Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

Jazuela · 01-27-2004, 01:47 PM

I'm of two minds about this, because of my observations/experience in different games.

The one I play now allows the player to create their own "drop description." So they can drop a table in the room and have people see:

A low round table crouches in the northeast corner.

This negates any need for the whole "is here" thing, which in my opinion is a completely unneccessary use of passive voice.

In another game, dropped objects are listed after "Also here is/are" - thus negating, once again, the redundant "is here" after each object.

Another game I play on occasion requires "permanent" long descriptions for every character. They can do "Mychar is here" if they want, but those with a few extra grains of creativity can come up with other interesting things that are plausible whenever their character is standing and conscious.

In another game, objects that are part of the room are -never- listed separately. The room description will tell you what's there, and you simply "look" at whatever you want to look at, and there's an object with its own description imbedded into the room as a "dark/immobile" object. Like the room in the middle of the farmlands that has something in the description indicating that there's a mountain in the distance: you can "look mountain" and you'll see the mountain's description. But looking in the room itself, all you see is the reference to it in the main description of the room, and not as some separate entity.

I try to avoid passive voice, because I was trained to do so. I realize that other people don't find any problem with it, and as long as the entire room isn't loaded with passive after passive, it doesn't bother me all that much. You just won't ever see any room descriptions or object descriptions written by me with more than one or possibly two passive sentences.

EDITED TO ADD: In your example, that line isn't a sentence, and in my opinion would be horribly distracting. If you want to list what's there, preface the list with "Also here:" - or put the list of things in paragraph sentence, with each item separated by a comma. Example:

A grungy topcoat, several empty ceramic mugs, a pair of blue denim trousers hemmed with black velvet, two orc skins, and a whiptail are here.

In summary - if you list it, and don't include a verb with each item, then preface it or paragraph it. Otherwise I agree, "is here" is odd.

01-27-2004, 01:47 PM	#2
Jazuela Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: New England Posts: 849	I'm of two minds about this, because of my observations/experience in different games. The one I play now allows the player to create their own "drop description." So they can drop a table in the room and have people see: A low round table crouches in the northeast corner. This negates any need for the whole "is here" thing, which in my opinion is a completely unneccessary use of passive voice. In another game, dropped objects are listed after "Also here is/are" - thus negating, once again, the redundant "is here" after each object. Another game I play on occasion requires "permanent" long descriptions for every character. They can do "Mychar is here" if they want, but those with a few extra grains of creativity can come up with other interesting things that are plausible whenever their character is standing and conscious. In another game, objects that are part of the room are -never- listed separately. The room description will tell you what's there, and you simply "look" at whatever you want to look at, and there's an object with its own description imbedded into the room as a "dark/immobile" object. Like the room in the middle of the farmlands that has something in the description indicating that there's a mountain in the distance: you can "look mountain" and you'll see the mountain's description. But looking in the room itself, all you see is the reference to it in the main description of the room, and not as some separate entity. I try to avoid passive voice, because I was trained to do so. I realize that other people don't find any problem with it, and as long as the entire room isn't loaded with passive after passive, it doesn't bother me all that much. You just won't ever see any room descriptions or object descriptions written by me with more than one or possibly two passive sentences. EDITED TO ADD: In your example, that line isn't a sentence, and in my opinion would be horribly distracting. If you want to list what's there, preface the list with "Also here:" - or put the list of things in paragraph sentence, with each item separated by a comma. Example: A grungy topcoat, several empty ceramic mugs, a pair of blue denim trousers hemmed with black velvet, two orc skins, and a whiptail are here. In summary - if you list it, and don't include a verb with each item, then preface it or paragraph it. Otherwise I agree, "is here" is odd.