0
Ant_222 Posted 18 years ago
Grammar
A question about Style
0 Hello everybody! 02 br
02 br
00 Probably, you already know of my infamous venture —the translation of an adventure game called Star Heritage. 02 br
02 br
00 Below I'll repeat part of my answer to Huevos, whom I shall thank for accidently reminding me of the problem that I now ask you to help me with: 02 br
02 br
00 «I have tried to preserve the original (Russian) way of narraion, which is done: 02 br
02 br
00 1) From the first person perspective, 02 br
00 2) In the past tense, 02 br
00 So most of the time it looks pretty much like a diary.» 02 br
02 br
00 ...Such is the most of the narration, but the descriptions of various items — those which you'd get in response to the "examine" command in traditional text adventures — are provided in the Present tense. Keeping the player envolved, this doesn't sound unnatureal in Russian, but... 02 br
02 br
00 Is it acceptable in English? 02 br
02 br
00 EXAMPLE (no, it's not from the game I just thought it out): 02 br
02 br
00 > GO NORTH 02 br
00 I easily went down the hill and found myself in(on?) a gloomy lowland. Only the strained buzz of moscitoes making their way through the thick, moist air disturbed the silence. They were the only creatures here, but that was more than compensated by their number. 02 br
00 > examine mosquito 02 br
00 Nothing unusual, except for the very long proboscis, probably useful for some animals covered with fur 02 br
00 > examine air 02 br
00 The air is extremly moist and smells of decaying plants. 0-
02 br
00 Probably, you already know of my infamous venture —the translation of an adventure game called Star Heritage. 02 br
02 br
00 Below I'll repeat part of my answer to Huevos, whom I shall thank for accidently reminding me of the problem that I now ask you to help me with: 02 br
02 br
00 «I have tried to preserve the original (Russian) way of narraion, which is done: 02 br
02 br
00 1) From the first person perspective, 02 br
00 2) In the past tense, 02 br
00 So most of the time it looks pretty much like a diary.» 02 br
02 br
00 ...Such is the most of the narration, but the descriptions of various items — those which you'd get in response to the "examine" command in traditional text adventures — are provided in the Present tense. Keeping the player envolved, this doesn't sound unnatureal in Russian, but... 02 br
02 br
00 Is it acceptable in English? 02 br
02 br
00 EXAMPLE (no, it's not from the game I just thought it out): 02 br
02 br
00 > GO NORTH 02 br
00 I easily went down the hill and found myself in(on?) a gloomy lowland. Only the strained buzz of moscitoes making their way through the thick, moist air disturbed the silence. They were the only creatures here, but that was more than compensated by their number. 02 br
00 > examine mosquito 02 br
00 Nothing unusual, except for the very long proboscis, probably useful for some animals covered with fur 02 br
00 > examine air 02 br
00 The air is extremly moist and smells of decaying plants. 0-
Top answer
02 br 00 Never having played one of the games, I suppose the ' 01 i 00 Examine [mosquito] 02 i 00 ' is a hint to the player to do that? It sounds fine and makes perfect sense to me. 0-
- 02 br 00 Never having played one of the games, I suppose the ' 01 i 00 Examine [mosquito] 02 i 00 ' is a hint to the player to do that?
- It sounds fine and makes perfect sense to me.
- 0-
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
3 Answers
0
0 . 02 br
00 Never having played one of the games, I suppose the ' 01 i 00 Examine [mosquito] 02 i 00 ' is a hint to the player to do that? It sounds fine and makes perfect sense to me. To be more modern, you might want to say ' 01 i 00 Check out [mosquito] 02 i 00 ' — if you are speaking of the word 'mosquito' — or ' 01 i 00 Check out [ 01 b
00 Never having played one of the games, I suppose the ' 01 i 00 Examine [mosquito] 02 i 00 ' is a hint to the player to do that? It sounds fine and makes perfect sense to me. To be more modern, you might want to say ' 01 i 00 Check out [mosquito] 02 i 00 ' — if you are speaking of the word 'mosquito' — or ' 01 i 00 Check out [ 01 b
00
0 Hello, mr. Micawber 02 br
02 br
00 Looks like I have to provide some further explanations. 02 br
00 In a traditional text adventure the player enters text commands which are parsed/interpreted by the game's engine, and gets the result in the form a textual description. In the example above the commands were marked with ">" (a common symbol to denote command line
02 br
00 Looks like I have to provide some further explanations. 02 br
00 In a traditional text adventure the player enters text commands which are parsed/interpreted by the game's engine, and gets the result in the form a textual description. In the example above the commands were marked with ">" (a common symbol to denote command line
00
0 Do you find my question ridiculous? 02 br
00 I really need your help for no text adventures that I have seen use this style of narration, which makes learning from existing sources futile. I only can ask... 0-
00 I really need your help for no text adventures that I have seen use this style of narration, which makes learning from existing sources futile. I only can ask... 0-
0
Related Questions