A great game needs great emotes.

[Ghostmooner]

I know its' not a important part of MMOs, and is only an extra fun add in, but I hope they put in great and funny emotes for us players, especially fart and belch emotes, and I saw this great drunk emote in Matrix online where your Avatar stays drunk and stumbles around with great animations, I had so much fun with that. :P

Anyone know the styles and lists of what they put in so far? I've had some beef with other MMOs where they put in emotes but the animations didn't make any sence, and didn't match with what they were called.
and some games the emotes only lasted a few seconds when they would've made fun afk stuff for your av to do when bored or afk.

I know it's not an important part of the game, but I love that feature about MMOs, I'm a goof like that :P

[0wl]

Was wondering that myself, i absolutely love that in an MMO! :)

Mr. Tricorder anyone, now that would be a funny emote hehe...

[Ghostmooner]

oh! maybe in a future patch, they can make it so we can do multiple emotes, like my avatar is sitting down or so and I can enable a fart or belch emote over it? or belch while dancing or something LOL

[0wl]

That would crack me up anytime...let's have some fun after release shall we?! :D

they can make it so

Make it soooooo! :p

[IG_Slayer]

lol random emotes would be funny :D The "random emote room" :D Once your in the room you start going through random emotes that last awhile and the emotes wont stop till you leave the room. A room full of crazy people!!! :D Just thought Id put that out there!!! :D

[ngille]

I know its' not a important part of MMOs, and is only an extra fun add in, but I hope they put in great and funny emotes for us players, especially fart and belch emotes, and I saw this great drunk emote in Matrix online where your Avatar stays drunk and stumbles around with great animations, I had so much fun with that. :P

Anyone know the styles and lists of what they put in so far? I've had some beef with other MMOs where they put in emotes but the animations didn't make any sence, and didn't match with what they were called.
and some games the emotes only lasted a few seconds when they would've made fun afk stuff for your av to do when bored or afk.

I know it's not an important part of the game, but I love that feature about MMOs, I'm a goof like that :P


I must be a goof as well because, like you, I enjoy tons of emotes. As you said, they are pretty low on level of importance but can be a ton of fun if done right. Granted the emotes I prefer only last a few seconds at most but humor in my opinion is always a good thing in an mmo.

One of the best things about Star Trek that recieves little attention (imho) is the humor. Some of my favorite episodes and movies where the ones with the most humor. It makes the characters seem more like real people for one thing. In the context of a game, however, humor increases the fun and the more fun a game is, the longer I will play it ;)

[0wl]

One of the best things about Star Trek that recieves little attention (imho) is the humor

Just watched ST V, The Final Frontier last night! That campfire scene makes me laugh anytime
and yes the humor in ST is very important and something i always enjoyed!

[Jerosh_Skitari]

ST: IV is one of my favorites primarily because of the humor involved in it! I consider emotes to be of great importance, so much so that I use the emote notation outside of a game. For example, when messaging with friends, I'll say " /wave" as a greeting instead of a simple hello.

[OddjobXL]

I'd stick with a set of very basic general emotes and then add a small number of race specific emotes.

Humans might get a casual wave for a /hello, Vulcans would get the "live long and prosper" finger thing and so on.

I'd seriously, seriously, caution the developers to avoid silly emotes. This is something you generally don't want to see. When I load into STO for the first time and everyone's standing around saying "lol" and doing the /airguitar emote I'm probably never going to log in again. Well, I will, but I won't want to!

It's funny once, maybe, and then really fast it just becomes a tool people use to annoy other people.

[No1UKnow]

I'd stick with a set of very basic general emotes and then add a small number of race specific emotes.

Humans might get a casual wave for a /hello, Vulcans would get the "live long and prosper" finger thing and so on.

I'd seriously, seriously, caution the developers to avoid silly emotes. This is something you generally don't want to see. When I load into STO for the first time and everyone's standing around saying "lol" and doing the /airguitar emote I'm probably never going to log in again. Well, I will, but I won't want to!

It's funny once, maybe, and then really fast it just becomes a tool people use to annoy other people.

This coming from a man whose avatar would be a hilarious emote ;)

[Jonathan_Beecher]

I'd stick with a set of very basic general emotes and then add a small number of race specific emotes.

Humans might get a casual wave for a /hello, Vulcans would get the "live long and prosper" finger thing and so on.

I'd seriously, seriously, caution the developers to avoid silly emotes. This is something you generally don't want to see. When I load into STO for the first time and everyone's standing around saying "lol" and doing the /airguitar emote I'm probably never going to log in again. Well, I will, but I won't want to!

It's funny once, maybe, and then really fast it just becomes a tool people use to annoy other people.


I agree with you oddjob. It is funny the first few times yet, after the 50th one it would get kind of annoying. The Vulcan salute is a necessary emote for the Vulcans (and you beat me too it :p)

I would say that the Klingon's should have a war cry emote or bashing heads while drinking. That would be the one society where I see a few emotes being critical/necessary in order to provide the correct ambiance of the STO universe.

Thoughts/comments?

[OddjobXL]

This coming from a man whose avatar would be a hilarious emote ;)

Damn. I have no comeback.

[OddjobXL]

I agree with you oddjob. It is funny the first few times yet, after the 50th one it would get kind of annoying. The Vulcan salute is a necessary emote for the Vulcans (and you beat me too it :p)

I would say that the Klingon's should have a war cry emote or bashing heads while drinking. That would be the one society where I see a few emotes being critical/necessary in order to provide the correct ambiance of the STO universe.

Thoughts/comments?

Generally, roleplayers will use handwritten emotes (/emote or /em or : or ; ) to express character and other players don't use them much at all. So less is more. Greetings, partings, sitting and facial expressions like smiling or winking or frowning work. Don't overdo it! SWG does have some great emotes but many are terribly exaggerated. Laughing looks like the poor fellow is having a seizure!

What I would do, for variety, is make that same basic set of emotes different for each "premade" race and then be allowed to pick and chose from among those "premade" emotes to create a custom set for a custom race character.

[No1UKnow]

what about /dance routines? i always loved those. of course everyones beloved wow is the only developer i have seen who got em right

[OddjobXL]

If it's not too much trouble, and it might be, I'd have places where only there could you do certain emotes. For example, dancing. You'd have to go to a club to dance, for example, or the ship's lounge. At first a simple /dance might do it but over time, for giggles, more involved kinds of dance like SWG has could be introduced as a hobby-craft. I can imagine some Orion women specializing in this for fun but there could be different styles to suit different cultures. A Klingon blade-dance to celebrate a victory could be fun too but not in the middle of the main concourse in the starport!

[JMD10222]

If they put in emotes /Facepalm is a must:p

[No1UKnow]

If it's not too much trouble, and it might be, I'd have places where only there could you do certain emotes. For example, dancing. You'd have to go to a club to dance, for example, or the ship's lounge. At first a simple /dance might do it but over time, for giggles, more involved kinds of dance like SWG has could be introduced as a hobby-craft. I can imagine some Orion women specializing in this for fun but there could be different styles to suit different cultures. A Klingon blade-dance to celebrate a victory could be fun too but not in the middle of the main concourse in the starport!

That sounds reasonable. To beam down to a planet and see a bunch of goofs air humping each other seems a little out of character for Star Trek.

[ngille]

If you don't like emotes, don't use them. Most of us actually enjoy the silly emotes and after the newness wears off people tend to calm down about them (which is why it should be a low priority)

I enjoyed the depth of emotes in SWG even if a few were over exagerated (I agree the lol emote was a bit overdone).

I hope I'm wrong, but why is it when we are talking about a fun aspect of the game, there are always a few that come in (I admit I may have read it wrong and hope I did) and think everything should be all serious? I mean come on folks, its a friggin game and should be fun. On top of that humor is a major point in star trek, some of our fondest memories are where bones and spock where going at it. The phrase, "that green blooded son of a xxxxx" comes to mind or data scanning for life forms are iconic trek. Trek without the humor is just another sci fi movie and not the phenomenon that Mr. Rodenberry (sp) created.

As mentioned before, emotes in general aren't that important but humor is, whether it is emotes, silly quests or npc bridge crew interaction (hopefully all of the above).

As a previous poster mentioned, yeah, facepalm is a must.

[Dogbertious]

A slight tangent from the emotes, but I think Cryptic need to put some thought into how our characters hold themselves; how they stand, walk, idle,etc. For instance, the way a Vulcan would hold themself would be different to a Gorn, or an Orion. A Vulcan woman (usually) would walk in a calm, serene manner, an Orion woman (almost definately) would walk in a seductive manner, with much more hip movement....

Basically, for the existing races (ie, not player-created), I'd like to see some variety. And ideally, I'd hope that we don't see Vulcan females doing the Female Night Elf 'bounce' from WoW.......

When it comes to player-created races, it would be nice to have an option which defines how your character holds themselves; for instance, 'Proud' would have your character stand up straight, head held high. 'Shy' might have your character be more stooped, avoiding eye contact with others.

[OddjobXL]

I hope I'm wrong, but why is it when we are talking about a fun aspect of the game, there are always a few that come in (I admit I may have read it wrong and hope I did) and think everything should be all serious? I mean come on folks, its a friggin game and should be fun. On top of that humor is a major point in star trek, some of our fondest memories are where bones and spock where going at it. The phrase, "that green blooded son of a xxxxx" comes to mind or data scanning for life forms are iconic trek. Trek without the humor is just another sci fi movie and not the phenomenon that Mr. Rodenberry (sp) created.

Yes, but was the emotes that were funny or the situations and the dialogue? If it's the latter, I trust roleplayers to do a better job with it than an emote designer. Look, I like humor too. Look at my silly forum icon. I've got roleplay logs that are hilarious but not silly or goofy. There's a big difference between colorful banter between Bones and Spock and /fart emotes...

Now, I can see them maybe having some light-hearted moments in some Episode style scripted missions. That's cool by me and something I'd enjoy too. Maybe that little girl insists on hugging the gruff captain and a scripted part of the mission animates my Away Team/Bridge Crew to start chuckling?

But it needs to fit. I've been in a few MMOs and almost all them them have silly all over the place. Tired designers sticking in little in-jokes and easter eggs and funny emotes. It will happen in STO to some extent too. People just can't help themselves. But they really should try.

If we want humor we, I hope, are quite capable of being funny ourselves.

/belch

[0wl]

This coming from a man whose avatar would be a hilarious emote ;)

Agreed! :D

[StraboV2]

Well...I do think that a good emote list is an important tool for MMO's. Not every emote has to be a work of art written by the player or dev. But many simple ones surely have their place. Like /nod or /sigh or /yawn for example. With an accompanying animation. Just to fill in the little spots and give characters that little bit of extra life. LoTRO for example doesn't have /nod so I have to type /emote nods instead...but I don't actually move. If in SWG I type /nod my character turns to the targeted person and visually nods...adding just a little more life to them.

I don't think there should be a gigantic list filled with ridiculous emotes...those are funny for about 2 seconds. But I do enjoy some well made and useful ones. Both for RP and for non RP folks.

[CherryTerri]

Well...I do think that a good emote list is an important tool for MMO's. Not every emote has to be a work of art written by the player or dev. But many simple ones surely have their place. Like /nod or /sigh or /yawn for example. With an accompanying animation. Just to fill in the little spots and give characters that little bit of extra life. LoTRO for example doesn't have /nod so I have to type /emote nods instead...but I don't actually move. If in SWG I type /nod my character turns to the targeted person and visually nods...adding just a little more life to them.

I don't think there should be a gigantic list filled with ridiculous emotes...those are funny for about 2 seconds. But I do enjoy some well made and useful ones. Both for RP and for non RP folks.

Wierd forum ... giving me quote with quick reply meh ...

For emotes .. I like them to a point.

/sit
/wave (or some sort of greeting)
/bow (not /curtsey)
/salute
/point

Things like that. I agree /dance should be situational here. Sure it's fun and all, but if I have crewmembers dancing all over the place, feet will be stapled to the deck.

And yes, I do use more /em <text> than anything.

[nexudude]

In my experience, games with extensive emotes on launch are usually underdeveloped in other areas. I think it takes some work to put in emotes, what with the mocap and skeletons and all. Well, AoC wasn't too bad. I dunno.

[Azurian]

/facepalm

/tunic -The famous Picard Tunic Tuck!
/vulcan -The Vulcan Handsign

/rude - A must for Klingons.
/slap - Another must for frustrated Klingons, where they slap the console or the sides of their chair. :D

[ArdraVentax]

I totally agree that good emotes are crucial to the social elements of the game.

I hate to mention "galaxies" yet again, but they did something that was quite clever and unique... it provided automatic emotes based on keywords in your text. Question marks would cause your character to look interrogative. Using the word 'love' caused your character to look a little sappy and dreamy-eyed. Saying "hehe" or "haha" caused spontaneous chuckles.

The real point is that if you have to fish through a menu to find an emote, it erases any hint of spontaneity and slows down communication something awful. Even though Lord of the Rings Online has a long list of well-animated emotes, they are nearly useless in any practical sense, as you have to point, click, fish through menus, find the one you want, blah blah. Simple commands like /smile /laugh /wave via command line are far more useful, but you have to be able to summon the emote easily for it to flow.

[nexudude]

I totally agree that good emotes are crucial to the social elements of the game.

I hate to mention "galaxies" yet again, but they did something that was quite clever and unique... it provided automatic emotes based on keywords in your text. Question marks would cause your character to look interrogative. Using the word 'love' caused your character to look a little sappy and dreamy-eyed. Saying "hehe" or "haha" caused spontaneous chuckles.

done In WoW sorta.

[ArdraVentax]

I guess I didn't play WoW long enough to really grasp that. I had a choice between WoW and EQ2 and chose EQ2... i prefer a more realistic avatar to the cartoony ones in WoW. Plus, I got started in all this playing EQ so I had been anticipating EQ2 for a long time.

It's tough starting a new game and trying to learn a new "mythology". That is one reason why I chose EQ2 over WoW... I was already familiar with Norrath. That's also why I easily fell into LOTRO, I knew the Tolkien books already. And with Star Trek, I already know the mythology well enough that it's not going to be confusing. So I'd be much more comfortable here than in, say, Stargate, which I've never really watched, and don't know anything about the mythology.

[PicardoManeuver]

Agreed. I'd love some great emotes in game-especially the "Engage" emote from Picard :)

[OddjobXL]

They could have emotes cued to certain commands in the game once there's interactivity on the bridge. "Engage" would be fantastic.

However, I don't think embedded emotes work that well in practice, ArdraVentax. I can't count the number of times my character would say something like, "They've gotten ahead of us, I fear." And suddenly start shaking like a leaf because the word 'fear' triggered an emote. There are many others like that. So many I had to disable it as do many roleplayers I know.

Edit: I agree, though, that extensive collections of emotes really don't get used often. The only time I see most of them in SWG is when someone is posing for a screenshot and digs though them to get something that looks cool. That's why I suggest a very modest list but customized for race. Just the obvious ones. Folks can text emote anything else they need and do it in a way that's more specific to their own character's personality and mannerisms.

[THORN74]

This coming from a man whose avatar would be a hilarious emote ;)

it would be great if they could hire Shatner to do some motion capture work for the emotes. Nothing says EMOTE better than the Uber-overacting of Shatner in TOS.

[Father_Origin]

emotes are fun bits of nonsense, and iconic to MMO's

gotta have some good ones

[Jenshae]

A good /hug /kiss (that is a peck on the lips or even a European one) /wave, maybe some pointing, dancing!

I found the WoW ones lame and the Second Life ones are pretty bugged if they aren't on pose balls, which defeats a more spontaneous gesture. Just line yourself up and if you hug the air, that is your miss and make it silent, don't have it streaming a "X hugged Y" into local chat.

So in this I think Anarchy got most of the emoting right.

[StraboV2]

Actually you know what one of the best emotes I ever saw in a game was?

Get ready for it cause it shocked the crap out of me O.o

Age of Conan had an emote /lean , basically you stand near a wall or other surface types it and the character turned and leaned against it like he was waiting for someone. Had some great idle stuff in there too. I don't know why I just thought it was fantastic :D

My second favorite has to be /smoke from LoTRO where you took out a pipe struck a contemplative pose and smoked :D it was my afk emote hehe.

I do hope there's a core of simple emotes, like those pointed out, /engage would be nice, and /prosper or something plus things like nod sit yawn point and so on. Oh and headbutt for us Klingons or a good shout :D I just like well done character animations with emotes. But the nonsense stuff I agree is a bit of a waste that if really wanted could be added in down the road. /duck from SWG anyone? ....took me months to live down flapping like a duck and quacking when I thought it would be an emote for actual...ducking... :confused:

I do hope there's also the standard /emote *text* for custom written ones too. I use those so much in other game it's not fit :P

[Fernos]

There is only one emote I want

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMA5_op9aOA&feature=related

[qoona]

here are 2 emotes needed /whatislove i /carmeldansen they can add /livelongandprosper

[Dogbertious]

here are 2 emotes needed /whatislove i /carmeldansen they can add /livelongandprosper

ofc, /whatislove would only be useable when in a shuttle with two other people :D

[k.mpok]

Never been much a fan for silly emotes myself. IMO they are just over the top and often overused to the point of griefing/intentianally break immusion. If you ask me, which their not, I could even do without some of the silly /dances.

[qoona]

i like emotes like wave, point, and so, i used the rich xollections in SWG alot.

[OddjobXL]

Oh, yeah, /point is really useful. "It's over there." *character points* I use that all the time myself as a practical tool as much as a roleplaying one!

[bothan]

If the folks at Cryptic feel compelled to include the Vulcans (pretending I didn't watch the character video), then they should also include a /fascinating emote.

[haplo8]

So I'd be much more comfortable here than in, say, Stargate, which I've never really watched, and don't know anything about the mythology.


It's getting very unlikely that SGW will even come out, and even if it does...your not missing much...

Errrrr ummm...or so I hear.....

[USS_Parallax]

I want to meet Picard in game and watch him do a little /jig.

[DerManiac]

Nice topic.
Here are some emotes I'd have in mind:

1) Picard maneuver
2) Stand at attention
3) Giving Oomax
4) He's dead, Jim
5) Order: Set phasers to stun/kill

[Jenshae]

Besides the silly. I think it is important to give the players as many ways of expressing themselves to others as possible.

[Loekii]

I am a big fan of 'action Emotes' -- where player actions translates into a graphic action in the game.

Here are some examples of Graphic Actions/Emotes I would want to see:

Click 'Scan' in Ground content = Graphic - Science Officer takes out a Tricorder and scans
Set Phasers to Stun - Avatar touches weapon as if changing the setting
communicate with ship or other players via 'tell' - Avatar taps Comm badge


I also like 'idle' animations (like Wow). It helps break up the 'mannequin' feel of the game.

[Ghostmooner]

I am a big fan of 'action Emotes' -- where player actions translates into a graphic action in the game.

Here are some examples of Graphic Actions/Emotes I would want to see:

Click 'Scan' in Ground content = Graphic - Science Officer takes out a Tricorder and scans
Set Phasers to Stun - Avatar touches weapon as if changing the setting
communicate with ship or other players via 'tell' - Avatar taps Comm badge


I also like 'idle' animations (like Wow). It helps break up the 'mannequin' feel of the game.

good point. well, actually that's kinda my point, to break up the mannequin-ness of our avatars in game, now I saw some posts from some of u that disagree on having emotes in the game or having nothing but absolutely boreing, race specific emotes no one will care to use. fine. I don't care, to each his own. but don't foreget to put in some fun ones for the rest of us that like to laugh. humor isn't childish, immature or whatnot, its just healthy, stimulating and sociallable. Now I figure most of the game is going to be suriouse minded anyways, suriouse missions or "Quests" for the Wowers, fighting off borg, swarting romulan sabatoge schemes and blowing up star ships after starships. and very little humor else where in the game. But I always imagined it to be the funniests thing to see a klingon sneaking up on a fed guard in some dark and quiet hall way, and just before he attacks the unsespecting Redshirt, He rips a bellowy fart that echoes off into the halls beyond and spoils the sneak attack, maybe even makes the redshirts' face melt off, I don't know, I do know that I would bust a side at that, maybe even tear up:D and if your worried about other players spamming u with emotes after emotes, which I have seen before myself unfortunately, there's an ingore list on every MMO, there's sure to be one on this game too.

[Ghostmooner]

I'd stick with a set of very basic general emotes and then add a small number of race specific emotes.

Humans might get a casual wave for a /hello, Vulcans would get the "live long and prosper" finger thing and so on.

I'd seriously, seriously, caution the developers to avoid silly emotes. This is something you generally don't want to see. When I load into STO for the first time and everyone's standing around saying "lol" and doing the /airguitar emote I'm probably never going to log in again. Well, I will, but I won't want to!

It's funny once, maybe, and then really fast it just becomes a tool people use to annoy other people.

Well, actually Job, your talking about something that seems like it'd be naturally implemented into the game wihtout our noise. I am myself expecting something like this to be put in to the game. What I was talking was that aside from all the basic emotes, lets drop in some exciting and side busting emotes along with them. I don't want every emote to be a funny and goofy one, just some really origional and funny extras. could even have it like in Matrix where you can only use them once you reach a certain level, kinda like a lvl badge or something.

[Ghostmooner]

/e pull finger

** Dirty klingon pulls his own finger and rips a loud one that can heard in the galaxy next door****

[MIB]

What? No break dancing Klingons with a boombox?

Jus kidden :D

[lajkalove]

i want my ship to nod when i type /nod :D

[Zepath]

I am a big fan of 'action Emotes' -- where player actions translates into a graphic action in the game.

Here are some examples of Graphic Actions/Emotes I would want to see:

Click 'Scan' in Ground content = Graphic - Science Officer takes out a Tricorder and scans
Set Phasers to Stun - Avatar touches weapon as if changing the setting
communicate with ship or other players via 'tell' - Avatar taps Comm badge


I also like 'idle' animations (like Wow). It helps break up the 'mannequin' feel of the game.

I would wager if Roddenberry were creating the franchise today, there wouldn't even be a comm badge. Tey would have implants you don't see ... or an ear-piece. Blue-tooth and implants we both inconceivable in the 60s.

Implants make the most sense 400 years from now ... they can't take an implant away from you.

[billybob442]

Playing with the random emotes idea mentioned earlier - after a few minutes of inactivity bridge officers could randomly selected an emote off of a list. So if you sit around too long one of your bridge officers pulls out a tricorder and starts scanning things, another may begins look around for enemies, another starts fiddling with the settings on his phaser rifle, another stands around with his hands in his pockets, a red shirt makes out a will...


Implants make the most sense 400 years from now ... they can't take an implant away from you.

I think this belongs in the "boob slider" thread.
:)

[Zepath]

I think this belongs in the "boob slider" thread.
:)

LOL! Now you know that's not the kind of implants I'm talking about!

Stop it.

:D

[ecsakron]

Emotes are a fun part of any mmo. I can't wait to be in some hub with my Vulcan Captain and rip a big
juicy fart right in the middle of the bar.