Replace informal/anachronistic language

[Wedge009]

Noticed use of 'cool' and 'guys' while replaying Northern Rebirth S5. While I recognise this campaign - and scenario in particular - is more light-hearted and/or fourth-wall-breaking in some of its dialogue, the following phrases didn't read well to me. (I also searched all campaigns for other instances of these words.)

Proposed Changes

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Northern_Rebirth/scenarios/05a_01_The_Pursuit.cfg

Lines 1169 to 1170 in 4c9e016

	speaker=unit
	message= _ "The Treasury! Cool, let’s go loot some booty!"

I had Tallin find this signpost, so it just sounded weird to me (even accepting that he's an uneducated, albeit brave and inspiring, fighter). I propose 'Great, let's loot some booty!' Or since en_US is default, I suppose it's fine to leave it as 'let's go loot'.

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Northern_Rebirth/scenarios/05a_01_The_Pursuit.cfg

Lines 804 to 805 in 4c9e016

	speaker=Tallin
	message= _ "Wow! That’s incredible. Now I understand why the bag of bones kept you guys in jail; he just simply couldn’t kill you!"

This is in the context of Morvin's and Thera's first death-respawn event. Propose '...kept you two in jail...'

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Northern_Rebirth/scenarios/05a_01_The_Pursuit.cfg

Lines 1840 to 1841 in 4c9e016

	speaker=unit
	message= _ "There we go! This way, guys!"

Finding the signpost to Malifor's study. Propose 'This way, everyone!'

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Northern_Rebirth/scenarios/10a_Stolen_Gold.cfg

Lines 1054 to 1055 in 4c9e016

	speaker="Ro'Arthian"
	message= _ "If you guys are quite finished exchanging pleasantries..."

The lich is getting impatient at the lengthy introductions between Tallin, Eryssa, and Hidel. Propose 'if you lot are quite finished...'

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Son_Of_The_Black_Eye/scenarios/08_Silent_Forest.cfg

Lines 271 to 272 in 4c9e016

	speaker=second_unit
	message= _ "Why would you elves want still more territory? You guys already have the undisputed rule of the whole elvish forest."

Even accepting the orcs' general lack of literary sophistication, 'guys' still sounds too anachronistic to me. Propose to just skip the word 'guys' altogether, as it still reads fine to me, ie 'You already have...'

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Under_the_Burning_Suns/scenarios/03_Stirring_in_the_Night.cfg

Lines 415 to 416 in 4c9e016

	speaker=Elyssa
	message= _ "Like I haven’t killed enough undead recently. Why can’t these guys just stay dead?"

Elyssa is the fire mage introduced in the prior scenario of Under the Burning Suns, and this is in the context of discussing the undead appearing during the 'long dark' night cycle. Propose 'why can't these creeps just stay dead?' (Elyssa also seems to be a less formal character, otherwise I'd consider 'ghosts' or similar.)

Probably Justifiable

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Northern_Rebirth/scenarios/05a_01_The_Pursuit.cfg

Lines 1037 to 1038 in 4c9e016

	speaker=Camerin
	message= _ "Oooooh, cool, it’s a drake!"

Camerin's already a little crazy, so I suppose using 'cool' in his informal context is okay.

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Northern_Rebirth/scenarios/07a_Settling_Disputes.cfg

Lines 464 to 465 in 4c9e016

	speaker=Camerin
	message= _ "Hold a moment, my friend. You won’t believe what a blast it is fighting with these guys. You get to fry skeletons, orcs, trolls, and wolves by the thousands! Come on old pal, be a sport."

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Northern_Rebirth/scenarios/07a_Settling_Disputes.cfg

Lines 832 to 833 in 4c9e016

	speaker=Camerin
	message= _ "Come on, guys, it will be great! Those orcs will never know what hit them! Together we’ll rip them to shreds! If you are planning to retire after this, this is the perfect chance for you guys to go out with a bang! You guys will become legends! <i>“The two terrible mages, risen from the dead to devastate the orcish hordes!”</i>"

Four uses of 'guys' by Camerin in the one scenario. But I suppose if he's allowed to use 'cool' in his crazy informal dialogue, he can use 'guys' here, though I could probably rephrase this to avoid its use.

Every other use of 'cool' that I found relates to temperature rather than as a synonym for 'super', 'awesome', 'great', etc. Other uses of 'guys' are only internal (not player-visible from within the game itself), eg team: 'bad guys'.

@nemaara or anyone else, if this looks okay I'll submit a PR shortly. Or let me know of any suggestions of your own, for either the proposed changes or for Camerin, so they can be merged together.

[Asheviere]

I don't quite like "you guys" even in a modern setting for writing, and I think your changes are just an improvement overall. Idk how much my opinion matters though.

[nemaara]

NR is a tricky case because it's not really a serious campaign like the others. Although you raise a good point here, I think right now it would be better to keep the informal tone for most of the lines, even if they're anachronisms. The ones that would be easy to change right now are for Ro'Arthian (or Ro'Sothian), and Elyssa, who wouldn't feel as out of place speaking more formally.

Other campaigns shouldn't use anachronisms yea.

[CelticMinstrel]

Or since en_US is default, I suppose it's fine to leave it as 'let's go loot'.

I don't think "let's go loot" sounds good. Maybe something more like "let's get to looting" or similar? Though "let's loot some booty" doesn't sound too bad either, I suppose. Another possibility would be to completely rewrite it, maybe something like "let's clear it out" or similar.

Also, I have a feeling that "great" still has the same problem as "cool"… how about using "excellent" instead? Or does that seem too formal?

The rest of your proposals seem fine.

[Wedge009]

I did recognise that NR appears to take a less formal tone in places for comic effect, but the 'cool' and 'guys' just stood out too much for me (and not in a good way). And of the four proposed changes for NR, two of them are not tied to specific characters so I'm still inclined to make those changes. I'm okay to leave the 'guys' for Camerin's lines, though (like Asheviere, I didn't really like it but can accept it's justifiable).

Regarding 'go', it might not specifically be American but in my personal experience I find it's often in casual American English where a superfluous 'go' is added before verbs. Celmin makes some good suggestions, I'll settle on one when submitting the PR.

'Excellent' can also qualify as informal to my mind - I have a manager who likes to say 'excellent' in the same vein as The Simpsons' Mr Burns, and I also think of Beast Wars Transformers' Megatron whose trademark vocal tic was 'excellent... yessss'.

[Wedge009]

I forgot to mention that I also left alone Thera's use of 'good guys' as it feels like a fourth-wall breaking moment relating to her and Morvin's immortality game-play mechanic:

wesnoth/data/campaigns/Northern_Rebirth/utils/herodeaths.cfg

Lines 486 to 487 in 4c9e016

	speaker=Sister Thera
	message= _ "Hey, that’s not right. The good guys aren’t supposed to die. Oh well, I’ll fix that."

(It's about time some player characters have the same respawn magic that many opponents in the campaigns also have.)

[CelticMinstrel]

Regarding 'go', it might not specifically be American but in my personal experience I find it's often in casual American English where a superfluous 'go' is added before verbs. Celmin makes some good suggestions, I'll settle on one when submitting the PR.

I think my objection isn't so much from the "go" but rather the fact that it feels like "loot" needs an object. Wiktionary does define it as a transitive word, so there's probably merit to my feeling. (Technically it does say there's an intransitive sense, but the example for that sense still has an object, so I'm not sure how to intepret that.)

[Wedge009]

No worries, I liked your rephrasing anyway. (Edit: but it's apparently too formal. Oh well.)