English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

It has 2D sprite graphics. It's a bit like Minecraft where you start out with practically nothing and can use found resources to build up your world, but it also has many more enemy types to fight. There's also more weapons and stuff to find.

12:09 AM

Blargh bad bus messing up my phone typing. I don't think there are any missionaries at all in Civ V. Is how I came to make bad jokes.

I like exploration but I'm not sure I've done the rest. Most of what I played were exploration with puzzles to solve.

@Cerberus My b/f and I have a house rule that we never start a Civ game after 10pm.

Or download Civ I if you can find it. It was so incredibly fun! Made around 1990 I think. I was a little boy, and it was magical. And when I played it again five years later, it was just as good!

@FallenAngelEyes Nah it's not really like Minecraft!

1990 is about my speed. lol

@Cerberus I mean Terraria!

12:10 AM

Kind of like Ages of Empires?

@FallenAngelEyes Ahh! I was wondering about your Civviness already!

@Kit Age of Empires is real time, and it is a different genre: Real-Time Strategy. There are similarities, but Civ is so much deeper.

@SpareOom You start with a settler. You need to find a good place to build your first city.

@Kit Civ is Turn-based Strategy rather than RTS

@Cerberus I know Civ, I meant Terraria.

Oh, no, it's not in the same genre of games at all.

I should've linked. Sorry.

12:13 AM

Then you build improvements, military units, you research new technologies (core of the game), you meet different civilizations, you negotiate, befriend, or battle them; and you produce culture, which may or may not make some of their cities like you so much that they will join your empire.

@Kit Oops sorry!

Well, enough evangelizing.

We had a whole lovefest about Civ 4 the other night, when someone mentioned Civ 5.

Haha yay!

Oh, I remember that! I was there I think.

Or two days ago?

I think so.

One of my comments got starred.

In any case, I am happy now.

It's addictive?

12:14 AM

@SpareOom Absolutely.

I think we were all there. Maybe JSB too, or someone else.

Addictive... well... is crack addictive?

Am I the only one who hasn't heard of it?

The famous maxim is, "just one more turn".

Then the sun rises.

Then you need to hurry to get to work in time.

Sounds pretty accurate.

12:16 AM

And skip breakfast?

But you have build the Pyramids before the Americans have!

Jul 27 at 2:19, by Kit

@aedia There's a Civ 5? So that's what my husband has been hiding from me.

Food will be skipped in any case.

There it is.

I didn't play it at all until IV, or think much of it, @Spare. Age of Empires was my thing before that.

12:17 AM

AoE? Really?

Does it play in order? I mean, is it better if I start with Civ I?

Yep I thought I didn't like turn based games

But now you have been Turned, haven't you? Do you ever covet AoE any more?

@SpareOom No.

No, start with IV I think.

12:17 AM

But I played every freaking AoE.

Aww.

Well AoE was fun too.

@Cerberus Sometimes I prefer AoE, but usually only when my husband won't tell me where he hid the Civ disc.

Haha.

I had it for free on my Vaio.

@Cerb I reminisce about the Titans expansion for Age of Mythology. Smash!

12:19 AM

@SpareOom You will be puzzled by the countless different factors to consider at first. It takes an hour or two before you get some kind of overview of what is good and what isn't. But then you'll be addicted.

@aedia Oh, is AoM fun? I think I have played the demo once, but I don't remember much.

Win. I got to quote "Jabberwocky" in an answer.

And I do think there is some feeling in the back of my mind that I'm not sure I got through every campaign ever without cheating. I kinda want to replay all of them, someday. If I'm ever, like, really really really bored I guess.

@simchona Congrats.

@simchona Oh dear. That reminds me of a painful interchange when I was new here.

@Cerberus AoM is so great! Dragons and Chimera and Valkyrie and all kinds of awesome beauties!

12:22 AM

Oh my!

@simchona Sweet!

It is RTS, innit?

(Random screenshot from Civ IV.)

AoM RTS? Yes.

Is it comparable to Warcraft or Starcraft at all?

Or C&C?

C&C = Command and Conquer? Age of Empires and Age of Mythology are most like that.

12:29 AM

I have the C&C First Decade collection too. :D (... I spend a lot of money on gaming)

And Starcraft is like that if you are on speed.

Mana

man, such an intense game, SC is

I get chills just thinking about when I used to play. Such a blast.

Now y'all makin' me wanna play Tiberian Sun and Red Alert again.

So many games...

But Civ really is the Queen that rules them all!

@fallen I think my household owns those too. But I never got into most of 'em.

12:33 AM

I haven't really played a game since Gabriel Knight.

It will find them and in darkness bind them, until the sun comes up...

@SpareOom That looks about the same age as Civ I. Was it fun?

Civ, AoE, AoM are all new to me - new genres.

I enjoyed it.

I remember the title and the box. But I never got it.

Well, if you should ever decide to play a game again, or give one to your kids, Civ is really a very good choice.

That type of game seems to have disappeared as far as I know.

Educational too.

12:35 AM

Stop it, puppy! I'm supposed to do the chores. And sleep. Not play. Will not play. Maybe... Maybe one game.

Is it an adventure game?

I may try that one.

@aedia Play just one turn!

@Cerberus Sort of.

@Kit I learned all sorts of things from it.

Though some of the technologies I only found out later what they meant—my English vocabulary wasn't huge when I was 12.

12:36 AM

Well, I'm not entirely certain it's terribly accurate.

Like metallurgy... I had no idea what it was, but I sure knew you needed it to build cannon!

But more so than Oregon Trail, I suppose.

Oh, it isn't accurate at all.

@Cerb I could try just one turn :)

@aedia Are you hungover today?

12:37 AM

But for young kids it is more educational than most other games.

Oh my stars, Oregon Trail.

@aedia Hehe, yes, you would no doubt be able to try one turn!

Gabriel Knight

Gabriel Knight is a series of adventure games produced by Sierra On-Line in the 1990s. Three games were released in the series: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery and Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned. One compilation was released: Gabriel Knight Mysteries: Limited Edition. It included the first two games in the trilogy. Premise and concept The Gabriel Knight characters and games were created by writer Jane Jensen, who also worked on King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow with veteran game designer Roberta Wil...

Because a hangover as good an excuse as any to take it easy...

@Kit I woke up in the middle of the night hungover, but right as rain in the morning proper. Odd. Not complaining.

12:38 AM

Not as many puzzles as some other games I liked, though.

Haha, it would have been a good excuse.

@SpareOom I remember the box.

Sierra On-Line. Holy shit, that brings back memories.

King's Quest.

@aedia I got a used computer that had that game on it.

Sierra!

Yes, memories indeed.

12:39 AM

Kings Quest!!!!

And so many more. Caesar II.

@aedia That was fun too.

King's Quest, another familiar name... but never played it.

back in a bit

I think one of the KQs came with our first computer.

12:41 AM

Well, I have an Adventurer to upgrade, a Great Lighthouse to build, and the gates of hell to close.

I'll be back in a bit.

We played Oregon Trail for social studies class when I was in school.

That game actually looked fun from the wiki page.

Ok, this will date me: my first computer game: Truckers, in text.

@Kit How many times did you get dysentery?

We never got to play as part of class! Only after.

12:41 AM

Truckers? Never heard of it.

It was a cutting edge educational tool.

@Kit So did we!

My bf's roommate typed it in himself from a magazine.

But text adventures can be fun!

I remember the Multi-Dimensional Thief.

I also knew a girl who was descended from the Donner Party

12:42 AM

@Cerberus Rogue.

@SpareOom Typed it in? You don't mean...

@SpareOom We had books of those. That's how I learned how to program when I was eight.

@Kit Is that what it was called?

Oh, yeah I do.

wurb.com/if/game/136

12:43 AM

@Cerberus Um, I think. Well, Multi-Dimensional Thief might have been a different game.

This is the game I meant (not Rogue). Perhaps a game in the same series?

@SpareOom You mean he typed in the entire code??

Oh no. Not remotely.

Oh ok.

@Cerberus You're too young to understand.

@Kit Nooo...

12:44 AM

clantemplates.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-122567.html Could this be it?

My first games were barely graphical, black and white.

Rogue (video game)

Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It is generally credited with being the first "graphical" adventure game (although Mystery House released in 1980 was the first graphical adventure game, and Beneath Apple Manor released in 1978 was the ancestor to Rogue), and was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading others to develop a class of derivatives known collectively as "roguelikes". ...

I really got to run off for a bit.

@Cerberus My first games were completely text-based.

@SpareOom Later!

Adios, Spare Oom!

12:46 AM

My first computer games were on MCs.

@Kit Ahh yes, that is entirely different.

M-D Thief is text based: turn on lightsabre, cut ceiling, that sort of thing.

We had a subscription to some magazine and a couple of books with programs you could type in.

Q: Is there a term for a word coined to fit the rhyme/rhythm in a poem?

Does anyone have any help on this question?

2

As in "Hickory Dickory Dock; the Mouse ran up the Clock..." (Perhaps there is a separate term for a real word used nonsensically (Hickory and Dock). Is there a word for this sort of usage?)

single-word-requests

@Cerberus Oh, like Zork?

Yes! Though I have never played that.

You know what's funny?

12:47 AM

@Cerberus Cats with tinfoil on their feet?

@Kit Or flypaper

I still have a general impression of what the rooms looked like in M-D Thief and various images of Hell and the Ocean Room—even though there were no images.

@Kit Haha what? What happens when you do that?

@Cerberus They kind of high step trying to get it off

Aww.

High step shake shake shake

12:48 AM

@Cerberus and twitch their feet in annoyance.

Cute.

LOL

Friggin' funny.

Putting things on cats can be fun.

Like party hats.

@simchona Um, it's not a neologism, and The Jabberwocky isn't gibberish.

I used to put bows on mine when I was a kid.

12:49 AM

Pancake bunny?

@simchona Yum.

@Kit I can't find another word, though. And Wikipedia says so!

And what is even funnier is when they pretend it "doesn't bother them at all", then subtly push it off by walking under a chair.

@simchona There is a term for it, but I can't remember it right off.

Well, later!

12:51 AM

Have fun in Hades!

@Kit Argh.

It's like when you stretch a word out into more syllables than it actually has.

Hi diddly ho! For instance.

What word is "dickory" stretching out?

It's the filler between hickory and dock.

I think both of your answers work, by the way. Don't be discouraged by my rambling.

But I'm pretty sure that there's a word for that particular thing.

@Kit I like creating good answers, though. It's one of those things where there should be a word and Google isn't helping

12:54 AM

Hakunamatata.

Hola, friend.

@RegDwight But it means no worries!

@RegDwight You fill my request yet?

@simchona Precisely.

@Kit Huh wha where who's here?

@RegDwight It's a problem freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

12:55 AM

@simchona Probier's mal mit Gemütlichkeit!

►

@RegDwight Sounds better in English.

@simchona That's what you say.

@RegDwight I'm Englishist. It happens.

It's a prime example of excellent translation.

Does it really translate well?

12:57 AM

Not if one sucks at translation, no.

Also, "Finding Nemo" killed the jokes in the French version

"Il a touche le bateau" no longer has the same innuendo

French localization always faces some awesome challenges.

@Kit are you thinking of something people do in singing, maybe? Or infixation?

Like abso-effing-lutely?

Q: Is there a term for a word coined to fit the rhyme/rhythm in a poem?

@aedia It's in response to this question I'm trying to answer:

2

As in "Hickory Dickory Dock; the Mouse ran up the Clock..." (Perhaps there is a separate term for a real word used nonsensically (Hickory and Dock). Is there a word for this sort of usage?)

single-word-requests

I can't think of any word that's like neologism, except neoplasm. Grawrg stupid brain, work.

I like your answer, @sim, now Kit is just driving me nuts making me think there might be an even better word!

1:02 AM

That's why I asked ^^

@aedia Yes.

Sorry for the delay. Baby woke up.

Hmm. On reflection, I don't think it's infixation here, because that's usually used to describe a stem being split and something else stuck inside, and "Hickory Dock" isn't really a stem... But it does bear a resemblance to expletive infixation.

Maybe the phenomenon is tmesis?

Tmesis

Tmesis ( or ; Ancient Greek: tmēsis, "a cutting"

What about tmesis?

Oh, dickory. I'd say no.

1:18 AM

Hi again, y'all.

0

Q: Postfixing 're to words

Are there limited number of words we can append a 're to? Are the following words correct: where're here're

grammaticality

Comments on answer appreciated.

@Cerberus Of course not, I helped some.

Q: How can you make future tense of "to be" explicit and simple?

Also: peeving

0

Okay, here's something that irritates me about our language. I can say "Jerry's been a bad pussycat this morning" or "Hey, Jerry, you be a good pussycat now" or "Jerry's been active all morning so he's being a good pussycat now". All these involve the use of the verb be. Now if I want to say "if...

grammar verbs irregular

@SpareOom Haha, a funny idea indeed.

1:31 AM

@simchona But I think it is a good question. She just needs to out the peeving part at the beginning.

@SpareOom She did

I asked her to take it out, and she did. No idea how to answer, though

That was quick.

What if she says, "if he acts like a bad pussycat...."?

@SpareOom I think she wants "to be" in there

"If he should be" sounds okay, but is "should" ok?

Should be a "will, should, or would" I think.

Subjunctive mood

In grammar, the subjunctive mood (abbreviated or ) is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred. It is sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood, as it often follows a conjunction. The details of subjunctive use vary from language to language. Indo-European languages Proto-Indo-European The reconstructed Proto Indo-European language is the hypothetical parent of many language families. These include the Romance languages, Celtic lang...

1:36 AM

The "if" means she wouldn't be using future tense, but subjunctive instead, right?

Should he be a bad cat...

@SpareOom Jinx!

Or yes, what you said.

@SpareOom Nice.

@Spare, want to take this?

1:37 AM

@simchona No that's ok.

I'm too stressed when I try to answer. If you wait for me, someone else entirely will beat you to it.

@SpareOom Come on, then, give it a try.

No, really, I'm too slow.

No one's jumping on it (except @simchona). You have plenty of time.

@SpareOom I'll hold off if you want to take it. Really.

You almost had it yourself. Be my guest.

1:39 AM

@Spare You brought up subjunctive. You have a better understanding to make it a better answer.

Oh, help!

Write it, and we'll help you.

Yup!

Ok, I could try that.

This chat is helpful on creating answers.

1:41 AM

Any if clause is neither only in the past nor only in the present by itself, so "if Billy is" would seem fine. "If Billy should be" indicates that the speakers doesn't think it is the case.

future subjunctive of to be is were to be, so she should say, "were Jake to be bad"?

Is that correct @Kit?

Uh, @Cerberus will know for sure.

I think so.

Yeah he's a pineapple, I understand.

So he has a much better understanding of grammar.

This paper (pdf) mentions be's / bees as in "if he be's careful". I don't know enough to discuss it, really, but I want to point out that it is a dialect feature. That is, if he bees bad is grammatical in your dialect, it means nothing about your intelligence or lack thereof.

1:51 AM

I would make the point that you are using the subjunctive because of the example sentence she gave. The future tense would be "Jack will be a bad pussycat," which is straightforward enough.

(Since she asks about future tense.)

@SpareOom Actually that may be just what the OP was looking for, sounds good.

@Cerberus: Thanks.

@aedia That certainly is used in a dialect. You should add a comment to my post.

Your second sentence is a little off to me

Instead of : The future subjunctive mood for to be in clauses in which there is doubt, you would use if I/he/she/it, etc. were to be as follows

What about: In order to form the future subj. mood for "to be" in clauses..., you would use "If I/he...." as follows

2:11 AM

Good, thanks. Plus I added something else that I'm having trouble linking properly.

@Spare I didn't edit it--do you want me to?

Yes, please. But my second link isn't working.

englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-subjunctive.htm

Is that the link you want to use for "when talking about..."?

You had the wrong URL -- I edited it @Spare

Thank you!

You're welcome!

2:16 AM

I think I changed my wording so often, something got split.

I tend to just spell things wrong. And I overuse commas--Kit fixes that

Would "if Jerry were to be bad...." be a better option for the first sentence?

I like "were Jerry to be bad" because I think it demonstrates the subjunctive best. But "if Jerry were to be bad" fits her pattern and is probably more common.

I agree with Kit. Both work--maybe you could show the If...then pattern as well as the pattern you have now?

I think I will add that. She'll have 3 choices.

2:24 AM

This answer is going to be good, I can feel it.

2

Thanks for the support. :)

@SpareOom You could also add "If Jerry should be ...", which matches one of the options the OP asked about

@SpareOom I added a comment and I saw @Kit edited the question too. Do let me know if my comment sounds too judgmental. I don't mean to make it seem like I'm judging you :)

I could. How many edits have I already made and how soon would it go to community edits?

Do you think the title is okay? She had asked about future tense, but I don't think that's really what she wants.

2:28 AM

@Kit Looks fine to be. There was actually a question earlier asking for "past" when he really needed a different tense

It is future tense, but subjunctive mood. Someone might want to add a subjunctive tag if there is one.

And I took out the "mental retardation" part, so I think sim's intelligence comment might come across weirdly.

@SpareOom Well, that's true.

@Kit Hmm?

> If a particular dialect feature is or isn't grammatical for you, it doesn't mean we can infer anything about your intelligence

We so rarely use the subjunctive mood any more. The few examples on the second link are ingrained, but many people don't even know what the subjunctive mood is.

2:30 AM

@Kit That was @aedia

Right. I knew that.

@SpareOom I think you have a bit to go. I think meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/11740/… applies to us, and it says it's 10x by original author or by 5 different people

@aedia I'm going to vote your comment up and post why. :)

And I took out the "mental retardation" part, so I think aedia's intelligence comment might come across weirdly.

@Kit Yeah, I was kinda not sure if I should still say that, but I was glad you edited the retardation out of the question, in any case.

@SpareOom blushes

Q: What is a "mind-share leader"?

2:32 AM

Possible gen ref:

Answer: merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mindshare

Question:

0

My limited understanding is that it applies to a company that comes first when people think about a particular topic. For instance could I say Microsoft is a mind-share leader for Operating Systems? The expression is on various websites, and my company just chose it as its slogan.

meaning expressions

Mind share

Mind share, or the development of consumer awareness or popularity, is one of the main objectives of advertising and promotion. When people think of examples of a product type or category, they usually think of a limited number of brand names. For example, a prospective buyer of a college education will have several thousand colleges to choose from. However, the evoked set, or set of schools considered, will probably be limited to about ten. Of these ten, the colleges that the buyer is most familiar with will receive the greatest attention. Marketers try to maximize the popularity of the...

@aedia Looks gen ref to me, then.

Late folks. Thanks for the help. G2g.

Yup.

Bye!

2:35 AM

Bye, @SpareOom!

I'd say gen ref unless the question were more focused on the Microsoft part.

@Kit I don't think it is. Not based on the title

And I'd link to something like Wiki that everyone has access to, @Sim.

Is MW not public?

@simchona No, it isn't, but if it were, then it wouldn't be gen ref.

@simchona I can't access the page you linked to.

2:37 AM

@simchona It seems like it is sometimes, and then other times it pukes up a login thingamajigger.

@aedia Shoot. Finding another.

Blast, I had found the name for all those words, like whatchamacallit and thingamajig the other day, and now I can't remember what it was. Like a term of venery for them, almost.

metawhatchamacallit I swear it was here somewhere.

Placeholder name

Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown in the context in which it is being discussed. "Whatchamacallit" (for objects) and "Whatshisname" or "Whatshername" (for men and women, respectively) are defining examples. Linguistic role These placeholders typically function grammatically as nouns and can be used for people (e.g., John Doe, Jane Doe), objects (e.g., widget) or places (e.g., Timbuktu). They share a property with pronouns, because their referents must be supplied by context; but, unl...

A: What is a "mind-share leader"?

0

Yes, you're correct in your understanding of the term. The Wikipedia entry for mind share may be of help. When people think of examples of a product type or category, they usually think of a limited number of brand names. For example, a prospective buyer of a college education will have sever...

Does this make sense to anyone?

@Kit Well, someone just quoted us. Hooray.

Also, no. It doesn't make sense.

@simchona What? Who? Where?

2:42 AM

@Kit Wikipedia for mindshare. We own it since we commented it first.

I feel like writing an answer. A good one.

@simchona Well, a good answer obviates the general reference. If you've got an angle, go for it.

@Kit No, I've just got an answer that makes sense. In my head, at least.

@simchona I would like it if you think you could flesh out your answer to the double down question so we can make it canonical for these types of whosywhatsits. Compound verbs or whatever they are called.

@Cerberus I call on you again.

What's it called? Verb phrase? Multi-part verb?

I'll be happy to edit once we get a good group name for them

Verb phrase sounds right, but I'm not sure if it describes properly.

2:51 AM

@Kit Idiomatic phrase?

@simchona No, it's more like the "daughters-in-law" and "attorneys general" type of thing.

Except that those are nouns.

I don't know if its a verb phrase, though

"double over", "double down", are idioms

@Kit Which phrase?

Q: What is the past tense of 'Double Down'?

@Cerberus "double down" or "double over"

Working on:

0

Blackjack players can "double down" after receiving their initial two cards. What is the past tense of 'Double Down'?

american-english past-tense

@simchona ...or others like it.

We thought we'd make it nice and generic, so simchona can have a canonical answer.

Unless, of course, it's a dupe already.

2:55 AM

Ahh. It think it might be a phrasal verb. Let me look it up,

Phrasal verb

A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence, and so are a complete semantic unit. Sentences may contain direct and indirect objects in addition to the phrasal verb. Phrasal verbs are particularly frequent in the English language. A phrasal verb often has a meaning which is different from the original verb. According to Tom McArthur: Alternative terms for phrasal verb are ‘compound verb’, ‘verb-adverb combination’, ‘verb-particle construction (VPC)’, A...

Looks like it

I feel better that "compound verb" is another term for "phrasal verb." Makes me think I might remember a little grammar after all.