I have played with a Naga mouse since launch and I have found Macros a complete, useless waste of time. That's it... I feel like it would be too much work to go into all this macro business. I have much more confidence in my abilities to manually select a target and cast a specific healing regimen as I see fit. I don't even see what purpose that macro in your examplle would serve, except that now I have to have a different button for every target coupled with every healing spell. A rotation is not good for every situation and there are different healing goals all the time. I have all of my healing as the priority keys on the thumbpad of the naga... I have four keys for four party members on my keyboard... I look around and move with the mouse and do healing, selecting targets with the keys. It's really not that hard. In OPs I make the frame big enough and just click on whomever I want... In fact I end up doing most of my playing just sitting back and using the mouse to move and heal since I need no modifiers except to attack (other than cc) which I don't normally do The macro discussion comes up a lot. Yes it's against the TOS, no I don't know how or what will cause you to get caught... but this game really doesn't benefit from it methinks.

Meh.. The goal has always been that... the goal.. Power.. the Dark Side of the Force... That's the key... the -Dark- side of the Force. It is impossible really to relate these emotional states to real life examples... Of course anger can make you sloppy. Of course fear can make you sloppy. Being completely apathetic can make you sloppy too. Trusting everyone can make you sloppy. ANYTHING can be done to a degree that causes failure, we could spend all day thinking about that. But we're not -really- talking about emotions. We're talking about the Force. What's interesting about the Force is, as real life beings, there is no possible way that we can imagine or relate to it. Sure we can dream of telekinesis or whatever, but if you read between the lines or take a viewpoint away from Ego, you see a much powerful mechanic at work. It's like a drug addiction. You are rewarded for lashing out in anger by this dose of power. Others have compared it to adrenaline. As your emotions get more complex you get more complex rewards. You -want- to survive off of this, just like any other drug addiction, so you become -good- at whatever it is that you need to do to create those feelings. Bad Sith lash out irresponsibly, get exploited and killed, even by their own people. That's how the game works. Good Sith force those emotions to work for them. Bad Jedi lash out in anger, not knowing how to control it, and get killed, even by their own people. That's how the game works. Good Jedi focus on their passive feelings or basket weaving and coax those feelings to work for them. The Force is an individual thing.

Then don't freaking buy it. If it seems like a scam to you.. if it seems like it's not enough... then don't pay the 10$. No one's pulling your leg. No one's forcing you to whip out that credit card or collect all your quarters and give them to mommy. And don't give me any bull about "Waah I -have- to do these things in order to stay current and keep my lavels, lol" because by paying and playing, you've only guaranteed the experience you've already had, and the next month or so in advance. At any point you can decide "I don't like this" and walk away, NOTHING is keeping you here. Talk with your money not with your mouth and useless empty arguments. Don't like something? Don't buy it. You'll realize that a company with however many subscriptions cares about as little about your sub as they do your internet arguments on the forums. Because at the end of the day some grue is going to buy the 59.99 Cartel Coin pack and make up for the six people whining about it. The expansion is coming and is going to be what it is regardless of the heming and hawing and the verbal wordplay you through at each other. I don't care how long you played WOW or LOTRO, the expansion is coming. Two things are going to happen. 1. You're going to buy the Expansion. 2. You're not going to buy the Expansion. And then! (OH LAWDY) Only a few things are going to happen from that.; You didn't buy the expansion, it freaking sucks. Congratulations, now you can sit on your little throne and sip brandy and talk about how "I told you so" because the expansion is horrible and all the little sheep that bought it are so dumb ololol I am god. You didn't buy the expansion, and it's awesome. You missed the early time, but it's no big deal, since you're the LORD OF ALL MMOS it will only take you a day to complete anyway, right? You buy the expansion, and it sucks. Oh well, I've wasted 10$ on worse things. If you've bought cartel coins, you've probably wasted your money. If you bought something with an "As Seen on TV" sticker, you've probably wasted your money. When you buy food from a restaurant you're practically wasting your money. Hell, your spending 14$ a month (some not all) to play a game when there are so many that you can play for free, so don't worry about it. You learn your lesson for next time and become one of the cynical arses posting on this forum about how a planet isn't an expansion. You buy the expansion and it's awesome.. congratulations, your faith in a company that has made a game you bought and pay for is kept. So get off your damned high horses and whatever false laurels you -think- you have because you've spent half your natural born life playing video games instead of doing something else. Calm down and wait for something more substantial. And stop trying to pick apart the words of a bunch of code monkeys like they're T.S. Elliot. Hell you guys are arguing over word play and I -KNOW- some of you have spent money on Google/Apple store apps with descriptions and dev logs written by people who must be five years old. This is the real world, you should know by now how corporations make decisions. Act like you know how to live in it.

This is often a hotly debated topic among RPers. There exist in the EU several groups which claim and attempt to "walk the line" between Light and Dark, accepting power from both. Gray Jedi and Jensaari to name a few.... Dathomiri WItches have no concept of Light or Dark as they did not learn the Force as the Force, though they are devoutly "Light" Problems are usually that story characters usually end up falling to the Dark Side. Does that mean that it is impossible? No. Does that mean that there can't exist a person so selfless as to exist on both levels? No Does it mean that someone who does this will be as strong as someone who is only Light, or only Dark? Probably Not. Both sides are natural because they exist in what nature is. Both sides appeal to particular and separate emotions. Like it or not the Force tends to polarize to one end or another. This does not mean that you cannot hold two magnets in limbo, and keep them from sticking. We've seen tons of Jedi, including Luke Skywalker fall to the Dark Side and come back. Too often we simply view (and games don't help this) the force via powers. Light is Force Shield and Force Protect. Neutral is Force Jump. Dark is Force Lightning. I feel like "riding the line" as it were would be more of a test of internal strength. A protest. Like a self-immolating monk. If you are floating between dark and light you are searching, as anyone with resolve would inevitably fall to a side.

It probably has something to do with resources. First remember that everything in the Star Wars universe is consistently on or about to be on the verge of falling apart, running out of power or otherwise self-destructing. Astromechs are probably so modded out with tech to do other things there's no room/power/CPU for a vocabulator. That being said. This droid had a vocabulator. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Q9-series_astromech_droid Or will have... whatever. They can be added, but it's kind of like <html> tags. Once you've been around them so much you get so used to it the need to translate them at a basic level is unnecessary. Like if I put (B)around(/B) something you could figure out what it meant. I'm sure growing up in the SWU you get on with droids quite well.

What 'direct competitors' and what 'features' are do you mean? And I was appealing to nothing, I have listed no credential nor invoked no names. In the grand scope of all your massive and detailed RP experience, character clipping should be the least of your worries. I'm saying something is going on that we aren't hearing about if it's game over for you because your character clips through a seat. Something else is missing from your RP experience. You will always be scrolling through chat windows. Chat Bubbles or not...unless you have a photographic memory. What I'm saying is all these problems you're demanding fixes for are very minor, for a minor population, and will be used very little. I mean how many times in one scene do you sit down... once? I'd definitely set my sights higher and on things that actually get players together, custom instances etc. Chat and emotes should be on the bottom of the list.

If you could kindly list all the "other" Star Wars games that conveniently bring hundreds of like-minded fans together. I would gladly check them out. No one is arguing against the inclusion of new features. We are arguing about you complaining about not getting any new features when players are sitting by themselves on servers, Genchat is being spammed with LFGs, and 50s have nothing to do. These are actual GAME problems. RP is not a "game" problem. Personally I don't see much issue with the current set of features that we have to use as roleplayers. Frankly, I've played with much worse and much better. Sure you want more and that's fine, no one argues that. But the attacking way you're going about it gives everyone a bad taste in their mouth. Especially seasoned RPers who have worked with much less. Edit: As I said before. This is a game and you should be playing it, that is what you're paying for. If all you want to do is RP then you could do it elsewhere with way more features, and way less money. I am a RPer, sure I will make trash toons for my fancy, but I will also level some up to 50, and play in PVP, and take advantage of the other features that I am paying for. Half the RP-friendly features of SWG didn't exist until two, three, or more years into the game. The statement is not "If you want to RP Star Wars then it must be on TOR." it is "IF you would like to RP Star Wars on TOR..." and that's the way it should be for every game.

I hope you are spending 15$ a month for a game that you play. Not to sit around in a cantina and fling chat at each other... Because you can do that in a chat room. Any roleplayer who's worth his salt can roleplay anywhere, with anything. Personally, I have NEVER played anywhere with "chat bubbles". I hate the way they look I hate the way they metacommunicate to players on a subconscious level. I hate the way they assume action as fact. I love the way regular chat allows you to manipulate things. You can turn chats off, you can create channels, you can party, guild, and PM. If you're telling me the only things keeping you from RP -anywhere- not just on TOR is chat bubbles, barber shops, and armor mods then yes, you are missing the point of roleplay. If you're 'unsubbing' because of the lack of them then maybe you shouldn't have subbed in the first place. Everyone who says RP is limited by the limitations you place on it is absolutely correct. Because I will log the hell on right now and RP a Hutt and you won't say **** to me, I don't care if you look at your screen and see a human. You're losing sight of what it is, you're creating a story with your friends, you're acting out a story with your friends. You can do this on a forum, on a chatroom, anywhere. You just happen to be dong it in TOR. NEVER did they say that they are a haven for the hardcore text rpers or the Starsiders. Guess what, neither did SWG. Neither did any other Trade MMO. RP communities spring up on their own, they aren't placed by the manufacturers. And good game being so disenfranchised by RP on TOR, because I have a bookmark folder full of guilds and player organizations that are doing just fine. RP the way we play is a bonus, not a must-have. It is an "if you build it they will come" type of thing. I don't need to see art and character models to envision what is being said. It is a bonus but not necessary. Then again I guess I'm from the "dark ages" where all we had and could expect for RP was text.

A roleplayer should not depend on any system to do their work for them. I do not need to see your character physically sitting down to understand that the character is sitting down? Why? Even if they do add /sitinachair there's a million other things you're doing that wont have scripted actions. When you roleplay in a game you are BORROWING the system and the mechanics. You shouldnt be using it to REPLACE what you are doing, which is creative writing. Some games make it easier than others, some don't. The fun of roleplaying on an MMO or any other game (JKA) is finding creative ways to use the tools they give us to work. This is why I was hesitant to start roleplaying in games rather than on forums etc. Because it takes the imagination out of it. What's sad is you're going to run into players who think that it is only possible to do one of four jobs in the Star Wars Universe, or that it is only possible to be a handful of races. My imagination works great though, so I don't need all the bells and whistles. Keep in mind, despite the popularity with the Star Wars theme we are the vast minority.

Okay.....just thought I'd respond to some things For the record in my OP the standard I had set was basic capitalization and punctuation. Yes it is more construction and syntax but frequently in arguments it all gets lumped into "grammar." First, I asked a question; 'Do you judge people who use poor grammar as lesser?" Or something to that effect. I know that 90% of the people reading this will not answer honestly. I know this because in the top five posts in GD at the time of writing this, there was at least one comment about how "you have the grammar of a 6 year old thus your argument does not matter". I thought I would try it anyway. Secondly, I made up a list of POSSIBILITIES as to why someone might not habitually use the habits of typing I mentioned. I never said it was finite, I never said it was exact. In fact I said it was a "hypothesis" which means that I expect to be proven wrong. I expect to be told about how you are a business owner or a computer science major, and are too "lazy" or don't care. This was what I asked for. What I also asked was "Why?" which some of you responded to as well. My basic point is: If you are in a habit of doing an activity that is massively based on habit (typing, riding a bike), why would you do it in a completely different way for a few hours out of your day? I supposed either you're not in the habit, or your habits are not as strong as say, someone who writes professionally every day. You told me about ties, and about calling your boss Mr. etc. all of which I accept as legitimate examples. Those are hardly as habitual as typing, however. I gave a little of my life story and background on the problem so that you would know that I earnestly think on the subject, and I'm not just trying to start a war. I'm accused of being "defensive" though I felt like I was simply responding to comments. Everyone on the internet expects to get the last word, so because I continue the discussion I am being "defensive" and not accepting what is being said? I'm aware of the various influences that people have on their typing. Never did I say that if you type poorly then you are stupid, foreign, etc. and if I did it was my intention to avoid that from the beginning so I apologize. You're all so quick to notice errors that I have made in my Grammar, and quote sentences for Grammar without actually reading what the sentence says..... "simple things like capitalization of first letters in sentences, punctuation, etc." In fact in the first three lines I say that I am NOT a "Grammar Nazi", a point I repeat later, and I always come from a position of knowing that I can make mistakes. I do not correct people on an everyday basis, and I have not corrected any posts here. I also said in a response that my post came off the heels of a city, general chat argument. Not in PVP, not in fighting. Just normal "trade" chat where everyone is sitting there, thinking out their responses. I made my original post too long and convoluted. I anticipated since this was a forum and not the game that someone who took the time to click would take the time to read. Thus a perfect "audience" for my idea. Maybe I titled it wrong. Maybe I took the wrong approach. 80% of you turned the argument into something that was not what I intended and that's my fault.

To be honest I like the exclusiveness than a 15 a month subscription gives you. Unless there's a trial, everyone is on the same level. It weeds out ******* and others who would otherwise hurt the community. For F2P to work they have to make the items useful. To make the items useful they have to A. Nerf the game content or B. Make the items OP. Either way you pay money for these items to give you a significant advantage. This instantly destroys all work that a F2P player has done to grind, quest, trade, or whatever his way to his current status in the game. I don't like game's where you just throw money at something and win, which is what F2P is. 15$ a month provides the service of the game, with it comes certain expectations, just like the 250$ some people pay for their Cable, Internet, and Phone. By staying P2P the staff can offer a certain level of quality, and a unified level of service across the board. Runescape is essentially two different games, and it started out Free, so I'm not sure that that is a fair comparison. If they make it F2P they will end up spending more time fielding support operations to thousands of people who don't pay a dime, while the people who actually paid lose in content and service. Game Over.

WOW certainly did not invent the 14.99 or the p2p subscription model by any means. Success in the subscription model is mutually exclusive with success as an MMO. This is because having this subscription model precludes us from a certain number of individuals who would otherwise play the game; poor, kids, people who don't want to pay 14.99 for a game for example. So saying that WOW is a perfect example of this subscription model is a moot point because you're claiming failure as an MMO, which means that you're comparing all MMOs across all subscription models. I'm sure most subscription numbers are cooked, but when you get past a certain number of subscribers at 14$ a pop, there comes a point where you can do all you can. The difference between 12 million and 1 million is a lot of money, but you don't see your average content developer getting a 500,000$ bonus. The company puts the funds elsewhere. So I'm suggesting that a game like WOW with 12 million alleged subscribers and a game like Game X with 1 million, is operating on the same playing field, with the developers being paid comparable rates and being asked to work comparable hours. So is SWTOR a failure? No...especially not on the level of Tabula Rasa or Hellgate:London which I feel was more comparable to Diablo and not a real MMO. Why? 1.Subject: This is one of the most beloved, fanbased, and hardened sci-fi adventures in the entire world. It started in the 70s and babies today are still freaking out about Stormtrooper pancakes. Fantasy genre games are a dime a dozen, why play a rogue in 4 different games when you can play an IMPERIAL AGENT? This goes hand in hand with 2.Time: It took wow about 5 years to go from 0 to 12 million alleged subscribers. And we have number 1 working for us. So we're going to get a lot of fanboy's trickling in over time some will stay and some will go, but I believe the effect will be way steadier than anything WoW has...not like LOTR fans are stumbling over Cataclysm or anything. Everyone has issues in the first year or so of the game, and things don't work out as expected. If I can log on before noon on a workday and see 150 people playing in one place, I'd say that's pretty successful for the time being. 3. Server's shmervers. They have the ability to move a character where they want, when they want without you losing a single damn thing. Every MMO has this. Doing it is not the problem, the process is what is the problem. Avoiding people taking advantage of the system, hopping around for ill gain, etc. That is the problem. They want to find a solution that they can apply in one treatment, and not have to worry about it again, not something ELSE they have to keep repairing. in the meantime, you are not being barred from playing your character or accessing it. 4. There is room for tons more content: Anyone who's modded a game or played a mod can see in the structure of the way most areas and systems are set up that there is tons of room for expansion. More quests, more items, Pazaak, whatever the hell you can think of. The game is polished to such a state that they could change the entire background without us knowing. So this ties back in with time. This isn't your average MMO, this is a twist on the MMO formula that Bioware is trying to give us in their own style. Yes they made a lot of servers, they had to, launch day was hell. Because every fanboy, every MMO fan, every SWG refugee, everything else was trying to get in game. And now that the rush is over we are left with the playerbase, which I'm sure is average or good for a game operating in a year.

So my question to you is when you see someone who doesn't take the time to check, or a guild recruiter who doesn't take the time to properly format. How would that make you feel about the person if say in the same hour they started an argument with you on......inventory spaces. Or anything of that nature. Would you view yourself in a superior position at that point? I overestimated your original comment by supposing that guild recruiters = leaders and you expected them to be eloquent. Edit: Or for that matter. Do you make assumptions on age or level of education when you see sloppy messages? Especially guild recruitment ones.

It is very interesting to me that you avoid capitalization just to fit in while doing everything else. Personally my habits have my pinky hovering over the shift key usually, so why not use it? So you expect leaders in game to present themselves professionally, that is people advertising for guild recruitment, but not the every-day player? Is this not implying the same Boss/Worker Leader/Follower relationship that is expected in normal Work or School? Where the boss or teacher is expected to be a picture of professionalism or "right"? If I am in a habit of calling a friend something, I will always call them that. This is interesting though. Because in some workplaces you are expected to call your friend something else. Is this the exception or the rule? For example; Your high school friend is Jimmy. You went to college together and now work together, you even live together why not. You call him Jimmy at home because that's what you've always called him. At work you are expected to call him Mr. Blank. Here's the inverse. You have a beloved school teacher. Mrs. Frank. You go to college and end up working at the school. It is common practice in school to call colleagues Mr or Mrs. Assuming she's still there, would she not be in the habit of calling you Jimmy and you calling her Mrs. Frank, even in social non-work situations? Edit to add: This quickly divorced itself from game concepts, which is not a problem. I never really attacked anyone or any class or supposed an intelligence level. The focus in proving me wrong is futile because I asked to be proven wrong, so It's not like I'm going to go away. The beauty of a forum is you choose to read it or not read it and leave. By reading it you will see things that I have covered and realize that a lot of comments do not relate to my OP at all. I did say I expected flamers, so don't expect to "win" with a one liner or a jab about Starbucks. .-.

I responded to this in an earlier post. I feel putting on something that constricts you and causes you discomfort throughout the day is different from practicing language. Of course you take the tie off, but you do indeed grow used to it, and eventually it is later in the day before you take it off. You grow so used to it that eating, or excitement over a game, or your paycheck, is enough to distract you from it. Do you stop using the word "my" when you're not at work or school? If your boss or teacher calls you at night would you not call him Mr. Boss or Sir?

Have I used any impossibly large words? Have I advocated dictionary study? I have either advocated basic adherence to common practice, or asked the question as to why someone who has a habit of doing so chooses and in some cases forces themselves not to in one specific situation. I have seen the elites of many communities slash down others as being "noobs" "prepubescents" or "12" because of the way in which they typed. And I've seen 14 year-olds passing as 30 and getting away with it simply because they use periods. I also see that in post histories of a lot of individuals, including some who have posted here that they do use perfect grammar and punctuation when they want to be taken seriously, or when they feel that their idea is important. Hardly a frivolous venture, and it takes less than a minute to confirm.

So you expect everything to be done for you. You have a developed a habit of expecting word processors to automatically cross your "t"s and dot your "i"s as it were. You do not have a habit of doing so on your own. If this were your interpretation of "Real World" you would not be typing on the internet, you would be talking to me vocally, and most likely using proper grammar. If this were the "Real World" the email to your boss, the resume and cover letter you submitted, the parking ticket appeal, is likely to use proper typing. Well this is the "Real World" the "Real World" consists of the internet, and the people on it. Everything you do or say or type is your brains response to a stimuli. That response is based on your past experiences in life. Since you, for example, do not have a habit of capitalizing your "I"s, you do not do so here. You are doing what you know. I'm not advocating blind adherence to "The Rules". I'm not advocating anything really. What I'm asking is if you follow specific rules in most aspects of your life, why not everywhere else too? Wearing a tie all day is one thing, but we are talking about something that is becoming increasingly second nature, like tying shoes. Language is a constant mental process, not something that you put on in the morning, constricts you all day, and you can't wait to take it off. Keep in mind I never personally brought intelligence into the matter, and if I did I did so in personal error. I made several suppositions about possible age ranges and expectations that person faces in their day to day life. I said that any one of those, not all, and not inclusive, -could- possibly be true. I said that as a means to highlight why people get berated for lack of what we are calling "grammar" Being younger than 15 or not being asked to write papers or professionally does not equate intelligence or lack thereof, and I never brought this point to bear. In fact most of what I said relates only to an individual's time or experience at a computer and the habits developed from such.

Okay, if someone is a metal worker or a vet. They weld the best metal and do the best healing at work. They consult for their friends and it is always an excellent job. All the horses are happy. Would they slack on their own vehicles, on their own pets? Would they let their dog get sick and die while healing others? The answer is no they are not. I'm not questioning intelligence, I'm questioning reasoning. In this day and age it is unprofessional to send an email, cover letter, resume paper (stuff everyone does, college or no), 90% of your average workday business or school materials without proper grammar. We develop a habit of the basics. You develop a habit of healing animals, of metal working, and you apply that all over, not just at work. I'm saying the same should apply here. So if I see someone asking a question in chat or on a forum "Why are you treating me as less intelligent, why are you calling me 14." My response is that grammar is something that is expected to that person, they are a student or even a manager at McDonald's, somewhere where that is a standard. They have developed a habit and in their mind only someone who does not have that habit would not practice it everywhere. I can almost guarantee if I put you in an anonymous discussion with two different people, one who uses no punctuation, capitals, smaller words, conjunctions etc. and one who properly formats sentences uses larger words (not too large, now) and has well developed thoughts, you would likely guess that the latter is older than the former, or more educated, or has a job, anything I've been discussing.

What I'm really gearing towards is the city and fleet arguments, where all parties involved are clearly just sitting around, not in battle, and trying to argue about the effectiveness of a Sorcerer, or something of that nature. Whether or not I am an "Elite College Grad" or whether or not I work at Starbucks is not the issue. If "nobody" cared then the argument would not exist. I wouldn't see it every day. I wouldn't be annotating research studies about the effect of texting and computer literacy on academic literacy (there are thousands). I'm simply saying that if someone uses poor grammar than there is a strong likelihood that they did not or have not been in a situation that has asked them to do so. If you're suggesting by your highly antagonistic statement that you did not go to college or are not asked in your daily life to use proper grammar, then your very post supports the previous statement. If you -have- gone to college and -are- asked to type professionally on a daily basis, my question is why wouldn't you, especially in a forum where you clearly have enough time to formulate an opinion. Neither event is an attack on you or anyone else

The only thing that would really warrant compensation is if service was interrupted for longer than say a week. Then again I'm pretty sure most MMOs these days have clauses about service not being guaranteed. When MMOs close up shop they don't really refund everyone all the game time they've paid for... Your service has not been interrupted. Not only that they are telling you that you will have the ability to transfer your character. Which means your time working on your character in that Lowpop server will not necessarily be wasted. If you're level 50, reroll something completely different and have fun playing the damn game. When they do transfers move your fatty over and then worry about your PVP and all that crap. I mean what are you really going to do with your lvl 50 anyway.

Thus why I want to have the discussion. If a person can heal animals or people or even if they are good at math then they likely went to or are attending a Professional school. I'd want to pick their brain as to why they don't follow the same rules for the few hours a day they play a game that they follow everywhere else in their life. I'm saying that if a person's environment requires them to excel, then they should be excelling in all environments they are in including playing a game. I didn't say that the inability to spell or use grammar made them dumb or stupid. I'm saying it could give clues to their level of education, and possibly their profession. When I see the argument happening repeatedly, I thought I'd write about it. The question becomes "why do you treat me like im stupid?" and the answer is often "Because you use improper grammar." Why? Well I'm exploring why. I'm not saying that I haven't made mistakes. I'm not saying that people who use poor grammar are stupid. I'm also not saying I am not guilty of casting poor judgement on someone. I'm talking about a stigma that is automatically placed on some people and why.

Going on a tangent does not equate OCD. Being heated over anything results in giant posts. I simply wanted to make sure I covered all bases and ensure that I'm not taken as a troll or flamer.

So I want to discuss something. And it might turn into a flame war but know that is not my intention. I also want to begin this by saying I am not a Grammar Nazi. What the scope of this post is covering is simple things like capitalization of first letters in sentences, punctuation, etc. I'm a senior in college and I still have to consult a manual sometimes if I want to go crazy in a paper and add a colon. TLDR; /TLDR; This is a simple question that should be answered for statistical reasons with "Yes" or "No" and then I will go on with my hypothesis. I'm also not saying that the above question is at all true. I know lots of people who are smart and don't use proper grammar for reasons I will discuss below. This is just Explanation: I'm speaking from my own personal experience and that of my closest friends whom I know in real life. I cannot for example take the experiences of a SWTOR member in chat who claims to be a novelist with a doctorate, because who knows? I am a college student. A very average college student in my senior year. I grew up in the internet age so since High School I have been using a computer to process words and type. I am a little special though from other children because my family worked in the computer industry from the get go. So from about 1994 or 5 onward I had been around computers, which is since I was five years old. I learned to type before I could really write well and other things. This has not necessarily been great for me because my handwriting sucks! Anyway that's a digression. We're talking about papers and academic work. Why? Because I am assuming your average player of a game like SWTOR is someone who is probably 15-25, is in school, also writing and doing academic work. Now here is me: When I write something and make a mistake; I immediately backspace and fix it. No matter what, no matter where. This is a habit from all of the papers I have written during my scholarly career. And it is a habit that transfers to my texting, Facebook, everything. It is very hard for me to force myself to write sloppily, and only in the heat of combat might I split some poor incorrect thing out. Friends whom I've asked told me the same thing, I -witness- this on a daily basis by going to my University's library. I'm not OCD in the slightest, and I'm not a Grammar Nazi as said before. I simply have developed a habit of writing material in the correct format, to lessen the use of things like spellcheck or whatever, and to just sound professional and neat. So it is from this standpoint that I make the following hypothesis: If a person does not use proper grammar, punctuation, or capitalization at a basic level in a chat where they are simply standing and chatting (not in combat), then one of the following possibly applies to them. (a). They are younger than 15. Maybe even older than that. The person has not reached an age where they are expected to write perfectly, and especially not on a computer. They probably aren't asked to write papers, copy notes, etc. In America 15 is approximately 10th grade on the high school scale. Most high schools are not completely integrated with computers, nor can they expect their students to all have computers, etc. (b). They are older than 30. And grew up not really being expected to type or process words. They might hold a job where they are not expected to do so either. Someone who is 30 was born in 1982, and was 18 in the year 2000. School computing was definitely not as developed, and University computing was only a few steps ahead. Computing was also still relatively expensive. ©. English is not their first language. Can't really blame anyone for that. They might be using a foreign keyboard, they might be code-switching. Who knows what stage of Language Acquisition they are in. But people who fall into this category usually make more obvious mistakes than punctuation. (d). They are not College educated. They could be 18-24 and never went to college, working your basic minimum wage job. This person is not really -asked- to use good typing skills in there everyday environment. Keep in mind these are all suppositions. I'm not saying that everyone who is young, old, didn't go to college, or an ELL is stupid or a lesser human being. What I'm trying to decode is the attitude against people who do not take the effort to use proper grammar. Which leads me to. (e). They don't care. And argument that I 100% do not buy. For reasons I have been discussing this whole time. Habits are hard to break, and if you are not in a habit of typing eloquently, then that really is a reflection of you as a person. This goes true as someone not showering, shaving, getting a haircut, or washing their clothes. With all this said, think about the inverse, assuming the above hypothesis was completely true, that means that people who use proper punctuation, grammar, etc. are: 1. Older ('perfect' American age of 18-25 even.) 2. Smarter (College educated, possibly a professional worker.) 3. Proficient in English. 4. Caring about their image. By fleshing this out I can clearly see why people take up the arguments that they do in chat wars about grammar. The people who correct others simply know better, some of them are jerks and nazis, but a great deal of us are just interested in making sure people know that "a lot" is actually two words etc. And everyone has witnessed the 12 year old trying to exert himself as an older, wiser individual, and most of us myself included have done that same type of thing at one time or another. So the discussion is this: What is your take on grammar in game chat? What is your life experience (are you University trained etc)? Are you coming from writing a very complex academic paper to a video game where you immediately drop all rules of communication? Arguments: Here are some common arguments I run into. 1. As long as the point gets across it does not matter: This is true to a point, especially in verbal communication. Personally when I see a well constructed argument with proper grammar, I know the individual has thought enough into it to format it into an eloquent thought. Someone who spews whatever they are thinking (which is NOT always the case) may not be reading what others are saying, or thinking about what they are saying. 2. It's a game it doesn't matter: Goes back to my previous discussions, if you are in the habit of typing well, why stop? It's like someone faking an accent. If you are trying to fake an accent all day and then you go home and talk for five minutes in your real accent, you might very well mess up the next time you want to speak with an inflection. 3. Grammar Nazi's need to stop: It's not always about being a grammar nazi. I know 100% that there are school-aged children playing this game. I know 100% if someone keeps making the same spelling error, the same grammar error, then they will miss it in their school or work as well. As an Education major it's not about being elite or a "Nazi" but rather letting someone know if they repeatedly make a mistake. Often I will whisper instead of calling them out in the chat, but that is another story. Go!