"The Grammar Police have spoken. Period." Topic

If we can get enraged by misuse of the word faction, why not "period"?

Faction is wrong in many cases, but doesn't bother me. Using the word period to describe a specific milieu or genre of gaming is pretty much always wrong.

Period refers to a span of time. While that may be accurate for a game you play, it is insufficient. You play the Medieval period? Medieval Western Europe, Post Roman areas, Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Arctic regions, East Med Pirates, West Med pirates, Red Sea Pirates, the Levant, North East Africa, North West Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Africa, the Bight of Dahomey, Madagascar, the Subcontinent, the Himalayan Plateau, Japan, Korea, ten or more different Chinas, the Thousand Islands … plus a hundred thousand more, the Balkans, the Baltics, Scandinavia, North North North America … and twenty divisions of N and S America, OZ, the Antarctic, and so on..? Wow! That's a lot!

You play the XYZ Early Medieval Period, which is a period plus other qualifier which makes it no longer just a period.

That's right. Stop word abuse. Who's with me?

Off your meds again? ;-)

… maybe just a bit … ;)

Etotheipi has spoken, that is the end of it, period. Stop word abuse now, what's next penguins?

Sorry, can't agree with the OP, though "period" may be misused. Napoleonics is a period. So is age of reason. Skirmish gaming or trench warfare might be a genre. And again, you're hardly likely to have armies for and play everything within that. Doesn't make it an invalid distinction. I read mysteries, but there are many mysteries I haven't read, and some I won't.

Eto, care to join me in my quest for another word to go with "genre" in the story-telling sense? We use it to indicate a type of story--romance, horror or mystery--or a locale--western or regency--and sometimes as both as in SF. The lack of an adequate vocabulary hinders discussion.

I think you gave a great example of why period doesn't apply.

Period means an expanse of time. 1803-1815 (I believe) is the Napoleonic Period. However, when you talk about Napoleonics, you don't mean every war during that period. Is the Burmese-Siamese War part of Napoleonics? It did occur during the Napoleonic Period. the American wars against various tribes started during this period too … Napoleonic?

And it's not just countries, it's specific battles within a specific political context. The Ottoman Empire fought Napoleonic wars, and during the same period, it fought the Barbary Pirate wars. The British Empire had an internal struggle with the Luddites during the Napoleonic Period. Same country, same forces, not Napoleonics.

Even classic Napoleonic foes, like France and the Brits had wars in the Americas that are not part of Napoleonics. Same time, same countries, different thing.

The time fram tiself is insufficient to distinguish Napoleonics from other types of game. The ontological relationship between "Napoleonics" and "period" is "has a" not "is a".

Genre generally denotes common style, form, or content.

In terms of wargaming, style and form would relate to meta-structure and rules (dyanmics). Content would relate to wargame entity characteristics(data).

I think genre is just too broad a term for you?

Romance, horror, mystery, etc. would be about nature of the plot. In a wargame, the plot is driven by the players (which sometimes can include the "umpire" or the "game" (an automata)), so that is really about the nature of the relationship amoung player objectives. RAPO is a horrible phrase, so what about "plot type"?

In terms of locale, which generally denotes a location-timespan (he, he, a period) pairing. I would just stick with locale.

Both of these would be types of genre.

I would say that SF is a genre, since it spans many plot types, locales, and other characteristics. Too broad to belong to the more specific genre sub-types.

I don't think any of this is to do with 'grammar', which is more concerned with syntax.

I'll get my coat….

Technically, it's semantics, but whose heard of the Semantics Police?

Sam, a corporal with the Semantics Police Of Toronto (SPOT), stood alone near the entrance of the alleyway. The collar of his dark trench coat pulled high, masking most of his face from casual view. The slow drizzle rolled off the rim of his fedora. He thought it would be a slow night, but the rain wasn't keeping people holed up in their homes. As he amused himself with thoughts of prepositions, a couple walked passed in quiet conversation. Time for him to get to work…

"Napoleonic" has a specific meaning amongst scholars, academics, and even gamers. To suggest that there could be some confusion with the Burmese-Siamese War is disingenuous and purposefully obtuse.

I'm not being either deliberately obtuse or disingenuous in stating that I don't know what "RAPO" signifies.
FWIW (an acronym for a phrase I do know), wouldn't "Napoleonic" be an adjective qualifying things like "period", "warfare", "costume" and indeed "wargaming", though that tends to be called "Napoleonics" and the potential ambiguity overlooked (imagine Napoleon shuffling little coloured wooden blocks over a map while Davout and Lannes look on attentively, Murat meanwhile adjusting his hat, feathers, aiguilettes, sash, braid….).

"RAPO"?

""*[//]) {> !!!!

Ruritania Army Post Office?

Ah, so you don't know either.
Actually, I now think it's something about "Relationships Among…" &c.

There's only two things in the world: Semantics and nothing else…

"Relationship Among Player Objectives"— etothepi turned his own phrase into an acronym. One had to pay attention to his initial consonants.

Genre isn't only plot— it can refer to setting, and be subdivided by specificities, as "Victorian Science Fiction" is a subcategory of Science Fiction. Genres also readily overlap, and often the defining lines which exist (if any) are hazy at best. H.G. Wells was a Victorian who wrote Science Fiction, but he was not a writer of Victorian Science Fiction. However, games based on his writing (as The War of the Worlds or The TIme Machine will likely be placed in the game genre of VSF! Then you have the question whether the "period" is Victorian and the genre is Science Fiction… and at this point it becomes time to whack the Grammar Police in the back of the head, and run for it.

GULP!!! WOW!!!

Sam followed the couple to the end of the block, unable to make sense of their hushed utterances. He could only make out a few words that carried on the breeze to him, "genre, sub plot, Ruritania". What were these people up to? Intentionally misusing phrases and colloquialisms? If so, they would soon learn the penalties for their misguided ways. Sam never felt the blow to the back of his head, he only saw stars, the pavement rushing up towards him and the cold wet of the sidewalk. Then the pain kicked in…

Are you a writer Stryderg? If not, you should give it a try.

I've written two or three fluff pieces for some fan-zines and edited some rules for others, but it's few and far between and definitely not professional. Thanks for the kind words, though.

"Whose heard of the Semantic Police? " indeed! If we can't mess up here, where can we?

"Genre" isn't too broad, eto: it's used to mean at least two very different things. And the problem with discussing SF as a genre is that it's used for both of them. Analog used to regularly run SF stories set in contemporary Earth. Planet Stories specialized in romances and adventures which were only SF because they were set off-planet in the future.

If you define genre by locale, ET, Close Encounters and--for the remaining book-readers--Oath of Fealty and Frankenstein--aren't SF. If you define SF by plot, you lose Starship Troopers and most of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Hence the occasional complaint from the Lit types that there is no such thing as SF.

And since when does "locale" indicate a time period as well as a location?

Byzantine.

Which is, of course, used in at least two different ways…

"Napoleonic" has a specific meaning amongst scholars, academics, and even gamers. To suggest that there could be some confusion with the Burmese-Siamese War is disingenuous and purposefully obtuse.

I completely agree. That's why I disagree that Napoleonics is a period. It is not just the expanse of time in which those wars happened.

Cubism isn't a period, either. It certainly happened during a time frame, but all art happening during the time frame isn't Cubism.

While the OP is a bit of a rant (stylistically), it is based in the issue robert piepinbrink brings up, that without common terminology, communication becomes difficult.

Genre isn't only plot

I agree. That's why I said "Genre generally denotes common style, form, or content."

Plot was an example of common content. I was asserting it was the one that linked together the "romance, horror or mystery" from robert piepinbrink's post. They all have a distinct set of common plot elements. Horror probably also has some common style elements.

I also agree that genre is not a taxonomic discriminator. Individual examples can exist in multiple genres. That's part of why I thought it was too broad a term.

And since when does "locale" indicate a time period as well as a location?

How about when you said "western" as a locale? Did you mean everything that happens in the geography of the American West or specifically the things that happened during the American Old West time frame, too?

I fully support the Semantic Police as well as the Grammar Inquisition! If words are used incorrectly or inaccurately, communication comes to a complete and total termination, leading ultimately to the breakdown of civilization.

Look what happened to the Romans. Even the Italians can't speak Latin any more.

I like pie.

"Less" vs "Fewer"
Get back to me on that. That's why I support Stannis the Mannis.
Well, I don't exactly approve of…. Well, you know. Simple mistake.

Well, I didn't expect the Grammar Inquisition

No one expects the Grammar Inquisition!

He's a lesser man for leaving TMP.
He's a fewer man for leaving TMP.
You're right, not much difference…

Is that blood on your hans..?

Just do not use the word " picnic."

Uh oh, the semantics enforcement official has just shown up.

"Antisemanticism"

I don't know what that means, but it sounds bad…

"Well, I didn't expect the Grammar Inquisition

No one expects the Grammar Inquisition!"

You learn early on, Don't Mess With Gramma!

;-)

but whose heard of the Semantics Police?

I hear they are being "defunded" and "reimagined" … 👮‍♂️👮‍♀️ 🤔😆😂🤣

It should be clear by now that we don't need the full force of a police response for most semantics issues.

I propose development of semantics response teams that can handle issues of linguistic meaning by themselves. In more dangerous cases, such violence involving syntax and punctuation, the grammar inquisition can be called.

Spelling errors are already being addressed via technological solutions like spell check, which inspired the Chinese social credit system.

Law enforcement is already being "reimagined". It's called "De-Policing". The squad cars sit in the shade out of sight and when they get a 911 call they take their time responding.

A good friend of mine just retired from Miami-Dade PD and I've gone on rides with him as an observer. He said if he's off duty and sees a crime he ignores it. He said he was too close to retirement to risk his life or lose his pension.

He almost died once responding to an accident and he once had a perp kick him in the chest causing a heart attack that almost killed him. He's happily retired now and moved out of Miami. Also, since he was not "politically correct" he was always under scrutiny with IA checking him closely.

Wolfhag

I think Antisemeticism, by definition, doesn't have a definition.

One pan-galactic gargle blaster, please …

I am very glad spell check didn't intervene in that last post … this thread could have gone to a very bad place …