This is something I have been wondering for a while. I have seen the name our favorite hobby written three different ways: Role Playing, Role-Playing and Roleplaying. Personally, I have always used the single word "roleplaying". What is your preference?
17 comments:
I had to pick one, so I went with roleplaying...
R'lyeh-playing!
Standard usage (and what I use) seems to be "roleplaying games" but abbreviated as "RPGs."
Looking at a few of the TSR products it looks like they used "Role Playing", but Chaosium has used "Role-Playing" and "RolePlaying" on various editions of BRP. Also, Word doesn't recognize "Roleplaying" as a proper spelling. So, it begged the question and hence the poll.
In all my dictionaries, I found "role-playing"
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/role-playing
@Andrea - yea that is what I found in the dictionary as well, but in all the thirty years I have been active in this hobby I have always used the one single word. I am not sure why or where I read it spelled that way in the first place. As I said above, TSR used "Role Playing" and these are the guys that started the whole thing. Chaosium on the other hand used the dictionary proper "Role-Playing" and later changed to "Roleplaying" when publishing BRP. I find the whole thing interesting for some reason...
Role-Playing.
Language is mutable. If the bulk of our hobby likes roleplaying, then roleplaying is perfectly acceptable. And dang it, it's just plain easier to type when blogging!
I like roleplaying, but my spell checker likes role playing, so I always end up second-guessing myself.
I can remember an ad in Dragon magazine for some RPG company, trying to make a big deal out of the fact that their upcoming game was not a Role-Playing game, but was redefining the hobby as the world's first Roleplaying game. Or something like that. Wish I could remember the name of the game...
Anyhow, it was silly, but kind of interesting to see a company attach such importance to it, as if their new product was going to really be something because of the way it was spelled. "Woah, this RPG is a real game-changer! I better buy it!"
I think that "Role-playing" as seen in dictionaries refers to the more pedestrian version of the term, but hobby gamers should claim "Roleplaying" as shorthand for "Role-Playing Game". Just don't expect widespread agreement on the distinction.
Role and playing are two words with distinct specific meanings that take on a new and unrelated when you put them together. The way you combine distinct words is through the use of the hyphen. So role-playing gets my vote.
Without the hyphen, the meaning is only implied - which is of course enough when you are writing for those 'in-the-know'.
I would say that 'roleplaying' is a sub-culture creation, in much the same way that 'weaponize' wasn't a real world until so-called civilian 'military experts' forced it on an unsuspecting world during Desert Storm.
In the good old days you would arm a missile. Now you weaponize your delivery system.
Grrrr.
I like the word "roleplaying", but it strikes me as incorrect, so I voted for "role-playing". I went with my head over my heart. ;)
@Hogscape: I seem to recall that 'weaponize' was being applied to space technology well before Desert Storm. Of course proving that is another matter.
Some grammar references talk about the tendency of hyphenated words to drop the hyphen after frequent usage. What's the term for it? Dehyphenestration?
I like role-playing, but also role playing. Roleplaying is ok, but it's only marginally better than RPG, which is a god-awful abbreviation.
@Hogscape: I think the tendency to 'verb' nouns like 'weaponize' is a consequence of an increase in meaningless jargon in our society. This is one of my pet peeves and I cringe every time I hear a director talk about 'conforming to institutional alignment,' 'self-actualization,' or refer to museum visitors as 'institutional stakeholders.' I've often said that buzzwords are what stupid people use to sound like smart people. I'm with you, what's wrong with arming the missile? At least everyone knows what you're talking about.
@N. Wright: when I hear someone talking about rpgs, I'm never sure if they are referring to roleplaying games or rocket propelled grenades :).
Can I make the case for "cooperative refereed adventure game"?
verification word - "fingund" - you know, that guy from p. 293 of the Silmarillion ...
I usually spell it Role Playing, mainly because my spell check doesn't like it when I make it one word. Who am I to argue with a computer.
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