Purple Prose Power

[Fredd]

So I was reading some of the threads and I've noticed a few comments regarding the roleplay quality of the game going down. And I have to agree.

It seems like the only people I see emoting are Nobles, and Manic Pixie Dream Girl pc's. And I find this odd. It used to be a meme that Arm is "Where the purple prose flows." We would drop long, adjective filled emotes because it was fun and expressive.

I get it, it can be tiring to come up with emotes, but it makes the game feel more...more.


So I'm going to issue a challenge, one I will be taking up myself. For the next month I am going to be trying to strengthen my emote game. And I would like to invite you all to join me.

[Mendel]

I love seeing command emotes with "say" and "tell". It helps bring me into the conversation, instead of feeling like I'm in a chat room.

[Usiku]

Command emotes are great! LOTS of commands can use them actually and I would encourage players to experiment and use them more.

Code Select Expand

hold torch (after struggling to light it in the wind)

draw sword (with a scowl directed at ~amos)

sit cushion (folding gently down to a kneel)

[Trevalyan]

You don't HAVE to make flowery declarations, even if you might want to. Describing your outwards mood, your clothing, the little flourishes you offer- all of that makes the game better. And when you stop being friendly or cheerful, you'd be surprised how many people might notice.

[IntuitiveApathy]

Emoting isn't the end all and be all of RP.  And because we're not all famous novelists and poets, hugely long flowery emotes shouldn't equate to a player being viewed as being the pinnacle of RP either.

I'm also a little puzzled as to the recent comments by both players and staff about the declining standard of RP - I've been back to the game for roughly 6 months now, and so far from the players I've encountered, the RP by and large has been just as good as I've seen it in past years.. but maybe I've just lucked out in encountering a certain subset of players only?

That said, there's always room to encourage everyone to try to be more descriptive in both your character's internal life and how they present and interact with the outside world - if you struggle with this, one suggestion is to think about your PC's senses - not just what they see (but how does light change and play off other things?), but also touch and sensation, smells and sounds of the world and your fellow PCs and V/NPCs.  Then play off those and show how your PC reacts and interacts with them - maybe they affect your characters mood and emotion too.  A little can go a long way - when your character sighs, does it shift the hem of their hood?  That's not going some world shattering RP obviously, but by thinking about even those sorts of little things as a start, it hopefully helps to immerse you as a player in the wider world more, does the same for your other fellow players too, and can lead to great things.

I want to suggest that giving a bit of life to virtual elements of the world is something I think players shouldn't be afraid of doing more of as well, so long as it's not wholly inappropriate (ie. so long as you're not "power" emoting for other entities making or presuming they would do things they wouldn't.)  A small example might be a virtual insect that's giving your character a bit of temporary irritation - how does your character react?  Maybe it might turn into a fun little scene with other PCs around?

To me, RP is playing out how your character inhabits the world in a consistent and sensible manner, including and especially how they interact with others and the world at large.  Emoting is a helpful tool that helps both you and your fellow players do just that.

[Riev]

Depends on who you share an RP scene with, and how they are feeling.

Sometimes, I am good about throwing off hemotes, and describing my physical position as I'm doing or saying things.

Other times, I just want to communicate very efficient. Yes. No. Nod. Faint shrug.



Flowery emotes aren't a pinnacle of RP, because a flowery emote can still be poweremoting or not actually describing a scene at all. I think MOST of us are doing what we can, but everyone seems to be in a rush these days, and not looking for a 30minute scene describing the perfect purple petoch.

[Fredd]

Depends on who you share an RP scene with, and how they are feeling.

Sometimes, I am good about throwing off hemotes, and describing my physical position as I'm doing or saying things.

Other times, I just want to communicate very efficient. Yes. No. Nod. Faint shrug.



Flowery emotes aren't a pinnacle of RP, because a flowery emote can still be poweremoting or not actually describing a scene at all. I think MOST of us are doing what we can, but everyone seems to be in a rush these days, and not looking for a 30minute scene describing the perfect purple petoch.

They certainly are not the pinnacle.

But I definately feel like it makes scenes feel much more interesting. They don't have to be long flowery emotes for this either.

But i get it. We don't always have the energy, or maybe the guy you're playing is VERY introverted. It's cool. No one should be shunned for this.

I just want to encourage more descriptive emotes is all

[papertiger]

I've only been here a few months and I've thought everyone's RP was great ♡ Totally sold.
You all are lovely writers. I try to adjust my style to match my rp partner but sometimes I still get a little nervous or have a slow typing day. And sometimes I just feel extra.

[Gentleboy]

Writing a lot does not mean that the writing is good.

Some moments should be short, others long.

Sometimes you catch people on a bad day or after a long scene.

Or people are still trying to get a feel for the character.

Or this is someone's first mud like Arm.

I think it's okay to expect goodness from others, but, we never know what's happening on the other side.

[Riev]

I think it's okay to expect goodness from others, but, we never know what's happening on the other side.

Unless its Max, then you can expect that its all trash. Lovable trash, like a raccoon.

[Lotion]

using [] can also help you be more fancy

mount beetle (raising up one leg to help pull &me over) [settling into the saddle with a slight wiggle]

[Fredd]

using [] can also help you be more fancy

mount beetle (raising up one leg to help pull &me over) [settling into the saddle with a slight wiggle]

I legit forgot about this, thanks lotion.

[Veselka]

My personal advice is to develop a style either for your PC or even yourself as a player.

I tend to find a descriptor for the PCs voice — it helps me hear it in my head, which then allows me to more clearly speak as them. Whether it's a deep graveled rasp, or a musical sing song.

I also think about my PCs personal tics — tucking hair behind an ear or touching their nose often, tapping ash or flicking ash from a spice tube, sucking their teeth while pondering a response.

I also think about their tells — when they are uncomfortable, do they cross and uncross their ankles? Fidgit? Stutter?

I amalgamate these things and repeat them as much as I can when those scenarios trigger them — I speak in the same voice, react the same way reflexively to stimuli, and unconsciously respond to subliminal stimuli. In this way I find I play the foundation of a believable character.

Beyond this, I tend to speak to the player through the emote, as some authors speak to the reader. I'll include things like "emote twitches his nose. Or was that a fly buzzing nearby and landing on it briefly?" Things that I find engage a reader and are more difficult to gloss over. I like engaging people behind the PC I am in a scene with rather than being more rote.

I'm sorry — I truly find it difficult to play around people whose emotes are too flowery and presumptive of my time as a PC. When it takes 5 minutes in between responses to drop paragraphs of description, I get very bored as a player. Everything has a time and place — god bless those that can spill out engaging paragraphs in emotes. And bless those with laconic talent.

[digitaleak]

Sometimes good roleplay isn't even about being descriptive, it's about sticking to a role and playing that out. Taking on a persona and offering that flavor to the world.

Tell player (folding ^me arms) Who the fuck are you? Only nobles of blank house are allowed though these gates.

Short, sweet, not super descriptive but I have no question about their role in the world.

[dumbstruck]

I feel like good roleplay is a combination of not only evocative description but consistent characterization, not just how prolific your emotes are. People can conflate that, and often do, but it's the first that is what people are looking for, I feel.

[Riev]

A suggestion I always have, and NEVER follow:

Come up with 4-5 'common responses' and alias them.

alias lie em scuffs the bottom of his boot on the floor
alies excited em @'s eyes widen and his lips slowly pull apart into a smile

Something like that. So when you're doing something that is a tell, you can just throw that out there.

tell templar Absolutely not, Lord Templar. Don't even know why you'd think I was around, at that time.;lie

[tiny rainbow]

One of the big problems that Armageddon has is there's a much lower general standard of roleplay at times compared to avenues with less "game" mechanics - it's utterly depressing when you meet a sponsored role, or some powerful character where they have:
- a minimum-length description
- using canned soul emotes
- single-sentence says, no command emotes even
- and no use of the emote command at all.

There's some people who are absolutely great, and then you get people who are have this bizarre kind of pride about putting in the minimum amount of effort possible and it's just a really awful culture that seems unique to the game, and I feel like the way people try to degrade and denigrate people who put the effort in is because they feel inadequate but also are unwilling to put the effort in to try be better, which is just awful.

I truly find it difficult to play around people who do stuff like 'em grunts', why would I spend time on someone who clearly doesn't care? Do you think people are more likely to spend effort on your character, if you don't? When it's only a few seconds between between responses and they don't even try to fill in any details, I get very bored. The ten minute rule is the general standard most places btw.

I absolutely love you people who write in detail and fully support you. <3

[Riev]

I truly find it difficult to play around people who do stuff like 'em grunts', why would I spend time on someone who clearly doesn't care? Do you think people are more likely to spend effort on your character, if you don't? When it's only a few seconds between between responses and they don't even try to fill in any details, I get very bored. The ten minute rule is the general standard most places btw.

Its a tough balance. I'm way more verbal than I am physical. I'm not always aware IRL what my body is doing, so translating it into Arm is a lot more effort. Conversely, I am a conversationalist. My roleplay is in my speech. Grinning, frowning, wrinkling my nose... thats as far as I get. Spending 3 minutes crafting an emote that talks about how I'm sitting for people I can't be sure give a shit becaue they're waiting out the darkness timer is daunting.

That said? I've met people where a 5 minute scene with them involves a dozen hemotes and I assume a bunch of feels and thinks as well, culminating into an "em peers at you, thoughtfully".

[tiny rainbow]

yeah totally fine when there's a genuine OOC reason for it, that's a good point It's just a bit terrible to see the same kinda sentiments repeated suggesting that people putting detail into their RP are somehow less when it's absolutely for most people the other way around, in terms of what people want to see in RP.

That's likely why Armageddon is having such a problem with filling city political roles etc because what SHOULD be the pinnacle often isn't, and people take that on face value and assume that's what is on offer in the RP here, and leave and save their best writing for elsewhere instead. People should do better if they want the game to thrive more, everyone needs to remember you're basically an ambassador when there is someone that is obviously new, and first impressions count.

[Kavrick]

I attempt to command emote every time I talk, but at the same time, the word count limit makes it hard to be truly expressive. I can either talk a lot, or animate a lot, never both without cutting it up into multiple posts, which is annoying to do

[Yelinak]

The true measure of "good RP," in the context of emotes, is this: are you portraying the things about your character that other people should be seeing? If your character is angry, afraid, pensive or whatever, are you actually putting this into words so that others have a chance to know it? If not, is there a reason that you aren't doing it, like your character has an impeccable poker face and is deliberately hiding their feelings, or is it just becase you don't bother?

Emotes don't need to be long and flowery, but the minimum expectation should be that players take the trouble to portray those of their characters' behaviors that others should notice and might have a reason to react to. You don't need to constantly write how you're breathing in and out, but if your character is seething with murderous hatred as you prepare to stand up and attack your nemesis at the bar, it's pretty unrealistic if your portrayal of your character is basically them sitting there doing nothing with no expression or any other behavior, then abruptly just leaps to their feet and attacks without any opportunity for anybody to have anticipated anything.

It's a lot like acting. Standing there with a vacant look on your face while monotonously reciting your lines is objectively bad acting unless that is specifically how the character behaves, and if that's the case, that fact should also be portrayed in writing. You shouldn't leave other players to wonder if your character really is completely expressionless or if it's you, the player, who's just too lazy to do any more than the barest minimum.

As tiny rainbow mentions, there's an odd culture on Armageddon where some players take pride in "brevity," which usually just means not emoting much or at all. I think it's more laziness and lack of respect for other players than it is any actual principle that these players hold to, but it sounds a lot better to claim to be pro-brevity and against "flowery emotes." This game has a lot of friction between players, and I feel like I've observed this in people's roleplaying efforts as well. 'That isn't one of my friends, so why should I bother to emote?'

A large part of this stems, I think, from the fact that the game's administration doesn't appear to value or acknowledge good writing. Good writing is held in no apparent regard by staff, and not really rewarded with things like karma or general goodwill. That's all down to time spent as clanlead, politeness in requests, not rocking the boat, responsible use of power, etc. It's like there's no real upstairs interest in good writing in this text-based storytelling game, which has always struck me as bizarre. Sanvean, being an author, acknowledged players who made an effort in writing and characterization; but she seemed to take that with her when she retired.

[dumbstruck]

The seeming surprise at the lack of there being a bullet point for taking vnpcs into account or roleplay on the karma scale was surprising. Leadership is on there.

But not roleplay.

That's a conscious design choice. Every day that it is that way, it is a conscious design choice.

[Yelinak]

The seeming surprise at the lack of there being a bullet point for taking vnpcs into account or roleplay on the karma scale was surprising. Leadership is on there.

But not roleplay.

That's a conscious design choice. Every day that it is that way, it is a conscious design choice.

vNPCs matter when they represent an excuse to punish you for your actions. They're an uncannily punitive lot, our virtual NPCs. If you ever do something slightly shady, they come out of the woodworks and all saw you do it. At the same time, you are not presented with the opportunity to wait until nobody is looking, so if you ever do anything dodgy in a place where it's possible for vNPCs to notice, you can be sure they will. You are not allowed the freedom to use your master stealth skills to loiter until an opportune moment. No, you're always caught. Yay.

If staff dislikes you enough, you're then made perma-wanted. Double-yay. Now your character concept is effectively over and it results in you quitting the game. Yay. Well done, then. Yay. Hurray. Who got anything out of this? Who gained? Is it just a case of downward-punching? Yes, I have a chip on my shoulder because this very thing happened to me. Perma-wanted from crimes nobody witnessed, and that was just the end, goodbye, go away, pesky player who tried to do something more than tavern-sitting. Yay. Enjoy your snoozefest. Haven't played since.

[IntuitiveApathy]

The seeming surprise at the lack of there being a bullet point for taking vnpcs into account or roleplay on the karma scale was surprising. Leadership is on there.

But not roleplay.

I think it's already in there though?  Maybe not spelled out specifically re: VNPCs but included in the broader roleplaying/taking the world into account requirement - from the Karma helpfile:

Code Select Expand

Karma
(Account)

ArmageddonMUD operates a Karma system designed to open up the more complicated, powerful and RP challenging roles to players. Karma is simply a measure of trust that the staff members have in a given player's:

    Degree of maturity and responsibility as a role-player, as evidenced by playing roles realistically and acting responsibly with the code.
    Knowledge of the game world, and an appreciation of the way in which the various races, guilds, and so on, interact.
    Role-playing skill, as evidenced by role-playing in such a way as to show that they are really involved in the game world, and also enriching the game world for other players.

Staff base their decisions to award karma on a set of categories. Each category has a list of criteria which players need to meet in order to gain a karma point. No more than one karma point can be awarded in any one category area; one must pass six of the seven categories to get max karma.
Categories:

    Longevity
    Good communication
    Ability to roleplay
    Proven understanding of magick and its place in the game world
    Proven understanding of cultural and racial structures
    Contributes to the game
    Leadership

A large part of this stems, I think, from the fact that the game's administration doesn't appear to value or acknowledge good writing. Good writing is held in no apparent regard by staff, and not really rewarded with things like karma or general goodwill.

It's been pointed out that roleplay =/= good writing.  While I agree that good writing should be encouraged, I don't think it should be mandatory to either just play period or to earn trust to participate more in the game via gated roles (currently through karma, but whatever other future mechanism if that changes).  I'm not some amazing writer myself, but I certainly admire and try to take inspiration from those that are.  If staff came along and told me that they don't think my writing is good enough and then limited my options to play because of it, I would just stop playing altogether, and I suspect I wouldn't be the only one.

[Riev]

The seeming surprise at the lack of there being a bullet point for taking vnpcs into account or roleplay on the karma scale was surprising. Leadership is on there.

But not roleplay.

I think it's already in there though?  Maybe not spelled out specifically re: VNPCs but included in the broader roleplaying/taking the world into account requirement - from the Karma helpfile:

Even more pertinent is that I'm pretty sure it USED to be in there. Unfortunately, the way the help files are designed, I can't use the Wayback machine to see if I am correct. I'm pretty sure there were 8 criteria to meet to be 8 karma, and I think one of them was an understanding of the virtual environment.

If not, it should have been, because now there are only 6 criterion.

[Tuannon]

Understanding one's place in the virtual world is absolutely a sign you understand what your role entails. But I think it's more valuable when assessing RP quality to not take OOC liberties with certain staff supplied benefits.

[Tailong]

Last time someone used the term 'purple prose' to me it was in the negative connotations, so I am just confused.

[CirclelessBard]

Last time someone used the term 'purple prose' to me it was in the negative connotations, so I am just confused.

'Purple prose' is indeed a term used in literary critique to describe overly flowery language that seems intended to make text hard to read. As a writer I never really liked the terms 'purple prose', its opposite 'beige prose' and similar terms because it always strikes me as a little bit snooty. However I think the OP is well-intended and was simply describing a higher level of detailed writing in emotes.

---

Response to the OP:

While I do believe that emote quality is tied partially to roleplaying quality, I don't think the connection is "stronger emotes = better roleplay". I do believe that very brief emotes absolutely have their place in a good roleplayer's repertoire. Many writers use sentence length to denote the pacing of a scene. If you read a lot, you'll notice that action scenes tend to use shorter sentences. Scenes that happen at a normal pace, but have a sudden event interrupt them, are usually capped with a short sentence describing that sudden event. Slower or more intricate (or more intimate!) scenes tend to have longer sentences. Scenes that are dialogue-heavy in fiction are more descriptive of character actions and the situation around them when the conversation is calm, and less descriptive when characters are having an argument or are in the midst of a fight.

So, "em grunts" is potentially good roleplay... in the right context.

MUSHes have a reputation for having players that are very descriptive (often to an excessive degree), but if you actually read MUSH logs you will see the variance I described above. If you're curious, search for Ares MUSH games - the games that use this engine all have websites that post logs of public scenes on their websites. You will often see short (one word to one sentence) poses being used in a fast-paced context.

As a disclaimer, I believe that truly good roleplay comes from a mixture of emote-writing, being in your character's headspace, and avoiding playing self-insert characters. But as far as the emote-writing aspect goes, it's worth it to challenge yourself to write the best thing you can, keeping in mind timing and pacing.

[Kaathe]

*not official staff position, just my own*

I don't care about emotes upfront. It's not your job to entertain.  It's your job to run a realistic character and treat the game world around you as a real one.  Do this and thinks, feels, and emotes will exist in your imagination even when solo, and then you can put some in the game in whatever capacity you desire. 

[Yelinak]

*not official staff position, just my own*

I don't care about emotes upfront. It's not your job to entertain.  It's your job to run a realistic character and treat the game world around you as a real one.  Do this and thinks, feels, and emotes will exist in your imagination even when solo, and then you can put some in the game in whatever capacity you desire. 

Emoting is surely part of playing a realistic character. Emotes are literally the actions of your character. While they aren't coded or interchangable with coded actions, there shouldn't be an inherent distinction between the two. Surely if there's a distinction between the two, this game can't claim to be Roleplay Intensive. If I emote doing something, my character has done it, barring fringe cases like excessive power-posing that nobody would accept.

There's no rule that says you must take the time to emote everything your character might be doing, that's true; but emoting those of one's actions that are not echoed by the game's code is part and parcel of running a realistic character. As a member of staff, I'm sure you'd agree that if you see someone just wantonly slaughtering wildlife without ever putting out a written word to show what they're doing, they'll be pegged as a twink. Meanwhile, if they can show that they're doing it for a valid reason, it's a different story.

Thinks and feels are all well and good from the staff perspective. They mean nothing to other players. In terms of the quality of one's roleplay, they're not a substitute for emoting. For the players themselves, think/feel is an optional tool to aid in immersion. For staff, it's a way to glean a player's motivations. But for any other player in the scene, it doesn't matter two shits if some guy is firing off a barrage of eloquent thinks. If he isn't emoting at all, his character is perceived as a mindless dummy, and if his role in that scene does not correspond to staring witlessly into space, I would opine that it qualifies as bad roleplay.

Let's take an example. I love examples.

#1: Amos is sitting at the bar. Over there at the other end of the bar is Malik. Amos fucking hates Malik and has wanted to murder him for years. Malik killed Amos' parents, siblings, children, friends, and favorite baker. Amos is seething with hatred the moment Malik walks in, and is fully committed to the kill. In fact, it takes all of Amos' self-control to even wait until Malik has sat down before lunging at him. Malik deserves to die so much.

But the player of Amos makes no effort whatsoever to emote any of this. He puts out a flurry of thinks and feels, and unless anyone in the tavern is of a certain redacted character type, none of them have any opportunity to pick up on these. These thinks might tell staff all about what Amos means to do and justify it from start to finish, but at the end of the day, everyone else in the tavern just sees a dude sitting there doing nothing whatsoever until he suddenly does a stand;draw knife;kill malik.

#2: Same thing, except Amos' player starts emoting instead. His features immediately sour upon first sight of Malik. He glowers down the length of the bar, nostrils flaring with temper, clutching the handle of his tankard so hard that his knuckles grow white. Each time Malik speaks, Amos exhales sharply through his teeth. Everyone's got a chance to notice it. Malik might furtively lay a hand on the hilt of his blade, because he's noticing, too.

But Amos doesn't take the trouble to type out a bunch of thinks/feels. It's quite hard to do that and elaborate emotes at the same time, after all. Obviously, any staff member who is actually present in the room will have picked up on the same things as the players have, but the global immortal thinknet might not summon anyone because Amos is busy actually making the scene realistic and interesting for the players who are present.

- end of example -

If I'm asked what I think is the superior case of roleplay, I'm all about #2, especially because we already have semi-official rules that say Amos is expected to wish up before he tries to stab Malik in his murderous face and explain to staff why he's doing it. That covers both bases. In doing only thinks and feels, he's only providing additional enjoyment to any staff who might be watching, and who will be adequately informed by the aforementioned wish anyway, while giving nothing whatsoever to the players.

Why exactly is it more important to cater to staff than to our fellow players? Why do you think players should prioritize characterizing internally, i.e. to you, than externally to the other players? It seems like a strange ideology to have. A player's responsibility is first to their fellow players and then next to the staff who have so many more tools at their disposal to read between the lines and understand what's going on. Players only have each other's characterization, and if there's none of that, the whole game falls apart as a concept.

I have infinitely more respect for players who emote but don't use think than players who think but don't emote, because a character's internal motivations are already covered by the expectation that one wishes up before doing anything serious, by character reports, and by the fact that staff can watch anyone at any time and see everything. Other players can only see what you choose to show them, and if you show them nothing, you have failed them. You were a bad roleplayer.

Your duty is to the game and your fellow players before the staff, as long as you don't break any rules or require their assistance. If there's five players in the room, your obligation is to cater to them first before you consider catering to the potential presence of a staff member. That should just be common sense. Staff members are not privy to some prima-nocte service through your roleplay. There probably isn't even one around, and even if there is, there's almost certainly more players. Your duty is to be a good player for those fellow players before catering to staff's whims and preferences, as long as you've not broken any rules, written or unwritten (i.e. wish up before you kill, famously unwritten and yet routinely punishable, everyone learns this the hard way).

[Usiku]

I was going to write some things, but essentially I agree with everything Yelinak has written across the multiple posts they have contributed to this thread (not inclusive of commentary about staff, which are objectively...incorrect). Up to and including that the game, and the play you put out is for the benefit of yourself and other players and not for staff.

Thinks & feels are helpful to staff, but they are also helpful for character development, using them helps you as a player better empathise with your own PC. There are, of course, also PCs who may benefit from your PCs internal dialogue.

@Yelinak - for someone who is no longer playing the game you take a lot of swipes at staff when you participate in otherwise benign, community discussions and honestly you are reintroducing and maintaining a certain toxicity that we are striving very hard to move away from. I have no idea of your history with the game or staff and no frame of reference for why you feel the way you do, but I would rather you reach out and bury the hatchet than continue to take these pot shots. I can tell you that the individuals on the staffing team we have now are absolutely dedicated to fair treatment of all players and want nothing more than to maintain and improve our amazing game and provide fun and engagement for our players.

[Wday]

Very detailed to even small to the point type emotes. I feel falls on the eyes of the readers to use our imagination and play off it.  Mainly when you know the context of the scene you can read between the lines. So a simple emote (nodding while listening to ~person) in my mind has many facial expression and so on. 
Hardest thing for me to role play off is the type that use the text game and read it like it is fine print.  Give room for error maybe you heard something wrong not read it?  Hard playing at times off those that go pen and paper type styles.  NOT saying that is bad role play!  Just saying that is tougher then following short or lengthy emotes.

[Lizzie]

I think we all have our preferences for what we prefer to read and how we want to express ourselves through our characters. When I first came to Arm I was in awe of the rich, detailed emotes of certain players. But after awhile, I noticed they never switched it up. A nod was never "just a nod." It was always accompanied with a strand of hair falling toward their well-described nose while their head tilts at this or that degree.  Eventually I started wondering if the player was actually trying to play the role, or if they were just trying to impress everyone with how well they write.

It started looking like a show of arrogance, to me. And it eventually turned me off.  Then I found out MUSHes exist, and realized oh - these might just be MUSH players, it's not arrogance, it's just what they're used to doing.  So I tried to enjoy it again. But then I was reminded - I don't play MUSHes. I prefer the faster "live-action" of a MUD.  If I want to read paragraphs of text, I'll read a book. We have room and combat brief settings here for a reason.  Some people just don't have the patience to pore through every word, every nuance of every paragraph, to figure out what the character is doing.

You can use my post as an example of that. Who read the whole thing? Probably many of you didn't. Now imagine my character explaining something more in-game-thematic in the same way to your character, while a scene is happening in the game.  Are you going to say "oh wow, what great emotes!" or are you going to say "shut up and skin the damned chalton FFS, the gate's closing in 3 minutes?"

So - tl;dr: sometimes a nod is just a nod. And that's okay. There's a time for flowery emotes. There's a time to just nod, or nod cordially, or nod and wave, or nod and turn to leave. You don't have to impress anyone with every line you type into the game. And sometimes - going overboard in making that effort just causes scenes to not progress. Mix it up, maybe your entrance is a big to-do. Maybe you're about to set the scene for something. That's when you go nuts with the flowery emotes. But once the conversation/interaction begins, pare it down a bit so everyone else has a chance to do something before it's time to log out for the night.

[dumbstruck]

Whenever I first came to play arm, I had never played a MUSH. I would not go on to discover MUSHES existed for 9 years. I had only played dungeons and dragons. I was one of those people who would never 'just nod'. And it felt like it pissed some people off. Their characters got terse with mine even when mine had done nothing to deserve it, because they would take a few moments longer to show up as nodding than someone who would just use the nod social.

Some would seek out mine for mudsex more. Some still do. I don't care for either of those odd phenomena. I learned over the years while roleplaying here, just here, really, that if you give long, flowery emotes, that people will be more likely to get frustrated with you if they're remotely rushed. They will be more likely to try and fuck your characters, even if there is no in game reason for it, and I stopped doing it. Not entirely. But a lot of the time.

When I'm stoned, or when I'm feeling inspired, or (yes, it's the culture, after 15 years) when one of my characters is around another character they see as having potential for a romantic interest in, the emote game is slowed down and stepped up. This happens when I'm alone too, again, more when I'm feeling inspired. It's not something that was necessarily intentional as a change. But something that I noticed after discovering MUSHes, when coming back here, and switching between the two.

It makes me a bit sad honestly. I don't know what to do about it. Just as when I started playing, it's not an intentional choice I made, but instead a drift in writing style that happened as a result in response to the roleplay of the people around me. I think the idea of calling a mush something other than live action isn't really fair (yes, there is now a type of mush, ARES, that has options for scenes done that way but it's an incredibly new codebase and only a drop in the bucket of those types of games), just because it's not happening with tersely short writing at break neck speeds. The type of roleplay you're looking to compare it to is forum post by post. That is not live action. MUSHes are live action.

[Riev]

In general, those who "take the time to put in a quality emote" TEND to be the type who will follow the scene and end up in mudsex positions. It is very rare that I see the grunt-nodder in full scale romantic mudsex relationships.

Basically, social players tend to lean towards mudsex relationships and once you (as a player) are known to do it, you're sought after for it. Sometimes by the same other players because they know you're down.

Maybe we need more awesome emoters to say that their sexual desires are satisfied when they're logged off.

[strangerdanger]

Maybe we need more awesome emoters to say that their sexual desires are satisfied when they're logged off.

Buddy I'm trying to butter my toast on both sides.

Sometimes I emote like crazy around other players. Sometimes I emote like crazy when I'm solo. I always emote around other players and sometimes I don't emote at all when solo. There's a whole spectrum of what I feel like doing at any given moment and I'd say when I'm solo I'm more likely to have my imagination fill in the gaps for the sake of quicker gameplay. When I'm around other people I like to slow down and think through/act out (emote) what's going on for my mans; it's more reactionary and adaptive than like the millionth time I've typed 'skin corpse'.

I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make. I guess for me emoting feels like an expressive thing that I sometimes have more energy for than others. For the sake of the ease of my play and the direction of a scene I'll either lengthen or shorten my emotes or try to add extra details. I used to get geeked out around super emoters or annoyed by non emoters, but more and more often I just play my game and work with what I've got in front of me. Some people are easier to work with than others, but I'm not trying to discount anyone just because they have a challenging style (for me).

[Riev]

Tone is hard to convey over text.
It was tongue in cheek, after my post saying that flowery emoters tend to be sexual players.

Deal with whats in front of you is a solid point. This whole thread's point was just "I'm going to try and do better."

[Windstorm]

Even small reactions, facial cues, tone changes, I think, can add a lot to how a PC is reacting, saying, or looking when they do things.

Certain habits of a given PC can tell you a lot about them. At least by me. I try to have a few things that each PC personally does. Blinking. Squinting. Touching her face. Scowling. The way they walk, even the general reaction vNPCs might have around them. It helps me define them better to myself and form more of a full picture with which to express them better outwardly.

Also, everything dumbstruck said! Sometimes I'm high or feeling creative, evocative, and my emotes/feels go wild. If I'm around a PC I know is going to have a high standard of expression I'll be very glad to put more effort in myself. I'm rarely short of things to write but it's an effort thing.

[digitaleak]

I've always preferred to just lead by example. I've noticed when I really engage other players, they usually match my energy in their own way over time. And on that note I try to adapt in my own way to the other people in the room. it doesn't happen over night, it's like building a culture. It takes time and love to craft and cultivate.

I also try to have grace because I know there are a lot of people who may just not really have much experience taking on a character or even expressing themselves IRL. Other's might be too intimidated or scared to mess up (that was me for my first 4 characters). Other's might just be exhausted/drained/burnt out and don't want to always be 'on' - especially leadership roles (that's not to excuse poor leadership or laziness, but sometimes leaders did a lot of behind the scenes work and just want to log out once they made it through an event).

[Kaathe]

Yelinak, I think you missed the point of my post or I didn't explain it well. Leading with thinks and feels isn't for staff's benefit. Thinks and feels are for you, the player, to get into the character itself and enjoy yourself. Emotes will flow from it. Perceiving your character and the world around them realistically is where one starts, not worrying about if your emoting well enough to make other players (or staff) happy.

*again not official staff position*

[dumbstruck]

Yelinak, I think you missed the point of my post or I didn't explain it well. Leading with thinks and feels isn't for staff's benefit. Thinks and feels are for you, the player, to get into the character itself and enjoy yourself. Emotes will flow from it. Perceiving your character and the world around them realistically is where one starts, not worrying about if your emoting well enough to make other players (or staff) happy.

I like to think it's a mix of the two. Same as emotes are for you but also for the other player which is why when another player isn't around I tend to default more to thinks and feels than emotes. Why both? Because if it's just for me, there's no reason for me to input it at all. I already know what they're doing. I already know what they're thinking and feeling. If that makes sense. I don't mean to derail you though, but instead I feel like I get both you and Yelinak here, because I feel like I get how it's both?

[Jimpka_Moss]

Just popping in to say I love you all, you're amazing, and every single one of you have contributed to a big, important, living breathing thing in my life.

Also to complain a little. Since I immerse myself in the way that I'm looking forward through my chars eyes, trying to feel what they're wearing, and their senses are my own, I'm saddened by how few voices I've heard. It's hard for me to properly gauge so many char's voices, but a few I've actually been able to clearly hear through descriptions. Thank you for those, bards, mudsexers, and purple proses.

[Fredd]

This went okay for me. The challenge was harder then I expected but I think I stepped it up a bit. Now to try again this month, until i have be bestest prose ever!

Seriously though, all of ya'll rock. Over the past month i've noticed more people branching out their emoting too.