Talk:Spekks's Laboratory

Undid the last change, since the lab is indeed west of the bay, and not northwest. If anything, it's rather west-south-west.

Lava

This puzzle sucks...

There is clearly a timer and environmental effect called Lava and it says time remaining: 55 s. That is almost a minute to get you to a safe place once you fallen, yet you take burn damage and eventually die anyways. WTF is up with that? Yumiko ^,~ 02:37, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Suddenly it's easy to see where inspiration for the Wintersday jumping puzzle came from :P --BramStoker (talk, contribs) 00:02, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Title incorrect

The achievement is "Spekks's" not "Spekks'". 98.227.76.153 18:59, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Another ip on the page seems to indicate the title is still incorrect. Perhaps it should be "Spekk's" or "Spekks'" ... unless the npc is actually called "spekks" + its his lab eh? Chieftain Alex 12:05, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

I wasn't paying attention to the achievement. I suppose i can check the achievements page for jumping puzzles. If his name does end in a letter 'S' wouldn't the proper possessive form be "Spekks' Laboratory"? If nothing else i'm pretty sure this is possibly one of those in-game text errors.72.64.2.97 22:28, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

In the achievement list it is "Spekks's" but if you look in WoodenPotato's video the achievement pop-up shows "Spekks'". It may have been changed in an update since then to use the wrong spelling like the achievement list but proper possessive form of a name ending in 'S' is to just add the apostrophe. I didn't pay attention to which the game now uses for the pop-up when I went thru it, but regardless it IS a text error. The page title shows as it is on the achievement list my only edit was to change the page text to the proper possessive form. English possessive on wikipediaDurp da durp 23:10, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

It doesn't matter if it's misspelled, it's the name of the achievement, so we'll refer to it as such. Games don't require inglich--Relyk ~ talk > 23:18, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

However documenting things for the wiki proper spelling and grammar is preferred for mainspace articles.Durp da durp 23:23, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Yep, given the ingame name for the laboratory of "spekks" (the asura), we could store it at either name, and storing it at the grammatically correct title would be better. (i.e. at Spekks' Laboratory) -Chieftain Alex 23:27, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Having the title use the incorrect spelling but using the correct spelling in the article might be less confusing if people search based on the achievement list. A redirect for both should probably be there if it isn't alreadyDurp da durp 23:36, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

It doesn't matter what name we use as long as it's consistent. I prefer using the achievement list name because that's the names people will see most often for the jumping puzzles.--Relyk ~ talk > 23:49, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

"proper possessive form of a name ending in 'S' is to just add the apostrophe" Both ways are valid, and as your own link says, -s's is generally preferred (with exceptions that don't apply here). - Tanetris 00:14, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Possessive of James is James', possessive of Sirius, (JKR's Sirius) is Sirius's, the rule is that it depends on what's easiest to say. The class's opinion, for Jesus's sake (tho' you here both versions), etc, but, essentially, being English, it's one of those fuzzy areas. Apostrophes, I'd ban them personally  :) --Claret 01:18, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

You both did read the opening statement? To quote it "(or in some cases just by adding an apostrophe to an existing -s)." Also the section on nouns "In some languages, possessives are formed from nouns or noun phrases. In English, this is done using the ending -'s, as in Jane's, heaven's, the boy's, those men's, or sometimes just an apostrophe, as in workers', Jesus', the soldiers'. Note that the ending can be added at the end of a noun phrase even when the phrase does not end with its head noun, as in the king of England's; this property inclines many linguists towards the view that the ending is a clitic rather than a case ending (see below, and further at English possessive)." As stated there the name possessive of Sirius should (if properly spelled) be Sirus'. Apostrophes are very commonly misused in many stories and other forms of media. Most auto-correction software ignores contractions and also many other words that use apostrophes. The discrepancy between the achievement page and in-game pop-up proves how common a text error due to their misuse occurs.Durp da durp 03:08, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

I don't see how that's related to the discussion.--Relyk ~ talk > 03:17, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

"possessive of Sirius, (JKR's Sirius) is Sirius's" and is also an incorrect useage. "Apostrophes, I'd ban them personally" Yep me too, just because they are so commonly misused that no correction software I've ever used recognizes them. I didn't bring up either but they were brought up in the discussion. As i stated previously the page title is the commonly encountered spelling but the spelling Spekks' is the proper spelling. Use whichever you want but it is not an anomaly it is a very common text error. Durp da durp 03:35, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

You appear to be skipping over the part that starts "Singular nouns ending in -s can also form a possessive regularly by adding -'s, as in Charles's", but rather than quote the whole thing I'm going to link to the relevent sources: Chicago Manual of Style Elements of Style - Tanetris 05:48, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

To quote another wiki, Order_of_the_Phoenix_(fiction) Sirius's will stated that his possessions, home and house-elf Kreacher are to be inherited by Harry. But, on the other hand, whoever said that wikis always get it right? This one frequently does not. I have often seen "it's" for the possessive of "it" and my classic was "classe's" for the possessive of "class". Perusing my copy of the original book, Order of the Phoenix, JK Rowling does too. In en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius it's used without the terminal s once and with it twice. Also, as stated elsewhere, it's what sounds right in conversation that decides and, I guess, that's subjective. :) Anyway, I'm a grammar nazi and write to the BBC correcting their English, so… --Claret 10:28, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

I learned per the Chicago MoS that Tanetris linked above - even if it isn't spoken with an extra syllable, you should always write -'s. There are a lot of other cases where the written and spoken word don't match up, and English is far from the only language where this happens (e.g. in Japanese, the copula です desu is nearly always spoken as a single syllable "des" outside of formal settings). —Dr Ishmael 12:07, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I suppose if you're writing <mischief> weird archaic dialect of English that's used in the US </mischief >. Ducks and runs. --Claret 12:25, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

<reset indent>In Sirius' case the exception is due to the name being "Classical, biblical, and similar names ending in a sibilant, especially if they are polysyllabic, do not take an added s in the possessive." It is not polysyllabic but is a classical name. Other sources also include exceptions for "If the singular possessive is difficult or awkward to pronounce with an added sibilant, do not add an extra s". Is Spekks currently alive or is he one of the Asuran ancients? Doesn't he appear only after activating the last computer? The word spectacle itself has ancient roots. 'Spekkses' the pronunciation with 3 S sounds is awkward. Anet obviously couldn't agree either just like the variations in the many current linguistic journals. Durp da durp 15:35, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

The main rule about English that I find best to describe it is that it is full of exceptions and even those exceptions have exceptions and they themselves have them etc etc etc. And it changes over time. Still, I guess we'll be getting our knuckles rapped over this chat becoming less and less relevant to the original subject. As for Spekks, I had thought it a play on words "Specs", but then that's terribly mundane. --Claret 15:41, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, specs but if specs it is similar to spectacles not specifications. Both spectacles (like the asuran glasses in gw1) and spectacle share the same root source. Spectacles and spectacle have archaic sources. If the source was spectacles most current linguistic sources would agree on just using the ' and no S on the end for the above stated reasons (Awkward, classic/similar to classic, polysyllabic root). That also includes Chicago MoS "Some contemporary authorities such as the Associated Press Stylebook and The Chicago Manual of Style recommend or allow the practice of omitting the extra "s" in all words ending with an "s", but not in words ending with other sibilants ("z" and "x")". If I'm not mistaken Chicago MoS allows for it to not be used but does not state 's is the only acceptable usage (7.21 i believe, I don't own a copy or have a membership to their website).Durp da durp 19:24, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

<sigh> sure but it's an American dialect of English they're talking about. So in real English, look for an authoritative source. btw that's humour (<- spelt proper-like), I am out of this conversation. I'll stick with correcting the BBC. --Claret 19:32, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Hehehe... the game servers ARE in the USA and Germany. Also as a native of the USA it is my patriotic duty to use words of Spanish, French, German, and other origins improperly. After all the 'Pennsylvania Dutch' were from Deutschland not the Netherlands. Also we (it's ok it's plural not the royal We) Americans tend to have an extreme hatred of the letter U even though it is in the word united. My only hope is those translate links aren't just to make Google translate the pages text because Google's translations quite often make little to no sense at all. Durp da durp 21:42, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Complete the Spekk's Laboratory Jumping Puzzle - weekly Wizard's Vault objective, spelling from developers. --95.155.43.45 20:06, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

Trivia. (see above)

Here is why.

1. ArenaNet is probably aware of both spellings in game.

2. ArenaNet is probably aware of the debate among linguists on the subject.

In short. Many Asuran inventions include anomalies and do not function well. Is this anomaly intentional? ArenaNet's corporate office is in the USA in Washington state. They have other offices in other countries including within the United Kingdom. This subject has been debated within the linguistic community for years. There is trivia on other pages on gw2w just like gww so could someone with better literary skills than uneducated me please compose a trivia note? (Preferably a native English speaker or perhaps a proper one) Durp da durp 21:42, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

Discrepency in behavior

Noted that article here states that you don't get the revive option if you aren't killed by the lava, but I died several times on my way to completing this to find the kite today, and found that if I fell directly to 'defeated' I did still get the option to reset at the entrance. --50.137.66.133 21:18, 15 July 2013 (UTC)