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

[Peter Keeler]

Jeffrey Kesselman wrote:

> Seems to me, for purely strategic purposes, a chat line and sound are
> utilitariain but an animated emote is not,. Actually what you'd like
> instead is a little pop up box that says "Tacticsdewd needs ammo!"  or
> something similar.

No way, man. You don't want a popup in a tactics game. A chat line +
sound + gesture + map waypoint is exactly what you want. Your buddy
following you in the field hears the canned audio "I need ammo" noise,
which could be from anybody. He sees your gesture, so he knows to take
point while you hang back and wait for someone to bring you some ammo.
Or he knows to drop some ammo for you. If he doesn't see your gesture,
he looks at the chat line and can still tell it was you. Everyone else
on your team sees the chat line if they care to look, but it's not
invasive like a popup; most people on your team don't care about the
info. Your commander sees the waypoint on the map and directs a supply
dude to go to your position and get you some ammo.

In addition, there aren't popups in real life. In real life, people
shout, gesture, and use a radio when they need ammo. This is the closest
thing to a shout, gesture and radio with the added benefit of a map
waypoint which is just plain useful.

In short, by sending four types of messages you get the right info to
the right people in a non-invasive, non-annoying way. The important
thing to me is that you get to send info to several groups of people who
are interested for different reasons with one "emote". You don't have to
separately tell your buddy and your commander to get your ammo situation
taken care of.

   Pete