hcguy

Member
Aug 29, 2019
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Maybe it is a regional thing?
It is pretty common where I live; seems to have started with the "text-speak" crowd, the ones (like me) that simply reply to texts with the letter "K", but has become pretty prevalent with just about everyone now. Again, regionally; it's more of a "got it" or "I heard you" response than anything else, but does occasionally mean "I have no friggin' idea what to say to that".

Considering how much time they all spend together, it also makes sense that they would pick-up things from each other, especially slang/phrasing.
My family and I say "kay" all the time as a short version of "OK". It might be a Midwestern US thing - I've never thought about it. Your description of what is meant by saying it sounds exactly right to me. I don't even notice it in the game.
 
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hcguy

Member
Aug 29, 2019
312
858
Agreed.
The old Abby big anime eyes look suited her personality better. It has that quirky, innocent, playful look.
This is a good explanation of why I prefer the old version as well. I don't hate the new version, but the old one was better.
 

Cartageno

Devoted Member
Dec 1, 2019
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Maybe it is a regional thing?
It is pretty common where I live; seems to have started with the "text-speak" crowd, the ones (like me) that simply reply to texts with the letter "K", but has become pretty prevalent with just about everyone now. Again, regionally; it's more of a "got it" or "I heard you" response than anything else, but does occasionally mean "I have no friggin' idea what to say to that".

Considering how much time they all spend together, it also makes sense that they would pick-up things from each other, especially slang/phrasing.
You do pick up some stuff, yeah, but consider that Meiko or Vanessa are not from the same crowd. And even within a real life crowd, language quirks still tend to be individual things not ones everybody does, at least with normal words like "okay". That would only work "in family". And as I said and you said, it does carry a connotation that is not necessarily in game.

I mean, others have failed to take such stuff into account (apparently "Losing My Religion" is a common phrase where R.E.M. started out) but generally for stories like these it is better to use the standard language unless you want to convey something. It is better understandable in other corners of the world (especially for ESL people who make a large part of the audience I'd wager), it ages better (not even Shakespearian English feels as old as text in the hip lingo of two years ago), and it draws less attention to itself, because every such quirk makes you look at how things are being said instead of what is being said.

But whatever the objective situation, for me personally it is grating (a bit) for the strange connotation and the fact that it stops my reading in its tracks because it feels off.
 

PrimeGuy

Active Member
Dec 16, 2019
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If a way of speaking is something you're exposed to frequently by the majority of the groups you're in, most people eventually pick up the same habits. So, if the region the game is set in, has a large part of the populous who say "'Kay" instead of "okay" it's not unreasonable for the majority of the characters to have picked it up, even if English isn't their first language.

Now, whether or not it would've been better to have the game set somewhere that that wasn't common is another conversation entirely. It's hard to say what your audience will consider "standard" English, so trying to go with as generic a version as possible isn't always the best choice. It also can have the effect of making the speaker, when used for character dialogue, seem flat. Though this is where the suggestion someone had about making the different characters have their own unique speech quirks might come in. Personally, I find that it would be more unusual, however, for siblings to have wildly different speech patterns than for them to have similar speaking quirks.

In the end, a lot of this comes down to personal taste. So to be clear, if the current dialogue rubs you the wrong way, I'm definitely not saying you're wrong to feel that way. What I am saying is that there are likely people who feel it's natural (as some have stated in the forum), and some changes might just make other different people unhappy with it.

For me, personally, I'm not sure if them saying "'kay" or "Okay" would have a major impact on my enjoyment of the game one way or another.
 

Smarmint

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Mar 23, 2019
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I am fine with most of these changes but Abby is just looking awful. Like some cheap prostitute
Ouch. This is horrible. I was sort of getting used to tolerating the plastic, super smoothed, face of Becca this last update, but Abby looks like a completely different person.

I get that the dev wants to "upgrade" their models to the latest DAZ model generation, but this is a huge step back. I hope the game can recover. I see fans leaving in droves if this continues.
 
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Cartageno

Devoted Member
Dec 1, 2019
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Now, whether or not it would've been better to have the game set somewhere that that wasn't common is another conversation entirely. It's hard to say what your audience will consider "standard" English, so trying to go with as generic a version as possible isn't always the best choice. It also can have the effect of making the speaker, when used for character dialogue, seem flat.
I'd argue however that giving everybody the same speech pattern does not give the characters more depth.

Though this is where the suggestion someone had about making the different characters have their own unique speech quirks might come in. Personally, I find that it would be more unusual, however, for siblings to have wildly different speech patterns than for them to have similar speaking quirks.
Though you should not necessarily give them patterns just for the heck of it. It should give a meaning. Every writing 101 will tell you to use standard wordage as much as possible because it is invisible. That is why there will be by far the most "he said" in novels, and not synonyms all the time. Because that is what a reader is used to, it doesn't take attention away from the actual proceedings.

Yes, great works of literature differed wildly (A Clockwork Orange, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Finnegan's Wake) but the authors would know what they were doing and it served a purpose to deviate from standard English. "Kay" doesn't seem to have a purpose.

In the end, a lot of this comes down to personal taste. So to be clear, if the current dialogue rubs you the wrong way, I'm definitely not saying you're wrong to feel that way. What I am saying is that there are likely people who feel it's natural (as some have stated in the forum), and some changes might just make other different people unhappy with it.
The question however is not how many can read "Kay" just fine, but how many people would stop reading when they read "Okay". Not that many. ("Stop" as in "have a small break", not drop the game entirely) Even in countries with the most diverse dialects and nuances, there tends to be a language that everybody understands no problem, which will be used by media or politicians or adverts.

What we can agree upon is that it is a small matter hardly deserving of the miles of screen we're discussing it. I am still enjoying the game because of the characters and the story. However, since there is nothing else to discuss at the moment ... ;)
 

MrLKX

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Jan 12, 2021
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And as has already been written here in the thread, and I agree, if it had been just a linguistic habit that both Abby and her mother had, you would have had the "purpose" that Cartageno mentioned, which could have been included dialogue-wise as a nice little anecdote. Right now, it reminds me more of some people's exhausting tendency to include filler words like "um" or "uh" in every sentence. Especially a former politician from my country had this extremely exhausting habit.

But well, both my personal problem with the "Kay" in the old updates and Abby's face in the new updates is just this and as it is said so appropriately: Beggars can' t be choosers.
 

Smarmint

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Mar 23, 2019
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I'd argue however that giving everybody the same speech pattern does not give the characters more depth.
This is the key point. Everyone encounters people with unusual verbal ticks, such as always saying "like", or other "filler" expressions. Or perhaps using "literally" all the time when they actually mean figuratively. So I can accept one or even a few of the girls saying 'kay a lot, though I think it does get tiresome. Buy why does Mei use it too?

Beggars can' t be choosers.
Well, I hear this a lot around these forums, but I disagree. This is a game forum, to talk about the game, so if we can only say things we like, and can't say things we don't like, what kind of forum is it? As long as the criticism is constructive, and doesn't delve into personal attacks, it should be welcomed.
 

Tavi13

Active Member
Feb 1, 2021
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But whatever the objective situation, for me personally it is grating (a bit) for the strange connotation and the fact that it stops my reading in its tracks because it feels off.
Funny; I was the opposite with it. I didn't even notice it until I saw it mentioned here, then had to load a save to see what everyone was talking about.

I slightly mispoke/typed; when I said regional, I meant regional as in country (USA for me, no clue about the dev though). I have lived on both coasts, as well as a few places in the middle, and I drove OTR for a long time. There isn't a state in the continuous 48 where I haven't at least stopped for fuel/food and a short down-period. It seems to be pretty common across the country.

You are probably correct that something more universal should be used in its place, it sounds like it is one of those things that isn't translating well to text. In a conversation; the tone/infliction makes it easy to know what the person means by it, in the story we are left guessing. Either that or the dev needs to make it a bit more clear. Something like a simple "k or kay" for 'okay', or a drawn-out "Kaayyy..." for 'wtf are you even talking about?'.
 

Tavi13

Active Member
Feb 1, 2021
631
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My family and I say "kay" all the time as a short version of "OK". It might be a Midwestern US thing - I've never thought about it. Your description of what is meant by saying it sounds exactly right to me. I don't even notice it in the game.
I didn't notice it either. Definitely not just a mid-west thing though; I have lived on both coasts, as well as a few places in the middle, and drove OTR for years....it is all over the county.
I personally use it for everything from 'okay' to 'I have no clue how to respond to that'.

Maybe it is just a US thing?
 

yltohawk

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Mar 19, 2019
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1,700
I will miss gazing into Abbys moon shaped eyes, they make you want to fall into them. As for the "K", that to me is as linguistically acceptable as someone going Fur-sure. It lowers my I.Q. level.
 
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