Curse

Lasareth · Jan 25, 2006, 07:56 PM // 19:56

Stay on-topic, please. Personal attacks/correcting others' grammatical errors/being a general stickler on perfect syntactical accuracy within forum posts isn't relevant to the main topic.

Thanks.

Renegade of Funk · Jan 25, 2006, 09:03 PM // 21:03

Faction can be used as a synonym for "brownie points" or someones "good graces". (note the period outside the quotes. eat it!) so if one uses common sense GW:Factions and "You gained 25 faction for your Flawless Victory!", its not hard to differentiate between the two.

Racthoh · Jan 25, 2006, 09:14 PM // 21:14

Final Fantasy has used Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder in pretty much all of their recent games. The stronger versions of these spells are Fira/Firaga, Blizzara/Blizzaga, Thundara/Thundaga.

Diablo II, Barbarians have Sword Mastery, Axe Mastery, Polearm Mastery, Hammer Mastery, Throwing Mastery, and Spear Mastery.

Just as a few examples... basically, doesn't every single game fall victim to this pattern? Palette swaps were always popular on NES and SNES games as well and to me that defines an RPG to some degree.

Undivine · Jan 25, 2006, 09:26 PM // 21:26

I agree with the OP. Although I don't mind much of what you mentioned, rank, faction, and most especially skill are so blatently ambiguous that it does bother me.

Skill is my biggest peeve. There are many skills that, in their descriptions, affect other "skills." Well what exactly does that mean?! Call them techniques or something. Don't use the same bloody word twice, and to refer to a sub-catagory of itself, no less!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racthoh

...doesn't every single game fall victim to this pattern? Palette swaps were always popular on NES and SNES games as well and to me that defines an RPG to some degree.

Two wrongs don't make a right. It's a bad habit of the game industry and a good suggestion is a good suggestion, even if it can apply to a lot of games.

Though in your examples, at least it is possible to tell the difference between those words.

Ultimate_Gaara · Jan 26, 2006, 01:44 AM // 01:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatalieD

But doesn't it make things less understandable when they use the same word for two different things?

Its not too hard to understand the diffrence between two things that use the same word once you read what the diffrence between the two are, I mean the person had enough brain power to find the store they sell this game in so im sure they can figure out such a small word problem such as this.

Lets not forget that names of spells are not the only way to figure out that a skill is, the description and picture are there for a reason.

Eder · Jan 26, 2006, 02:14 AM // 02:14

Hehe, yeah, you can rely on the picture and on the description: as the previous poster said, the amazingly well written and crystal clear descriptions that sometimes say stuff like "Elite Skill. For 3 seconds, every time you use a skill..." and leave you wondering wheter it's any skill or a skill pertaining to the skill sub-category (that's right, a "skill" category with a "skill" sub-category in it - how can anyone claim that this is not confusing?). I guess in that case, I'll just have to go by the picture, right?

Like I said on my previous post... I don't expect this to be at the top of ANet's priority list, but saying that all the game's concepts are fine and easy to understand is also incorrect.

007Bistromath · Jan 26, 2006, 06:56 PM // 18:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Renegade of Funk

Faction can be used as a synonym for "brownie points" or someones "good graces".

No, it can't be. That's not what the word means at all. Several dictionaries will readily agree with me, and even a staunch descriptivist such as myself won't allow them to do that, because there is absolutely no other source I have ever seen which attempted to use the word in this fashion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racthoh

Final Fantasy has used Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder in pretty much all of their recent games. The stronger versions of these spells are Fira/Firaga, Blizzara/Blizzaga, Thundara/Thundaga.

Diablo II, Barbarians have Sword Mastery, Axe Mastery, Polearm Mastery, Hammer Mastery, Throwing Mastery, and Spear Mastery.

Just as a few examples... basically, doesn't every single game fall victim to this pattern? Palette swaps were always popular on NES and SNES games as well and to me that defines an RPG to some degree.

...No. Those are completely different things, and I fail to understand how you could compare them. The FF example is a logical grouping of progressively more powerful versions of the same skill. The DII example is a logical grouping of several skill sets which are similar in purpose. The GW example is using a word to mean two completely different and unrelated things for no reason other than a lack of planning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ultimate_Gaara

Lets not forget that names of spells are not the only way to figure out that a skill is, the description and picture are there for a reason.

I completely disagree with this, but I'm not going to argue it, because it's immaterial. Even if I agreed with you 100%, that is not a good arguement against fixing this, because there is no reason not to make things better when it is possible, especially since this would involve no great feat of programming which would suck up time from other issues. All that needs to be done is to change a simple character string. I think the devs can spare those ten minutes from bugfixing.

Njaiguni Blaze · Jan 08, 2007, 02:40 AM // 02:40

Glyph of Scarifice... Well, seems logic to me. You use it to cast the next spell instantly, but sacrifice an amount of time for you to use it again.
Shadow Step... You walk in the shadows and move faster or unnoticed by doing that? Maybe's it's called Shadow Step because it's a Shadow Arts skill?
Channeling... Obvious. Channeling has got more definitions.
Favor/Divine Favor... Same as with channeling.
Faction(s)... Again same story. You can be aligned with a Faction or gain Faction.
Minions... Just because people call it "Minion Master" doesn't mean these things are still animated creatures, like the game describes them.
Rank... What other word would you want to use. Rank is a certain level compared to others. Rank is.... well, rank.
"Elite Skill, Whenever target foe uses a skill..." A skill is a skill. That's the way they're called from Gwen's birth.
Next thing you know you are going to tell me people actually think Silver Armor gives you free armor.

And then to think I am dutch. I never had any problems with understanding these "errors" as you guys might call them. I don't find it hard to understand what the difference is between Channeling and Channeling Magic is in Guild Wars. I read the whole context. Not words that look alike.

Edit: I just saw that this topic was created a year ago -_o