Emotions in psionic communication

[HailTheAbyss]

Following on from the Ask the Staff thread about images in psionic communication...

http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,40134.0.html

I have often seen emotions being conveyed during psionic contact - how often do people actually do this?

It really makes sense to me to convey strong emotions that way, as the act of psionic "contact" echoes as somebody's presence touching your mind.

I would think it would be possible to infer someone's emotional state through the pulse of their thoughts - these are living beings communicating, not machines.

Another thing that comes from this is whether it would be possible to only convey a feeling? i.e.

You send a telepathic message to the tall, muscular man: "I have stolen your favourite fluffy erdlu"

The tall, muscular man sends you a telepathic message:

     "*Utter despair*"

[Barsook]

I have only seen it done about a few times.

[Wolfsong]

Okay, this post may not make as much sense as I'd like it to since I'm typing it on my phone. That said: I've always been fine with both pictures and emotions through the Way, so long as (like the docs note) you do not force feelings onto other people, unless you're codedly empowered to do so. That said again, however, I do not think the ordinary person should have complete control over their emotions or thoughts over the Way; it should be a subpar way of communication because, in essence, it is widely unpredictable, not because it is inherently limiting and monotone. Why conduct a business deal over the Way when you don't have full control over your own thoughts, or potentially may not? What if you hate Amos the Merchant, and that leaks through? Or a naked woman sits in your PC's lap and suddenly that's all they can think about?

[lordcooper]

I've tagged very strong emotions onto my Waying before.  I think I've once done 'interference' as well, when a character was in bad shape.

[Armaddict]

I use emotions often.  Mind to mind?  I think some things probably spill over, and if that's not definite, it's at least a good assumption.

[janeshephard]

Most players will pass emotions when they want to and not implicitly. I think that is fine.

[valeria]

I do this very rarely, and only with very strong emotions or images.  Or like if I want to imply a stutter without typing a bunch of -- between letters, I think I've done that too.

[boog]

If I'm trying to send images or emotions, I think, in my mind, that the connection might go a little unstable and then outwardly suggest such.

[Potaje]

The unseen way is not a phone or cellphone, its not some disconnected element of communication, disembodied from the source. It is a direct link of the core thought to another, your mind to theirs. There would be the ability for a more coherent understanding through wave lengths, almost like watches a machine that could pick up waves is how I picture it in my head. Pulse, ebbs and flows of intensity.
I think that people over time would have learned to mask their thoughts, but if not practiced as anything else perhaps you would be more..naked, honest.
We play a text game, we communicate over these sterile disembodied devises and start to look at most things in the same way. Which can hinder how we perceive what it would be like when minds are linked.

IMHO

[brytta.leofa]

I think that people over time would have learned to mask their thoughts, but if not practiced as anything else perhaps you would be more..naked, honest.

I like this very much...

But remember that "think" and "feel" are real, coded commands for us, and if the person you're in contact with should be able to hear thoughts you're not intentionally sending, the code has enough information to make it really happen.  Your thoughts probably shouldn't leak through psi very much unless it's due to some unusual circumstance.

[Semper]

I'd say how you choose to convey feelings is entirely up to the player. Personally, I often use emotions when it is fitting to portray them.

psi (with a sense of sadness) I'll see you soon.
  is a lot different than:
psi (happily) I'll see you soon.
  and both are different from:
psi I'll see you soon.

I'll admit I've never sent images over the way. How do you portray 'the tall, muscular man' without describing the picture over the Way as 'psi *the image of the tall, muscular man*'? Just seems too vulnerable to abuse.

Obviously, having a conversation over the Way and face-to-face is a lot different. For example, I wouldn't 'psi (licking his lips) That cake was good.' since there's no way someone can know you're doing that over the Way.

[Marshmellow]

I only use the transmission of emotions over the Way when my character is intentionally broadcasting emotion to back up what is being said or to clarify what is said.  An example:

> psi *amusement and warmth* It could only happen to you, Amos.

[LoD]

The documentation states that "Psionic powers allow people to communicate across vast distances...", but seems purposefully silent on the method of communication.

Intelligent creatures can communicate in a variety of ways, such a dog growling at you, seeing woman with flushed features, being sprayed by a skunk, seeing someone waving in the distance, watching someone cry, hearing someone shout from outside, or listening to a voice through the telephone.  All of these communications are signals interpreted and assembled by our brain to form some type of message.  The message doesn't always have to be sophisticated or verbal for someone to understand what it means. And I would think that the use of and interpretation of these various messages would be fair game for mind-to-mind communication. 

I agree that there are ways some things could be abused, and it's probably safer to stick to textual communication if you aren't sure where that line exists.  However, almost every form of non-verbal communication is going to require a bit more creativity or interpretation to glean its meaning than its spoken counterpart.  I enjoy when people communicate with me in different ways, since speech isn't always the perfect vehicle for the message I want to send.  I've often used non-verbal Way messages when I am attempting to communicate with a creature that doesn't speak my native language or, perhaps, is so culturally distinct that we'd have very little common ground for anything other than base concepts.

Someone could very easily Way:
   "Let's meet by the dusty tower at midnight to settle our score!"

Someone could also Way:
   "*wavering image of dark silhouette standing near a dusty, red-rock tower, pale moonlight illuminating a menacing scowl upon his lips*"

As long as what is being "communicated" isn't somehow bypassing an IC barrier, cheapening the game by stressing legal limits, or attempting to power-emote in thought form, it definitely takes advantage of the fact that we play in a textual medium, as Potaje states.

-LoD

[Bogre]

I don't do specific images like sdescs, unless its in the most vaguest of senses. I do use feelings and senses.

[Pale Horse]

I am in the camp that is of the mind that communication over the Way is more..detailed, than has been generally accepted as the norm.  Thoughts and thinking are rarely as unemotional as has been lauded as the "way the Way works."  I have used emotional tags and images over the way, and not thought anything wrong of it (excepting the direct relay of a character's short description.  I am of the opinion that it is a bit too open to abuse, when doing so).  Communication over the Way is a mind-to-mind passing of thoughts.  Thinking is emotional.  You can't separate the two, thought and emotion, as if they were anything different from one another.  And if there is some sort of divide, then I would think I am safe in saying that there is something seriously wrong.

Now, how much of an emotion and which one's are passed along, that I leave up to the individual character and their player.  Learning how to communicate over the Way, and what you communicate, I would imagine is as common an undertaking on Zalanthas, as learning how to control your facial movements, tone of voice, body language and what words you use, to express yourself and get what you are trying to/not trying to communicate with someone else.

I mean, we use the Way to circumvent language barriers.  The various humanoid races on Zalanthas are similar enough in thought and emotions that something passed along through a "mindlink" can be understood, whether the sender speaks Sirihish or Alundean, and the recipient speaks Mirrukim or Tatlum.  Even in real life, we might not understand Spanish/English/French, but we can often understand the emotions carried along with them.  "Feelings" are important in spoken communication, all the more so in unspoken communication, so why not of paramount importance in telepathic communication?  It's intent and purpose and all the other "emotions" that are being passed along as "code" that when another mind picks up, it "decodes" and understands.

Then again, maybe the Way is completely different from all this.  Any speculation on it should probably be taken care up IG.

[Aaron Goulet]

I tend to use the Way for dialogue only, but mainly because I prefer to save the rest for face-to-face meetings.

[Lacustre]

This conversation has prompted me to add my thoughts, which can be found here in Ask the Staff.

[Kismetic]

I believe this would all fall upon the creativity of the user, which is, in this case, the character you're portraying.

Imagine for a moment that you can use psionic powers.  Now, imagine for another, a talented artist using the same power.  Now ...  Forrest Gump.

If you go by the documentation, the limitations are outlined.  If mindbenders are a freak mutation of what's already available to everyone ...  it would make sense that there are gray areas in between, being that some folks have a certain mastery over what they can project than others of lesser mental/image-based capacity.

[Rairen]

Wanted to quickly point out that I would no more go

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psi *waying the image of the short, stubby man*

than I would

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say The short, stubby man ran that way!

Why wouldn't I?  I'm not sure.  Presumably because I learned somewhere along the way that it's cheap to do that.  As a result, I see no real difference between:

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psi *waves of wistfulness riding through the Way*  I miss my kank.

and

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say (wistfully) I miss my kank.

Or, perhaps a better example, between:

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say (huffing) I don't miss my kank.

hemote Even as she speaks, a hint of sadness darkens @'s eyes.

and

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psi *stubbornly, sadly*  I don't miss my kank.


The difference is that hemotes have coded support.  There's no comparable command for waying and this is the closest equivalent available to us.  The ability to let the person on the other side of the line or emote "win" is one of the most rewarding aspects of Arm's code base and reputation.  I'd hate to see it too strongly discouraged because folks overworry about example #1 becoming prominent.

[Marshmellow]

I should note that I played a halfling and the halfling documentation required us to misunderstand when people used the Way to communicate with us and we were required to use images rather than speech in our Way communication with non-halflings.  Well, we weren't required, but the other option was not communicating with the WAY at all with non-halflings.  (The rationale: halflings have a strange philosophy and thought process compared to the rest of the world.)

Okay, granted there are no more halfling PCs, and everyone's playing characters with a more recognizable thought process and slightly more similar philosophy (or at least closer to each other than they are to halflings).  Still, I think it bad form to have required it of one segment of the population and deny it completely to everyone else.

[janeshephard]

Still, I think it bad form to have required it of one segment of the population and deny it completely to everyone else.

It's bad form to not have muls walk around Allanak without slave collars on. What you describe was done to uphold the suspension of disbelief in the world (not the realism -- bad term to use in fantasy).

[Kismetic]

Still, I think it bad form to have required it of one segment of the population and deny it completely to everyone else.

What you describe was done to uphold the suspension of disbelief in the world (not the realism -- bad term to use in fantasy).

Disagree.  Many people seem to be against this practice, yet, it's present in an entire culture, and the documentation permits it, without amendment.  I think MM makes a valid point.

[Marauder Moe]

I'm ok with emotion in psi's because humans are capable of conveying emotion in speech.

I don't like images in psi's because humans aren't capable of conveying pictures to each other in speech (aside from actually describing one).

Staff policy is that images in psi's are ok, though.

[number13]

Betraying my own past practices here, what's twinky about psi "*an image of a tall, muscular man*"?

The sdesc is an OOC construct.  If I'm trying to describe someone and psi "He was larger in height than the average man. Well-built. Hooked nose. Scar on left cheek. Brown eyes," how does that distinguish them?  How can someone pick that person out if their sdesc is "tall, muscular man"?  What's wrong with using the shortcut of the supplied words that do distinguish one character from another?

Besides, someone can magically look under your hood and/or mask with the Way.  They get an sdesc -- an image of the person. Further, you can contact a body via using that sdesc.  How does that mesh the idea that sending images is somehow difficult?   Can a person who has only "seen" Amos via the Way verbally describe him?

[Qzzrbl]

Betraying my own past practices here, what's twinky about psi "*an image of a tall, muscular man*"?

The sdesc is an OOC construct.  If I'm trying to describe someone and psi "He was larger in height than the average man. Well-built. Hooked nose. Scar on left cheek. Brown eyes," how does that distinguish them?  How can someone pick that person out if their sdesc is "tall, muscular man"?  What's wrong with using the shortcut of the supplied words that do distinguish one character from another?

Because it's just pretty effing twinky..... It's one of those things.

It's twinky that you can tell someone, "He was Amos! The tall, muscular man!" and then have that person pick Amos out from a group of Bynners that are all quite tall and muscular. It leaves no room for error whatsoever.

Lemme use a real-life example.

If you were told to kill "The tall, buzz-cut man", which one of these would you kill?



Can't figure out which one....?

Exactly.

Besides, someone can magically look under your hood and/or mask with the Way.  They get an sdesc -- an image of the person. Further, you can contact a body via using that sdesc.  How does that mesh the idea that sending images is somehow difficult?   Can a person who has only "seen" Amos via the Way verbally describe him?

And contacting someone via The Way just to get a gander at what's under their hood is pretty damn low, but at least players have the "barrier" skill to combat that.

Sending words and perhaps scant bits of strong emotion is one thing.... But don't be surprised if you get accused of being a mindworm when you start sending fully coherent and easily recognizable pictures.