Krescen
10-15-2007, 08:36 PM
A significant issues I've found regarding identifying characters is in the instance where a character's gender and a player's gender does not match. While the best policy for this is not something set in stone (so others do not have to follow anything I write), it is the most respectable way to approach the issue.
To stand in comparison, we use the example of an author writing a story. The Author is Female, a Character in the story is Male. To compare, we use an example for online gaming where the Player is Male and his Character is Female. To give names to our examples, we use "Sarah" as the Author, and "Damien" as her character, as well as "Jeff" as the Player, and "Mira" as his character.
Note the use of "her/his" terms in the following:
As Sarah writes [her] book, [she] has [her] character climb a mountain while [he] is being chased by an unknown foe. [He] is trying to transport a precious pendant across hostile territory to safety on the other side of the mountain. At one point [she] has [him] take a rest as [she] sets the stage to ambush [him] by enemies. The moment [he] is attacked, [she] traps the reader's attention by switching to another character.
Sarah owns her character, but is not her character. Any action she does is mentioned with her as reference, but any action her character does is mentioned with him as reference instead. Damien is only a representation of Sarah within her story, as if he was just a messager or servent.
The same works for an online game:
Jeff logs on to [his] character and begins by sending [her] to town to purchase more supplies. [He] had been inattentive to [her] supplies when [he] last played, so now [she] has nearly ran out. [She] goes to the NPC and purchases more supplies. [He] then asks any of his friends if they are available to party, as [she] goes off to find monsters to slay.
The key to the definition is who is inheritly doing the action. Mira is not logging herself on, and Jeff is not going anywhere (he's just sitting at his computer). In the example above, one issue is regarding who is partying with the others. Is Mira the one who is joining the party or is that more of an external action and should be given to Jeff?
As such, we finally reach the purpose of this topic, after having established the above. If you find me calling a male player using the word 'she', it easily can be in the context of the above, I'm making reference to your character and not yourself. I accept the same in return, feel free to refer to my female characters as 'she/her'. I will take offense though if you use 'her/she' to any action which clearly could be attributed to myself and not my character, and if I'm using a male character I had best not have any such reference used in my regard at all. After all, such a game is similar to writing one's own story, the proper words for the story are preferred.
To stand in comparison, we use the example of an author writing a story. The Author is Female, a Character in the story is Male. To compare, we use an example for online gaming where the Player is Male and his Character is Female. To give names to our examples, we use "Sarah" as the Author, and "Damien" as her character, as well as "Jeff" as the Player, and "Mira" as his character.
Note the use of "her/his" terms in the following:
As Sarah writes [her] book, [she] has [her] character climb a mountain while [he] is being chased by an unknown foe. [He] is trying to transport a precious pendant across hostile territory to safety on the other side of the mountain. At one point [she] has [him] take a rest as [she] sets the stage to ambush [him] by enemies. The moment [he] is attacked, [she] traps the reader's attention by switching to another character.
Sarah owns her character, but is not her character. Any action she does is mentioned with her as reference, but any action her character does is mentioned with him as reference instead. Damien is only a representation of Sarah within her story, as if he was just a messager or servent.
The same works for an online game:
Jeff logs on to [his] character and begins by sending [her] to town to purchase more supplies. [He] had been inattentive to [her] supplies when [he] last played, so now [she] has nearly ran out. [She] goes to the NPC and purchases more supplies. [He] then asks any of his friends if they are available to party, as [she] goes off to find monsters to slay.
The key to the definition is who is inheritly doing the action. Mira is not logging herself on, and Jeff is not going anywhere (he's just sitting at his computer). In the example above, one issue is regarding who is partying with the others. Is Mira the one who is joining the party or is that more of an external action and should be given to Jeff?
As such, we finally reach the purpose of this topic, after having established the above. If you find me calling a male player using the word 'she', it easily can be in the context of the above, I'm making reference to your character and not yourself. I accept the same in return, feel free to refer to my female characters as 'she/her'. I will take offense though if you use 'her/she' to any action which clearly could be attributed to myself and not my character, and if I'm using a male character I had best not have any such reference used in my regard at all. After all, such a game is similar to writing one's own story, the proper words for the story are preferred.