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/

Again with the verbs!

From a Kotaku article about the possibility of Infinity Ward bailing out on Modern Warfare 3:

This might because, if true, the future of the series has not yet been ironed out.

It seems someone forgot the verb again! Or it could be a failed attempt to write in slang, using "because" for the verb "be" with a common spoken contraction of "because." ("This might be, 'cause, if true...")

Source: http://kotaku.com/5443502/but-is-infinity-ward-doing-modern-warfare-3

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.

All in a "Daisies" work

Drew from Back of the Cereal Box wrote a great article about names in the TV show "Pushing Daisies." As with any writing of this length, Drew's article does contain a few mistakes.

After discussing the doubling in names of characters, Drew goes on to say:
The episode “Pigeon” features a different sort of doubling Elsa and her daughter Elsita, both of whom are played by the same actress, the very appealing Jayma Mays, who’s now on Glee and whose own name features an internal duplication of vowel sounds.
A colon would be required here, between stating the fact that doubling occurs and naming the specific instance.

He goes on to discuss a commanding character named Simone:
In that sense, I’m betting that that her creators has titular dictator of the game Simon Says in mind when they dreamed her up.
This is a case of simple subject-verb agreement, as the plural subject "creators" demands a plural verb, in this case "have." More specifically, the tense of the verb also comes into question. This is a past event, so we would need a past tense "had."

Source: http://kidicarus222.blogspot.com/2009/09/naming-conventions-in-pushing-daisies.html

Originally, I thought this was an error:

I was wearing the new Nike+ Sportband, which has proved itself to be a great tool when running with friends because I can track my mileage without lugging my Nano around.

I have always learned the principal parts of 'prove' to be: prove, proved, proven. This would mean that the above sentence would need to say 'has proven.' However, a quick search on dictionary.com shows both forms as correct.

Life is all about learning.

Source: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/08/26/my-nike-sportband-fe.html

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prove

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

From Gizmodo, posting about a recent development showing possible healing properties of a blue dye:

This rat's skin is blue and its color may be the secret to avoid spinal cord injuries and paralysis.

Here, the verb needs to be in the present progressive form: avoiding.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5324102/this-blue-rat-may-have-the-secret-to-avoid-spinal-cord-injuries

It's supposed to be for smart people!

This one's from mental_floss Blog:

In practice, this means that computers gets faster, cheaper, fast…and this doubling gets out of control very quickly.

I'm sure everyone who went to 5th-grade English class learned enough to make sure subject and verb agree in form.

Source: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/29810

How cliche can you get?

Here's another its/it's debacle:

While the source material and it's use in a game still doesn't sit well with me, the setting is rich, deep and, if you trust this video, being fully explored.

Also, the compound subject here is plural (source material and its use), requiring a plural verb.

Later, the article finishes with this sentence;

Now about those Doggy-Style enemy creatures.

While it is apparent that the author is trying to mimic speech patterns, this is not punctuated correctly. The correct punctuation for such a thought trailing off is the ellipsis.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5311428/dantes-inferno-lust-level-could-have-been-packed-with-sex

Who's giving orders around here?

Kotaku's Mike Fahey wrote an article about the upcoming NERF sequel for Wii. His article finishes with the following quote:

Looks for NERF 2 to hit store shelves this fall.

As a language teacher, I understand some of the difficulties students have with using command forms. In English, it's relatively simple. Omit the subject, but the verb still has to match the omitted subject. The only subject to take an -s ending in English is the 3rd person singular (he/she), which also is one of the only subjects that cannot be used with command forms!

Source: http://kotaku.com/5310004/ea-re+nerfs-the-wii

What time is it? Time to check your tenses!

This story got reported on a few websites. Apparently a college professor researched online communities by playing an aggressive character in City of Heroes. Kotaku reported it thusly:

Sticking strictly within the game's rules, Myers nevertheless quickly set about making himself unpopular by...doing what the game advertising itself as allowing people to do: create a superhero and battle other superheroes.

I don't think the game ever "advertising" itself, but "advertised."

Source: http://kotaku.com/5308780/college-professor-trolls-for-science-finds-people-hate-him

Insane in the membrane!

I hope you don't think I'm picking on Kotaku today. These are all older articles that I have, until now, been unable to write about. I'm just trying to catch up, honest!

In this article, Brian Crecente wrote about the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum game. A rather lengthy article, it contained quite a few errors. First, a simple typo:

Due out in August, the build I played was set to me in May to help me judge the game for an E3 Game Critics award.

Then, the dreaded run-on sentence, though in this case, only the period was omitted.

Every time you take out a bad guy a camp of bats appear and swirl around him for a second Initially it looks kind of neat, but the effect quickly loses its charm.

The English language is quite complex. Verb tenses tend to be among the most difficult part. Here, Crecente uses the simple past tense where a past participle is required:

These simple single-button attacks are all weaved together with a heavy reliance on timing and the ability to shift between targets by moving the thumbstick in different directions.

Again, dealing with verbs. In English, the use of the infinitive and the heper/modal verb 'like' requires the particle 'to.'

I'm not a huge fan of stealth, it's not my style and I don't like have it forced upon me.

And finally, we have one final small typo:

The game features voice work by Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, Tom Kane, and even Mark Hamil;l as The Joker.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5302101/batman-arkham-asylum-preview-a-thinkers-brawling-game

Working on some old stuff today....

In a Kotaku hands-on with God of War III, Michael McWhertor had this to say:

More satisfying it the battering ram attacks one can pull off, picking up an enemy and barreling through a crowd of rotting Centurions.

I can possibly forgive the 'it/is' confusion here, it happens to the best of us. What strikes me, though, is the fact that this is further complicated as an 'is/are' problem. The subject of the sentence is clearly the plural 'battering ram attacks,' which would require the plural verb.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5280444/god-of-war-iii-hands+on-half+goat-half+lion-half+snake

Prototype

From a Joystiq early hands-on of Prototype, a great game that I'm playing through right now, comes this post:

The meter yellow when everything's normal, but it will fill up and turn red if you do anything suspicious, like running up the side of a building or consuming someone entirely.

Looks like they forgot a verb again, eh?

Also, a slight factual error:

In Prototype, you're the extremely powerful (and scary) Alex Mercer who can take out tanks and helicopters with a couple of punches before you flash back to the start of the game where you wake up with minimal powers, 18 hours earlier.

In fact, the flashback portion is 18 days earlier, though this could have changed since the review was done.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/22/joystiq-hands-on-two-hours-with-prototype/

I'm going to be catching up on some old posts I've been meaning to write, and hopefully that will help me get back into a regular schedule. So here goes...

Dipping back a full month to the E3 press conferences, Joystiq wrote the following about Tony Hawk and the introduction of Natal:

But Microsoft's John Schappert he likely wasn't caught by surprise.

There is definitely something missing here. At a minimum a verb - "John Schappert says/claims/announces/etc." Perhaps a more formal "according to John Schappert..." Either way, something is wrong with this sentence.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/03/activision-got-the-heads-up-about-project-natal/

Solving this problem - no, challenge, there are no problems - was the refugee camps.

This seems to be a bit of confusion with subject-verb agreement. The subject here is actually 'refugee camps,' so we need a plural verb - 'were' instead of 'was.'

Source: World War Z, p. 139

Edit: This, and many other errors in the book, may be attributed to the oral nature of the text, that is, it purports to merely record the words spoken by the individuals interviewed. However, I believe this is not the case in this instance, as the individual in question was a (presumably) highly educated, high-ranking government officer.

That depends on what the definition of 'is' is...

This article from Kotaku is the first I've read about the game Fairytale Fights. It looks interesting. Too bad they left out their verbs from this sentence:

Fairytale Fights a hack and slash platformer due out this coming holiday season on the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3.

Of course, the missing verb here is "is." I am, however impressed with Kotaku's coinage of the term "co-opportunties" (for "cooperative opportunities") in this article. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen it used anywhere else. Very creative.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5230809/everybody-was-fairytale-fighting

When good sentences go bad...

As I have mentioned previously, errors in grammar can unintentionally change the meaning of a word or sentence. Here's an example from Joystiq's preview of Bioshock 2:

As we were taking down a series of hallways, we'd catch a glimpse of her zipping around a corner, or maybe just her shadow.

From the context of the article, it is evident that the reviewer was led, or taken, down a series of hallways, though from the sentence, one could conclude that he was doing some kind of demolition work!

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/23/joystiq-impressions-bioshock-2/

Again with the verbs!

From Kotaku:

Using a 14-year-old volunteer, it was able to expose 12 shops who selling mature titles.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5219258/uk-undercover-operation-reveals-illegal-game-selling

Again with the verbs?

As I stated in a previous post, verbs should not be difficult to use in English (unlike some other languages). Nonetheless, Kotaku printed the following:

Exasperated, Fallon flail his way through the game, saying,"What happened? What do I do? How do I get out? I'm getting exhausted."

Simply put, describing action that happened in the past should be done in the past tense. Even assuming it is supposed to be present tense, there is no subject-verb agreement there.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5214233/late-night-host-waggles-through-wii-punch+out