Commonly Misspelled WoW Words
Posted by 
Heartbourne on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 173 Comments Tags: ogrimmar, rant, spelling, trade chat
Heartbourne on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 173 Comments Tags: ogrimmar, rant, spelling, trade chat
UPDATE:
Usually my posts get a dozen or so comments. Lo and behold when I logged in today to see over 30 angry comments on this post.
Project Lore represents a variety of players and backgrounds. Sometimes the difference between preaching to guildmates and writing posts vanishes in my mind and I realize I'm not talking to players who are exactly like me. The comments brought up many good points; some players are casual and haven't had time or care to learn all the jargon, while others are non-native English speakers or have speech disorders like dyslexia.
While I stand by the thesis of my post that communicating clearly with proper spelling and grammar will make you stand out in busy channels like Trade or LFG, the counter-response is well taken. Some players PUG people often and would rather get a group going as fast as possible than nitpick. Some players play on less populated servers and don't have the same type of Trade or LFG channels that are flooded with spam.
This is all true and I should have taken these things into account before publishing that post. I'll leave this post up for posterity, but I want everyone to understand that this is a rant stemming from personally dealing with novice players and wasting hours in instances from PUGing inexperienced players and this does not reflect on all of the writers or staff of Project Lore. I myself make spelling and grammar mistakes, and this post and many of my others are full of them. I leave the ones I found as is and highlight them to show that everyone makes mistakes, even when their message is carefully thought out.
Nothing makes you look more like a novice when desperately trying to PUG a heroic group than misspelling some simple words. Many players opt to leave the spam-ridden trade channel because there is little value in seeing statements like "LF Haels and tnak h occulus pst". If one cannot type simple four letter words, then many players will have doubts about that individual's ability to play effectively.
One of the most commonly misspelled words as of late is "dual". Many players talking about "dual wielding" or "dual specs" as "duel wielding" or "duel specs". A duel in WoW is a simple fight to the death between two players. Dual implies that there are two of something, namely weapons in your hands or specs that you switch between (ending a sentence with a preposition).
Another one that died out pretty early in WoW's lifespan but creeps up occasionally is rogue. If anyone is in trade looking for a "rouge" to open their lockbox, I would sooner ignore them than waste a hearthstone cooldown and my time going from Dalaran to Orgrimmar and back to help someone who doesn't take their time to proofread their sentences.
And while we are on the subject of Orgrimmar, note that there are two R's (three R's n00b!). The city is not "Ogrimmar" nor "Orgimmar". If someone is looking for an enchant in "ogrimmar" I do not know where to meet them, and I don't waste my time trying to speak with such an illiterate individual.
Everyone's least favorite dungeon, Oculus, is one that is difficult to PUG and misspelled more often than not. Note that there is one C. It is not "occulus". Occulus guards the Caverns of Time. Oculus is a dungeon located in Coldarra.
Now I know that everyone makes mistakes and there are some younger players who haven't yet developed their typing skills. However, the road to level 80 is long your first time through and you learn many things while leveling. You should learn common terminology well. People who correct their spelling with an asterisk gain a little bit of respect in my book, even though they further spam up my chatlog so I have to scroll around when looking back at other, more relevant messages. If I am about to spend 1-3 hours in a dungeon with 5 people I don't know, I'm not taking risks on someone who cannot spell simple words correctly. Stay alert!
What are your opinions? Have you found a good guild and left trade/general chat, or do you still revel in that cross-city chat?
Usually my posts get a dozen or so comments. Lo and behold when I logged in today to see over 30 angry comments on this post.
Project Lore represents a variety of players and backgrounds. Sometimes the difference between preaching to guildmates and writing posts vanishes in my mind and I realize I'm not talking to players who are exactly like me. The comments brought up many good points; some players are casual and haven't had time or care to learn all the jargon, while others are non-native English speakers or have speech disorders like dyslexia.
While I stand by the thesis of my post that communicating clearly with proper spelling and grammar will make you stand out in busy channels like Trade or LFG, the counter-response is well taken. Some players PUG people often and would rather get a group going as fast as possible than nitpick. Some players play on less populated servers and don't have the same type of Trade or LFG channels that are flooded with spam.
This is all true and I should have taken these things into account before publishing that post. I'll leave this post up for posterity, but I want everyone to understand that this is a rant stemming from personally dealing with novice players and wasting hours in instances from PUGing inexperienced players and this does not reflect on all of the writers or staff of Project Lore. I myself make spelling and grammar mistakes, and this post and many of my others are full of them. I leave the ones I found as is and highlight them to show that everyone makes mistakes, even when their message is carefully thought out.
Nothing makes you look more like a novice when desperately trying to PUG a heroic group than misspelling some simple words. Many players opt to leave the spam-ridden trade channel because there is little value in seeing statements like "LF Haels and tnak h occulus pst". If one cannot type simple four letter words, then many players will have doubts about that individual's ability to play effectively.
One of the most commonly misspelled words as of late is "dual". Many players talking about "dual wielding" or "dual specs" as "duel wielding" or "duel specs". A duel in WoW is a simple fight to the death between two players. Dual implies that there are two of something, namely weapons in your hands or specs that you switch between (ending a sentence with a preposition).
Another one that died out pretty early in WoW's lifespan but creeps up occasionally is rogue. If anyone is in trade looking for a "rouge" to open their lockbox, I would sooner ignore them than waste a hearthstone cooldown and my time going from Dalaran to Orgrimmar and back to help someone who doesn't take their time to proofread their sentences.
And while we are on the subject of Orgrimmar, note that there are two R's (three R's n00b!). The city is not "Ogrimmar" nor "Orgimmar". If someone is looking for an enchant in "ogrimmar" I do not know where to meet them, and I don't waste my time trying to speak with such an illiterate individual.
Everyone's least favorite dungeon, Oculus, is one that is difficult to PUG and misspelled more often than not. Note that there is one C. It is not "occulus". Occulus guards the Caverns of Time. Oculus is a dungeon located in Coldarra.
Now I know that everyone makes mistakes and there are some younger players who haven't yet developed their typing skills. However, the road to level 80 is long your first time through and you learn many things while leveling. You should learn common terminology well. People who correct their spelling with an asterisk gain a little bit of respect in my book, even though they further spam up my chatlog so I have to scroll around when looking back at other, more relevant messages. If I am about to spend 1-3 hours in a dungeon with 5 people I don't know, I'm not taking risks on someone who cannot spell simple words correctly. Stay alert!
What are your opinions? Have you found a good guild and left trade/general chat, or do you still revel in that cross-city chat?
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Reader Comments (173)
way more annoying*
I completely agree with you. Although I do spell words wrong by accident on the odd occasion, I'm quick to correct it with and asterisk. Great post!
you got lots of responces for this topic but most them are angry that is not the kind of popularity you want if you are bored with the facts post run with that monkey idea whould not be teh dumbest idea you had and i think most people would rather have a monkey then you anyways the bottom line is DONT CRITIZE PEOPLE FOR THEIR SPELLING if you just had done taht itheir whould been one or 2 angry posts instead of 50 just ceep taht in mind that next time you wanto bitch about what you think is a "problem" in WOW
sso are you gointo take this post down or do you wanto go for another record
At the end of the day, what does it matter if somebody doesnt spell right? As long as they do well in the instance/pay you for the enchant/lockpicking i dont mind.
Yes, i do get annoyed if people spell stuff badly but minor spelling mistakes like ogrimmar doesnt bother me much.
I agree with you in a sense Heartbourne but it might have been taken a bit too OTT.
I have a guild of people who mess around alot and dick about during raids, i would be annoyed by this but we do make progress. This guild sounds like your worst nightmare Heartbourne but if they make progress you cant have any complaints.
What worries me today is the younger generation and their seeming lack of care as to whether words are written correctly or not. If, in the future, we awl writ loik thiiz, I will be disappointed. Very disappointed.
In the UK, where I live, a couldn't-give-a-toss attitude toward spelling usually comes from what we call chavs.
Google it if haven't heard of that expression.
...a follow-up comment. Heartbourne, you did not need to update you post. It was fine as it was. The issue is with the morons that complain about being corrected.
A word is either spelled correctly or it is not. WoW players: don't have a fit if you are corrected. You deserved to be.
BECAUSE YOU WERE WRONG.
I hope that clears things up.
:)
I typo'd your with you.
Just correcting myself.
:p
Holy butt ton of comments on this one Batman!
Ka-BOOM!!!!!!
i dont know how many it has to be said before you get it though your STUPID THICK SKULL its a game god dammit if we were gointo write a term paper then i care about about spelling but when i am just trying to get way from my stress and just relax i dont need the stress of worrying about spelling crap right is that spelled right is taht spelled right shoudl thier be a colin thier it is really annoying how much energy and how much brains does it take to figure out he "teh" means "the" "haels" is "heals"
or my favorite "ogrimmar" means orgrimmar
Heartbourne, you just got served
Heartbourne, thank you.
The fact is that when you are in a PUG, you usually don't have access to voice communication. Therefore, being able to communicate clearly via text is critical to success.
When I see someone in Looking for Group spit out some half intelligible request for a player, it's fairly safe to assume that text communication in the group will be poor at best, and I know to expect a less than smooth run. If I don't have a lot of time to spend I'll pass up that group.
Game or not, being lazy about your communication is disrespectful to the people you're working with.
Oh come on, it's not like he hasn't said anything the most of us havn't thought at least once.
I have to agree with Heartbourne 100% on this one.
Some of his examples used were probably not the best, and there are clear differences between a typo and something that was meant. Anytime two letters are swapped in a word, like "tnak", most likely it was a typo.
That being said, typed spelling and grammar is (for the most part) an easy indicator of someone's age.
It does annoy me to a certain extent. That being said, no one is perfect. Ive probably already made some mistakes. But if you misspell something as big as Orgrimmar, please correct yourself. I cannot stand spelling mistakes.
Especially all these annoying intentional mistakes on the above comments. You tell him to grow up? Go look in a mirror.
your goinot talk to us about disrespectfull thier is no reason you shouldent be able to to under stand the person clearly even with a few minor mistakes unless youre a complete brain dead morron which if you care so much about spelling i dont think you are you cant move move the h one space to make it from hwat or waht to make it what
i'd be scared if you were my spelling teacher, i might get raped
i can haz cheezburger
oh and one more thing,
so i herd you liek mudkipz?
For those of you who hate this one blog that Heartbourne wrote, I have just one question: If you despise it so much, then why can you not take the time to properly put forth your feelings on the matter? (Use of profanity, nor a "wall of text" for that matter, does not help your cause.)
Now for Heartbourne. Yes, I agree with your position that a player consistently having spelling problems is a troubling indicator and generally a person to be avoided. However, your presentation of your side of the issue leaves a lot to be desired. I'm glad that you have since then posted a clarification and were gracious enough to admit that you'd messed up.
Let the flames cool down here, and see this as a learning experience.
dude i was beeing polite if you want profenity il give you profenity and what is the proper way to put forth our feelings on teh matter
I don't know why people like Sioen are trying to act more idiot then they could do and point private messages to someone on A BLOG... Why are you ruding my spelling skills when I can talk like that to be understood on your language but you dont eaven know one god damned word of mine?!?!?
Dude.....what a dick. Really.
okay, it seems several posters think that everyone that agrees on Hearbourne, is heartbourne self or comes from the uk or america, where it is normal to speak english.. but it seems that I must have transported from one place to another cause I don't live in the uk or in america, I live fairly close to it, but not in it, cause I live in Holland... and I play wow on a EU server, but even then I haven't seen as much people make spelling mistakes as everyone of you say there are.. owh and cocopuff I just have to say this but you have no life at all posting that much
Having standards doesn't make him a dick or an asshat or an elitist. Using how somebody types, talks or emotes is a good indicator of if you will enjoy grouping with them. I for one dislike leet speak. Almost everyone uses it at some point, but when I join a pug and there is just a wall of text of the crap I run for the hills.
My pet peeve " LF inscriptionist" or "LF inscriber". It is a SCRIBE, FFS.