Hello again!
This is one of my pet issues, so I'm going to discuss this a bit more. *grins*
Mostly OOC here too, so my apologies...
>I know that EQ is different from the text-based muds we all want to
>emulate, and I'm incredibly excited about the visual aspect to gaming - but
>until voice-com becomes standard (*grin* one, maybe two years?), typing is
>a significant hassle. I personally have a repetoire of nearly a hundred
>songs - but typing just a set (4-6 songs) would leave my hands so cramped I
>couldn't type for a week after that. Call me selfish - but I'd like a
>shortcut :P
Well, the real cramping comes from doing the shift-chrarcters when typing.
The /em sings, ' gets really old. Back in P3 when I started this, I didn't
use a 'sing' emote for just this reason. I'm a pretty fast typist
(80-90wpm) and I discovered that by just using say to do the lyrics, I
could type at about reading speed for most people. People seemed to keep
interest in the ballads pretty well, and everything was nice.
Then, when the Soerbaird evolved, and we started seeing each other perform
every night or every other night in some cases, we traded a lot of tips.
The emotes are VERY effective in making the text really liven up, so I
picked that up. Effective, but harder and slowed me down. That's why I'd
like a configuable emote mode.
But still, I'm going to go with manual text entry. Again, its hard, yes.
But it goes a long way to making the performance seem more real. There's a
chance you can mess up, there's a chance you can be cut off, there's a
chance you'll skip a line word or verse. All just like real performance. I
love this aspect of barding in Norrath, and wouldn't want to change it, really.
>Most typists who play (if they're lucky) type from 40-60 wpm. This can
>make the average 3 minute song last about... 10 minutes. I'd hate to see a
>Bardic with only 10 people under those conditions (I'm used to 30+
>competitors, using scripts, and the competition lasts upwards of 3 hours.)
Well, if you're using scripts, why bother doing it in the game? Make a nice
in-character web site, and compete there. It would be much easier to read
and understand there? I mean, if you're using a script, again, you're not
really performing. It's not live! It's memorex! The few times I've seen
bards use macros to do their songs, I've found myself tuning it out. I
guess its a spam-reflex, but it just seems cheaper if its automated.
Incidentally, in a one-hour concert (typical for the major Soerbaird
concerts) we have six or eight bards perform, with songs ranging from five
minutes to fifteen or more. Now I used to wonder about a fifteen minute
song, but you have to remember, barding is not pop-radio. Our 'songs' are
in fact stories set to verse, and often ballads are much longer than
traditional songs. In that light, it's ok for them to be long, just as long
as they're interesting.
A well-written one can easily go fifteen to twenty minutes when performed
and not lose the audience. (I have a forty-five minute one that I ended up
chopping up into sub-stories, because it did get a bit old there. Hehe.)
Roop....as far as plays go, members of the Soerbaird have already generated
two plays, both of some quality. You'll probably see one performed before
long at all. I've not seen this done yet, but I think it could be effective
if you had the right visual and prop elements.
Good discussion all! I really hope to see some of you perform around
Norrath! If this kind of thing REALLY appeals to you, then I'd encourage
you to take a look at The Soerbaird, because this is EXACTLY what I founded
the guild to do. To use the role of the bard in a bardic in-character
fashion to help breathe life into what can sometimes seem a bland, and
fruitless world.
Listen and Live.
-- Jythri, Pencerdd of The Soerbaird
http://www.soerbaird.com