Things I Have Shouted At My Nintendo DS This Weekend
Posted 10 June 2008 in Gaming by Catriona
1. “Damn it, stop blocking my spells, you daft Fire Elemental! I’m only trying to relight the Elvish beacons! Don’t you want to help the Elves?”
2. “Why do you get all the skulls, just because you’re the Undead?”
3. “Stop killing me!”
4. “I love you, Patch, you sneaky little rogue Gnoll! Stab more people in the back!”
5. “Hang on, why have I just missed five turns in a row?”
6. “Well, what does that spell do, then?”
7. “No, wait—why are you draining all my mana? I need that to cast spells!”
8. “Stop stealing the gems that I want!”
9. “Why do the Undead get all the cool spells?”
10. “How am I supposed to kill you if you kept attacking me?”
11. “Seriously, stop blocking my spells! I don’t think you realise how annoying that is.”
12. “How can a Wyvern be such a rubbish mount?”
13. “Look, do you want me to win this game, or not? Because it’s very difficult for me to win if you won’t let me have any skulls!”
14. “Why are the Elves angry with me? I was only following the quest! And, anyway, it’s not as though the giant, magical eyeball originally belonged to them.”
15. “You know, I’m getting pretty sick of teaching these Minotaur slavers a lesson.”
16. “Hang on, did I just torture that Harpy? Oh, well.”
Ah, RPG gaming. It’s good for the development of your moral code and for your temper.
Share your thoughts [11]
1
Tim wrote at Jun 10, 12:53 pm
‘RPG gaming’?
(shakes head)
2
Catriona wrote at Jun 10, 10:24 pm
Damn! you’re right. I didn’t pick that up on the read through.
“RPGing” would sound awful, though—rather than rewrite the whole sentence, I think I’ll leave it as is, to give legitimacy to the comment thread.
(It’s not that bad—compared to some of the horrors I’ve seen!)
3
Tim wrote at Jun 11, 02:16 am
RPGing sounds fine to me.
(Insert comment about superiority of tabletop RPGing here.)
4
Nick Caldwell wrote at Jun 11, 05:41 am
Is “RPG gaming” that bad?. I’d say that “I’m role-playing-game gaming” is a legitimate, if slightly awkward, sentence. “I’m playing a RPG game” would be far worse, because it features a true redundancy.
5
Catriona wrote at Jun 11, 06:51 am
True. It is definitely an awkward phrasing.
But I don’t see it as entirely analogous to, say, “ATM machine” or “PIN number”, where the redundancy is a question of repeating exactly the same word twice.
And I still maintain that I’ve seen worse.
6
Tim wrote at Jun 11, 01:44 pm
It’s not exactly the same, no. That doesn’t make it elegant. Would you say “I’m computer-game gaming”?
7
Catriona wrote at Jun 11, 09:37 pm
Oh, no! I think we’re all agreed that it’s not an elegant phrase. But, to be honest, I don’t think that elegance is my syntax’s natural state at the best of times.
To get back to an earlier point that got lost in the debate, I’ve been thinking about why I don’t like “RPGing” as a substitute, and I think it’s actually a verbal issue—I don’t like it because the pronunciation is awkward with the initialism.
At least with an acronym such as “LOL” you can pronounce “LOLing” with very little trouble, but “RPGing” sticks in the throat.
I know that writing is not just written-down speech, whatever the phonocentrics might argue, and I know this blog entry isn’t intended to be read aloud—but I still don’t like that particular contraction.
8
Tim wrote at Jun 12, 01:19 am
I can see what you mean, though I don’t mind the pronunciation.
I come back to the point that you ought to be playing real RPGs anyway. :p
9
Catriona wrote at Jun 12, 01:22 am
Yes, but the fact that I should be playing real RPGs is out of my hands—isn’t that a matter for my Dungeon Master/Storyteller?
Hmm, I wonder who that could be?
10
Tim wrote at Jun 12, 04:40 am
Could it be someone who’s waiting for you to say what times/formats are good for you?
11
Catriona wrote at Jun 12, 05:03 am
Well, I suppose it could be, but that wouldn’t suit my inherent need to make sure that things are never my fault, ever.
Kidding. Mostly.