*SNIRK*
*giggles*
I'll spoiler the irrelevant crap. I'll leave out what I found funny.
I see it referenced all the time on this site when it comes to giving examples and I feel it's the same thing that happens there. My problem isn't that "ogm lingustic change badbadbadbadbadbadbadbad" is that people are dragging up words and bringing them out of context to name a concept that already has suitable names. Seriously, recommending the Latin word for hunter for this? When I think of the word hunter I think of some in camo sitting all day in a tree perch with either a bow and arrow or a hunting rifle.
Emphasis. There seems to be an opinion here that compounded or hyphenated combinations of magic / melee references are
not suitable. The consensus and purpose of those participating in this thread seem to share an opinion that there should be another term such as "Gish" that does not have racial connotations. That's all there is to it. That's what you're arguing against. It does not seem to be your opinion, but that's okay, we don't need your consent. If you feel that there are "suitable names" other than those discussed, then that is one of the things we are searching for, so please, for the love of god, share.
Allow me to Schrödinger this (see what I did there?). Let's take a character archetype that I'll make up. A character who is whisked away to a far away land, recruits others on her journey home, murders a witch to retrieve the item she needs most and her companions have an identity quest on the way. Sure, we could call her "The Dorthy" but if you don't have Wizard of Oz as a reference point, it's a meaningless and arbitrary designation. That's what is happening here and that's what happens on TvTropes. It's a completely fair point, in my opinion.
I feel like I've failed as a nerd for not seeing how Schrödinger applies. In the emphasized portion, I will agree that that would be arbitrary and pointless. That is one reason why we are having difficulty.
I don't understand what's wrong with using a compound word and letting that naturally transform over use into something that describes this. You speak of linguistic evolution, but this is a breeding program. Why hasn't a word naturally formed? Because authors seem content to either use spellwarrior or mageblade or wizard knight OR to create the name of an organization or some sort of nickname for this type of person that others use (no examples come to mind). If authors begin to agree on a term, then it'll evolve naturally. Shit, who knows, maybe one day we'll use the term Wight to describe a Wizard Knight instead of a undead.
*SNIRK*
*giggles*
That. Is. The. POINT!
No, really. You just agreed with the purpose of this thread.
BREAKDOWN!
I don't understand what's wrong with using a compound word and letting that naturally transform over use into something that describes this.
In the real world, the term "Gish" hasn't been around that long, but it has seen a lot of use as an archetype. Now imagine you lived in a world that had had these people for a long, long time. The Githyanki came up with their own name for that class of warrior, why wouldn't anyone else?
You speak of linguistic evolution, but this is a breeding program.
Right, because across the world, there are new types of fungi and algae that are killing frogs. Frogs can't evolve to be resistant fast enough. So scientists have breeding programs.
Same thing. The term is evolving out of the language as is, but it is too slow to meet the immediate need. Thus we are taking it upon ourselves to be the lexicographers.
This "breeding program" is meant to simulate the evolution that would have already happened in the game world.
Why hasn't a word naturally formed? Because authors seem content to either use spellwarrior or mageblade or wizard knight OR to create the name of an organization or some sort of nickname for this type of person that others use (no examples come to mind).
Authors?
Hmm... Hey, SirP, who's the author of "High Arcana"? Oh, yeah, it's you.
Hey, Me, who's the author of your IRL campaign, "Forge of Legends". Oh, me.
Hey, Prime.
Hey, Don.
Hey, Veekie.
Hey, "Tailspining" sub-board.
*AH*-
*HEM!*WE ARE THE FREAKING AUTHORS HERE!We are trying to think, as a group what would be the:
OR to create the name of an organization or some sort of nickname for this type of person that others use
So let us be the:
If authors begin to agree on a term, then it'll evolve naturally.
Given the above point that "Naturally" is too slow. And that "the authors" include all of us.
And:
Shit, who knows, maybe one day we'll use the term Wight to describe a Wizard Knight instead of a undead.
I like your idea there. A lot. Keep them coming?
Words that get shortened down or become acronym or initialisms or whatever are because they are typically an unwieldy thing to say in normal conversation. It makes sense that instead of saying "The starship fired its Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation beam at the enemy vessel." Who ever would write or say LASER. Or instead of saying, "O Captain, my captain the Radio Detection And Ranging is being jammed!" the first mate would say RADAR. Those stem from a natural part of what they are trying to describe. Not shoehorning a meaning into an already existing word.
The only reason I mentioned the shortened version of words is just that Groat, the Half-Orc Barkeep wouldn't keep calling every Duskblade, Hexblade, Spellsword, etc. by their class names. He couldn't tell the difference. He wouldn't call them all 'Blades of the Grand Arcanum' even if that's the guild that trained all of the Gish-types in his area. He would, along that line, gall them BoGAs (pr: BOW-GAS) or sum-such.
Please, think of Groat.
As for refuting my character, once upon I spent too many days on TvTropes before I realized that it didn't do me any good amassing so much pop culture and animu references and was actually harming my ability to think and write anything. I barely touch the site anymore. I will admit that a few good things came out of it, I never would have found the Second Apocalypse series if it wasn't for that fucking place and I probably wouldn't have finally picked up Luis Jorge Borges or Ambrose Bierce or William Hope Hodgeson or any of the other authors I found out about on that site.
Here is the thing:
Not everything is a TVTropes entry with nice boxed sides filled with examples and zigzags and subverted and averted.
Yes I know TVTROPES wasn't brought up before now, but it's the same thing that happens there.
Many people here might reference TVTropes, when it is apropos. But you keep making comparisons like this. How would you feel if someone came at you saying that because you keep jumping into threads just to nay-say (an exaggeration, you're an alright guy 98% of the time, just like the rest of us), and that so many people were tired of that behavior on GitP that you need to be quiet, because that isn't liked here?
TVTropes forum =/= GitP =/= MinMaxBoards.
You are making comparisons that don't need to be made. The comparison isn't fair to anyone being compaired, because of all of the many differences. The comment didn't need made. Period.
And yes, I refer to people by either their full first name or what name they prefer to be called. Occasionally, I'll call them something else either to annoy them or as a pet name, but who doesn't do that? I refer to my girlfriend as Kristie or a pet name. Then again most people I know have, for lack of a better word, common first names that don't require tongue gymnastics. Do you go around shortening names for people? What would you call me? My name is Alec, named for Sir Guinness of the Bridge over the River Kwai (also, yes my parents named me after Obi-Wan Kenobi).
I call my friend "Kristopher" "Kris", my co-worker "Christine" "Chris", "Jennifer" "Jen", "Rick" "Rick", "Steven" "Steve", "Nicole" "Nikki" (hahaha, auto-correct tried to name her "Kinky") et alli.
I would call you "Alec".
