114 réponses à ce sujet

[Atcherseid]

On the whole, the writers have done a good job of keeping modern slang out of the game. However, every now and then there are expressions that are strikingly out of place. One that comes to mind is when you ask Alistair about his background and he says something along the lines of "Hello? Haven't you been listening ..." etc. The use of "Hello?" as a synomym for " pay attention" seems pretty recent. Ten or twenty years ago, hello was an answer, not a question.

[metatheurgist]

Yeah, hate to burst your bubble but there can't be any anachromisms that we know about since Thedas is not Earth. Thedans (Thedasians?) might have been using "Hello?" to mean pay attention since the Maker first utterered the word to get the attention of his wayward creations for all we know.

[Abriael_CG]

This sounds extremely and excessively nitpicky to me to be honest. It's colloquial. Alistair is a friend and a companion -> colloquial is appropriate.

[RangerSG]

Jowan says;"The clock's ticking."



Clocks would've been almost unheard of in the time (you don't ever see one, mind you). And they wouldn't "tick" yet, since the gears to make them would be primitive still and "grind" and there was no second hand to 'tick, tick, tick." So that's one anachronism that makes me cringe.



Leliana's "Good to go," makes me feel a bit weird. But there's nothing necessarily anachronistic about it. To me, for something to be a true anachronism, it needs to be dependent on circumstances that couldn't exist in an early medieval setting.

[TheMadCat]

In a fantasy world there are no lingual anachronisms unless it's specified through lore that language has shifted in whatever direction, which in Dragon Age's case it's not. In the world of Thedas what you see is absolutely correct for the world of Thedas, even though chronologically speaking it may be out of sync with our world.

Modifié par TheMadCat, 27 janvier 2010 - 07:11 .

[TyroneTasty]

During the final battle Alistair at some point yells, "Extreme!" I wasn't too fond of that.

[SleeplessInSigil]

That and the way Alistair sometimes says "...yay~♪" after a battle.

Epic Fail.

Modifié par SleeplessInSigil, 27 janvier 2010 - 07:19 .

[Atcherseid]

metatheurgist wrote...

Yeah, hate to burst your bubble but there can't be any anachromisms that we know about since Thedas is not Earth. Thedans (Thedasians?) might have been using "Hello?" to mean pay attention since the Maker first utterered the word to get the attention of his wayward creations for all we know.

Yes, I get that, but I don't feel that medieval characters should talk like comics on CBS. If one of them said "She's gort an ar$e like a trunk on a Buick," it's immersion break.

Modifié par Atcherseid, 27 janvier 2010 - 07:44 .

[Abriael_CG]

Atcherseid wrote...
Yes, I get that, but I don't feel that medieval characters should talk like comics on NBC.

You might nit feel that, but the writers obviously did. It's called comedic relief, and i tend to find it quite entertaining. You also used the keyword "medieval". DA:O is set in a fantasy era, in a fantasy world. Not in the middle ages.

RangerSG wrote...

Jowan says;"The clock's ticking."
Clocks would've been almost unheard of in the time (you don't ever see one, mind you). And they wouldn't "tick" yet, since the gears to make them would be primitive still and "grind" and there was no second hand to 'tick, tick, tick." So that's one anachronism that makes me cringe..

It might make you cringe, but it's not anachronistic. Technology isn't exactly on a medieval level on Thedas, and varies with cultures. For instance, the Qunari  have cannons.
Given that the first mechanical clocks in the real world have been invented prior to the 1200, while the earliest known cannon is dated 1282 (and the wars in which the use of cannons is described are actually predating the Dragon Age by quite a lot), you get the picture.
Also, Jowan is a mage. he's grown up in the circle, which is full of artifacts and books. It's definitely possible that, if clocks exist in thedas, he knows about them. And if cannons exist, it's reasonable to believe that clocks do as well.

Modifié par Abriael_CG, 27 janvier 2010 - 07:50 .

[-Conspirator]

Now, the lamppost would be anachronistic too, hm? Just think of the amount of people who would miss that one. It's just entertaining.

[MrKrisSatan]

from watching lots of QI (http://www.qi.com/tv/) i can tell you that hello used to be used by people when they where shocked or surprised by something such as "oh hello whats this" until Thomas Edison invented the telephone, he popularized the use as a greeting because he liked the word so much.

[Sloth Of Doom]

Actually, my absolute east favorite part of the game is the Dwarf crier in Orz that says "Epic Fail." I suppose it was meant to be amusing to the lowest common denominator, but to me it came across as disingenuous. In fact, it so annoyed me on my fist playthrough that I turned the game off.



Epic fail.

[metatheurgist]

Abriael_CG wrote...

Given that the first mechanical clocks in the real world have been invented prior to the 1200, while the earliest known cannon is dated 1282 (and the wars in which the use of cannons is described are actually predating the Dragon Age by

Also, the Antikythera Mechanism (which is a "clockwork" device) is estimated to be over 2100 years old.

[Atcherseid]

Sloth Of Doom wrote...

Actually, my absolute east favorite part of the game is the Dwarf crier in Orz that says "Epic Fail." I suppose it was meant to be amusing to the lowest common denominator, but to me it came across as disingenuous. In fact, it so annoyed me on my fist playthrough that I turned the game off.

Epic fail.

"Epic fail" was another anachonism I was thinking of. Sure I get that it's an in joke, but it's along the lines of a victor saying "pwned!" Please understand that I'm not against humor in the game because the writers have done such an excellent work.

Modifié par Atcherseid, 27 janvier 2010 - 08:16 .

[Atcherseid]

Yo, dudes, my man Serious D took a cap for us.

[Chas1024]

Unless you are going to limit your market to students of Middle English the language has to be modernised to some extent just to be comprehensible. In which case you may as well make it contemporary. The alternative, that you see in much bad fantasy writing, is the mish-mash of archaic language usages that are neither modern nor mediaeval. Not that there is any reason to believe that the Fereldens spoke English so what you have is a translation of Middle Ferelden into modern English. What would be the point of translating from one ancient language into an ancient version of your own language that your contemporary audience no longer understands.

[Atcherseid]

This is what I like about this board: Views that I do not precisely agree with but cogent.

[SleeplessInSigil]

On an unrelated note, I love Planescape's slang.

[Valmy]

SleeplessInSigil wrote...

On an unrelated note, I love Planescape's slang.

What are you rattling your bonebox about berk?

[Leonia]

I just love how modern and before his time Alistair is, lots of his phrases are a bit.. more modern than other characters of Thedas. He's just a hip dude.

[Valmy]

Anyway I just pretend they are speaking the Ferelden, Elf, and Dwarf languages and it is just being translated for my modern ears.

[David Gaider]

In terms of the style we use specifically for Dragon Age, we do indeed have some rules about anachronisms.

We tend to avoid words that have a specifically modern origin -- but we do not restrict our word usage only to things of medieval origin. That wouldn't be very helpful in communication, so anything non-idiomatic prior to the 20th century is generally okay.

Slang we also avoid, but in terms of the way a character speaks it can sometimes be okay. That's a judgement call, both on the parts of the writers as well as the editors. We are, after all, attempting to communicate with a modern audience. Some characters do this more than others (Alistair being an example, as his verbal patter was based on Joss Whedon's "Buffy-speak" specifically), but overall the idea is to be consistent rather than rigid.

Insofar as inventions go, there are indeed clocks in Thedas. They are fairly rare and expensive, but the dwarves make them and export them to the surface. There is also such a thing as a lamp post-- it is a metal post on which one hangs a lamp (in some places this lamp is magical, in fact, and they're said to line the streets in Val Royeaux as a display of Orlesian extravagance).

Is the Dragon Age style specifically medieval? Of course not, nor is it intended to be. Is it appropriate for a fantasy setting? You tell me. Some people prefer fantasy to be all "thee's" and "thou's", some prefer romantic and melodic, some prefer Tolkienesque... tastes vary so I don't think there's any one "right" style. It is what it is.

[Patriciachr34]

-Conspirator wrote...

Now, the lamppost would be anachronistic too, hm? Just think of the amount of people who would miss that one. It's just entertaining.

This is not so modern.  Lamplighters where prevelant (even if scorned) in the cities of the middle ages.  It is also my understanding (have not researched this myself) that street lamps existed in ancient India, before they decided to abandon technology for personal enlightenment.