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Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: Neverwinter would fail English
arythor
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 315 Bounty Hunter
Throughout the course of the beta weekend I found and reported at least 30 cases of incorrect spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Had I specifically looked for issues and read every item and power description, I would likely have found hundreds. It seems almost every quest has dialogue with a problem, lots of powers do, and many items, too.
Why does it matter? I mean, most people probably do not care, especially since most people barely read. However, when a game has poor spelling and grammar, it looks less professional and polished. I should never come across things like "seperate" or "enchanced." Those are not words and a basic spellchecker would find them, so having them sneak into a game is not excusable.
Then there are the more subtle issues, like grammar and punctuation. Whoever writes the powers needs to be taught what a comma splice is, because powers in particular are rife with them.
Here is a comma splice: "You slash at your target, he is stunned and dealt damage." Those are two independent clauses joined with a comma; you should use a semicolon (like I just did, though most people do not know how to use them properly so most should not even try), a period, or a conjunction such as "and."
Verb agreement is often wrong, too. I have seen cases where a description would read like this: "You slash at your target, and he is stunned and deal damage." The subject is the target, so the word should be "dealt."
Anyway, I would highly recommend a comprehensive review of all of the text in the game. Hire someone who knows the mechanics of the English language and can review submitted text for errors. I assure you the person could work full time until release and be kept busy. At the very least run a spellchecker, which would likely find and correct hundreds, perhaps thousands of typos. It is still beta so I can definitely forgive a lot of issues, as I am guessing a lot of content is rushed in without much proofreading, but in a few months the game will likely be launched and there is a long way to go if you want to reach the polish that the text of a AAA MMORPG has. World of Warcraft, for instance, contains virtually no errors, which is a testament to how carefully they review work. Neverwinter should do the same if it wants a reputation as a AAA MMORPG, too.
Why does it matter? I mean, most people probably do not care, especially since most people barely read. However, when a game has poor spelling and grammar, it looks less professional and polished. I should never come across things like "seperate" or "enchanced." Those are not words and a basic spellchecker would find them, so having them sneak into a game is not excusable.
Then there are the more subtle issues, like grammar and punctuation. Whoever writes the powers needs to be taught what a comma splice is, because powers in particular are rife with them.
Here is a comma splice: "You slash at your target, he is stunned and dealt damage." Those are two independent clauses joined with a comma; you should use a semicolon (like I just did, though most people do not know how to use them properly so most should not even try), a period, or a conjunction such as "and."
Verb agreement is often wrong, too. I have seen cases where a description would read like this: "You slash at your target, and he is stunned and deal damage." The subject is the target, so the word should be "dealt."
Anyway, I would highly recommend a comprehensive review of all of the text in the game. Hire someone who knows the mechanics of the English language and can review submitted text for errors. I assure you the person could work full time until release and be kept busy. At the very least run a spellchecker, which would likely find and correct hundreds, perhaps thousands of typos. It is still beta so I can definitely forgive a lot of issues, as I am guessing a lot of content is rushed in without much proofreading, but in a few months the game will likely be launched and there is a long way to go if you want to reach the polish that the text of a AAA MMORPG has. World of Warcraft, for instance, contains virtually no errors, which is a testament to how carefully they review work. Neverwinter should do the same if it wants a reputation as a AAA MMORPG, too.
Post edited by arythor on
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Comments
If this really bothers you, I imagine your going to go crazy when everyone is allowed to author Foundry content
Neverwinter Thieves Guild
THIS , Rogues can only see traps why do fighters get all kinds of perks.
H. P. Lovecraft
This is not an excuse.
I agree.
It is a sign of the times when people start to say "spelling and grammar do not matter." Why don't they matter? Is it because we rely so much on technology that many students who pass English today would not have passed 20 or 30 years ago? I do not want to play a game that looks like it was typed on a smartphone. No, Neverwinter is not nearly that bad, but my point is that the standards for published work should be high. This is a professionally produced video game, not a text message conversation where yes, I agree that mistakes in the interest of time are fine when they do not sacrifice clarity.
The most important thing is that writing correctly is no more difficult than writing incorrectly; it is a question of education and training, not effort. Besides, theoretically every quest and item that goes into the game is peer-reviewed by at least one other person, so how things are not caught is beyond me. When Jim writes up a quest and says it is ready, and his supervisor or colleague, Bob, goes through it to ensure it is, Bob should be catching this stuff. If Bob is not, then hire Steve who will.
AND the Developers should be running text thru a spellchecker at the very least to cut down on the need for so many to be fixed.
I definitely agree with the OP -- it does matter, and, I believe anyway, ever so slightly reinforces the misspellings and pathetic grammar in our already badly educated youth.
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