Emoting VNPCs

[Sanvean]

Someone asked about this in an e-mail to the mud account, so I wanted to state something close to an official staff position.

Emoting VNPCs is fine and dandy - it helps bring color to the world.   All we ask is that you use common sense, not emote stuff that imposes actions on other players, or do something that is unrealistic.

Emotes that are fine:

emote staggers as a soldier jostles past him in the crowd.
emote watches warily as a rat runs under %blue chair.
emote smiles and waves to the small girl with tangled hair as the wagon pulls away.
emote drops his eyes as a passing templar looks him over.

Emotes that are not fine:

emote pushes ~blue, making them fall backward and hit their head on the floor with an audible "crack" and giving them amnesia.
emote watches warily as a ran runs under %blue chair and grins as ~blue screams loudly.
emote smiles and waves to her family before casting a large fireball, mowing down the entire crowd.
emote nods cordially to a passing templar as the templar smiles and salutes him.

Does that make sense to folks?

[Malifaxis]

I would figure that this is fine, but I'd like to make sure since it is not covered above.  If you are in something that could be classified as a 'leadership position', is it considered alright to emote giving simple orders and things that would have impact, but nothing serious?

Things that could be fine:
em barks a command at a pair of recruits, sending them scurrying about the barracks.
em Fingers snapping loudly, @ beckons over a pair of slaves that begin to fan gently.

Things that probably are not fine:
em With a loud clap of fat hands, @ summons a quartet of grizzly guards from nearby and has them grab %victim harshly.
em As ~halaster arrives, @ shouts a cry of alarm before a hundred spice crazed warriors rush !halaster with nets.

I love VNPCs, and I'd love to feel more confident using them, but sometimes, in some positions, I'm just unsure.

[Larrath]

Once upon a time, my PC had an argument with another PC, and two VNPCs (who the said other PC probably involved in a previous emoting session) were coming to her aid.  These said VNPCs were not mentioned in the interaction between my PC and the other one.
Was that fine?

Also, what if two players are trying to get an advantage over one player in a place where they shouldn't have it?  An example would be two dwarves threatening and beating up an elf for racist reasons in a largely elven tavern. Is it out of line to emote five or so elves walking over?

[Hexxaex]

One thing I don't like is when people emote things like vNPC's agreeing with them to back up what they say.

Laughing, then smirking smugly, the weathered human says, in sirihish:
    "Get yer ass outta the tavern ye feckin' longneck!"

Many people laugh loudly at ~elf in agreement with @.

[HunterKiller]

It's kind of a gray area because emoting vnpcs is a great way to add color to a scene.  I think you probably just want to avoid using them in a way that forces another player to react to them directly or be affected by them directly.  In this way I agree with Hexxaex.  The entire tavern may've agreed on the opinion of the elf but they wouldn't necessarily volunteer themselves to be in a potential fight with other elves that may be outside.  Plus elves are everywhere, one would more likely regard them with loose disgust and avoid them rather than mock them in public, unless of course the elf did something stupid to single him/herself out (subtle disregard can be much more a potent shunning technique than open hostility, again maybe I'm more a tuluk person.  :-P ).

Emoting others around you is really a cool thing when done right and when it's done -well- it really helps the player shine, imo anyway.  I think one thing that makes the game really fascinating are the different ways Zalanthas is filled in by other players (emoting vnpcs just being an example), the reason I like that other humans are present.

- HK

[RunningMountain]

I've seen a lot more poweremoters as of recently, that shit has got to be addressed somewhere, whether it's new players or just old players with bad habits when they get a bit of power in game.  

-RM

[Rhyden]

I've seen a lot more poweremoters as of recently, that shit has got to be addressed somewhere, whether it's new players or just old players with bad habits when they get a bit of power in game.  

-RM

This definitely needs to be looked at. I've seen more power-emoting recently than misuse of VNPCs in emotes. I'm not too sure if there's any help files on poweremoting but it kind of falls under the same category as using VNPCs in an unrealistic way. I'm not a power-emotologist but it's basically when you emote something without considering or allowing another character to react appropriately.

Example:

The tall man walks up to the short man and punches him in the face, blood splattering from his nose.

This is definitely a power emote. If the tall man attacked the short man, hitting him in the face with substantial force and then emoted the example, I think it'd be arlight.

Power emotes are just as uncool as using VNPCs in emotes inappropriately.

[Cuusardo]

If you see someone beating the crap out of a VNPC in an emote (in a city), don't hesitate to wish up to the IMMs that there are people fighting in the city.  There are plenty of NPC and VNPC law enforcement that would be seeing or hearing about it, and if there aren't any PC ones around the IMMs may just animate an NPC to step in.

[Sokotra]

I agree with both sides of this, but like a couple of people have already said... there's alot of grey area.  Just as long as you use common sense there shouldn't be too much trouble with involving NPC's or VNPC's a little more extensively in emotes.... i.e. making sure you let them remain neutral unless you are in a leadership position where it is obvious that they would be on your side.  As long as you aren't doing anything crazy to your allied NPCs like putting them in mortal, unnecessary danger or making them outwardly defy militia/templars etc...

As far as seeing someone beating the crap out of a VNPC (emoted) in the city... I'm kinda unsure about that.  If they are using fists and not weapons, I think it might be alright to a certain conservative extent, just as it is in tavern brawls and such.  But then again, I still see no problem with notifying local officials and wishing up so they can animate NPCs, whether they be guards or just bystanders if you want assistance in RP'ing out the situation.  Personally, I would frown on any extreme decisions to make someone a criminal for getting into a fisticuff in the street unless they are going around beating up innocent people; leaving little girls and sweaty merchants lying around seriously injured. (vnpc or otherwise)

Other than that, I think there should be more fist fights and involved V/NPC's, especially in the streets... again, common sense would probably be the rule and allowing yourself not to be the winner of every confrontation or imposing biased opinions in emoting the actions of others.
Correct me if I'm wrong... I very well could be, and perhaps Imms may not want this because it would require more of their time for possibly unnecessary happenings (especially if people wished up more often, wanting them to animate v/npcs or referee confrontations).  I'd probably say it is okay, but don't expect a response if you do wish up.

[Cuusardo]

If you're somewhere that you know the brawl code is, then whatever.  It's up to you.  However, if you're just out on the street or a tavern without brawl code, I would definitely wish up about it.  The militia or city guards would be all over a PC who decided to codedly slug another PC or an NPC.

You never know if that person is doing it as a cop out so they don't get arrested or slaughtered by law enforcement for using the code to beat someone up.  You also cannot automatically assume that you are wasting the IMMs' time if you wish up about this kind of thing.  I've watched a PC emote beating the crap out of another PC in a place where there was no brawl code, who went as far as to break a bottle over that other PC's head.  It was in a place where NPC soldiers would automatically rush in and arrest anyone who did this via the actual combat code, so I wished up about it and sure enough, an NPC soldier was animated to take care of the situation.

[Fnord]

Anyone care to define POWER EMOTE?

Here's mine: An emote that implies a new action being performed to/for anyone but your player.

So, reacting is cool, e.g. The cute little girl runs by.
emote watches ~girl run by.

While making a new action for someone else is bad. E.g. The cute little girl is standing here.
emote watches ~girl stealthily reach for %solider coin purse.

One way to  correct this is to change difinitive actions to/for anyone but yourself to an attempt.

emote pinches %fuckme butt. = bad
emote reaches over, aiming a pinch for %fuckme butt. = good

The latter gives Fuckme a chance to decide whether or not you succeed. The catch here being that you have to count on the other person to react with a degree of realism, which doesn't always mean what they may want the result to be. Of course, NPCs usually can't react in that way, which makes things somewhat trickier with them.

Sorry if this is a derail, but it seemed relevant.

[bloodfromstone]

The catch here being that you have to count on the other person to react with a degree of realism, which doesn't always mean what they may want the result to be.

This is very important to me. Most people don't particularly want bad/embarassing things to happen to their characters, but playing through them (instead of poweremoting your way out of them) is part of the fun of playing with other people. When you're talking to someone face to face and they emote spitting at you, get spit on. Don't step to the side and watch the spit hit the ground. If someone reaches over to knock over your drink, let it get spilled on you. Let that emoted slap land, etc, etc. I don't care how uber badass your warrior is, s/he can't be ready for everything.

Besides, mistakes and imperfections are what make characters more like people, and the unexpected things that come from other players' input is why I play out my characters here instead of just writing a story about them.

(This is a derail, I know. Sometimes I'm just too opinionated for my own good.)