explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1797: Stardew Valley

2017-04-12T22:55:56Z

162.158.114.10: "virtually" word play

{{comic
| number = 1797
| date = February 10, 2017
| title = Stardew Valley
| image = stardew_valley.png
| titletext = I have accidentally watered virtually every person and object in Pelican Town.
}}

== Explanation ==
''{{w|Stardew Valley}}'' is an indie farming simulation role-playing video game published by Chucklefish Games. Just as in similar games like {{w|Farmville}} and {{w|Harvest Moon (series)|Harvest Moon}}, the player takes the role of a farmer who establishes his or her own farm and performs everyday tasks such as watering plants, growing food, and tending to animals. ''Pelican Town'', referenced in the title text, is a fictional village in this game.

In this comic, Cueball begins his morning routine in a ''Stardew Valley'' session by waking up and watering some of his farm's plants. However, he then walks up to a sleeping cat, pauses for a moment, then pours water on it, startling it awake. He says "Dammit!" to this, likely indicating this isn't the first time he's made this mistake.

In the game, watering plants is an essential chore, which requires the player to "equip" a watering can. The player moves their character up to a plant and simply presses an action button (or key) to perform the watering action. The same action button is used to interact in different ways with other things, animals and people (e.g. to talk to them), so accidentally leaving the watering can equipped while trying to talk to someone can cause the player to "water" them instead. The comic illustrates how easy it is to do this in the game, as well as the comedic value of seeing this happen from the point of view of the player's character.

The title text reinforces this humor by indicating that [[Randall]] has used the watering can, probably unintentionally, on nearly every person and object in the game. It's amusing to think that he may curse each time he realizes he's still holding the can when he tries to talk to someone. (His use of the word "Dammit" in this comic also calls to mind a brief discussion on the word in [[559: No Pun Intended]].)

The use of the word "virtually" in the title text plays with the word's double meaning. It is used here in the sense of "almost", however when swapping the words "virtually" and "waters", the word assumes its alternate meaning, but the title text still makes sense: Since the game is only a simulation, the player "virtually waters" his plants.

''Stardew Valley'' was also mentioned only two weeks prior to this comic in [[1790: Sad]]; this comic explains why.

Interestingly, this comic is drawn in a slightly unusual style for [[xkcd]]. Of note is the border around the caption ("Stardew Valley Morning Routine"), the thicker-than-normal penmanship, and the use of drawn borders around the watering sound effects, Cueball's yawn, and the cat's sleeping word balloon. The cat's balloon in particular follows the visual style of the game (in which certain objects and animals may show their current emotional states with word balloons) - more generally, actions that normally occur in the game, such as the yawn and the watering action, appear to be shown in balloons while Cueball's "Dammit!" is written in the style of other xkcd comics. This likely suggests that Cueball's epithet here represents the player (Randall) actually saying this in response to the incorrect action of his character in the game.

== Transcript ==
:[Inside a slim frame at the top of the comic there is a caption:]
:Stardew Valley morning routine

:[Below this frame there are two rows each consisting of three small panels taking up the same width as the caption panel above:]

:[Cueball wakes and rises up from his pillow sitting beneath his blanket in his four poster bed with round knobs. He yawns with a hand to his mouth. Above him floats a large sound bubble:]
:Cueball: '''''Yawn'''''

:[Cueball walks to the right with a small watering can held in front of him.]

:[Cueball pours water from the can over the three small plants. A line goes from the water to another bubble:]
:Water: ''Splish''

:[Cueball walks back to the left with the watering can.]

:[Cueball stops with the can right next to a sleeping cat, which has a speech bubble pointing to its head.]
:Cat: Z

:[Cueball proceeds to pour water on the cat which immediately jumps up away from him trying to escape as water cascades on it. Again there is a line from the water to a speech bubble, but both the cats angry sound and Cueball's comment is written without bubbles.]
:Water: ''Splish''
:Cat: ''Mrowl!!''
:Cueball: '''''–Dammit. '''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1797: Stardew Valley

2017-04-12T22:44:15Z

162.158.114.10: Explanation of Pelican Town

{{comic
| number = 1797
| date = February 10, 2017
| title = Stardew Valley
| image = stardew_valley.png
| titletext = I have accidentally watered virtually every person and object in Pelican Town.
}}

== Explanation ==
''{{w|Stardew Valley}}'' is an indie farming simulation role-playing video game published by Chucklefish Games. Just as in similar games like {{w|Farmville}} and {{w|Harvest Moon (series)|Harvest Moon}}, the player takes the role of a farmer who establishes his or her own farm and performs everyday tasks such as watering plants, growing food, and tending to animals. ''Pelican Town'', referenced in the title text, is a fictional village in this game.

In this comic, Cueball begins his morning routine in a ''Stardew Valley'' session by waking up and watering some of his farm's plants. However, he then walks up to a sleeping cat, pauses for a moment, then pours water on it, startling it awake. He says "Dammit!" to this, likely indicating this isn't the first time he's made this mistake.

In the game, watering plants is an essential chore, which requires the player to "equip" a watering can. The player moves their character up to a plant and simply presses an action button (or key) to perform the watering action. The same action button is used to interact in different ways with other things, animals and people (e.g. to talk to them), so accidentally leaving the watering can equipped while trying to talk to someone can cause the player to "water" them instead. The comic illustrates how easy it is to do this in the game, as well as the comedic value of seeing this happen from the point of view of the player's character.

The title text reinforces this humor by indicating that [[Randall]] has used the watering can, probably unintentionally, on nearly every person and object in the game. It's amusing to think that he may curse each time he realizes he's still holding the can when he tries to talk to someone. (His use of the word "Dammit" in this comic also calls to mind a brief discussion on the word in [[559: No Pun Intended]].)

''Stardew Valley'' was also mentioned only two weeks prior to this comic in [[1790: Sad]]; this comic explains why.

Interestingly, this comic is drawn in a slightly unusual style for [[xkcd]]. Of note is the border around the caption ("Stardew Valley Morning Routine"), the thicker-than-normal penmanship, and the use of drawn borders around the watering sound effects, Cueball's yawn, and the cat's sleeping word balloon. The cat's balloon in particular follows the visual style of the game (in which certain objects and animals may show their current emotional states with word balloons) - more generally, actions that normally occur in the game, such as the yawn and the watering action, appear to be shown in balloons while Cueball's "Dammit!" is written in the style of other xkcd comics. This likely suggests that Cueball's epithet here represents the player (Randall) actually saying this in response to the incorrect action of his character in the game.

== Transcript ==
:[Inside a slim frame at the top of the comic there is a caption:]
:Stardew Valley morning routine

:[Below this frame there are two rows each consisting of three small panels taking up the same width as the caption panel above:]

:[Cueball wakes and rises up from his pillow sitting beneath his blanket in his four poster bed with round knobs. He yawns with a hand to his mouth. Above him floats a large sound bubble:]
:Cueball: '''''Yawn'''''

:[Cueball walks to the right with a small watering can held in front of him.]

:[Cueball pours water from the can over the three small plants. A line goes from the water to another bubble:]
:Water: ''Splish''

:[Cueball walks back to the left with the watering can.]

:[Cueball stops with the can right next to a sleeping cat, which has a speech bubble pointing to its head.]
:Cat: Z

:[Cueball proceeds to pour water on the cat which immediately jumps up away from him trying to escape as water cascades on it. Again there is a line from the water to a speech bubble, but both the cats angry sound and Cueball's comment is written without bubbles.]
:Water: ''Splish''
:Cat: ''Mrowl!!''
:Cueball: '''''–Dammit. '''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1787: Voice Commands

2017-01-19T08:23:53Z

162.158.114.10: wikipedia page for the QWERTY layout does not confirm that the jamming story is a misconception

{{comic
| number = 1787
| date = January 18, 2017
| title = Voice Commands
| image = voice_commands.png
| titletext = Dvorak words may sound hard to pronounce, but studies show they actually put less stress on the vocal chords.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard|Dvorak keyboard layout}} was designed to replace the {{w|QWERTY}} keyboard layout (the de facto standard keyboard layout in English-speaking countries, so named for the starting letters in the top row). The Dvorak layout was designed in the belief that it would significantly increase typing speeds over the QWERTY layout. This can be seen, among other ways, by the popular misconception that the placement of letters in the QWERTY standard were deliberately organized to limit typing speed in accommodation the tendency of original mechanical typewriters to jam if two adjacent keys were pressed in quick succession. (In fact, the original QWERTY layout was mostly random{{Citation needed}}.)

Even as other arguably better layouts were proposed over the years since the introduction of the QWERTY keyboard, QWERTY remained the standard due to widespread use.

Using Dvorak for speech to text, however, makes no sense whatsoever as there is no keyboard, real, virtual, or otherwise, involved in speaking. Even the virtual keyboard (usually QWERTY layout but often changeable) included in most phones and tablet devices is not used when speaking to the phone.

The sentence Cueball tells his phone translates to "Okay Google send a text" - he says it as if he were typing the sentence on a Dvorak layout with the keyboard set to a QWERTY layout. How such words would be pronounced is a mystery, as the letters in the words are merely substituted with others with no regard to phonetics; without standardized pronunciations, a speech-to-text program would be useless. To add to the confusion, one of the words in Cueball's sentence includes an unpronounceable semi-colon as one of its letters.

The title text is a reference to the fact that many users of DVORAK keyboards claim they may be hard to learn, but they are more movement efficient and put less stress on your fingers due to less movement. For example, see the link at http://www.dvzine.org/zine/10-11.html . This makes little sense in the scenario set up by the comic, as speaking gibberish using oddly placed vowels would be equally difficult, if not in fact harder, on the vocal chords.

Using a Dvorak layout on a smartphone (for actual typing, not voice commands) is possible, but the very features that make it desirable in a physical touch-typing environment are drawbacks on a swipe-enabled keyboard. A placement designed to alternate a typist's left and right hands requires the finger of a swipist to travel back and forth across the keyboard more often. Fitting commonly-used letters onto the typist's home row reduces finger movement but makes many words the swipist enters indistinguishable. On a QWERTY swipe keyboard, four English words can be entered by swiping right to left from P to T: "pot", "pit", "put", and "pout"; however, setting the layout to Dvorak causes this to happen with many more common sets of words.

==Transcript==
[Ponytail and Cueball are standing looking at each other. Cueball is holding a phone.]

Ponytail: Can you text it to me?

Cueball: Sure!

Cueball: ''SVAT USSUPD ;DLH A KDBK''

Ponytail: ...What?

Phone: *BEEP*

[Caption under the panel:]

Setting my phone's speech recognition to Dvorak was a pain at first, but it's more efficient in the long run.

Note: Cueball is saying "OKAY GOOGLE SEND A TEXT" if you account for keyboard layout.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:1773: Negativity

2016-12-21T17:46:02Z

162.158.114.10: get of my lawn

Any chance that 'the pain and negativity of the internet' is a reference to [http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-talk-4 this recent SMBC comic] where SMBC's artist Zach challenges Randall to 'out-nerd him now' (seen when you click the red button just below the comic).
I've been wondering whether the first XKCD after that (that is: today's XKCD comic) would refer to it.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.173|141.101.104.173]] 14:55, 16 December 2016 (UTC)
: I kinda doubt it. SMBC wasn't being "negative" or objectionable - if anything it was a challenge - and even a kind of complement. An adequate response to that kind of a challenge might take longer than a few days to prepare. If we're going to see anything in response, I suspect it'll be more obvious. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 14:02, 17 December 2016 (UTC)
:: We better be seeing a string theory joke sometime in the next week... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.226|108.162.216.226]] 02:38, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
::: [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=171 Here you go.] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.126|162.158.122.126]] 12:55, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:: @SteveBaker That was my doubt too. Looking forward to an adequate response from Randall though :) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.173|141.101.104.173]] 07:44, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
:: The negative interpretation might as well be humorously exaggerated. Alluding to political correctness gives the defense some weight. A point in favor of our observation, that I came just here to validate, would be the lawn. "Get of my lawn" is a common meme, but even the lawn is impressed with Zach. Anyway I chuckled. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.10|162.158.114.10]] 17:46, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

This article mentions XKCD number 1749 as involving "talking to inanimate organisms", but nobody talks to the mushroom in that strip. Neither does the mushroom talk to them, it merely growls. [[User:Ajfaraday|Ajfaraday]] ([[User talk:Ajfaraday|talk]]) 09:41, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
: I would object to "inanimate". Things are inanimate, and well, maybe dead organisms; but a growling and talking organism is obviously alive.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.171|162.158.91.171]] 16:14, 21 December 2016 (UTC)