The Battle for Brevity: "ur"

As indicated by the word “brevity” in the title, I am referring to “ur” as the symbol, not the prefix. I don’t mean “ur” as it is meant in “ur-text,” where it denotes origin; rather, “ur” as the acronym/abbreviation. Playing WoW tonight got me thinking about language, and given the chapter by Selfe we just read for class, I raised some points about digital literacy and its value in-game.

In the general chat channel two people were arguing. Let me preface by saying that arguments in most video games are by no means logical, civil, or intelligent. Usually they devolve into flame wars, and tonight was no exception. Once “ur mom” was given as the retort by one party, the grammar Nazis surfaced from the u-boats. Godwin’s law knows no enforcer in video games, only on message boards.

He-whose-mother-had-been-insulted (for ease of reference, “ur-ee”) critiqued his attacker (“ur-er”) and was in turn critiqued by party number three (ur-ee didn’t use a period, after all; and how dare he flame ur-er for using net slang when ur-ee can’t bother to use punctuation!). I donned my fire-resistant breast plate (figuratively; I don’t own any fire resist gear in game), and joined the conversation.

I raised a point about digital literacy having greater value in WoW, and indeed most similar games, than traditional literacy. In fact, the measure of somebody’s intelligence in the game is in no way calculable based upon their control of grammar. The comment prompted some rather intriguing discussion, and I lament not screen-capturing some of it. However, one player replied something to this effect (and I paraphrase): not all smart people have good grammar, and not all stupid people have poor grammar, but those with poor grammar are typically lazy, and lazy people are typically stupid.

Intriguing. In WoW, grammar is by no means significant. In fact, I would go so far as to say that its importance in in-game communication is near the bottom of the list. Before it come brevity, conciseness, alacrity, and all the other traits that piggyback on a medium non-conducive to the technology of writing. In-game, communication needs to be fast and effective—that’s why most players use VOIP. A fine attention to grammar does not bode well for textual chat here.

Punctuation is replaced with a shotgun comma approach, or, more often, the use of “Enter” as spacing for thoughts, ideas, and clauses. Hitting the Enter key puts each typed comment on a separate line, dividing them into individual messages. Capitalization is eliminated as well: complete sentences are unnecessary; fragments rule; and proper nouns are easily distinguishable enough without it in most cases. Apostrophes? Again, not necessary. Everything is abbreviated or converted into an acronym; if each shortcut were catalogued, the list would be immense.

Which brings me back to “ur”: it isn’t so much that the acronym/abbreviation stands for “you are” or its conjunction equivalent and, when used in a situation that calls for the possessive version, is grammatically incorrect, though that is the most common flame in WoW arguments when the symbol is used; instead, I like to think of “ur” and its kin as symbols to be interpreted in context. It is a doppelganger that shifts to meet the demands of the sentence (or fragment, whatever the case may be) it is found in—its meaning easily identifiable by the context. “ur” doesn’t equate to one usage: it is always already both “you’re” and “your.”

Composition values in WoW are being mirrored in real life (or perhaps vice versa); and in the battle for brevity, teachers of composition and linguistics need to recognize that the symbols are changing. A study in semiotics may help direct research with the task of understanding how these changes are complicating our usage, our language, and our communication.