What is the purpose of "....."?

[musical]

Back in the "Silent Era" of games, RPG characters were constantly saying "....." Besides wasting players' time watching
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slowly scroll across the screen, what was the purpose of these "....."?

[MarioAllStar2600]

Same as a movie.... Build up suspense.

...

[SoulBlazer]

I don't know where I read this at, but I read recently that in the Japanese language, if you use "...." in print it's susposed to have the same meaning as a Japanese word, meaning 'surprise' or 'shock'. Started with magna's in the 60's, and carried into the present. So it makes sence it would hop into video games as well. I don't recall where I saw this at so I don't know if it's gospel truth. :)

[FantasiaWHT]

Shock, sometimes confusion, sometimes not knowing how to respond to something that was just said.

Your sister, "Hey who cares about incest, let's do it"
You, "..."

[Griking]

I've always taken it to mean that the character was shocked as in temporarily speechless.

[digitalpress]

I've always taken it to mean that the character was shocked as in temporarily speechless.

I've definitely seen it used at times where the character is clearly "pondering", and not necessarily in shock. Another example:

Kunio Mizuno: "Now that you've killed every monster in town, who's going to clean up this mess?"

Hunter X: "..."

Kunio Mizuno: "What's the matter, cat-beast got your tongue?"

Hunter X: <enters attack command, target "Kunio Mizuno">

[kainemaxwell]

Or they just can't, or don't want to speak in the case of Crono from Crono Trigger.

[slip81]

I'm pretty sure "..." is called an elipsies (correct me if I spelled it wrong), anyway it has a varity of meanings, all of which depends on the context it is used in. It can mean shock, suspense, confusion, speechlessness, or any of the the other expressions that members have posted on this thread.

[Richter]

i always thought that developers stuck that in as a way for the player to respond to dialog.

[rbudrick]

I actually posted about this recently:

http://digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38174&start=25&sid=9b3739fbb51def4826f002674146f27b

There you go!

-Rob

[thehistorian]

The ellipsis (plural ellipses) is the mark that indicates the omission of quoted material, as in:

"Brevity is . . . wit." for "Brevity is the soul of wit."

Stolen shamelessly from an episode of "The Simpsons". There are two things to note:

First, most typing manuals prefer the periods to be spaced. In electronic communication it's sometimes necessary to run them together, since line-wrap is unpredictable.

Second, and more important, is the number of periods. The ellipsis itself is three periods (always); it can appear next to other punctuation, including an end-of-sentence period (resulting in four periods). Use four only when the words on either side of the ellipsis make full sentences. You should never use fewer than three or more than four periods, with only a single exception: when entire lines of poetry are omitted in a block quotation, it's a common practice to replace them with a full line of spaced periods.

[Mr. Smashy]

I've always taken it to mean that the character was shocked as in temporarily speechless.

I think the word is "nonplussed".

[FantasiaWHT]

The ellipsis (plural ellipses) is the mark that indicates the omission of quoted material, as in:

"Brevity is . . . wit." for "Brevity is the soul of wit."

Stolen shamelessly from an episode of "The Simpsons". There are two things to note:

First, most typing manuals prefer the periods to be spaced. In electronic communication it's sometimes necessary to run them together, since line-wrap is unpredictable.

Second, and more important, is the number of periods. The ellipsis itself is three periods (always); it can appear next to other punctuation, including an end-of-sentence period (resulting in four periods). Use four only when the words on either side of the ellipsis make full sentences. You should never use fewer than three or more than four periods, with only a single exception: when entire lines of poetry are omitted in a block quotation, it's a common practice to replace them with a full line of spaced periods.

It is also common to use it in dialogue to simulate a character's voice dying out or hesitating

ex:

"I was going to go home, but..."
"But what?"
"I really don't want to say..."

[christianscott27]

i find myself using "..." all of the time in writing. i write like i speak for the most part and in speech i use pauses and timing to make a point, the "..." sort of fills in for those pauses. so yeah i'd agree with it having a meaning like trailing off speech.

[Mr. Smashy]

You can also read it out as "dot, dot, dot" with a Scottish accent to pretend that you're Renton from "Trainspotting".

Then, you can shoot up some smack and listen to Lou Reed.

[fahrvergnugen]

There's actually an html entity for the ellipsis:

"&ellip;", looks like "&hellip;"

Geek wanking trivia.