What's interesting to me is this whole idea that, at least in the game, we have a telepathic worm in our brain which could bypass the inefficiency of spoken language in some of these instances, but it would require more in the set up, allowing us to project or code-switch that via the prompts. Something like a grammar for managing this aspect of the play I guess, to cut through the fluff there.
I just wanted to latch onto that metaphor about speaking Spanish for a second, cause unless it's Blood in Blood Out, I fail there instantly lol. I think I failed highschool Spanish what, like 3 times maybe? Absolutely convinced I was just entirely incapable of learning a foreign language. It was so hard for me.
Only much much later did I realize that the problem wasn't so much the Spanish, but the fact that I'd never learned English grammar, or ever had someone bother trying to teach it to me, so I had no real point of reference there. I learned to read late, and am still the worst typist I know, but it was deeper. Basically I had grammar, but no technical descriptive language for it, like to understand how it was opperating in the language I already spoke, rather than the language I was trying to learn. If that makes sense.
Instead I had acquired grammar, like most speakers do for the mother tongue, through experiment, or trial and error in early childhood, without having to actually think about it much after that.
To understand what was going on as an adult, I first had to ditch Spanish 2, and learn a dead language instead (go figure! Lol). In my case Ancient Greek, which is not really like learning a foreign language at all, so much as it was learning how to read a dictionary (Liddell & Scott) and a grammar (Smyths) with some purpose, which then made it possible for me to reflect and think about what was happening for my own native tongue in a more meaningful way. It was like flipping a ligh switch, I just needed a cypher, or for someone to paint me a picture. I needed those glyphs and abbreviated side bars in the margins, to help guide me through it all.
This was way easier for me in the low pressure environment of translating some very old tome, as opposed to say asking for directions while trying to find a bathroom. Fear of spontaneous time travel aside, you'll never meet anyone who speaks it living, so it was just a different vibe there, right hehe. Anyway, main idea is that it would be cool, if the game could help us parse stuff in a similar sort way. Just so the game could also serve as lower pressure environment, in which players can figure all this stuff out, in situations where the stakes aren't quite as high. You know, cause it's a game.
Maybe the game could do something like that, but parsing the prompts?
Gestural and emmotive communication is universal in a way that spoken language isn't, and where the latter often fails, you can still make some headway if sticking to the basics sometimes, like the human face and figure or especially the hands.
If they had a Faerun equivalent of ASL and a character to showcase it, or a perhaps something like a pair of characters, so one could play proxy translator on the fly, that would be rad! I mean I just imagine the mileage one could get out of that even if on a purely aesthetic front. Especially if the game could build this out into the general characterisation somehow, so it gets into the marrow. Things like that could knock on into other arenas.
Accessibility is sometimes presented as a bonus in these sorts of games, but done right, it could elevate the game in a way that benefits all players and all player characters. Like once you get that foot in the door, something that seems like a niche novelty, could open a whole new approach to characterisation.
Worth kicking around at least! I think anyway, so just had to nod right quick hehe
Last edited by Black_Elk; 17/11/23 04:26 PM.
