Lakagigar wrote:Abandoned Corpse wrote:The 'pro' or 'advanced role players': These people give descriptions of SOME words I don't even know. I'm not going to say much about these people, but it's hard for me sometimes to understand.
This is basically why I don't RP in games anymore. After 7 years or so of writing and RP I think I can calmly call myself an advanced role player, but all those difficult words? Why are they even using them? When it comes to writing, it's more about the way you formulate the sentences and the content of the text, not all the pretty and difficult words you can stuff in there. It's distracting and interups the flow if you have to take a second to remember what the word means or don't know their meaning to begin with. To add to that, in games you can actually just do some of the actions and don't really need to describe them in detail. Just mention it, add an emotion and/or reason for it and done xD
I have to say, I do agree with part of what you posted. I know English well enough to read some of the more complex works by some authors and by consequence, to spout back lines similar in their tone and verbosity. However, this does not mean I should.
There's people out there, who take pleasure in looking up new words and expanding their vocabulary. I know I do, whether it's archaic words, long words, short ones, etc. I love getting to know the definition of it. But we also have to acknowledge that not everyone is majoring in English Literature, has a dictionary beside them at all times or finds it fun to look up words at every interval.
Think about it, you're reading a book and you come across a word that you don't understand. In that case, you can underline it and look it up later, since you can comprehend the basic meaning of the sentence in context anyway, or, you can look it up immediately and I suppose reap the benefit of understanding the exact meaning.
Now here's the problem: this is a game, not a book. You're not writing the next Shakespeare or Ulysses. You can't underline words in a game. Sure you can write them down, but even then, you'd need the context in which they're in; the sentence or even the paragraph. It does indeed disrupt the flow of the roleplay when someone takes ages to answer because they're looking up all of those flowery words in your sentence, or they simply cannot understand and reply back with either nonsense or ask out-of-character what you meant.
I don't mean to force yourself to write in a lower level, but merely to take into consideration who you're roleplaying with. If you join into a roleplay where everyone is writing simplistic one liners, then how do you think they would feel when you slap down a huge chunk that sounds like it came right out of The Canterbury Tales? Now let's turn it the other way around. You shouldn't join a roleplay where everyone's writing in a very verbose style and simply mark down a meek sentence that stands out like ink on blank parchment.
The key is to know who you're writing for. You don't always have to "knock down" your language if you're with people who don't understand you. Sometimes all you have to do is follow George Orwell's advice and “[don't] use a long word where a short will do”. Don't over-complicate things and do take a more common approach. Most people don't talk to their friends in a very high standard of language, so take that level when roleplaying with people who have a lower level than you and be considerate of others. Something I would like is for people to mention their aptitude in roleplay before the actual act begins, then you know who you're dealing with and how to adapt.
A final thing I might add is that sometimes common words are simply better to use than to pull up a thesaurus for every single sentence. Not all of the words have to be different or shouldn't repeat. I think writers and roleplayers demonize simple words a bit too much. If you're more advanced than your audience, then you should try to engage them in a positive experience; show them that learning new words is fun. Do this by being legible and precise as long as they aren't afraid to think a little. You have to make sense to them in order to avoid losing the audience completely and appearing as pompous and a show-off.