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)
Intereting post indeed - - I have seen a lot of episodes here on Project Lore and read some of these blogs before but never actually felt the need to nor the interest in posting something myself.
Now first, I am a Danish player but consider myself somewhat of a bilingual from living in London quite a few years.
I agree that it is very annoying seeing people in "trade" or "looking for group" who simply do not bother with taking to time to at least make their messages slightly understandable. I wont rant about spelling in general (seeing that, no matter how I twist and turn, English will never be my first language) but rather look at it as an attempt to preserve a decent written language - I'm well aware that I will offend many by saying this but things like "noob", Lp2, "lol" and simular contractions are simply horrible words - Would you ever use them while having a conversation face to face?
I've over the time had to realise that some American slang as "cus", "prob", etc save a hell of a lot time when you are trying to write something which has a relevans to the a current incident but that is it; otherwhise i'd never implement such in words in neither my written nor spoken language.
In the end I think those of us who are a tad older than the average World Of Warcraft player have to admit that we are the outsiders - It is a computer game - mere entertainment for children and childish minds and though I, like many of you, am slightly addicted to the game it is not exactly the most productive waste of time.
I have personally sent blizzard many suggestion to how you could make a children's (say 12-16) version and an adult version of this game but as I have already discovered and discussed with others, you often find adults how are more immature than a given 12 year old boy. Also why would blizzard bother, they make money no matter how old the player is.
This turned out to be quite a first comment - - I appoligize for the lenght and if someone was offended along the way but that is really the beauty of these blogs is it not? - - everyone, no matter how stupid, has a say :)
Good afternoon from Denmark.
God this place really needs an edit button for fast typers.
I've read the blog post and the comments and must say I am APPALLED.
Being able to spell words correctly is a basic skill one simply must have to properly communicate in any language.
I myself live in Israel, and believe i speak and write in both hebrew and english with considerable prowess and proficiency. As a matter of fact, I pride myself on that point.
I see a lot of you have used the old circular logic argument ("You can't speak some language or other so don't call someone out for not being able to speak yours"), but it simply does not apply here. A person playing on an english speaking server has consciously and voluntarily chosen to play on it. Nobody made him do it, and it is my opinion that having made such a decision it is only properly he develop his ability to speak english to a basic level that allows him to express himself properly without constant errors.
Another argument I've seen is "How about you try to play on a (some european ethnicity) server, how would your spelling be then?". This doesn't defeat Heartbourne's claim at all. What if I were to start playing on a hypothetical polish speaking server? I would speak in a horrible and broken variant of polish, consistently making grammar and spelling mistakes. How do you think the native polish population would respond to that? I doubt they would like it.
If I see someone has misspelled a word, I will usually correct that person. If this problem is accute and there's something wrong in almost every word , my respect for said person is greatly diminished, as is my desire to interact with them.
But worst of all, should I correct a person and be rewarded with a reply such as "Who cares how I spell it as long as people can understand me" (With the unavoidable addition of grammatical and spelling mistakes ofcourse) I chalk that person off as an idiot. If you don't respect others enough to put in the slightest bit of effort to get your words right, and don't think it even matters, then frankly I think you're a moron with half a brain and want nothing further to do with you.
And yes, I comprehend well the folly of retorting with a well composed rebuttal on the internet of all places. Regardless, I ask that you react respectfully. Those of you who respond like cocopuff, with intended glibness, effect only my disrespect and will not merit my attention.
furthermore, "oculus" IS a word, two meaning which are both appropriate. It is well chosen, and I weep to have that literary brilliance so marred
'And while we are on the subject of Orgrimmar, note that there are two R’s'
Last time I checked; there were 3. I think i'll have to put you on my ignores for neglecting to proof-read.
Also, i'm quite disgusted by your elitist attitude. it's only a game anyway, it's not as if people are going to proof-read and spell check everything as if writing an important document.
Not especially nice comments
I. Love. You.
the tinhg is, is taht if the wdros hvae all the crocert ltretes in but jmblued up its slitl rdealabe as lnog as the fsirt and lsat ltretes are in the crocert pcale.
the mind is a wonderful thing, of course is statement is really only true for those with English as their first language, but you see where i'm going...
Aye I remember that phrase. Believe it was from Cambridge University - I might be wrong. The human brain is indeed an amazing organism - - Shame so many neglect to use it on daily basis.
Don't get me wrong, I understand where Heartbourne is coming from, and I'm not a huge fan of misspelled words either (and you can bet your ass that I'll be going over this post with a fine-tooth comb before hitting the "submit" button).....but you have to remember, there are older folks AND younger folks that post in the channels in this game. Holding a 12-year-old to the same spelling standards as a 35-year-old is a massive waste of time....it's not going to happen. Correct them if you must, but I wouldn't be too disappointed if it doesn't fix anything. And as far as Orgrimmar having "3 r's" or Oculus having "1 c"....does it really matter?? You know what they're talking about, right?? Correcting multiple massive mistakes is one thing, but nitpicking over one letter or two in the name of a city in a friggin' video game is, in my estimation, being a dick.
And if I've misspelled anything in this post.....too damn bad!!!
I don't care if a guy can spell or not, just if its understant able.
Personally I hate people with your attitude. Only thinking about if people can spell or not.
I cant stop laughing at this: "if you say oggrimar i don't know where to meet you" i'm paraphrasing of course but i might blind myself if i reread heartbournes dribble up there.
All I can say about you trying to redeem yourself in the update to your previous writings is that you asked for the opinions of your readers. So if you can't take it stop posting or turn off comments to your rants.
To those who "Agree 100%" with this:
The issue I think most of us have is that he complained about people misspelling things like "Oculus" - it's a fantasy word. If someone misspells it with a double C, or "Oculos" (seen that more than once), why is that a huge deal? You know what they mean.
I agree, I'm not as likely to take someone who misspells simple words frequently (typos happen, but repeat offenders get irritating), but he also ragged on people who misspelled fictional words. Orgrimmar is a word that most long-time players can spell correctly, but for someone who just started playing? Oh no, they can't spell a word someone else made up.
While I agree with the overall idea behind it, it comes across as entirely elitist.
Lack of edit feature, bleh.
Apparently, Oculus is in fact a word, albeit a Latin word, and therefore used very rarely outside of the scientific community.
Could have sworn the Latin for "eye" was just a SIMILAR word, and this was a play on that, but whatever. I never really studied Latin.
WTF get over your self! so you don't like people who can't spiel real gooderest... we don't like your stuck up attitude. Pull the stick out of your ass and get over it.
I agree with Heartmourne on this subject. Does that make me an elitist? I would like to think not. I speak (rather poor) English as a second language, my first being French. It takes a disproportionate amount of time for me to comprehend something that is so horribly disfigured from it's original form, that it is simply much easier for me to ignore it, and move on to the next literate person. Do I offend people by saying this? Sure, but I'm not going to try and torture myself by trying to learn terribly formatted English.
"disfigured from it’s original form"
It's "its", my pedantic French friend.
Yes, I tend to avoid people who can't form a coherent sentence to save their life, but "rouge" is a TYPO, as well as a golden opportunity to make cosmetics jokes.
"Occulus" can be a typo as well, since people abbreviate it as Occ. Sorry, I'm not going to proofread what I type into the trade channel of a video game, any more than I'm going to use proper capitalization and punctuation.
Ogrimmar, by the way, is situated right next to Doucheville, Elitesylvania. So shouldn't be a long walk for the OP.
"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."
FFS is leetspeek, genius. And yeah, I call myself a scribe, but "inscriber" is an actual word. Does it bother you when people are looking for "chants" for their gear?
"What, you want me to enchant it or produce rhythmic vocalization patterns at that leather jerkin?"
Either way, the original post said nothing about bad English, but was mostly a yawn-inducing essay about a handful of common typos.
Just to spite you, I'm going to start advertising my services on trade, claiming to be an "inscriptionator". Just discovered some nice new rouge glyphs.
On the flipside:
"i am a compadant [sic] wow player and i have seen ppl who cant really spell at all been [sic] masters at wow."
How would you know the difference?
rouge annoys the shit out of me. would always happen in ragnarok online too >.>
yeah i'm a bit of a nazi when it comes to spelling also, although i don't judge people by it.
.....usually.
just call 'em a FUCKING IDIOT AND GO READ THE SODDING DICTIONARY and move on. half-jokingly of course.
honest.
Check out my addon Misspelled. It adds an interactive chat spell-checker to Wow.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/misspelled.aspx
-Nate
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