I Had A Random Thought...

[Erkki]

Games that are longer than a couple of hours should have a "save and quit" button while showing a chapter title screen. Otherwise you'll see the beginning of the new chapter, it'll look interesting and you'll think "I'll just play a bit more" and the next time you look at the clock you've completed the chapter and now the next one looks interesting too...

[miffy495]

I always go with "they". I like it. Of course, I always used it in academic papers, so maybe it is too impersonal for more artistic forms of writing. Still, nothing wrong with "they" as the gender neutral pronoun.

[BadHat]

To me when I read "e" it just sounds like a shortened he in my head. Like you're just saying it a bit britishly.

[clyde]

To me when I read "e" it just sounds like a shortened he in my head. Like you're just saying it a bit britishly.

I imagine that it may balance things out a bit when I use "er" as a gender-neutral singular posessive.

A big part of the reason I like the idea of using " e" is that it sounds like a shortened "he" or "she".

[Twig]

I'm still mad they got rid of the awesome enemies from the original big XCOM FPS reveal. MAD. SO MAD!!!!

[Merus]

I am still kind of annoyed that the word for 'person' , 'man', got corrupted into referring to male persons, and the word for female person, 'wife', got corrupted into referring to married female people. (The word for male person was 'were', as in 'werewolf', which does mean that female werewolves should be 'wifwolves'.) I'm annoyed that we had a solution and we broke it.

[Dewar]

I think I'm going with "e" as my default gender-neutral singular pronoun. It sounds better to me than "they", which I typically use for plural.

I'm trying to write a story where the main character's gender is not relevant and this has been a constant struggle.

 

Technically, they, them, and their are supposed to refer only to groups of people and "he or she" type constructs are supposed to be used with one person of indefinite gender. I think everyone pretty much agrees that "he or she" is terribly clunky so we're all left in this wierd grey area. To quote Dictionary.com: 

 

Long before the use of generic he  was condemned as sexist, the pronouns they, their,  and them  were used in educated speech and in all but the most formal writing to refer to indefinite pronouns and to singular nouns of general personal reference, probably because such nouns are often not felt to be exclusively singular: If anyone calls, tell them I'll be back at six. Everyone began looking for their books at once.  Such use is not a recent development, nor is it a mark of ignorance.

[I Saw Dasein]

besides which "he or she" presupposes a fixed dichotomy of gender as opposed to the non-gendered "they". 

[SecretAsianMan]

In Chinese (and other languages possibly) the written form of "he" and "she" are different, but they're pronounced the same.  In the case of multiple people, there's a written form of "they, them" for just men or a mix of men and women, and another form for just women; again the pronunciation is the same.  So in casual conversation, there's effectively no gender distinction.

 

Incidentally, there's also a written form of "they, them" for animals with the same pronunciation.

[tegan]

Go with the good old clunky anime fansub standard of "that person."

[I Saw Dasein]

he or she or both or neither

[clyde]

In Chinese (and other languages possibly) the written form of "he" and "she" are different, but they're pronounced the same.

What would the romanization of that pronounciation be?

[Justin Leego]

I am still kind of annoyed that the word for 'person' , 'man', got corrupted into referring to male persons, and the word for female person, 'wife', got corrupted into referring to married female people. (The word for male person was 'were', as in 'werewolf', which does mean that female werewolves should be 'wifwolves'.) I'm annoyed that we had a solution and we broke it.

 

The implication that your continuing irritation may have first stirred over 1000 years ago suggests that you yourself may be imbued with supernatural qualities.

[SecretAsianMan]

What would the romanization of that pronounciation be?

 

Using pinyin (a phonetic system for transcribing Chinese pronunciation into Latin script)

 

他 - tā (male)

她 - tā (female)

他们 - tāmen (them, male)

她们 - tāmen (them, female)

 

Google's translator will pronounce it if you want to hear it.

[clyde]

Using pinyin (a phonetic system for transcribing Chinese pronunciation into Latin script)

 

他 - tā (male)

她 - tā (female)

他们 - tāmen (them, male)

她们 - tāmen (them, female)

 

Google's translator will pronounce it if you want to hear it.

I might use that instead. 

[Twig]

Speaking of tamen, I want some ramen.

[impuuuu]

I am still kind of annoyed that the word for 'person' , 'man', got corrupted into referring to male persons, and the word for female person, 'wife', got corrupted into referring to married female people. (The word for male person was 'were', as in 'werewolf', which does mean that female werewolves should be 'wifwolves'.) I'm annoyed that we had a solution and we broke it.

Wow that's some interesting trivia. Crazy to think how language can morph like that.

[BenLuke]

Was browsing GIANTBOMB.COM's forums and realized I'd

. 

 

[clyde]

Is there anything that you have developed an appreciation for, in spite of all likeihood and now you can't convince anyone how awesome it is because they are not as fortunate? I mean... besides computer-games.

My personal one that is on my mind is a specific thread of korean soap-operas. The chances that I would get into korean soap-operas was absurdly low, but through a lucky streak, everything lined up for it to happen. Fortunately, I know that you all have experienced this same phenomenon because you participate on Idle Thumbs. Evangelizing K-dramas is very similar to evangelizing games. Everyone already kinda has a symbol and opinion on the thing you are attempting to advertise, and that image is either completely wrong or wholly irrelevant.

I have to admit that it's korean, because it has subtitles. I just lost %90 of the potential admirers. People are unwilling to read subtitles. But it's sooooo worth it.

Then I have to explain that these are cheesy romances. Why would anyone want to watch a cheesy romance? I never enjoyed cheesy romances before k-dramas, how did this happen?!

"So you are telling me that she can see ghosts, but she meets a rich, arrogant CEO who makes the ghosts disappear so she follows him around and they eventually fall in love? Why would I watch that?"

-I KNOW!! But it's SOOO GOOD!

"Wait, so you are telling me that the show is crap for the first 4 episodes, meaning that I will have to endure 4 hours of a crappy show until I get to a fifth hour that is actually good?"

-YES! THAT is EXACTLY what I am saying!

"So can't I skip the first four episode?"

-NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! You'll have no idea what is going on or why the fifth episode is so great.

"But you can guarentee I'll like it?"

-Of course not. It's super cheesy, filled with predictable tropes (which you may begin to learn to love the way you love inside-jokes) and the stories typically fall apart at the end and leave you disappointed.

"Are you crazy?"

-Yes! I got K-drama fever and there is only one cure for fever! MORE FEVER!

"He sure does like grabbing her wrist and dragging her around, that's kind of offensive."

-Yeah. I know.

And then someone watches something like Heirs and they go "That show sucked." And you go "NOOOO! That's like the worst show you could have picked!"

It's really similar to trying to get someone into computer-games.

"How long do I have to run around and do stuff for people?"

-This is the game, but after 5 hours, it gets really good

-There's this game called Civilization 5

"I tried video-games. I'm not very good at them. And it was kind of boring."

-what game did you play?

"I think it was Pac-Man."

-try Civ

"What am. I trying to do?"

-Spelunky is great!

"This is hard, I die really fast."

-You get better.

"I have to start over?"

------------

It's so crazy that I ended up liking this stuff considering the quantity of barriers. And I did write this because I'm enjoying Master's Sun so much and I feel like I'm in the show and I can't wait til I get to watch another episode tonight, but I am curious if any of you have interests which are simularly impossible to communicate. Ones that you can't understand how you lucked into them yourself.

[subbes]

Oh:  Vampire Prosecutor.

[BadHat]

My taste in music. I know a couple people who have similar enough tastes that I can float bands to them without being 100% certain they'll reject them out of hand, but with most people I don't even bother going into it any more. I mean I try not to have a sense of snobbery about it but there are only so many times you can be told something like "pfft, it's just complex for the sake of being complex, there's nothing musical about that!" without wanting to throttle the person in question (even if sometimes they're kind of right).

[Zeusthecat]

My taste in music. I know a couple people who have similar enough tastes that I can float bands to them without being 100% certain they'll reject them out of hand, but with most people I don't even bother going into it any more. I mean I try not to have a sense of snobbery about it but there are only so many times you can be told something like "pfft, it's just complex for the sake of being complex, there's nothing musical about that!" without wanting to throttle the person in question (even if sometimes they're kind of right).

 

 It's really weird how people get about music (myself included). There seems to be a very strong inherent skepticism when it comes to listening to unfamiliar music. I always force myself to listen to new stuff a minimum of three times before I make any kind of judgment. I find that I usually like stuff a hell of a lot more after a few listens than I did at first.

[Twig]

I just like music. I'm willing to listen to anything, and as of yet there is not a genre I've found that I can't find something I like in it.

 

But I'm weird. U:

[dibs]

 

Three times now before you judge. (I loved it from the start)

[Zeusthecat]

One listen down and it's pretty good.