Oriental inspiration

[Ian]

Ok, I'm loving the ideas Animal and DC are coming up with for combat, mystic powers, items and such.  I can see that using the orient for inspiration is giving a lot of cool themes... but sometimes I think the names are too much.  Can we tone them down a little.  MajorMUD only used oriental names on a few items, and that still gave me the shits.  I have no idea what a Kote or a Kusari Gama are.  Are they types of sushi?

Anyway, I'm just putting this out there to see what other people think, and to let DC and Animal know what I (and possibly others) think about all these names.

[The Crazy Animal]

Grin,

I don't really have a problem using the names because we have descriptions to tell people that don't know what an item is, what that item is. We could say the same thing for fantasy items like midnight glare, blizardfang, holy avenger, blacknight, or a crowned spider skull or horned spider skull but we don't. However saying all that I still would like to know what people think of using non-english names though for stuff?

BTW - A Kote is a forearm guard usually worn by a samurai, and a kusarigama is a type of sickle with a ball and chain attached to the other side.

[Valentine]

I think the oriental names can be toned down a bit. Otherwise it'll look more like KarateMud than GreaterMud.

Not that KarateMud isn't a cool idea in itself, but I don't think that's the focus we were going for :)

Damn sushi sounds good now.

[Ian]

I guess it's a little of both.  I like to read the item description to get a better idea of what it looks like or how it works (or just to reassure myself I'm a big man for carrying a big weapon), but not to find out what it is.

I also like it when item descriptions have a punchline.  #1597, jeweled maul: Defintely a weapon that could splat most foes.

[The Crazy Animal]

I guess it's a little of both.? I like to read the item description to get a better idea of what it looks like or how it works (or just to reassure myself I'm a big man for carrying a big weapon), but not to find out what it is.

I also like it when item descriptions have a punchline.? #1597, jeweled maul: Defintely a weapon that could splat most foes.

Put it this way should I leave out a weapon like a Gisarme (sometimes spelled Gisarm) just because someone doesn't know what it is? To make my point further a Gisarme is even an english word.

If you look at the character classes possibly at this point getting items or other wise incorperating foreign words you should realize that they are also based on those foreign cultures, Ninja = Japan Shinobi, Mystic = China Shaolin Monk, Samurai = Japan Samurai or Bushi. These are classes that are meant to have a foreign feel to them and even a sense of mystery around their being. The way to do that in a text based game is to immerse them with supporting content that adds to that feeling. Plus its doesn't really help much that almost all of their supporting items do not have established English names what is used is the Romanized version of the pronunciation of the foreign word.  Example Katana = Romanized Japanese, Ninjato = Romanized Japanese. However, words like those probably don?t bother you though because you are already familiar with them even though they are not actually English words just loaned words that have been used to fill the void of a missing term.

   

[DeathCow]

Any foreign term I use will be backed with in game text.? It wont just float around with an exspectation of people understanding what it is.? That being said, things like the mystic power tree its just a naming system.? Its sets of stars in the sky, which isnt difficult to explain.? I may even decide to just make up my own words for them term :>.?

Its not like I'll have an Npc say.
" そう、訓練したいと思う。私が言っている何を訓練すると推測。"

[The Crazy Animal]

I may even decide to just make up my own words for them term :>.?

Sounds like ian will be getting the shits alot...

[Hagrid]

I may even decide to just make up my own words for them term :>.?

Sounds like ian will be getting the shits alot...

Hopefully there are alot of floor sweeps then.  :angel12:

[The Crazy Animal]

grin