[MUD-Dev2] Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguardreviews and rants)

[Richard A. Bartle]

On 29 March 2007, Thomas Hudson wrote:

>This doesn't obviously follow to me. If they only want to do it once a
>week, I'd expect that they'd never learn how.
	It's not a case of their learning how - they know how already.
They use emotions all the time in real life, it's not as if they have
to learn anything. All it takes is that when they do want to issue
an emotion, the command is there ready for them.

>From my personal experience (anecdote time), it only punches above its
>weight in the most hardcore of RP guilds. Many players I've interacted
>with (closely; guildmates/regular party members/neighbors in worlds with
>persistent building) showed no sign of emoting even once a week.
	I'll see your anecdote and raise you a "well in the casual but
raiding guild I'm in, most people use emotes more than once a week".

	I'm not talking about emotes as role-playing aids, although they
can be; I'm talking about them as expressions of feelings (and not just
profound ones - mild ones, too). Anyone who types LOL or who uses smileys
in their in-game speech is going to be fine with emotes.

		Richard