AGDInteractive - Sierra Adventure Game Remakes Forum

Erpy wrote:Some stuff is easy to fix like: "put a comma after this word and put a period outside the quotes".

Just in case it will help, proper English punctuation puts the period inside the quotes at all times, no matter how the quote is being used.

Periods and commas ALWAYS go within quotes, NEVER outside.

Exclamation points and question marks go inside the quote ONLY if they are part of the original quote.

I.E.
Erpy asked, "Was that fun?"
or
Why did MacGyver say, "I like bicycles"?

I hope this has been educational, informative, and fun!

Uh oh, somebody is giving Erpy english lessons. The world is coming to an end!

Seriously, isn't it ok to have the period outside the quotes if the quote doesn't end in a punctuation?

The problem is that many grammar and punctuation rules differ widely between British English and American English; even Googling for clarification on these rules will turn up lengthy debates between people on both sides of the fence, arguing that their preferred way is right and why they believe so.

In a game like QFG2 EGA, many of these conventions have been broken. A lot of the rules follow US English, while others adhere to British English. For example, some words have been spelled in British English instead of American English (ie. colour instead of color), despite it being an American-made game.  Also, sometimes the mistakes are obvious in both British and US English. For example, common nouns have often been incorrectly capitalized in the EGA version.

Trying to standardize all of this is a pain, but I'm sure that if these things went unnoticed by a large majority of players in the original version, then they're not going to worry too much if a few of these conventions aren't strictly adhered to in the remake either.

It doesn't matter, because most people don't speak English gooder than you anyhow.

I say, make, up! your; own rulez.

BeeTea

Anonymous Game Creator 2 wrote:The problem is that many grammar and punctuation rules differ widely between British English and American English; even Googling for clarification on these rules will turn up lengthy debates between people on both sides of the fence, arguing that their preferred way is right and why they believe so.

Feel free to do what you want, but normally in publishing you use a style guide to make most of these decisions for you.  It provides you with consistency and a good reference to turn to.  The Chicago Manual of Style is an American English guide used in U.S. publishing.  Other guides exist for other areas (like journalism).

MusicallyInspired wrote:Seriously, isn't it ok to have the period outside the quotes if the quote doesn't end in a punctuation?

I remember this from my English classes in high school.

Commas and periods MUST be within quotation marks.

Colons and semicolons MUST NOT be within quotation marks.

Question marks and exclamation points can do whatever they like (ie, if the quote itself has the punctuation, it stays within).

For example, some words have been spelled in British English instead of American English (ie. colour instead of color)

I'd be more worried about a game having spelling errors plain out wrong rather than worrying what the word Flavour is. It's not that hard to figure it out. Usually the spellings are close enough that you know what they mean.

Brainiac wrote:I remember this from my English classes in high school.

Commas and periods MUST be within quotation marks.

Colons and semicolons MUST NOT be within quotation marks.

Question marks and exclamation points can do whatever they like (ie, if the quote itself has the punctuation, it stays within).

Those are the American rules.  The American rules for that are silly.

Guys i am not a admin but it seems this is turning into more of a grammar debate then a updates thread, Erpy has fine grammar and each nation has different rules! case closed! I recommend if you must continue this debate that Erpy split the debate portion of the topic and place it in the off topic forum under a new heading

AsianMusicGuy wrote:Guys i am not a admin

Indeed, you're not.

I do have a point however

Wow, I didn't know that my post would cause so much chaos! Hurray for chaos!

If it works for the Brits, it works for me. Just so long as it is standardized and follows someone's rules I'm cool with it. (Not that I wouldn't play the game if it had bad grammar or punctuation, but it would be obnoxious.)

I hope my non-U.S.-English-speaking friends were not offended by my comment.

(Erana's) Peace be with you all.

khoodandco wrote:If it works for the Brits, it works for me. Just so long as it is standardized and follows someone's rules I'm cool with it. (Not that I wouldn't play the game if it had bad grammar or punctuation, but it would be obnoxious.)

I hope my non-U.S.-English-speaking friends were not offended by my comment.

(Erana's) Peace be with you all.

That's the thing. The entire world base their rules on Brit English and not US. Perhaps it is time for the US to adapt to the rest of the world?!?!

Besides... isn't US-english based on the assumption that rules for a language is a waste of time? In other words, the US threw rules out the door? In that case it doesn't really matter to US-players....

Gronagor wrote:Perhaps it is time for the US to adapt to the rest of the world?!?!

<stomps foot>
NO! IT ISN'T!!!!

CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME! CAN'T MAKE ME!
<storms off like a 5 year old>

Gronagor wrote:Besides... isn't US-english based on the assumption that rules for a language is a waste of time? In other words, the US threw rules out the door? In that case it doesn't really matter to US-players....

As a professional editor, I can (and do) assure you that there are many, many rules for U.S. English and grammar. If it would help "standardize" the VGA remake of the game, I'm willing to go over the dialog and such and give it the ol' editing treatment. I don't have the time to fully beta-test the game (which is why I didn't sign up), but I could make time to polish the copy.

AsianMusicGuy wrote:I do have a point however

On the top of your head!


I mean, how dare there be ACTUAL conversation on the forums!  I like it better when people don't post around here.  It's ever so much nicer!


Like someone else said, there are small variants between American English and British English - but I'm less worried about "colour" vs. "color" than I am mis-use of "your" and "you're" or "too", "to", and "two".


Bt

I haven't noticed any cases of the mangled grammar like too/two/to or definitely spelled wrong. What's mostly in need of checking is stuff like the " and ' being used interchangedly and adding comma's or semicolons where appropriate.

We do intend to let someone run a quick spelling/grammar check on a text dump eventually, but probably not until the last moment when we know there's not gonna be any more text added to the game.

Erpy wrote: We do intend to let someone run a quick spelling/grammar check on a text dump eventually, but probably not until the last moment when we know there's not gonna be any more text added to the game.

That sounds like a good idea, and for the grammar-hounds, would probably also serve the purpose of standardizing the grammar one way or the other, depending on which program was used to spell check.

Again, Erpy, when the time comes, I'd like to offer my services. Just let me know if you're interested when the time comes.

Heh. Lambonius, just watched Temple of Doom last night.
For the first time that specific scene was funny for me, all because of your sig.

Oh. Sorry. Completely off the point.

Gronagor wrote:Heh. Lambonius, just watched Temple of Doom last night.
For the first time that specific scene was funny for me, all because of your sig.

Oh. Sorry. Completely off the point.

Truly, he does have a great sig.

Now if only I could figure out what on earth his avatar is supposed to be...

You mean "avatar". He doesn't have a sig.

Ok. Yeah. You're right. Stupid slip of the tongue...

Sorry for giving you hours of head-scratching trying to figure out what I meant. It must have been awful.

Hi, I'm just checking in to see how well QFG2VGA is doing... Still on the job, guys? How's the progress?

All the best wishes,

Rob

It's in beta, 'nuff said.