently did not include players, this is an idea that is an unneeded use of time and resources. I do not recall using contractions in any of my designs but I still disagree with your decision, with all due respect, please reverse it.
Thank you.
Made me feel even more depressed. Add that to the money I have put in this game... Meh.
Currently Playing in: The doctors office. One more needle and I might just lose it again.
So....this is technically a non-issue, and not even a widespread issue. The Charites are busy enough, quit giving them busy work
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
So....this is technically a non-issue, and not even a widespread issue. The Charites are busy enough, quit giving them busy work
It is a non-issue indeed! It would seem that 99.99% of all designers already operate under the impression that contractions are banned. Nonetheless, apparently the reviewers asked for clarification and an official ruling after a disagreement on how to handle some recent designs. This is the result: an official statement supporting what has already existed but not written down.
I think the majority of the upset is over the fact that there's another thing that we CAN'T do. While I'm not in favour of or against this, having a new guideline for something we'd been fairly good on already seems a bit non-sensical. I don't use contractions often in my designs, but that doesn't mean I'd like the option - a less formal design or something intentionally cutesy/fun works a lot better with contractions, for example.
I don't know that most players presumed it was banned as much as often designers preferred not to use contractions as, let's face it, most designs go for grandiose over simplistic. I just think its overly fussy. But hey, I do as I'm told either way.
Yet another thing that people can't do when they haven't been doing it anyways? This officially announces what existed already, cannot emphasise that enough. Designs have always been meant to follow the same guidelines that we have for room, mob, and object descriptions. If you see any with contractions, ought to typo them.
In addition: there is no middle ground. Reviewers have asked for a ruling so they have a uniform guideline rather than today this is okay, tomorrow not. It avoids situations such as: two days ago three designs of player X passed with a contraction but two almost identical ones didn't. A middle ground and lack of a ruling to reference is confusing and time-consuming for everyone involved: designers, reviewers, and the Charites.
The apostrophe ruling seems like a stylistic choice rather than one that will really enrich or make a difference in the quality of grammar in designs.
Frankly, this feels like a case of picking the wrong and smaller of several fish available to fry. If apostrophes are being used incorrectly, then they should be corrected and sent back, not entirely banned. There are entirely appropriate uses of apostrophes within descriptive writing. This is not a step forwards, this is a step towards a unified house style, which is not something that has previously been codified for Lusternia in a way other than "avoid saying you" and "use British English spelling".
I hate to make a slippery slope argument, but this is a slippery slope. If the staff are going to choose which house style Lusternia has and enforce it, I rather think they owe the players a well-publicized and available style guide rather than what seems like a sudden and bewildering decision out of the blue.
Design policies that dictate style of writing always make me nervous, and as far as I can recall, I never saw it happen in Lusternia before -- which is one reason why it's always been my very favourite game to design in. That's always been up to players to decide for themselves, as long as spelling/grammar are correct. It's perfectly possible to write elegantly with contractions, but even if it isn't, players can write inelegantly if we want to. If I wanted to play a character whose crafts are enthusiastic but rather inept, I'd probably use things like contractions and slightly awkward phrasing to get that point across, because why wouldn't I use style and description together to reinforce the idea? As such, I'd have to disagree with the notion that it won't restrict player creativity. Even if we assume that omitting contractions automatically promotes elegance -- which it certainly doesn't -- why does everything have to be elegant anyway? And I say this as someone who has, to date, almost always chosen to write elegantly. It is a choice.
Since I don't see what harm contractions do to anyone at all, under any conceivable circumstances, I'm a little flabbergasted. Okay, it's a rare decision anyway, but if 0.02% of designers want to use the word "don't" in a design, so what? Changing old designs to fit this new policy is invasive, and it implies that it's somehow a matter of high importance.
My very favourite pointlessly restrictive design policy of all time is still Imperian's "in the available light" debacle, but it's going up there with that. Which, by the way, is a good example of the slippery slope we end up on with policies like this. Most of them are based on pet peeves; they trip designers up, lead to a lot of rejections and frequently produce far more problems than they solve. This doesn't make designing more fun for anyone at all.
By the by, the above is a sample of writing which makes liberal use of contractions. Is it a train-wreck of staggering, world-breaking inelegance? I'm thinking probably not. If I simply removed all the contractions without changing anything else about the style, it would merely end up sounding stilted and overly formal -- not one whit more elegant. And that is what is likely to happen to those designs which are being changed to suit this new policy.
I don't weigh in on these kinds of things very often, as I absolutely understand that administrating designs (and everything else) is a tricky job with a surprisingly large number of hard choices to make. But GOOD HEAVENS, WHAT. What. Why.
Personally I like knowing for certain whether something is allowed or not. The only way this is changing how I design is letting me know for certain that there is another thing I definitely should not do, and I appreciate that. If people weren't using contractions in their designs anyway, what's the use of getting in a huff over it?
Comments
Ixion tells you, "// I don't think anyone else had a clue, amazing form."
I went to reincarnate. For some reason, the Portal wouldn't accept Loboshigaru (uppercase L) as a race I could use. It had to be lowercase. I didn't figure this out until I had liched.
Date: 7/29/2015 at 20:17
From: the Charites, the Administrators of Crafts
To : Everyone
Subj: Contractions
Greetings, Trademasters.
After lengthy deliberation We have decided to introduce a new guideline
regarding the use of contractions within designs. Contractions are words
such as "it's", "that's", "they've", and might appear in sentences like
so: "red ribbon runs across the silk that's been pinned to the skirt".
We have decided, effective immediately, to prohibit the use of such
words in designing. We are keen to ensure that the design guidelines
never feel as if they are restricting your creativity, and do not
believe that this ruling will do so. Rather, We hope that it will enrich
the work of you and your very talented designers, and ensure that
descriptions flow elegantly.
This ruling is additionally retroactive. As such, We will be going
through existing designs to ensure that they are in accordance with it.
We will change nothing other than the contraction itself: our above
example would become "red ribbon runs across the silk that has been
pinned to the skirt". This will take Us some time and We are grateful
for your patience as We attend to doing so.
HELP TRADEMASTERS has been updated to reflect this change. As always,
should you have any questions, you may message Us.
The Charites
Penned by My hand on the 5th of Klangiary, in the year 418 CE.
-
Vive l'apostrophe!
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
Currently Playing in: The doctors office. One more needle and I might just lose it again.
Ixion tells you, "// I don't think anyone else had a clue, amazing form."