[MUD-Dev2] Importance of emoting (Was: ArantagainstVanguardreviews and rants)

[Matt Chatterley]

On 02/05/07, Raph Koster <raph at areae.net> wrote:
[El Snippo]

> There is no such thing as corrupting the language.
> Lest thou dost think that our tongue remaineth immutable,
> This sooth shews yt fals.
>
> That said, I've been observing this phenomenon with mudspeke for fifteen
> years. It's not at all new.

And, frankly, we've all been observing it for N years, where N =
this.Age.

It's a common playground phenomenon as well - words/terms/slang/etc
enter childrens vocabulary often (not just young children - it happens
at Universities, and large workplaces too) - to my mind it's more a
function of cultural integration, e.g. here in the UK, lots of words
from other cultures (Jamaican leaps to mind, as I think this was
mentioned in a documentary on just this topic a few weeks ago, but there
are many others), are entering the common language of young people.

This "corruption" online - muds, chatrooms, forums - is just an
extension of the normal development of language.

I say "cool" or "wicked" quite often. My parents certainly don't. And,
when the time comes, I'm sure my children won' t either, because things
will have moved on!


Cheers,

Matt