Face Emoticons acceptable IC?

[Talus]

I was just thinking, why couldn't people use emoticons IC to communicate their character's facial expression? Past a nod or a wink, it's kind of an arduous task to have to describe a facial expression in a conventional emote, and oftentimes it takes so long that by the time you're done typing it out, the timing of it may seem a bit odd relative to the dialogue between the other characters, especially since they don't know that you want to say/do something and will likely continue the conversation. Perhaps in this sort of format? ** It would certainly help people keep up with the pace of a conversation.

*smiles and a bead of sweat runs down brow* turns into *^_^;*, saving you the effort of typing 37 additional characters. Granted, it might not be as 'respectable' or even laughable in this particular substitution. If others can get over their qualms of using this emoticon facial notation , I for one wouldn't mind seeing them in lieu of their wordier kin. Sometimes, there are facial expressions that would be really tough to get across with just words, imo.
Take * ; \ *, a look of indignancy. Or **. How about * *? Or *:-|* even? People wearing helmets only get * [|- ] *, though. How many times have you wanted to make a face, but passed over it because you were to lazy to type it?

Am I just being silly, or are facial expressions via emoticons a plausible idea? * *

[soulfien]

I don't know what they mean nor do I ever wish to learn. typing ^ - ^; or >-} or anything like that will get you nothing more than a confused look and from there you'll be ignored. That's simply how I will react and I've seen many times that other players feel the same. I've seen others try to use them and it never worked out well.

[manyasone]

Personally, I feel this would be a bad idea... Before you know it, people are going to be walking around (some already do) using internet slang (or whatever its called) like "U r the c00lest" or "w00t". Just type out "*smiles*". Is it really that much of a strain?

[Forum Administrator]

I would get sorely disappointed if I saw someone using emoticons in their *emotes*.


Cheers,
DM Bassa

[Talus]

Yea, you guys are probably right. After all, most people roleplay for intelligent fun, and using emoticon *emotes* would take apparently take intelligence out of the equation.

[Forum Administrator]

I believe it's all about imagination, really.

When I roleplay with someone, and they use *emotes* to describe their characters bodylanguage, I immediately develop images in my mind, trying to imagine how they look like.

I think emoticons would rob me of that freedom of imagination, making me feel like "something was missing" in the conversation.

But that's just me.


Cheers,
DM Bassa

[kenny26]

how difficult cant it be to type an emote in the pace of the conversation?
i mean you have to type everything your char says anyhow and so does the other guy.

if the emotes are a bit too late and the other guy types a message moment before you hit enter, he and everyone around him will usually just ignore the message he just typed.

example:
Jargo: a horse walks into an inn and the innkeeper asks 'why the long face?'
*a moment or two passes with no messages*
Jargo: didn't like that joke huh?
talus: *starts to chuckle and as he thinks on it the chuckles turns into a roaring laughter*
Jargo: *grins* yeah i was laughin me arse off too the first time i heard that joke...

it's really easy to use the normal *emotes* and if it's a moment too late, no sweat, the players around you will usually be understanding 'cause they've tried it a million times themselves.

[Kolfrosta]

I think using the emoticons would greatly distract from the RP environment. Personally, when I see things like "where u want to kill things today?" or something similar, when people use the abreviations and such, I'm sitting behind the screen thinking "eesh...time to go do something else...there is no RP here right now". Sure, it takes some time to type things out, (and I am the "Typo Queen" as anyone who has spoken with Sharita will attest to), but to take away from the flavor of the fantasy RP environment for the sake of convenience, I think, would be a mistake.

[kenny26]

when typing tells to friends you can use emoticons (or smileys as i know them) and chat slang, if that's more relaxing for you, but IC people will expect you to deliver something more.

the general attitude to players using chat slang and emoticons IC is to assume he's a poor RP'er and ignore him. a very good reason not to do that, at least ic.

the same goes for repeatingly using the voiceset. you'll appear lazy if you use the greetings emote on every occasion.

[Talus]

Something I have found really useful is the Macro text in the quick slots.
example:
dum ditty ditty dum
dum dum ditty ditty
*waves*

and so forth, I think I have six of them set up for Vashal.

[Munroe]

Something I have found really useful is typing fast. ;D

[kenny26]

lmao ;D
me too. lazy &%¤# using macros.... j/k

[DM the Usurper]

I always envision that when playing RP games that I'm reading a pop up book..ya that's bout my reading level, and agreeing that ;p :>D would just ruin it a bit. So you shoulda taken Typing I & II in high school instead of math....cause who needs to know that 2 + 2 = 5 anyways ya know