So I'm around some major-league players and notice they all have these huge emotes they sling around, using them creatively to describe every situation in perfectly appropriate detail.
Then I look down at my keyboard and realize.. I have a tiny emote. :-X
It's not the technical part, all emotes feel good and size really doesn't matter, right?
The creative part is where I have trouble. I feel below average and unable to satisfy others.
I think the problem is translating the picture in my head into words - a very slow step for me so I usually just dumb it down in order to get something out quickly (premature emotation?).
Then again, sometimes I completely draw a blank (emotile dysfunction?).
Anyone have any pointers on how to be more creative and satisfying with their emotes? Maybe it's genetic and some people were just born with huge creative emotes..
[Disclaimer: This is a serious discussion and any allusion you derive regarding the above text is purely of your own construal.]
It sucks when I think of something really cool and the response is so much better that I feel completely illiterate.
Or worse, around Miss (you know who you are) whose emotes are so elegant I feel like I'm reading a novel and I'm thinking 'Shit that's good' and draw a complete blank when I try to come up with a response.
I swear, this must be what impotence feels like. Want, want, want but it's just not there. So how the heck do you learn to be creative with words? And be fast about it?
Dammit Jim, I'm a math person not a wordsmith. Help, I'm really frustrated. :'(
Don't worry about it! Seriously. I think we all feel illiterate or self-conscious of our emotes from time to time.
Why flower up something you can easily, readily emote in fewer words? Me, I have specific words I use in specific emotes for my characters that might make them flashy at times. But seriously, I think (as a clannie ;) ) you're doing a fantastic job. There is no need to feel like a fop around people who throw out huge emotes. Just think - they might be envious of your ability to exude a character in less.
But to answer your question (HAH I DIDN'T SEE IT), I feel a lot more confident and quick with emotes or flowery shit when I read, and read a -lot-. I read at least a chapter of a book each day, and I can tell my emotes suck or my creativity blows when I haven't been reading regularly.
I hope you get some good tips, because I still have emote envy after 4+ years playing ;) There are just some players who are better at emoting than I am. I accept that. There are other aspects of roleplay that I am better at than they are. That is OK too. We each have our talents and all we're required to do is to bring those particular talents to the table and play to our full. When we all contribute like that, it's a perfect Silt Sea stew of tastes.
I do have a few tips that might be helpful.
Props: Use them. A spice tube, the hem of a garment, a flower in the hair, an earring, a crossbow you're pointing, the edge of a knife. Using props can give your character something to do beyond "emote nods."
VNPCs: Use them. Bump into them, get a drink spilled on you by one, shy away from that mul, sneer at a breed.
Environment: Emote it. Time of day, weather, flora, fauna, buildings. Look around you, find what's in the environment, and put it in your emotes. Players who do this are so cool. (I do it sometimes, because I'm trying to be cool too.)
Physical characteristics of your PC: While it's really irritating when the cold-blue-eyed man emotes about his cold blue eyes in every single freakin' possible place, I think it's otherwise pretty neat when players use the physicality of their characters in their emotes. Scars, tattooes, hair, lips, fingers...and not just for mudsex! Remind me what your PC looks like, it's part of the whole visual thing.
Reach out and touch someone: Players frequently fail to physically interact with the PCs around them. I know we're all afraid of poweremoting. But this is very easily done in a way that gives the other PC the power of choosing their reaction: "emote aims a playful slap at %pc cheek." They get to decide whether the slap lands, whether they duck, or what. Smack, slap, kiss, caress, touch.
Don't worry about pretty: Some players are elegant or unique with their emotes, the rest of us can barely get past nodding. That is OK. Just keep emoting. It doesn't have to be fancy or pretty to get the job done. Maybe your personal style is more succinct or more gritty. It can still be interesting or engaging!
But do vary the presentation of your emotes: Emotes that always start with the PC's sdesc are eventually boring. Learn how to put your @ in the middle, so you can "Deeply, @ nods" instead.
Hidden emotes: Learn them, use them, love them. They are sexy. Sexy players use them. In a spammy tavern scene, or when your character really has nothing to say, they are also very useful.
There was a brilliant thread on improving your emotes a few years back. I looked, but I couldn't find it.
Just throwing that out there in case someone else remembers it, and knows who wrote it, or where to find it.
Now I'm scared to nod.
Ugh, dude, me too. And I'm a writer, I've played for eight years, I staffed and me too!
I suspect one reason my PCs don't get laid more is because I secretly sabotage them, because all that emoting is so fucking daunting.
Oh and by the way... You know that player who everyone on the boards is always complaining about- the one who mistypes all the homophones and leaves off the final punctuation on a regular basis? Yep. Sorry.
But, they still let me play. Some people are huge emoters and rock. Some are short ones and rock. Some of us are the appreciative audience and maybe we rock too. If not fuck them They can kiss our asses.
I remember San writing that huge emotes were nice and all, but it was the emotes that built the environment around the player that really developed the scene. Reference the world around you. The emote is less about you and more about the world, but do so in a way that doesn't focus on the character but does develop the world. IMO, anyway.
I've struggled with a similar thing, OP. Instead of trying to compete, I've taken to making up for my non-fluent emotes with my strength: dialog. Chances are, you probably have your own "strong area" outside of emoting you can capitalize on too.
Otherwise, Gimf's advice is amazing advice, and she walks the talk (sexy player). Listen to her.
Don't worry about emoting too much. You only need to use emote when you want to do something that isn't supported by the code. You can give your character plenty of characterization simply by post and pre-emoting your basic coded stuff. You can make an interesting character without using anything more than >sit bar and >talk.
If it's length you're worried about, make sure you're emotes always contain two things: an action and an object. If there's no object (besides yourself), you're not really interacting with anything; just hemote and move on. If there's no action, you probably shouldn't bother unless you are wanting to draw attention to yourself despite not really having anything to do, which can be useful depending on the circumstances but in general I would avoid.
As far as I'm concerned, emoting is about communicating non-coded actions to other players, so long, flowery emotes can actually be detrimental. They can be easily overlooked in crowded scenes, or read incorrectly, or even simply be wrong in their portrayal of others or the environment. All the power to those who like to flex their creative muscles with their emotes, but I definitely prefer concise emotes that effectively and easily communicate what's occurring.
It's your character's actions that define them in relation to the world and others around them; emotes are just one of the tools we use to communicate those actions.
Find a nice hook. A fall-back emote. If your character has braided hair, play with your braids. If your character has a limp, emote moving your weight from one leg to another and so on. I always found that helpful. The tips given so far are awesome, emote with your equiped items. (Usually players have so much shit equipped, if you have something nice I am glad if you make it pop for me in an emote.) Another thing is to combine overall appearance, sometimes you don't have to emote out every wrinkle in your face to make me understand you're angry. Just throw a "emote looks angry as shit as he slaps ~dumbass", works too (at least for me). Using your enviorment is always nice. (Echooing your voice in a cave is always cool.) Also, you can practice in your mind a bit. Look at yourself in your chair, if you're sitting down somewhere - copy some of the stuff you're doing IRL. We do a shit ton of stuff without giving it a second though.. (rub a foot at the ground, fiddle with something in our hands, look away when someone is talking, rub at an eye.. And so on.)
Also, emote how you move! If we're moving together, throw me an emote how you walk. Remember the "he walked, talked like a..". Well - how you talk and walk is important! >_>
Quote from: hyzhenhok on September 22, 2010, 01:11:23 PM
Don't worry about emoting too much. You only need to use emote when you want to do something that isn't supported by the code. You can give your character plenty of characterization simply by post and pre-emoting your basic coded stuff. You can make an interesting character without using anything more than >sit bar and >talk.
I wish I could agree with you, but I don't. Sure, to quote an ARM truism, "emoting doesn't equal roleplay." But when you do not show me
how you are sitting,
how you are talking,
how you are taking a swipe at me during sparring, then basically you are not illustrating your character. Make it succinct, short, gritty, or whatever, but please please please do it. I cannot think of a single character I have ever found "interesting" when their player did not bother to emote. Emotes turn a character from a 2-D talking robot into a 3-D breathing person.
Long descriptive emotes don't excite me, or intimidate me. I use them on occasion, and if someone else does them, I'll read them on occasion. Really it depends more on the context of the emote than the quality of the emote. If all I'm seeing is 3-line descriptives of someone flipping their golden tendrils, I'll ignore them after the first two or three. If I'm seeing a plot move along with cooperative interchange of emotes, then that's what will engage me in the scene. I really really REALLY prefer to see a mix of simple and complex. Simple without any complexity is boring. Complex without any simplicity is too much effort to decipher non-stop.
The people who impress me most with their emotes, are not people who focus exlusively on dishing out 3-line after 3-line. The people who impress me the most, are people who draw my attention through the context of what their emotes are trying to convey.
Not being a native English speaker, I often find it very hard to do anything more than nod or shake head or make my character do anything that a tin wind up toy couldn't do. Especially when you involve real or perceived time limit. I always question if the phrase I'm typing anyone actually uses in the English language, sometimes even typing it into google to see if it shows up anywhere.
So, templars and people in power, I will bow, don't worry, just give me some time.
Voular and Gimf had some awesome points. Finding something your character does often is a great way to always have something to emote or throw out there. And don't worry, everyone struggles with repetitiveness and stuff all the time. And using VNPC's and the world around you is a must- seeing people emote around the room description is my favorite. I mean, for me, I tend to use a lot of description in says or tells, and I nod slowly -all- the time, heh. Remember that Arm tends to have medium to short length of emotes (if you ever played a MUSH or some of the emote-for-XP muds you'll be pleased we're not tossing out 3-5 lines regularly).
As far as building description in emotes goes, its not necessarily the beautiful adjectives or verbiage that really shows well. It's description of where your character is, what they're doing, and how they're doing it. Best advice I can give is something I got a long time ago when I was doing theater in high school: do things naturally. Don't just emote sitting at the bar or at the couch- is your character slumping down, sitting up straight, leaning over, legs kicked up ? Are you breathing heavily, softly, speaking clearly, loudly, thickly, roughly? Where are your hands, what's your posture, how do your features change with your expressions?
Thinking about some of those can give you some extra meat.
Some of the folks I found really awesome rarely emoted. They talked. And it was the nuances in the talking that was really cool.
Quote from: Twilight on September 22, 2010, 02:34:21 PM
Some of the folks I found really awesome rarely emoted. They talked. And it was the nuances in the talking that was really cool.
Recently told someone who was discouraged from arm by their character limit on emotes (they come from storyline roleplay) that it would fade, because roleplay here is largely -dialogue- driven. It's something I see in few other games.
I generally don't get too emote-heavy unless the 'scene' is lacking in either dialogue or action. If those are missing, I pick up the slack.
While I agree that florid emotes are often fantastic, their length can often dilute its impact. I try my best to be an emotional player, and focus on the tone of a scene as opposed to describing its mechanics. My absolute favortitist trick, no foolin', is to punctuate a particularly strong reaction by making the emote as short as possible.
This too:
Props are a great for filling in the gaps and keeping a conversation interesting, but again it's the meal that's important, not the garnish.
Quote from: Armaddict on September 22, 2010, 02:59:33 PM
Quote from: Twilight on September 22, 2010, 02:34:21 PM
Some of the folks I found really awesome rarely emoted. They talked. And it was the nuances in the talking that was really cool.
Recently told someone who was discouraged from arm by their character limit on emotes (they come from storyline roleplay) that it would fade, because roleplay here is largely -dialogue- driven. It's something I see in few other games.
Agreed. Dialogue and atmosphere are much more important than lengthy emotes.
Quote from: Feco on September 22, 2010, 04:50:11 PM
Quote from: Armaddict on September 22, 2010, 02:59:33 PM
Quote from: Twilight on September 22, 2010, 02:34:21 PM
Some of the folks I found really awesome rarely emoted. They talked. And it was the nuances in the talking that was really cool.
Recently told someone who was discouraged from arm by their character limit on emotes (they come from storyline roleplay) that it would fade, because roleplay here is largely -dialogue- driven. It's something I see in few other games.
Agreed. Dialogue and atmosphere are much more important than lengthy emotes.
Clearly it's not about length of emote, but content. Atmosphere generated by emotes is important.
I don't believe there is a hierarchy of importance. As long as you're rping, your doing you're part. How you rp isn't important, just so long as your aim is to join the effort to bring the world to life and you do rp.
Two things help me out with emotes.
Firstly, read lots of books.
Secondly, write/print this and stick it to your monitor.
Symbol Reference Target Sees
------ --------- -----------
~ (sdesc) you
! him/her you
% (sdesc)'s your
^ his/her your
# he/she you
& himself/herself yourself
= (sdesc)'s yours
+ his/hers yours
Emotes are as important as speach.
Quote from: Marshmellow on September 22, 2010, 08:40:43 PM
Emotes are as important as speach.
Pshh. It's all about THINK these days. :D
To add to excellent points already made:
A deep vocabulary is great, and it helps depict things in a way that a shallower vocabulary can't. But if you throw too many grand words into an emote, it is hard for the other player to work with at times, particularly when the scene is busy.
Nobody will fault you for not having grand emotes. Just because I use big words from time to time, doesn't mean that I dislike the character who portrays themselves in few words. I'm not envious of them, heh, but I am not disappointed. I do as I do because I can - they do as they do because they can. Don't worry about not being grand enough. I'm glad you're here, period.
And even though people who won't use capitals and punctuation piss me off, I'm still glad they are here.
I've struggled with this for a long time, and I've come close to something like a coherent answer. As some have suggested, the secret is in what happens before you emote. A good part of it is knowing what your character would do, and another is adopting a playstyle that lets you, the player, feel free to emote to whatever degree you like.
The latter is much more difficult. What other people have suggested is a way to achieve that, as the pressures can be subtle and proper preparation can alleviate them.
Quote from: Gimfalisette on September 22, 2010, 01:23:40 PM
Quote from: hyzhenhok on September 22, 2010, 01:11:23 PM
Don't worry about emoting too much. You only need to use emote when you want to do something that isn't supported by the code. You can give your character plenty of characterization simply by post and pre-emoting your basic coded stuff. You can make an interesting character without using anything more than >sit bar and >talk.
I wish I could agree with you, but I don't. Sure, to quote an ARM truism, "emoting doesn't equal roleplay." But when you do not show me how you are sitting, how you are talking, how you are taking a swipe at me during sparring, then basically you are not illustrating your character. Make it succinct, short, gritty, or whatever, but please please please do it. I cannot think of a single character I have ever found "interesting" when their player did not bother to emote. Emotes turn a character from a 2-D talking robot into a 3-D breathing person.
You seem to have misunderstood my meaning. I was advocating a reliance on post and premotes, which are helpful because they guide the player to make sure the focus in on actions. That interesting character who did little more than >sit and >talk would of course throw in a healthy dose of parentheses and brackets.
Hyzhenhok>
You seem to forget that a emote without action (or much of it) can do a great deal to build the environment around the players. Just sitting on a sand dune can become full and real with just use of the emote command - without speaking and without action.
In addition to all of the wonderful suggestions, I also recommend using command emotes. You have to put that rock in your backpack anyway, so why not describe how you're doing it instead of leaving it hanging bare and ugly? You're drinking from that mug anyway, so why not describe exactly how desperately you're knocking it back?
Secondarily, related but not directly attached to emotes, I also recommend using the option to change your ldesc, especially if you're just standing in a room waiting around for someone. Since you're waiting around anyway, why not toss out a line about how you're leaning casually, or wearing a fretful expression, or whatever.
Quote from: DustMight on September 23, 2010, 08:51:09 AM
Hyzhenhok>
You seem to forget that a emote without action (or much of it) can do a great deal to build the environment around the players. Just sitting on a sand dune can become full and real with just use of the emote command - without speaking and without action.
If you like that kind of emoting, go crazy. I do it to, if the situation warrants it. Generally, though, we can do without long, flowery emotes that just serve as a garnish to the scene. The MUD is a narrative, and the rules of writing narrative apply: short, to the point, focus on showing action, be clear, avoid adverbs, etc. I find long emotes that the OP apparently is intimidated by are often in conflict with the rules of good narrative, which of course explains why I'll naturally tend to skim or completely skip them when I see them. If it's a long emote with no important verb or object, fuck it. Only maybe if I'm RPing with you one-on-one.
I feel it's much more productive to encourage people who feel intimidated by such emoting to focus specifically on their character, with the clear reminded that they are not required or even expected to start emoting like the "pros."
Yeah, I did misunderstand you, hyzenhok. Truth be told, I don't emote without saying anything that often. But I do always emote sparring, often emote combat, try to always emote crafting, and so on. Other times I will just emote without speaking are when my PC has no reason to speak--like some other people are having the conversation and I'm not in on it, I'm just following it. So I participate by emoting intead of speaking.
Also, valeria is right, command emotes are awesome. I forgot to point them out. I try to use them as often as I can to give flavor to what I'm doing. I think the only thing now that we don't have command emotes for is draw/sheath. And there's a good reason for that omission. But for everything else, command emote away!
Quote from: Gimfalisette on September 23, 2010, 11:54:25 AM
Yeah, I did misunderstand you, hyzenhok. Truth be told, I don't emote without saying anything that often. But I do always emote sparring, often emote combat, try to always emote crafting, and so on. Other times I will just emote without speaking are when my PC has no reason to speak--like some other people are having the conversation and I'm not in on it, I'm just following it. So I participate by emoting intead of speaking.
Also, valeria is right, command emotes are awesome. I forgot to point them out. I try to use them as often as I can to give flavor to what I'm doing. I think the only thing now that we don't have command emotes for is draw/sheath. And there's a good reason for that omission. But for everything else, command emote away!
I definitely agree that where you cannot attach a command emote, it's very nice to get in the habit of emoting to make up for it. It's mostly combat moves like draw, bash, kick, etc, but there's still a few others as well that you'll run into occasionally, like sniffing spice.
That's true. I wish smoking/sniffing spice didn't poweremote me. I do always try to emote around that, including the relevant command emotes.
Don't make the mistake of underestimating brevity. :)
HEY MATH GUY, READ THIS
It comes down to variables. The more variables you can throw into your emotive, the better it is going to look. These variables, for the most part, need to be external to your conversation. Don't nod, don't shake your head (this is not a flawless suggestion, I caught myself with 3 says the other day with nods in them, then threw in an emotive fourth nod in self mockery... I think the PC I was talking to picked up on it and got a smirk), but describe your character's body posture, especially if you're lying, stressed, angsty, emo, or anything else.
Brevity is awesome. It has its place.
Making obscenely twisting, uber deep emotives with meanings both immediate and latent, however, are equally important.
Don't throw pieces of gear into an emote unless it's essential to the situation to describe what you're doing, or how you're posture is changing, or how you're maneuvering. Yes, we all know you're awesome because you have a fossilized dujat dick slung across your back, we're all in goddamn awe. Besides that, however, we don't fucking care.
Also, respond through emotives to the emotives of others. Keep the conversation going verbally, keep another 'Layer' of communication to the emotives.
Variables, son. Variables.
Example:
say (noting how completely awesome my cloak is as I pointlessly do something with it, then bringing attention to my really cool makeup and just general incredible sexiness) Hello, I want to fuck you.
NO. BAD.
say (bringing attention to this atmospheric bit of awesomeness in the room desc that may have been missed but is very pertinent to the conversation, then reacting subtlely to the emotive my verbal sparring partner just slid out, adding a bit of an action that details how my character feels about the particular situation) Hello, you want to fuck me.
YES.
The runons totally ruin the mood.
Smiling slightly, her hair bouncing seductively over her angular shoulders which shrug mildly, as she nods vaguely to you, the runon lass says, in runon-accented sirihish, "Please stab me in the face."
nod runon
emote stabs ~runon in the face.
I like mine best.
Quote from: Malifaxis on September 23, 2010, 12:45:21 PM
HEY MATH GUY, READ THIS
Variables, son. Variables.
say (bringing attention to this atmospheric bit of awesomeness in the room desc that may have been missed but is very pertinent to the conversation, then reacting subtlely to the emotive my verbal sparring partner just slid out, adding a bit of an action that details how my character feels about the particular situation) Hello, you want to fuck me.
YES.
Now considering that most of those variables are dependent and I've isolated the only independent variable in the equation the result also requires no dependent variables..but I'll throw one in anyway
say (drooling) Hell yeah.
QuoteYes, we all know you're awesome because you have a fossilized dujat dick slung across your back, we're all in goddamn awe.
I'll emote about my fossilized dujat dick if I want to. I'm very proud of it. :P
My rule of thumb is, "how would I like this scene to look if I were reading this as a book?" And I do what I can to create that.
This means that some scenes or situations benefit from huge emotes, which I do happily when I feel it's needed. Other times, I use really short ones.
I would say everyone should work together when they can. (even if it's conflict RP). See how the scene is unfolding and do your best to make what you contribute "fit."
Quote from: jhunter on September 23, 2010, 02:50:20 PM
QuoteYes, we all know you're awesome because you have a fossilized dujat dick slung across your back, we're all in goddamn awe.
I'll emote about my fossilized dujat dick if I want to. I'm very proud of it. :P
Plus, there's a big difference between emoting with an item to draw attention to it, and emoting with an item that you are currently interacting with. If I'm about to smoke some spice, I make a point of adding the pipe/tube into my emotes as I prepare it, poke at the bowl, light the spice on a nearby flame source, and finally smoke it. Since this is the focus of my character's actions at that time, there's plenty of reason to add it into emotes. And all of this is combined with whatever conversation I'm having.
Sometimes a good emote does nothing but illustrate what you are doing non-verbally. They don't need to be elaborate or verbose. They just need to convey the state of your character in one way or another. Which can be as simple as drumming your fingers on a table-top, or the fact that your words are muffled by the food you just bit into.
Be creative, but don't worry about being eloquent. As long as your emote tells me something about the state or actions of your character then it is a good one. And if your character is just listening and nodding in understanding, then that's fine...nod away.
The rule of thumb for emoting is the same as the rule of thumb for writing a good paper.
Always ask yourself: "WHAT THE F**#"
Never diverge from said WTF. Get to the point and express what needs expressing. More often then not huge emotes detract more then they give, but not always.
Also, rather then doing big long visible emotes, remember the massively useful RP tools: hemote, think, feel.
Been playing for years and years as well and I must agree with players here.. the emotes make the scene. I emote elaboratly even when I'm alone (or assume that I'm alone) I like picking up things that *aren't there* I like enjoying the weather when it's a nice day out, it actualy lifts my characters spirits when the sun is shining and the winds are still. Little things like that you learn to enjoy the longer you play the game. It's such a wealth of experience you just have to take it a day at a time and learn the prompts to properly express yourself.
Anyone who loves this game will take the time to spend with the under-knowledged PC's, so don't be afraid to ask questions.
Perfecto
One thing that really helps with emoting well is if you have a really good feel for who your character is - the way they would react do different situations, how they move, the way they talk, their state of mind.
When I had characters without a clear idea of their whole personality it was far more difficult to come up with suitable emotes as I had to really think what they would do.
If you have a character that is inspiring and enjoyable to play, and not a placeholder character because you did not have any better ideas, that is when emoting is easiest, and of course a lot more fun.
As for emote length - some of the overlong emotes do sometimes look a little ridiculous, as it seems that the character is moving in slow motion or something. Much better to break up some of the features of the way they move in between each part of the conversation, makes them look much more alive, and people will pay more attention to those emotes.
Command emotes completely changed this game. The way things are able to flow now is absolutely sexy.
Quote from: The7DeadlyVenomz on September 24, 2010, 02:37:42 PM
Command emotes completely changed this game. The way things are able to flow now is absolutely sexy.
I -still- haven't gotten used to them being there, but I play consistently with a player who uses them beautifully, constantly making me think...'Dammit, that's right, I can do that.'
Command emotes, with ( ) and [] are great.
I tend to emote along Gimf's lines. I drop things that describe my person, my character, or are a certain 'flair' my character always drops. (A particular smile, a rattling voice, a deep baritone).
I tend to emote the enviroment around me; time of day, smoke in the room, loud din, crowds of people.
I may bring a vNPC out once in a while, though not as often (Unless I am in Tuluk, because there is no one to play with).
I will attempt to truly bring out my character through dialogue, though when dialogue is absent, through feels, thinks, and moods.
I don't think that since command emotes went in on verbal communication commands (or rather since I got used to them which was quickly) have I ever not used them for said verbal communiques.
Quote from: Lizzie on September 23, 2010, 12:56:17 PM
The runons totally ruin the mood.
Smiling slightly, her hair bouncing seductively over her angular shoulders which shrug mildly, as she nods vaguely to you, the runon lass says, in runon-accented sirihish, "Please stab me in the face."
nod runon
emote stabs ~runon in the face.
I like mine best.
Hawt. :)
What does runon even mean?
edit: ignore this
Seriously, why even use runons; semi colons would do just fine.
Quote from: Lizzie on September 23, 2010, 12:56:17 PM
The runons totally ruin the mood.
Smiling slightly, her hair bouncing seductively over her angular shoulders which shrug mildly, as she nods vaguely to you, the runon lass says, in runon-accented sirihish, "Please stab me in the face."
That's not really a run-on sentence, the clauses aren't independent.
Quote from: Sam on September 25, 2010, 08:46:04 AM
Seriously, why even use runons; semi colons would do just fine.
Semicolons and periods mid-emote are awesome. Too bad there are capitalization/punctuation errors if you end or start a new sentence mid-emote with a ~/% reference.
My problem with semi-colons; smirks.
Quote from: Rhyden on September 22, 2010, 07:59:30 PM
Firstly, read lots of books.
This, I think, is the best advice for anyone trying to improve their emote quality. I would go a step further and say read fiction, because there you are more likely to encounter descriptions of characters performing actions, which is the crux.
Quote from: hyzhenhok on September 25, 2010, 09:09:34 AM
Quote from: Sam on September 25, 2010, 08:46:04 AM
Seriously, why even use runons; semi colons would do just fine.
Semicolons and periods mid-emote are awesome. Too bad there are capitalization/punctuation errors if you end or start a new sentence mid-emote with a ~/% reference.
I wish I could use semicolons, and there has been more than one time I wanted too, but I cant figure out how to get it so Mudlet doesn't take that to mean a new line.
Yeah, semicolons are a problem because most MUD clients use that as the command-stacking character.
Quote from: Sam on September 25, 2010, 08:46:04 AM
Seriously, why even use runons; semi colons would do just fine.
Sometimes I feel with command emotes that semicolons fuck up the flow. I love semicolons; you can do so much with them! I guess flow is fucked up more if and when someone uses a semicolon improperly, but still. Things gotta sound right, to me.
Man, I'm not emote envious. I'm emote self-conscious.
Quote from: boog on September 25, 2010, 03:17:43 PM
I'm emote self-conscious.
This. And I worry that people think I'm slow because I'm finishing thinks/hemotes before I can reply to someone's remark.
My emotes are freezing my screen >:(
Quote from: Synthesis on September 25, 2010, 02:57:04 PM
Yeah, semicolons are a problem because most MUD clients use that as the command-stacking character.
That's one of the things I
always reconfigure when I change clients.
Quote from: Aaron Goulet on September 25, 2010, 03:32:20 PM
Quote from: boog on September 25, 2010, 03:17:43 PM
I'm emote self-conscious.
This. And I worry that people think I'm slow because I'm finishing thinks/hemotes before I can reply to someone's remark.
I'm not too slow, but I know that I get really anxious if people take too long, even for a little emote. I try to slow down and wait, but 5 minutes between command emotes that are like, 5 words long ...
I'll try to be more forgiving. I just end up alt tabbing and losing focus of the scene if people take a hellishly long time.
Quote from: brytta.leofa on September 25, 2010, 05:28:29 PM
Quote from: Synthesis on September 25, 2010, 02:57:04 PM
Yeah, semicolons are a problem because most MUD clients use that as the command-stacking character.
That's one of the things I always reconfigure when I change clients.
I was thinking of a particular spell where you need to have the semicolon as a command-stack character if you want to use it at all. I guess you don't have to worry about it if you're not using it, though.
Some clients have a character that sends the next character no matter what. It's particularly useful for adding semi-colons, since you can just type \; or something similar and get it sent though.
Quote from: Synthesis on September 25, 2010, 07:32:15 PM
Quote from: brytta.leofa on September 25, 2010, 05:28:29 PM
Quote from: Synthesis on September 25, 2010, 02:57:04 PM
Yeah, semicolons are a problem because most MUD clients use that as the command-stacking character.
That's one of the things I always reconfigure when I change clients.
I was thinking of a particular spell where you need to have the semicolon as a command-stack character if you want to use it at all. I guess you don't have to worry about it if you're not using it, though.
I usually replace ';' with '\'. I somehow think that '\' has a special meaning in Arm, too--formatting songs or something?--but I don't play northies anyway.
A lot of clients have ; as a new line in commands, but has ;; as send a single semi-colon.
I know it's cliche but it's not how big your emotes are, but how/where/when you use them.
Big is good, if it's full of useful information, otherwise it's just spam/self indulgence. But if one is bored with nothing else going on, it can't hurt to indulge (practice), right?
Quote from: brytta.leofa on September 25, 2010, 08:50:20 PM
Quote from: Synthesis on September 25, 2010, 07:32:15 PM
Quote from: brytta.leofa on September 25, 2010, 05:28:29 PM
Quote from: Synthesis on September 25, 2010, 02:57:04 PM
Yeah, semicolons are a problem because most MUD clients use that as the command-stacking character.
That's one of the things I always reconfigure when I change clients.
I was thinking of a particular spell where you need to have the semicolon as a command-stack character if you want to use it at all. I guess you don't have to worry about it if you're not using it, though.
I usually replace ';' with '\'. I somehow think that '\' has a special meaning in Arm, too--formatting songs or something?--but I don't play northies anyway.
Some over here. ...and you use pipes to break up songs/recitations.
Oops:
Quote from: help singYou can break up your song into multiple lines by using '|', '/' or '\'. There is a limit of five lines per use of the sing command (so you can do at most four seperators in a line).
I'm sure you're emoting as good as anyone. But I know what you mean, I tend to feel like every emote comes out the same. I have these certain lines. Some character can't use certain lines that others can, but I have a basic repertoire of emotes and I use them over and over again. Once and while, I'll spout out something tremendously witty. And sometimes I have this really perfect word, but I can't figure out how to spell it, and I have like three seconds to get an emote in, so I just go for something mundane and hit enter. Now so that I'm not completely unhelpful. I guess I -am- a helper. ;) The best advice I can give you is read other emotes and take bits and pieces from them and reuse those tidbits in your own ways. I'm always starved for new adjectives and metaphors. I'm always looking for new tricks to add to my hat.
Quote from: Aldiel on September 25, 2010, 11:59:20 PM
I'm sure you're emoting as good as anyone. But I know what you mean, I tend to feel like every emote comes out the same. I have these certain lines. Some character can't use certain lines that others can, but I have a basic repertoire of emotes and I use them over and over again. Once and while, I'll spout out something tremendously witty. And sometimes I have this really perfect word, but I can't figure out how to spell it, and I have like three seconds to get an emote in, so I just go for something mundane and hit enter. Now so that I'm not completely unhelpful. I guess I -am- a helper. ;) The best advice I can give you is read other emotes and take bits and pieces from them and reuse those tidbits in your own ways. I'm always starved for new adjectives and metaphors. I'm always looking for new tricks to add to my hat.
Also, coffee and a good nights sleep help. :)
Quote from: boog on September 25, 2010, 07:24:06 PM
I'm not too slow, but I know that I get really anxious if people take too long, even for a little emote. I try to slow down and wait, but 5 minutes between command emotes that are like, 5 words long ...
I'll try to be more forgiving. I just end up alt tabbing and losing focus of the scene if people take a hellishly long time.
I like falling asleep at my keyboard at 3am, waking back up long enough to type a gibberish emote at Boog while confusing most of the pronouns and mispelling all adjectives, then falling back asleep for five minutes.
It's excellent that in a thread where people are opening up about misgivings about emoting you guys are here to nitpick at grammar.
This game is going to be awesome when all the regular people are gone and just the perfect are left. Wish I could be there to see it.
Imagine the day when we look forward to seeing the stock emotes...
The tall muscular man killz j00 bitches. :;: hey guyz what up?
The broad, blonde man lulz. pinches tall muscular mans but
The busty, petite lass nothin much d00d u rdy to ply?
The tall muscular man nods.
Look Barz, I can hyperbole too.
Quote from: boog on September 25, 2010, 07:24:06 PM
I'm not too slow, but I know that I get really anxious if people take too long, even for a little emote.
I kinda just wait for the sap.
I am a slow typer. As soon as I am done pressing enter I will create my next line, minus the speech.
tell guy (jumping back)
If the emote I typed doesn't fit, I just press down and start a new one.
Best way to up your emotive speed is always to force yourself to emote in combat, whether sparring or singular npc. Putting through coherent, realistic actions while still keeping up with the things you need to do while in combat will better your skills as an active typist.
Firstly, I lol'd when I ready the first post in this thread.
Secondly, I find there are a few players who emote really nicely, and I extremely enjoy rping with them.
However on the other end of the spectrum I have seen a few players who do something that grates my nerves big time.
They don't use commas, periods or capitals at all, letting their speech spill out as one breathless line of annoying. Please, use capitals, use commas, and use periods. You know who you are. Sometimes when I see this I want to OOC tell them "nooblet, please clean up the talking" but I don't because I don't want to be labelled a word nazi.
I don't have emote envy, rather emote grief. Please do not cause emote grief by lazy speech and emote input.
Thank You.
Quote from: Scarecrow on October 01, 2010, 08:02:01 PM
Firstly, I lol'd when I ready the first post in this thread.
Secondly, I find there are a few players who emote really nicely, and I extremely enjoy rping with them.
However on the other end of the spectrum I have seen a few players who do something that grates my nerves big time.
They don't use commas, periods or capitals at all, letting their speech spill out as one breathless line of annoying. Please, use capitals, use commas, and use periods. You know who you are. Sometimes when I see this I want to OOC tell them "nooblet, please clean up the talking" but I don't because I don't want to be labelled a word nazi.
I don't have emote envy, rather emote grief. Please do not cause emote grief by lazy speech and emote input.
Thank You.
*writes this shit in letters made of flame, fifty goddamn feet high, on the inside of the eyelids and genitals of the perpetrators*
Seriously, gorramit, punctuation is NOT that fucking hard. And it's not just noobs! People who have been playing for YEARS still do this.
It makes me want to pay Sir Richard Branson to send me into orbit, just so I can fall out of the sky, fist extended, and cockpunch the sonofabitch who does this straight to China.
Ya'll hating, sorry that we didn't major in English.
Quote from: Reiteration on October 02, 2010, 12:43:08 PM
Y'all hating; sorry that we didn't major in English.
ftfy
Quote from: Reiteration on October 02, 2010, 12:43:08 PM
Ya'll hating, sorry that we didn't major in English.
Speak for yourself. =)
You don't have to major in English to use a capital letter and a period to end your sentence. You don't even have to be a native English speaker.
Really.
You don't.
That's a retarded excuse.
The funny part is I usually do type that final punctuation mark. For some reason it keeps happening after I hit enter.
Quote from: Barzalene on October 02, 2010, 04:22:04 PMThe funny part is I usually do type that final punctuation mark. For some reason it keeps happening after I hit enter.
I've done this before. If you generally punctuate but have the occasional flub, I don't think anyone will care. It's the people that
consistently do not capitalize the first letter of a sentence or add the finishing punctuation that annoy.
This sort of thing doesn't bother me.
Sometimes mudlet makes the period at the end of a sentence disappear.
Not even kidding.
Take a typing class. Or go online to the many resources where you can practice 'touch typing' it's really not that hard. I learned to type in middle school and built upon it through mudding and I'm at a solid 120 wpm usually whenever. And punctuation and grammar isn't that hard, but if you suck at it, no big deal. I just am going to want to play more with the cleganes of the mud rather then the guy who never emotes.
Woody Allen said, "90 percent of success is showing up," or some shit like that. If somebody is in a scene, and they talk in all undercase letters but are present and responding well, why not just roll with it?
Seriously, it breaks my immersion much more to see "The fuckable, fuck-me woman" every time someone talks, than it does to see an uncapitalized letter.
My Immersionz get broked when it looks like the person has no lungs, and is speaking in one long breathless word ejaculation. I don't mind if it happens a few times, mistakes happen that's just part of being human (those who don't make mistakes are da cyborgz you know who you are) so that's cool.
But I KNOW of several "serial" offenders who I cringe when I see them enter the room. It's just a pet peeve, it doesn't ruin my fun no, but I don't think it's being nazi to require someone to use capitals and a period at the end of their talk/emote/sing/mulletrockballad whatever.
Plus to it seems Mal is totally going to punch people in the groin so, yeah, might want to watch out for that if he catches you doing da lazee gramah.
For instance when it is badly written out it actually changes how the interaction seems, the intent behind the words and the mood of the speaker, even when it's not intended.
Example:
Me: Hello there, pal. Did you do as requested and take a dump in the Lord Templar's clothing hamper?
Offender: yes i did it where are my coins
As opposed to:
Redeemed Offender: Yes, I did it. Where are my coins?
The badly done one seems breathless, nooby, childish and robotic. The corrected one actually sounds like something a sentient being would say. Again, it's not a big thing, but honestly, if we're proficient enough to have the character application accepted and actually play a game that relies on cerebral agility to enjoy and perform properly, why is a capital or a period so hard to do?
Nazi out.
For the grammarians, I hope you get EE Cummings and William Faulkner books for Christmas.
Many of the suggestions have been incredibly good. I hope they help others besides me in the future.
As for why I started this thread, some people have a great command of showing how they feel - the body language - with their emotes. It is amazing to watch.
For my char, the inner conflicts just threw me. I often found my char was doing things that were opposite of how he felt on the inside.
For example, jealousy: X says ..., Think "Why did she mention him again", Feel "crushed", say "(shoulders slumping) Sure, sounds great".
Only 1/3 of that shows to the other player and for something so important to my char it just didn't seem to convey enough information. All of this is on the fly, so I was scrambling sometimes (you should have seen me at the keyboard twisting my face and hands and trying to think of words to describe it). What does jealousy look like, envy..the jeapardy clock is ticking..my head almost exploding.
Lying was another. I didn't think he should be a good liar so I just punted and blurted out the truth instead of thinking up something subtle (this is hindsight of course) like "say (beads of sweat appearing on his brow).."
It was a learning (very fun) experience.
Quote from: burble on October 03, 2010, 08:50:10 AM
Think "Why did she mention him again", Feel "crushed", say "(shoulders slumping) Sure, sounds great".
You're out of your mind. That's great. More than that would have been too much. And the shoulder slump conveys it absolutely. And in 25 words or less!
Quote from: Barzalene on October 03, 2010, 09:23:26 AM
Quote from: burble on October 03, 2010, 08:50:10 AM
Think "Why did she mention him again", Feel "crushed", say "(shoulders slumping) Sure, sounds great".
You're out of your mind. That's great. More than that would have been too much. And the shoulder slump conveys it absolutely. And in 25 words or less!
Exactly. It's not like we can all see or hear your character's thoughts or feelings. You conveyed them, partially, enough that someone who was maybe very astute, might be able to pinpoint precisely what was going on, but then you gave enough to the outside world.
No one's going to bitch at you for a two word command emote. At all. I thought (think) you were (are) great.
Quote from: burble on October 03, 2010, 08:50:10 AM
For example, jealousy: X says ..., Think "Why did she mention him again", Feel "crushed", say "(shoulders slumping) Sure, sounds great".
Some good writer or something once said that '"brevity is the soul of wit" (Shakespeare). Some other smarty pants said "keep it simple stupid" (an aerospace engineer, I think).
Don't beat yourself up over getting to the point and dispensing with the florid prose. Not every action needs three adjectives attached to it, not every emote needs a metaphor or simile. They're fun once in a while, but they're not required (and honestly get annoying to me if overdone). Whenever I start feeling down on myself about emote quality, I look to hardboiled detective fiction for inspiration. It's short, direct - sometimes brutally to the point - yet has a beautiful rhythm and flow to it that makes it awesome to read.
Quote from: burble on October 03, 2010, 08:50:10 AM
For the grammarians, I hope you get EE Cummings and William Faulkner books for Christmas.
Please. Asking for basic capitalization and punctuation is not a grammarian pedant; it's asking for basic readability and clarity. A novel with which you have unlimited time to decipher and plow through has zero comparability to an interactive text game.
Though for all the flowery uber-emoters, I hope they get some Hemingway books for Christmas. ;)
I like it when people use commas, periods and the like. Thank you to those who do it, it helps my Immersionz.
Quote from: Malifaxis on October 02, 2010, 11:36:09 AM
Quote from: Scarecrow on October 01, 2010, 08:02:01 PM
Firstly, I lol'd when I ready the first post in this thread.
Secondly, I find there are a few players who emote really nicely, and I extremely enjoy rping with them.
However on the other end of the spectrum I have seen a few players who do something that grates my nerves big time.
They don't use commas, periods or capitals at all, letting their speech spill out as one breathless line of annoying. Please, use capitals, use commas, and use periods. You know who you are. Sometimes when I see this I want to OOC tell them "nooblet, please clean up the talking" but I don't because I don't want to be labelled a word nazi.
I don't have emote envy, rather emote grief. Please do not cause emote grief by lazy speech and emote input.
Thank You.
*writes this shit in letters made of flame, fifty goddamn feet high, on the inside of the eyelids and genitals of the perpetrators*
Seriously, gorramit, punctuation is NOT that fucking hard. And it's not just noobs! People who have been playing for YEARS still do this.
It makes me want to pay Sir Richard Branson to send me into orbit, just so I can fall out of the sky, fist extended, and cockpunch the sonofabitch who does this straight to China.
But if they're Chinese?
o:
Quote from: Qzzrbl on October 04, 2010, 05:59:33 AM
Quote from: Malifaxis on October 02, 2010, 11:36:09 AM
Quote from: Scarecrow on October 01, 2010, 08:02:01 PM
Firstly, I lol'd when I ready the first post in this thread.
Secondly, I find there are a few players who emote really nicely, and I extremely enjoy rping with them.
However on the other end of the spectrum I have seen a few players who do something that grates my nerves big time.
They don't use commas, periods or capitals at all, letting their speech spill out as one breathless line of annoying. Please, use capitals, use commas, and use periods. You know who you are. Sometimes when I see this I want to OOC tell them "nooblet, please clean up the talking" but I don't because I don't want to be labelled a word nazi.
I don't have emote envy, rather emote grief. Please do not cause emote grief by lazy speech and emote input.
Thank You.
*writes this shit in letters made of flame, fifty goddamn feet high, on the inside of the eyelids and genitals of the perpetrators*
Seriously, gorramit, punctuation is NOT that fucking hard. And it's not just noobs! People who have been playing for YEARS still do this.
It makes me want to pay Sir Richard Branson to send me into orbit, just so I can fall out of the sky, fist extended, and cockpunch the sonofabitch who does this straight to China.
But if they're Chinese?
o:
They go all around the world and come back to where they were standing. :)
Quote from: Qzzrbl on October 04, 2010, 05:59:33 AM
Quote from: Malifaxis on October 02, 2010, 11:36:09 AM
Quote from: Scarecrow on October 01, 2010, 08:02:01 PM
Firstly, I lol'd when I ready the first post in this thread.
Secondly, I find there are a few players who emote really nicely, and I extremely enjoy rping with them.
However on the other end of the spectrum I have seen a few players who do something that grates my nerves big time.
They don't use commas, periods or capitals at all, letting their speech spill out as one breathless line of annoying. Please, use capitals, use commas, and use periods. You know who you are. Sometimes when I see this I want to OOC tell them "nooblet, please clean up the talking" but I don't because I don't want to be labelled a word nazi.
I don't have emote envy, rather emote grief. Please do not cause emote grief by lazy speech and emote input.
Thank You.
*writes this shit in letters made of flame, fifty goddamn feet high, on the inside of the eyelids and genitals of the perpetrators*
Seriously, gorramit, punctuation is NOT that fucking hard. And it's not just noobs! People who have been playing for YEARS still do this.
It makes me want to pay Sir Richard Branson to send me into orbit, just so I can fall out of the sky, fist extended, and cockpunch the sonofabitch who does this straight to China.
But if they're Chinese?
o:
I have a work-around, don't worry. Contrary to popular research, Chinese people do have groins. They don't reproduce by spores, as has been believed by years.
By the posts above, looks like I have a few people to add to my "never listen to a damn thing they say" list. For fucks sake, punctuation is as difficult to master as breathing. If congress hadn't just outlawed the use of the term "mental retardation" then I'd have quite the flame for you.
Of course that is only in federal law, so maybe I'll just work that flame in cleverly somehow...
What Malifaxis is saying is nobody expects long, baroquely florid emotes. If you're capable of that, English major or no, that's excellent, we love you, and you should probably play in Tuluk you hippie--but it's not the baseline.
Malifaxis goes on to say that the minimum expectation shouldn't be difficult for anyone, as it's simply what most of us had to demonstrate in order to pass out of the elementary grades: compliance with the basic, non-esoteric rules of English grammar. (Capitalize the start of a sentence; end with punctuation; try not to comma splice; check yo apostrophes.)
Think of Malifaxis as a stern yet lovable bewimpled nun and you'll do well.
<secondary hand> a stout wooden ruler
Quote from: brytta.leofa on October 04, 2010, 09:45:15 AM
What Malifaxis is saying is nobody expects long, baroquely florid emotes. If you're capable of that, English major or no, that's excellent, we love you, and you should probably play in Tuluk you hippie--but it's not the baseline.
Malifaxis goes on to say that the minimum expectation shouldn't be difficult for anyone, as it's simply what most of us had to demonstrate in order to pass out of the elementary grades: compliance with the basic, non-esoteric rules of English grammar. (Capitalize the start of a sentence; end with punctuation; try not to comma splice; check yo apostrophes.)
Think of Malifaxis as a stern yet lovable bewimpled nun and you'll do well.
<secondary hand> a stout wooden ruler
(http://static.thefrisky.com/images/uploads/sexy_nun_c.jpg)
Quote from: Malifaxis on October 04, 2010, 09:50:46 AM
(http://static.thefrisky.com/images/uploads/sexy_nun_c.jpg)
Now I really want to be bad. ::)
Am I the only one who clearly differentiates between emotes and dialogue? I don't get the connection at all.
Yap is natural. Describing body language is TOUGH.
I would suggest you all need punishment but after seeing that picture I want to be first in line.
Quote from: Malifaxis on October 04, 2010, 09:09:31 AM
Quote from: Qzzrbl on October 04, 2010, 05:59:33 AM
Quote from: Malifaxis on October 02, 2010, 11:36:09 AM
Quote from: Scarecrow on October 01, 2010, 08:02:01 PM
Firstly, I lol'd when I ready the first post in this thread.
Secondly, I find there are a few players who emote really nicely, and I extremely enjoy rping with them.
However on the other end of the spectrum I have seen a few players who do something that grates my nerves big time.
They don't use commas, periods or capitals at all, letting their speech spill out as one breathless line of annoying. Please, use capitals, use commas, and use periods. You know who you are. Sometimes when I see this I want to OOC tell them "nooblet, please clean up the talking" but I don't because I don't want to be labelled a word nazi.
I don't have emote envy, rather emote grief. Please do not cause emote grief by lazy speech and emote input.
Thank You.
*writes this shit in letters made of flame, fifty goddamn feet high, on the inside of the eyelids and genitals of the perpetrators*
Seriously, gorramit, punctuation is NOT that fucking hard. And it's not just noobs! People who have been playing for YEARS still do this.
It makes me want to pay Sir Richard Branson to send me into orbit, just so I can fall out of the sky, fist extended, and cockpunch the sonofabitch who does this straight to China.
But if they're Chinese?
o:
I have a work-around, don't worry. Contrary to popular research, Chinese people do have groins. They don't reproduce by spores, as has been believed by years.
By the posts above, looks like I have a few people to add to my "never listen to a damn thing they say" list. For fucks sake, punctuation is as difficult to master as breathing. If congress hadn't just outlawed the use of the term "mental retardation" then I'd have quite the flame for you.
Of course that is only in federal law, so maybe I'll just work that flame in cleverly somehow...
wait back that fun bus up malifaxis are you saying that flame was for me or were you saying that flame was for somebody else i cant tell because you quoted me and said that stuff i hope you didnt aim that at me because that would make me a sad panda
That was -very- painful to type out....
Qz, I always listen to you. Except when you want to bring peanut butter and a german shepherd into our relationship. That's where I draw the line.
Even though the emoting possibilities are endless.
...I wasn't going to contribute to this thread...but I must...
It really, really annoys me when people mix their emoting and dialogue. Grrr!
Quote from: manipura on October 05, 2010, 08:08:30 PM
It really, really annoys me when people mix their emoting and dialogue. Grrr!
What?
Well, sometimes I'm playing along and I run into somebody who doesn't seem to differentiate well between their emoting and their spoken conversation. Ummm, example?
>The so-and-so, so-and-so tells you OK, as he waves to you.
Does that make sense? I'm don't think I'm explaining well...
>The so-and-so, so-and-so asks Want some? and offers a tube of rolled spice.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't happen often, so when it -does- it's a little jarring.
I still don't get it. ???
I think she means when someone speaks in an emote.
emote shouts 'praise da highlurd tektolnes'
instead of
shout praise da highlurd tektonles
^---- Yes. That.
Thanks!!
If that's happening, it's more likely that they are new players coming from MUDs and other games where it actually is possible to embed speech into emotes. You could use OOC to direct them to 'help tell' or the other helpfiles on communication and I doubt anyone would raise a fuss.
Ahhh...I see. Didn't know that. Arm is the only game I've ever played so I have nothing to compare to.
Thanks...I bet a new player would find that OOC nudge toward the help files helpful...
I think in MUSHes you'll find that you can (is it emit?) speech and emotes all in one block.
Speaking of speech in emotes....
A big peeve of mine is when people ">emote mumbles curses under his breath in Allundean".
Because everyone who sees that emote -TOTALLY- knows how to identify stuff like that in filthy necker language.
I'll sometimes do:
emote curses sharply
emote mumbles something under his breath
Because it seems that a curse can be recognized regardless of the bystander's ability to speak the language - same with the mumble. In this case the emote communicates emotion and not the content of the statement.
emote mumbles something under his breath.
^^ That's a-okay in my books.
emote curses sharply
^^ That assumes my character, or any other character in the room, can understand what you're saying.
Like, if a halfling ran up to my gith and started emoting curses-- that's just gibberish to me. (clicks and whistles if it's a mantis)
I dunno.
I know I said it was a big peeve of mine in my last post here, but it's actually pretty minor-- for me at least.
Quote from: Malifaxis on October 05, 2010, 09:50:29 AM
Qz, I always listen to you. Except when you want to bring peanut butter and a german shepherd into our relationship. That's where I draw the line.
Even though the emoting possibilities are endless.
Look Mal, you remember those videos we made a while back?
Yeah.
Those.
You fucking owe me.
I don't think this is gonna work out if "give and take" means
I give and
you take.
The speech in emote thing.
How do I do this?
My pc walks into a bar. Your pc is sitting at the bar. Between us is some big important guy making a scene.
I want to mouth something to you.
My thought would be to use the hemote command.
I'll take better suggestions though.
Quote from: Barzalene on October 06, 2010, 07:36:53 AM
My pc walks into a bar. Your pc is sitting at the bar. Between us is some big important guy making a scene.
I want to mouth something to you.
I'd consider using whisper with an explanatory command emote.
> whisper amos (mouthing the words where #me stands behind ~fancypants) Don't worry! Talia is fine!It uses the language code, and it (I assume) gives people a chance to overhear without ensuring that they do.
Quote from: brytta.leofa on October 06, 2010, 09:03:25 AM
Quote from: Barzalene on October 06, 2010, 07:36:53 AM
My pc walks into a bar. Your pc is sitting at the bar. Between us is some big important guy making a scene.
I want to mouth something to you.
I'd consider using whisper with an explanatory command emote.
> whisper amos (mouthing the words where #me stands behind ~fancypants) Don't worry! Talia is fine!
It uses the language code, and it (I assume) gives people a chance to overhear without ensuring that they do.
That feels more jarring to me. It negates the users of space.
Quote from: Barzalene on October 06, 2010, 09:13:09 AM
That feels more jarring to me. It negates the users of space.
Yeah. It's not a
good answer.
Probably I would use the Way.
Quote from: DustMight on October 05, 2010, 10:43:01 PM
I think in MUSHes you'll find that you can (is it emit?) speech and emotes all in one block.
Not only can, but
should. It took me a while to wrap my brain around the Arm way. Command emotes help a LOT.
The command in MUSH is still emote but the end result is usually called a 'pose' (as in the sense of posing a doll). Emit allows players to make poses without the character name automatically appearing at the beginning, the same as using @ in the middle of an emote in Arm except you're not forced to put your name in at all. It's useful for adding atmospheric elements independent of your character, animating NPCs and running storylines.
Quote from: manipura on October 05, 2010, 08:30:56 PM
Well, sometimes I'm playing along and I run into somebody who doesn't seem to differentiate well between their emoting and their spoken conversation. Ummm, example?
>The so-and-so, so-and-so tells you OK, as he waves to you.
Does that make sense? I'm don't think I'm explaining well...
>The so-and-so, so-and-so asks Want some? and offers a tube of rolled spice.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't happen often, so when it -does- it's a little jarring.
I'd think most new players get past their talk-with-emote stage. And if they're not, a gentle, friendly OOC never hurts...before you lead them outside to 'go hunting'.
Quote from: Kronus on October 06, 2010, 09:51:40 AM
Quote from: DustMight on October 05, 2010, 10:43:01 PM
I think in MUSHes you'll find that you can (is it emit?) speech and emotes all in one block.
Not only can, but should. It took me a while to wrap my brain around the Arm way. Command emotes help a LOT.
The command in MUSH is still emote but the end result is usually called a 'pose' (as in the sense of posing a doll). Emit allows players to make poses without the character name automatically appearing at the beginning, the same as using @ in the middle of an emote in Arm except you're not forced to put your name in at all. It's useful for adding atmospheric elements independent of your character, animating NPCs and running storylines.
This is one of the things I love about MUSHes and miss in Armageddon. However, a friend from a MUSH did comment that our emote syntax was pretty cool.
Of course, he's never seen the result of wiping one's mouth on the mis-targeted Templar.
Quote from: DustMight on October 14, 2010, 04:52:27 AM
However, a friend from a MUSH did comment that our emote syntax was pretty cool.
Of course, he's never seen the result of wiping one's mouth on the mis-targeted Templar.
This.