How Bizarre!

I am a firm believer that names should be spelled correctly. Some quick research can save you from a lot of embarassment later on.

How unfortunate, then, that the name of Bizarre Creations should be misspelled not once, but twice in a recent Joystiq article. It's even more frustrating that the article begins with a screenshot including the correct spelling, as though author Jessica Conditt wasn't even aware of what she was posting.

The Internet is reporting that the lead designer on Bizzare Creations' Blur has created an independent game studio called Totem Games, but this is a lie.
and

Matt Cavanagh, a former Bizzare Creations employee, has created Totem Games Ltd., an independent game studio with a mission to help "make the world a happier place."

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/09/matt-cavanagh-forms-a-new-studio-didnt-have-anything-to-do-wit/

I'm guessing it's Paul and Ringo

This one's just a simple matter of laziness on the part of the writer.

A recent Joystiq post boasts the headline "Full Driver: San Francisco car list has two Spiders, two Beatles and a Hornet."

Did you see it? Here it is again, with my usual markings on the errors:
Full Driver: San Francisco car list has two Spiders, two Beatles and a Hornet

It seems Mr. Schramm was trying to be clever and list the cars named for insects in his headline, but instead named the influential British band. It would have been a simple matter to look at the full list, posted in the article itself, to see the correct spelling.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/08/full-driver-san-francisco-car-list-has-two-spiders-two-beatles/

Dueling banjos - I mean Analogs

Some quick points about this posting at Steve Napierski's "Dueling Analogs":

Honestly not sure that a downloadable content (DLC) model would even work for webcomics. Maybe if Alan Moore had released The Watchmen as a webcomic and the first eleven issues were free and the twelve you had to pay for…Maybe that would have worked.

Ignoring the fact that Steve omits the subject and verb in the first clause ("I'm honestly not sure..."), he goes on to use the cardinal form of the number twelve, rather than the ordinal version 'twelfth,' unintentionally implying that there are twelve more issues after the eleven free ones, instead of a single twelfth issue.

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That of course means that people even knows that your webcomic exists in the first place, but that’s a completely different story.

The word 'people' is, of course, the plural form of 'person,' which requires the plural verb 'know.'

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Some of it I’m not so sure about or just think are flat out a scam.

Another case of subject-verb mismatch. In this case, the subject is the pronoun 'some,' which oddly enough, indicates a plurality of objects, but is nonetheless singular. The correct verb here is 'is.'

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I’m a huge fan of the Katamari Damacy fan, but they DLC of Beautiful Katamari wasn’t really DLC, but already existing content that the developer had created, was actually on the physical disc you purchased andt that you had to pay for to unlock.

Welcome to the Department of Redundancy Department. He should omit the second 'fan' unless he actually means that he is a fan of people who are fans of Katamari Damacy. Oh, and we can't forget the typo!

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Pretty much when the content you download in needed to make the game complete, or good even, and just should have been originally part of the game initially that’s when I have a problem with it.

Ignoring for a moment the horrible punctuation in the second clause, there is a simple misuse of words here. He mistakenly uses the preposition 'in' instead fo the verb 'is.' Spellcheck won't catch that!

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One day we’ll be explaining to our grand kids that when we were their age we actually had to touch the physical media the game came on and they’ll response, “OMGSTFUIDBULOL”. Because by then everything will be digital and the spoken language will have degraded into a string of textese.

And, last but not least, we have the use of the noun 'response' instead of the related verb 'respond.'

Source: http://www.duelinganalogs.com/comic/2011/06/30/if-webcomics-had-dlc/

The E3 Edition, part 1

During E3, there are loads of announcements coming from all parts of the industry. This can be a lot to keep up with for any news outlet, and mistakes will happen. Case in point: the following was found in a follow-up article on the newly-announced title Fable: The Journey.

What about the Fable series' two other offensize components, shooting and melee?

Source:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/08/fable-the-journey-preview-speak-and-spell/

Location, location, location!!

From today's Rooster Teeth comic:

We got so many wonderful gifts to the office this holiday, that we where overwhelmed.

Source: http://roosterteeth.com/home.php
http://roosterteeth.com/comics/strip.php?id=1519

Note: The description doesn't show up on the actual comic post, so this is probably only available on the homepage for a limited time.

Again with the homophones!

In an article in my local campus paper, the writer makes the fairly common mistake of using one homophone when the correct choice would be another. This is the root of the common "your/you're" and "its/it's" errors. In this case, the campus writer used a much more uncommon pair:

Deciding that my answer to the question is yes is a hurtle I have already jumped.

In this case, he mistook the verb form "hurtle" for the noun "hurdle," which in addition to being a different part of speech, also has a different meaning. (Though dictionary.com gives a noun usage for "hurtle," it also lists this as being archaic and referring to collisions.)

From dictionary.com, here are the most common meanings of the words:

hur⋅tle
 –verb (used without object)
1. to rush violently; move with great speed: The car hurtled down the highway.
2. to move or go noisily or resoundingly, as with violent or rapid motion: The sound was deafening, as tons of snow hurtled down the mountain.
3. Archaic. to strike together or against something; collide.


hur⋅dle
–noun
1. a portable barrier over which contestants must leap in certain running races, usually a wooden frame with a hinged inner frame that swings down under impact to prevent injury to a runner who does not clear it.
2. hurdles, (used with a singular verb) a race in which contestants must leap over a number of such barriers placed at specific intervals around the track. Compare high hurdles, low hurdles.
3. any of various vertical barriers, as a hedge, low wall, or section of fence, over which horses must jump in certain types of turf races, as a steeplechase, but esp. an artificial barrier.
4. a difficult problem to be overcome; obstacle.
5. Chiefly British. a movable rectangular frame of interlaced twigs, crossed bars, or the like, as for a temporary fence.
6. a frame or sled on which criminals, esp. traitors, were formerly drawn to the place of execution.
–verb (used with object)
7. to leap over (a hurdle, barrier, fence, etc.), as in a race.
8. to master (a difficulty, problem, etc.); overcome.
9. to construct with hurdles; enclose with hurdles.
–verb (used without object)
10. to leap over a hurdle or other barrier.

Source: http://oudaily.com/news/2009/sep/09/column-can-someone-be-religious-and-still-practice/

Dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hurtle
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hurdle

They're really just making excuses, and bad ones, at that!

In a follow-up to a post I wrote a while back, D3 Publisher has "explained" the typo in their name. Apparently it was supposed to be some kind of play on words, but even that explanation doesn't make sense.

The Kotaku response to this statement pretty much sums it up:
"Purlisher" is a pun on "Publisher" — not a very good one, and one that would have also been viewed as a misspelling. It has nothing to do with puppy dogs.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5440276/d3-publisher-spelling-mistake-explained

Way to represent!!!

While browsing job listings on Monster.com, I came across this description of a company:

TWO Group, is a German-owned company with it's headquarters in Stuttgart German and Guangzhou China, and offices in UK, USA, Czech and Hong Kong.​

This short statement probably has the highest error-to-word count I've seen in quite a while. Beginning with an errant comma between the subject and verb, it quickly moves into an it's/its error. Pausing the error-train only briefly, the listing misnames the country of origin (Germany), while at the same time omitting the comma between city and country, and finally naming a language (Czech) instead of a country (the Czech Republic)!

If this is how the company chooses to represent itself, I don't think I'd want to work there.

Source: http://jobview.monster.com/IT-Consultant-Job-Chicago-IL-US-85251165.aspx

Now, some of you might wonder what brought me to this listing in the first place. Well, wonder no more! It is simply this: Having just completed my M.A. in German Literature to go along with my B.A. in German and my B.S. in Computer Science, I now need to find gainful employment. I'd like to go into translating or IT work, or perhaps do paid proofreading/editing for some of you big blogs out there. If anyone knows of a position that could use my skills, please let me know!

Twitter

Twitter is an interesting creature. By its micro-blogging and easy following nature, it gets used a lot for things like liveblogs, reporting on news the moment it happens. As such it is easy to make typos and other small mistakes in an effort to get the ideas across quickly.

This particular post from Extra Life was actually pretty funny in its errors:
The World of Warcraft Programming guild vol 2 is up! My art on the cover. http://tinyurl.com/yhxkbgr

Specifically, I like how he mis-typed the word "guide" and it became a term used in the game itself.

Source: http://twitter.com/extralife/status/6308567342

Ah, the holidays!

Thanksgiving is soon upon us, and with it, the most beautiful day of the (shopping) year: Black Friday. Over the last few weeks, information has trickled out about retailers' various offerings. This comes from the listing of Best Buy's ad, just released on Black-Friday.net:

	Left 4 Dead 2 (PS3)	$34.99 *
	Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)	$34.99 *

This caught my eye, as I was unaware there was a PS3 version of Left 4 Dead 2. The original released only on Xbox 360 and PC. Developer Valve has a history of not making games for PS3. So color me curious about this listing.

Going to the official website confirmed my suspicion: L4D2 is not releasing on PS3. Additionally, looking at the actual ad scan shows this:


While the image is low quality due to the original scan, it clearly says, "Only available on XBOX 360." Somebody just forgot to do their homework.

Also of note in the listing:

	Call of Juarex (PS3)	$19.99
	Call of Juarez (Xbox 360)	$19.99

and

I Know Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (DVD)

$3.99

D'OH!

Source: http://www.black-friday.net/bf/bestbuy-black-friday.html

Here's one from the guys at Rooster Teeth. Just goes to show, typos can happen anywhere, even in cartoons.



"You mean, business tems."


Source: http://roosterteeth.com/comics/strip.php?id=852

This piece from Back of the Cereal Box, while comical, does bring home the concept of how profound a change simple punctuation can make. From the post:

My question was quickly answered by her response, “Who you are? Why you come here?”

Interestingly, the article itself contains punctuation errors:
Upon speaking with various members of the proofing department at length about the question mark erroneously affixed to the end of the film’s title on various posters, press packets, TV commercials, certain versions of the trailer, and all incarnations of the various Where the Wild Things Are video games. I eventually arrived at Ms. Anoldi’s office — which exists in a room that I previously thought was only used to store old furniture — and asked her if she was, in fact, the person who inserted this punctuation mark.

Did you see it? That fragment right there? Instead of a period, Drew obviously intended to continue the thought of the sentence, necessitating a comma.

Also of note, a spelling error:
She eventually chased me away by repeatedly rapping me on the head with a wooden spoon that she had been using to stir a pot of what appeared to be marina sauce.

Has anyone out there ever heard of this alleged "marina" sauce?

Source: http://kidicarus222.blogspot.com/2009/09/but-truly-where-are-these-wild-things.html

How many mistakes can you make in one article?

Going back in the grab bag, this one comes from CAD (Ctrl+Alt+Del), from about 2 months ago. Reading back through the article (a discussion of rumors about the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion), there are quite a few things to mention.

First, the serial comma. There are a couple of times when Tim makes lists that aren't completely comma-separated. Example: Zones, quests and instances revamped. Standard grammar rules would require a comma before the 'and.' Additionally, Tim has the following list-within-a-list, also not fully comma-separated:

Orgrimmar split in half, Thousand Needles flooded, death damage and destruction everywhere you turn.

I may be wrong here, but I think semicolons are needed here in addition to commas. That is, the list-within-a-list would be comma-separated, while the outer list would be separated by semicolons ("Orgrimmar split in half; Thousand Needles flooded; death, damage, and destruction everywhere you turn.")

This assumes, though that death and damage are actually 2 separate list items and not an adjective describing the kind of damage (in which case, only a terminal comma would be needed, not the semicolons). Given the different kinds of damage in fantasy/role-playing games, this may actually be the case, though I don't believe so.

Further reading shows more errors. Here's an unpaired/unclosed quotation mark:
(not some "alternate reality zone, caverns of time horseshit)

Finally, what grammar gripe would be complete without the old standby of its/it's confusion:
Especially if it wants to stand it's ground against The Old Republic and all the hawtness that game is offering.

One might ask about the numerous sentence fragments, of which the examples above are but a few. However, Tim takes a conversational tone in his posting, not intending to be formal, so I'll leave them be.

Source: http://cad-comic.com/news.php?i=1918#1918

Not one of the more exciting features, sure, but if you're the type of gamer who enjoys seeing their games boot up a few second fast than usual it's gravy.

Wanted for multiple offenses, this sentence from Gizmodo omits the plural 's' as well as the comparative on 'faster.'

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5328336/xbox-live-nxe-beta-reveals-smaller-game-install-sizes

I'm a fan of Penny-Arcade. I've had a secret desire to attend PAX for a while, though I'm kind of glad I didn't this year, due to the H1N1 outbreak there. Regardless, here's one of their errors:

Having my letters almost completely taken up with some slowly emerging word and having to make due with the resultant famine is incredibly exciting to me.

It's kind of ironic that a mistake like this would come up on a post discussing words and word games. While the usage is correct, the actual phrase should be "make do" with something, as evidenced here.

Source: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/07/31/automata-page-two/

This article from Gizmodo serves to simultaneously illustrate the hazards of bad spelling and also contains some mistakes itself.

First the warning:
I do love the Swedes. Most of them. Maybe not the couple who drove 400 miles away from their destination because they misspelt its name—typing the industrial city of Carpi instead of the island of Capri—into their GPS. (emphasis mine)

Then the error:
Remember, swedes and everyone else: Do not follow technology blindingly, especially when technology could always fail because of our own human failures.

In English, unlike some other languages, nationalities are proper nouns and should always be capitalized. Writer Jesus Diaz already illustrated his knowledge of this in the first excerpt, but did not follow through here on the second.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5326310/swedes-drive-400-miles-in-the-opposite-direction-thanks-to-gps-mistake

Somewhat more mysterious is a piece of content labeled only as "Something Special.." which as the description "..wait for it!"

Source: http://xbox.joystiq.com/2009/07/23/halo-odst-dlc-shows-up-on-marketplace/

A New York state Chuck E. Cheese's is on the verge of losing it's game room license because town officials think the video games at the location are too violent.

This one comes in on the other end of the its/it's spectrum from the article I posted earlier today.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5321208/violent-video-games-threaten-ny-chuck-e-cheeses

From mental_floss

A highly entertaining article on its own merit, this "Weird Week in Review" from mental_floss is not without errors:

The blob was first observed neat Wainwright and moved toward Barrow, where samples were collected for testing.

Surfers at Gilgo Beach on Long Island found 20-foot shark lying on the beach Tuesday.

Looks like someone forgot how to use articles!

Source: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/29171

Oh, Kotaku...

Are there more villains lurking within the walls of Arkham Asylum that we've been told about?

This of course tells up absolutely nothing[.]

Source: http://kotaku.com/5315412/imdb-lists-more-characters-for-arkham-asylum