In an earlier era of the MUD descriptive emoting was all the rage. Some players took it too far and seemed to believe that emotes had to be overly long, flowery, and peppered with obscure synonyms. But many players employed the use of emotes quite nicely in those days, with a greater focus on descriptive language than you tend to see today. I'm talking about general trends here and not every single player. Yes, there were still lots of 'emote grunts' and 'emote nods' back then (and that isn't to say that an 'emote grunts' or 'emote nods' doesn't necessarily have it's place). And, yes, there are lots of descriptive, well-written emotes in this day and age. But in the spirit of Boog's last bio post, I'd like to now encourage a week of emphasis on descriptive emoting.
They're just my own personal preferences, but here are some points I like to see from emotes.
- You dont need to ~keyword every single time you mention an item. Imagine the MUD were a novel. The author has just described to the reader that the character's backpack is tattered, dark red, and with green embroidery. The author would not remind us every single sentence when the backpack is mentioned that it's tattered, dark red in color, and with green embroidery. In many instances it's enough to just say 'her backpack', because we've already been informed of its description. If you've used ~backpack once in a scene, try alternating this with simply 'her backpack' the next time you need to mention it a few minutes later. Why bog the reader down with redundant information? Besides, by limiting it to one word it gives you room to be more descriptive with other things. The table you're referring to doesn't always have to be ~table, the bar doesn't always have to be ~bar and your cloak doesn't always have to be ~cloak.
- I don't know about other players, but I've always felt 2 lines is a pretty good maximum length for a single emote. I tend to glaze over three line long emotes and am more likely to read two emotes that are 2 lines in length, than one emote which is 3 lines in length. I think it just flows better and looks nicer from a formatting perspective. But that may just be me.
- Shakespeare once said brevity is the soul of whit. In a fast paced game like a MUD where we're constantly being bombarded with text, it's important to get your point across as simply and succinctly as possible. Using lots of fancy words doesn't necessarily make you more descriptive. I've seen some really powerful and descriptive single line emotes from players (not saying longer text does not have it's place at all, however, just that length is often misinterpreted as descriptive by many aspiring writers). When you want to be descriptive you need more than an 'emote grunts', but you don't need to be excessive about it either.
Not that it would work as an emote, but here's an example of what, to me is a short, but powerfully descriptive sentence:
It was womb quiet by the stream and even the moth-flutter had died down.Emoting (i.e., writing) is an art form to be sure, and there are likely to be lots of varied opinions on what constitutes a good emote or a bad one. I'm writing this post to encourage players to try and enhance their descriptive power for a week and see how it goes. Let's bring a spark of vibrance into the game!
emote thrusting ^me hands in to ^me chest, @ pulls open ^Me ribacage and tears out ^Me beating purple prose heart.
Emote how you want.
I like the idea. Emotes can add a lot, even if minimal. So, below are some suggestions on adding emotes where you don't normally add them (rather than making your emotes bigger and more poetic.)
Here are some situations:
o Emote or hemote some background ambience into the scene. If you aren't involved in the conversation at the bar, or the bar fight, you can still contribute to it by involving yourself and other vNPC reactions.
o Emote or hemote while waying.
o Emote or hemote every ten minutes, even if idling at the bar. Emote nursing a beer.
o Emote while skinning.
o Add a command emote to a movement, e.g., east (drifting through the crowds hands in her pockets)
o Emote out your actual looks. (#thankslauramarsandhemote2016)
o Emote or hemote smells.
Hmm, there are probably others.
Coming from Aetolia, the land of the Interactive and Bloated Novel, I'm entirely too used to their style. I used to pride myself in my concise writing, but that's gone entirely out the window. Armageddon's auto-truncating (the Truncation of Shame, as I think of it) does wonders to help keep me from dancing around the point.
Armageddon has done a lot for my writing. Before I started playing this game (TEN YEARS AGO), I was an OK writer. Decent. Not the best. I'm still not the best, but I'm much more confident in my ability to fully express or describe a thought in words, and I'm always trying to improve by callously using Armageddon and the rest of you as a vehicle for non-stop practice. Needless to say, I support this week, if only because writing is a skill that helps all of us communicate online, and better communication is better for the internet
and the WORLD. Suhuy's points regarding getting your point across with elegance and frugal wit are good ones.
Quote from: Nail on April 28, 2016, 02:49:33 PM
Armageddon's auto-truncating (the Truncation of Shame, as I think of it) does wonders to help keep me from dancing around the point.
Haha. I will never not think of it as the Truncation of Shame from now on.
LauraMars is amazing.
I'm slightly amazing. IF YOU GIVE ME A MOMENT TO WRITE.
Also, nauta's amazing.
Everyone that's posted here, I imagine, is amazing.
But please, for this exercise, I think it's REALLY IMPORTANT for us to not spam walk away, to give people the CHANCE to respond before we throw five lines of one sentence dialogue. Let's let each other be flowery, okay? Some of us aren't as quick of typers as we used to be: I'm totally guilty of this, usually because I'm having to kick children back into bed, and since I had my second, I've developed a lingering carpal tunnel (thanks, kid. You better be worth it.)
So. Let's be patient. And FLOWERY.
No need for haste, mofugs.
While it may be rare, emote when you sleep! Your dreams aren't black voids! Have nightmares and good dreams!