Child Speak and Customer Service

Out of respect for those who are roleplaying as children....

When you contact a store owner about a request or service or issue.....

Do you talk in child talk?

Are we supposed to roleplay with you?

Or do you talk in a normal talk like you would as an adult?

What is the normal procedure?

This has happened several times this week. I'm two hours into this issue today, and I can't understand her "child speak"....so then there was the temper tantrum, and she said she was telling her Mommy. I asked to speak to her Mommy.

/me is not a kid in SL so maybe I just don't get it - if I need to talk actual business with somebody, the RP stops.

I talk in "normal talk," and when I have customers who speak in "ikklespeak" (and you can guess I get a few), if I cannot make sense out of it, I will ask for them to clarify.

I don't know what you said or anything, but I would have simply said "I can't understand." Maybe I would put it in parenthesis (to denote OOC speech), or not.

While, I do use a "softening" of my own speech pattern, but will clarify if I need to (particularly if I am speaking with someone who is not a native English speaker). In business situations I try to keep everything clear, and could certainly never expect someone to "speak to my mommy" or throw a tantrum in a non-RP setting.

This post made me smile. I HATE childspeak. Probably because as a child I was corrected if I even attempted to be lady with my speech. Obviously, while I was very young and learning new words, some would be difficult to pronounce, but that soon passed.

In Second Life, I've had conversations with many kid avatars, and I respect their right to roleplay, but will not be dragged into goo goo ga ga language.

Presumably, if they are making a purchase in a shop in SL for goods or services, it is not being "kid-avatar-ist" to expect them to roleplay being a kid realistic enough to actually be accompanied by a responsible adult (like they would be in real life).

Actually, I don't even RP a kid, but I do those things sometimes ...

Giggles !

Maxi xxx

Thanks for the input....I played it out as long as patience would allow, but had to ask to please switch over to adult speak. Realized that she really did understand all along - but used me for two hours as part of her game. I'm not really cool with that.

Marianne - I'm not roleplaying, so it seems odd to use OOC - I'm not out of character.



This is a good point. But if they insist on staying in character, and want to play it to the max......I'll have to insist on talking to Mommy.

You should put a stop to it right away. Tell them to talk grown up as you don't have time to RP games...

Also my daughter turns 13 soon and in no point in her life has she ever talked like these "kids" in SL. It is annoying at best but whatever works for them.

Ain't ain't a word and I ain't gonna say it. (^_^)y

Well, these are the conventions of this kind of RP, rather than exact imitations of kidspeak, right?

Behaving as a kid does in RL would be enormously dreary (you'd spend your time playing XBox or whatever), and speaking as kids ACTUALLY speak would probably not make it very clear that this was RP, because it's the aural intonations as much as the language that mark children's speech.

None of this is very surprising. The dragons I've known don't REALLY behave the way they do in SL, and I have it on very good authority that REAL elves speak quite differently from the virtual ones I've met ...

It is not just child speak. If I am trying to help someone, and their RP speak becomes a problem, I let them know they have to either speak properly, and continue on. The Gor Speak, the sub speak, the olde english. It is all RP speak. When you are looking for help, then it is time to drop the RP and communicate to the best of your ability.

Wow.. Harsh..

I have to say that if it is something that requires customer service, the "typist" owes it to you to act like an adult. That is not something that should be subject to the person's rp. If it was someone browsing about then just what ever you want to put up with.

Two hours? Yikes. That's just disrepectful.

If I have to contact a store owner, I'll assume they are interested in getting the issue resolved as soon as possible, just like me. It kinda pays off to be clear and concise then.

sorry, you'r a customer, and you can't speak to me normally when you have the ability, then I haven't the time... as a merchant i'm not there to RP with you, I'm there to run a business... if you've a business problem, state it in business terms or stop wasting everyones time. I will NOT engage in forced RP.

wow sounds like that customer is self deluded.

After the initial attempt to understand fails just tell them they will have to speak in a manner you can understand or you wont be able to help them.

5 minutes tops.

---------------------

Unless you are in the kids clothes/toys/etc business

Then you are on you own ..

Many of the excuses I heard over the years for Adults playing children on an Adult grid have been based on some kind of theory it is "therapy" for some kind of childhood experience they had in the past. If that is the case then therapy based on a make believe childhood existence that in no way resembles RL (and as a parent I can say there is no similarity) in SL is failed from the start.

However that is a topic for another thread.

Okay, now THAT has really made me smile. I can't believe that. Wicked! I wish I could walk in a real shop and do that. At Harrods Food Court:
Management: (patiently) The bill comes to 278 euros Miss Chippewa.
Me: (agog and theatrically horror-struck: Wha??? Wha? What are you telling me????
Managment: Miss Chippewa, we had a similar incident with you last week.
Me: (lying on floor and kicking and screaming) Waaaaa!!! YOU bad man!!! waaaah!
Management: Miss Chippewa, please try and control yourself and take that bow out of your hair and stop sucking that lollipop; you look juvenile.
Me: (Viciously pouting) (in chilidish voice) I'm gonna tell my Mummy on you, you horrible man, and then you will lose your job. (then in adult voice) You effing bastard.
Management: Security please show Miss Chippewa to the door.
Security: (in bored voice) Oh not again ...

Talk the talk adults talk.

I wont talk to anyone who chooses to speak in a childs voice or who likes to use the 3rd person talk. They may choose to talk like that but I can choose not to respond. This is an adult program so to me act like one and if i had a child speak like many do who play a kid Id get them speech therapy

I think some of them are psychologists and therapists working out their own angsts

To some extent, I'd take it as just another subculture slang, like so much l33t spe4k or other idioms
It grates a bit when people use such extensively in normal speak, but I get on, unless it becomes entirely incomprehensible. (Which I've actually had happen once with l33t).
I draw a sharp line at being drafted into some random roleplaying, though. If I want that, I'll seek it out myself and participate. Expecting somebody else to obey your roleplaying rules simply by pushing it on them is rather rude.

For some reason, pregnancy and childhood players are, in my experience, fairly bad at this, compared to other roleplaying groups. (Not counting Bloodlines as roleplaying).
I don't know if it is on the principle that since children are more realistic than werewolves and space warriors, people should react "realistically" to them?

I LOL'd.

Well, I had to stop and think about it. We basically roleplay at least a bit when someone comes into our stores. If someone just had a baby, I ask how the baby is doing. If someone just got married, we congratulate them and bless them on the wedding....don't we?

If they tell us they need some silver candle holders for the wedding.....we're roleplaying....aren't we? We can't say "would you please stop talking about the wedding....that's not real." So it's only fair to apply respect for their adventure across the board. We can't really make one type of roleplay acceptable, and the other not.

I had some extra time yesterday....but I won't be able to do that every time, and once I realized that there really was no problem....just a matter of someone not knowing how to perform a function, and me not understanding the lingo....was a wee bit irritated about the "I'm going to tell my mommy, and she's going to report you to linden labs."

And there was something on the notecard that came with the product, that she did not read correctly....so then I'm wondering if she is in character not being able to read. Or she could have been her adult self not being able to read. It's a bit confusing on how much roleplay is going on.

I think bottom line on this incident is that someone needed vast amounts of personal attention, and it had nothing to do with whatever they roleplay. But part of being a child is demanding that attention....so was that the child or the adult demanding the extra attention? I have a hunch it was the adult.

Thanks for the input.

You may or may not; it's up to you to choose to join in; that's the difference.
Much of SL is "neutral ground", where people from lots of different - sometime not compatible - roleplaying settings mingle. In my opinion, people are generally free to stay true to their own character, as long as that doesn't demand that others behave in certain ways to play along.
They *may* play along, at least to some extend, and indeed, a huge part of SL is sharing such fantasies, but you shouldn't *require* others to do so, unless they have deliberately joined a roleplaying sim or similar.

Yes! Someone had too much time on their hands and the adult behind the avatar was definitely seeking major attention. If it had been Real Life, I would have been looking around for Jeremy Beadle (English joke I guess - but think Candid Camera).

You were very good in my opinion to tolerate this for two whole hours.