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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-18-2012 @ 4:29PM
J said...
Ah, accents. Personally, I'd never write a character's speech to include it, but I'm not strictly against other people doing so. If they want to write their character that way, well, that's entirely their choice. It's their character.
That said, here are my issues with it.
1) Too many people focus so heavily on the accent that it becomes the defining point of their character. Not their personality, or their actions, or anything of substance - just their near-indecipherable accent. You're playing a troll/dwarf/draenei/race with a notable accent. Other players can tell this simply by looking at your character model. Let them read the accent without *seeing* it. (You know that fairly popular Morgan Freeman meme, with the image of him and how you automatically read the text in his voice just from association? That's what I mean.)
2) Bad accents. As a Scot, nothing makes my skin crawl more than awful attempts at dwarf accents. I know that, strictly speaking, their accent is *Dwarven*, not Scottish... but oh god, it makes me a sad panda when it's done badly. NPCs are equally guilty of this, of course (I'm looking at you, Bran. You suck.) but seeing it with RPers just makes me sigh with frustration. In my own experience, dwarf RPers seem to be the most guilty of this, though that could simply be because I notice the incorrect slang usage more than anything. It's odd to read someone speaking in a Scottish/Dwarven accent, using random English slang (there's a difference!), with a smattering of American slang thrown in for good measure.
I fully believe that accents can be done well. However, I think they're generally so over-used and poorly done that I'd much sooner RP with someone playing one of those races that *doesn't* write with an accent than someone that does. Too much focus on the accent, not enough on the character behind it.
Reply
2-18-2012 @ 6:19PM
Aika said...
Spot on.
It often strikes me that people use a heck of a lot of mental bandwidth maintaining an accent and don't have much left for anything else.
That said, it's great to meet other roleplayers in WoW and I don't like to get too critical about how they do it.
Btw, I do think that when Blizzard gave the Dwarves a Scottish accent it should have made their racial drink whisky rather than beer. The Wildhammer, in particular, would make some seriously good malt, I think.
2-18-2012 @ 8:00PM
Helston said...
Raise your hand if you read the second half of J's post in Morgan Freeman's voice.
*Raises hand*
2-19-2012 @ 1:39AM
Zapwidget said...
I just use an emote.
/e speaks with (appropriate) accent.
For example, my dwarf warrior /e speaks with a decidedly Gnomish accent.
Now, I have no idea how you would write a Gnomish accent, but I also figure that when speaking with a representative of another culture, it's safe to assume they have an appropriate accent unless told otherwise, and it doesn't need to be represented in text.