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Grammar and Emotes


liq

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Hi. The first iteration of the Grammar and Emotes guide was way back in 2016 and this is an updated version I've brought up to date to fit GTA World's needs and address what I personally like should be addressed in modern role-play after playing around here for a month.

 

Credits to J. Sforza, Kipps on Simeon (Douglas_Nyswonger).


Notes: I will be updating this guide constantly to fit demand or necessity. I don't know if the guide'll impact anyone but it'll at least give one an insight about what quality role-play has been for a while in terms of both grammar and emotes, which are all important when you role-play in a text-based universe.
 



DICTION (ETHNIC AND FOREIGN CHARACTERS)

Jerry_Sforza said:
From the desk of Delroy Carlton Witherspoon Ribeiro Wilcox VII, Esq. (The Wilcox Organization)

As a faction primarily consisting of African American characters and other minorities, it is important to represent a realistic knowledge of appropriate semantics and diction. However, this does not give excuse to misspell or misappropriate. All words should be spelled properly regardless of the interpretation of pronunciation. Portraying the typical speech qualities of an African American does not give you an excuse to butcher the English language.

It also also applies to any other language, such as French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic and any other language you might choose to use in accordance with your character's education.

This chapter shall remind you of apostrophes: they're used to represent ownership and a missing letter in certain words. They do not have to be mixed with slang. Words like wanna or gonna are to be written without them.

CORRECT USE
'Ey, yo*, what up dog? 'S up wit' that shit, mofucka?
'Ight* nigga, cool shit though, know what I'm sayin'?

INCORRECT USE
A'yo, whaddup dawg? Sup widdhat shit, mofockah?
"Ayo" is an acceptable substitute.
Aight niggah, kool sheet dough, knawhatimsayin?
"A'ight" is an acceptable substitute.

Using more than a few worldwide common foreign words is also wrong. Bonjour, ese, pinche, cholo, chola, konichwa, spasiba, ciao are, per example, allowed. This applies to any other foreign language. Mainly, common forms of greeting, thanking, saying good bye and baseline insults are accepted. Anything else spoken in a foreign language shall be done through "(<insert language>) phrase in English" — "(Spanish) So, I met this guy. We're set now, bro. He'll bring that shit tonight."

WOULD/SHOULD

  • Using "would" or "should" in emotes is completely wrong. Your character only does or doesn't. You also use would/should when you say "he'd" or "she'd", and that shouldn't be the case.
     
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ELLIPSIS
The correct form of ellipsis is three dots (…), other variations you see people using are mostly wrong. Two dot ellipsis (..) is wrong use, and isn't a thing.

CORRECT USE
Pecker Wood says: I seem to remember...

INCORRECT USE
Pecker Wood says: I seem to remember..
Pecker Wood says: I seem to remember..........


DASH
Players on GTA World often use the dash in text to show that their character has been interrupted, or maybe got tangled in his own speech. In such situations, it's usually when people make common mistakes. A dash and ellipsis (-...) combination IS NOT A THING, and it's completely wrong.

CORRECT USE
Pecker Wood says: What ab— (ALT + numpad 0151 generates this long line)
Pecker Wood says: What ab--
Pecker Wood says: What about--

INCORRECT USE
Pecker Wood says: What ab- 
Pecker Wood says: What ab-...
Pecker Wood says: What ab...-
Pecker Wood says: What ab-.-

*Never use one single dash, because that's used in certain terms or composed words, such as "well-being" or "on-site".

APOSTROPHES
Players on GTA World typically use apostrophes when they want to show that the word they pronounce either has a missing letter or ownership of something. The wrong use of apostrophes comes when people try to combine them with slang. Full words like gonna or wanna don't need an apostrophe.

CORRECT USE
Pecker Wood says: He was gonna help me, but I saw him runnin' away.
Pecker Wood says: Yo! Why are you walkin' alone, homboy? Get in my car.
Mike's car is there.
Valdez' car is there.
Simmons' car is there.

INCORRECT USE
Pecker Wood says: He was gonna' help me, but I saw him runnin' away.
Pecker Wood says: Yo'! Why are you walkin' alone, homie'? Get in my car.
Lopez's car is there.
Simmons's car is there.
Tyrells' car is there.

*When it comes to Z and S, there's only an apostrophe at the end. Any other letter has a " 's " for ownership of something.

EMOTES (/me, /do)
Emotes are used to perform actions with your character. It shows other people what your character is doing. Players make the mistake of sometimes trying to tell their story through them, which incites meta-gaming. Players also make the mistake of straying away from the third person (there never should be a "you" or "your" or "yours" in a /me, /do or any command that refers to others.

CORRECT USE
* Pecker Wood rocks back and forth on the chair. His hands can't stop shaking.
Skin Head says: What's wrong?
* Skin Head wears a white t-shirt.
* Pecker Wood has a tattoo.

INCORRECT USE
* Pecker Wood is terrified after the recent murder he was forced to commit by his friends.
* Pecker Wood is a known gangster in Mirror Park.
* You would succeed. (( Pecker Wood ))
* Reactions? (( Pecker Wood ))

Important and final notes about emotes
1. In modern role-play, such verbs as "has" (possessive) or "is" (being) are accepted. This means someone doing "/me is a twenty four year old female." is a completely accepted and, honestly, preferred substitute than "/do X has 24 y/o.". Players shouldn't be afraid of using such actions, since having something (aka "/me has a purse.") or being (in terms of physical existence) are actual visible and existent actions. However, such actions as "thinking" (especially specifying about what in an emote) aren't accepted, because are not visible and are borderline inciting meta-gaming.

2. "as" is wrongfully used by players to determine an "after" they do another action in one single emote. "As" is to be used when:

  • Comparing something to another degree or anything else. ("Your car is as good as my car.")
  • Used to indicate something that happens when something else happens. This is where the mistake pops out, since practically saying "/me reaches for the bottle as he opens it and pours" means you would reach for the bottle, but you're opening it in the same time, which is impossible, and therefore wrong to say.


3. Both /me and /do are for the third person, just like characters should be characters. You aren't your character, and referring to someone else via. these commands in "/me would cuff you" or "/do You would succeed." is completely wrong in general and especially when more than 2 parties are involved in role-play.

4. Requesting reactions via. /do is wrong and instigates to misuse of the said command (aka /do Reactions? instigates to /do He would run which translates in /me runs, and therefore is wrong). When you perform an action against someone, you should simply state your action: "/me punches Andrew in the face.", and then give the other party about 40 to 60 or more seconds to type in a simple reaction. Note that they can simply have no reaction whatsoever (so they wouldn't write anything, it is common among new players who do not know what to say because they don't know English very well / they might just do an anim which would show you what would happen, such as falling in our case of punching this guy in the face), therefore you can go on with other actions and repeat the waiting period. Clogging up the chat in small and useless /do's shouldn't happen from anyone.
4.1. Use /do only when absolutely necessary to ask reactions or certain details, or whenever you are referring to an animal or an object.

5. /do is, essentially, to be used when addressing actions to or about things that cannot answer for themselves, therefore a player has to cover that up for in these situations. This means you should use /do when you would explain what would be seen around a car crash, or when referring to an object or an animal. Furthermore, having descriptions in /do about your character isn't a thing (yes, this means "20 y/o | Muscular Build | Brown Hair | Blue Eyes" in /do isn't a thing). You should either use /me or /ame to state your character's description (such as "is a [age] [gender], has [insert physical details here], and also [insert other physical details]" in an /ame or a /me).

Edited by liq
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I admittedly use “would” from time to time as a way of ‘attempting’ an action, hinting to the other party that they’re welcome to intercept it before my next line. As in, my character ‘would’ perform that action if you’re not opposed to it. It’s probably a bad habit but I do agree with your explanation.

 

As for questions and answers in /do, that’s been quite an annoyance, I feel like it should be asked OOC’ly if you’re not sure. 

 

I also agree with ridiculous /me lines where players describe the event that made them feel sad instead of roleplaying facial gestures that may hint to it. I think the forums has some great examples of that though. 

 

EDIT: I’ve seen some people use semi colons wrong too, perhaps because it looks cool but it’s mainly used to join two main clauses together that relate to each other, as shown in the example:

 

*John Smith falls off his motorcycle from the gentle bump. But he appears to withstand any serious injury.

 

You could join these two separate sentences with a semicolon, removing the need for “and”, “but” or “yet”. As well as the pause between the two sentences.

 

*John Smith falls off his motorcycle from the gentle bump; withstanding any serious injury.

 

 

Edited by Law
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4 hours ago, Law said:

I admittedly use “would” from time to time as a way of ‘attempting’ an action, hinting to the other party that they’re welcome to intercept it before my next line. As in, my character ‘would’ perform that action if you’re not opposed to it. It’s probably a bad habit but I do agree with your explanation.

 

As for questions and answers in /do, that’s been quite an annoyance, I feel like it should be asked OOC’ly if you’re not sure. 

 

I also agree with ridiculous /me lines where players describe the event that made them feel sad instead of roleplaying facial gestures that may hint to it. I think the forums has some great examples of that though. 

 

EDIT: I’ve seen some people use semi colons wrong too, perhaps because it looks cool but it’s mainly used to join two main clauses together that relate to each other, as shown in the example:

 

*John Smith falls off his motorcycle from the gentle bump. But he appears to withstand any serious injury.

 

You could join these two separate sentences with a semicolon, removing the need for “and”, “but” or “yet”. As well as the pause between the two sentences.

 

*John Smith falls off his motorcycle from the gentle bump; withstanding any serious injury.

 

 

To address the attempt explanation, whilst I understand where you're coming from, that's the whole thing I try to preach. There's no attempting to do something. There's doing something. Every action has a reaction. You don't attempt to punch someone, you go and hook a fist in their face and if they react and counter the kick, then it doesn't happen. Otherwise you're just setting boundaries for it not to be successful and diminish the notion of fairness.

 

As for borderline meta-gaming in emotes, I know it happens a lot. People confuse it with concise emotes. I'll have another guide for that now that you mention it. And I've personally never been a fan of semicolons whilst role-playing but you do make a good point. Reckon I should add it in the guide?

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12 minutes ago, liq said:

To address the attempt explanation, whilst I understand where you're coming from, that's the whole thing I try to preach. There's no attempting to do something. There's doing something. Every action has a reaction. You don't attempt to punch someone, you go and hook a fist in their face and if they react and counter the kick, then it doesn't happen. Otherwise you're just setting boundaries for it not to be successful and diminish the notion of fairness.

 

As for borderline meta-gaming in emotes, I know it happens a lot. People confuse it with concise emotes. I'll have another guide for that now that you mention it. And I've personally never been a fan of semicolons whilst role-playing but you do make a good point. Reckon I should add it in the guide?

That's so true, I've been preaching this for years and I've been on servers which encourage the usage of 'would' when there's absolutely zero reason to do so. When you 'attempt' to do something you're just creating useless lines instead of doing it and THEN waiting for a reaction to your action. I think it would be time to make it a rule to stop using would lol.

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1 hour ago, liq said:

To address the attempt explanation, whilst I understand where you're coming from, that's the whole thing I try to preach. There's no attempting to do something. There's doing something. Every action has a reaction. You don't attempt to punch someone, you go and hook a fist in their face and if they react and counter the kick, then it doesn't happen. Otherwise you're just setting boundaries for it not to be successful and diminish the notion of fairness.

I completely understand this and I wish it were more common knowledge. I've seen so many people in reports complaining about this (as if it's wrong). Someone does a /me punches him square in the jaw instead of an "attempt", then the other party complains that it's power gaming because it doesn't allow them a chance to react to the action. As it currently stands, people "attempt" to do everything and then "/do would it succeed?" which as you said, simply opens it up for them to say "/do No it would not." rather than actually react to the initial action.  

Edited by Kestalas
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38 minutes ago, Trukken said:

For example a police officer arrives to a car crash sceene, is it a good practice if the police officer asks in /do what happened and what he could see? 

Whilst that's a reasonably accepted substitute in my opinion, I choose to do an emote in the lines of /me comes to a stop and inspects their surroundings. to then create an incentive for someone on scene to say what's going on. A little show, don't tell kind of thing. But I guess this comes more with a matter of taste and aesthetics.

 

@Boromir — Hey. I appreciate the input. Indeed I agree.

@Kestalas — That's just a simple misunderstanding of what's going on. They can always react to the punch. The problem comes when, for example, I do follow along with more than one emote and the other party doesn't have time to answer. Such as hooking a jab and then continuing to hit and making all of these emotes without waiting for a reply as if it's a de-facto win, when it shouldn't be. Always perform an action then allocate someone time to respond, especially when you see the "[...]" hovering which I think is a great addition.

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