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Old 08-28-2002, 02:27 PM   #13
Quietude
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 12
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Emotes, both long and short, have their places, as do socials to my mind. I dislike "taking turns" roleplaying styles, and prefer to move at a somewhat faster pace; in a game where each player emotes in turn, there may be less need for shorter emotes. There are definitely places where I feel longer emotes are fairly pointless, though. . .some examines:

Susan shrugs.
Susan says, "I think so."

Susan shrugs and says, "I think so."

Susan shrugs and says, pausing hesitantly between the words, "I think so."

Susan shrugs, the movement of her shoulders barely perceptible beneath her heavy armor, and says, "I think so."

Susan lifts her shoulders a moment before allowing them to fall and says, as her motion finishes, "I think so."

The first one gets the point across, but in general I would prefer the second one in a fast-paced, many-character scene because it causes less lines of scroll on my screen. The third elaborates on how the character feels, which is useful -- but it's perfectly possible the character is using a normal tone and there's nothing to comment on. The fourth helps set the scenes and reinforce the setting, but it doesn't add any necessary detail that the character reacting would need to know, so I would consider it more useful in a smaller, more slow-paced scene. The last is something that personally annoys me to no end -- it takes longer to type and longer to read than the second, but says exactly the same thing.

Says I view slightly differently than many of the posters here. I think when posters such as AnnOnimous say they dislike says in most cases, they mean things like:

Susan says, "I think so."

That, indeed, if not accompanied by some sort of emote, may be difficult for other players to interpret properly. But say in one game that I play can be used thus:

Shrugging, her voice slightly hesitant, Susan says in English:
"I think so."

How is that use of say any less useful in roleplaying than an emote? Or, in any game, say could be used like this:

Susan says, "I," and pauses, shrugging faintly. "I think so."

That conveys things very nicely, without the use of the emote command or any socials. Or if you don't want to imbed any actions in your say at all:

Susan says, "I. . .think so. Umm. That is, I'm not sure, but. . ."

Much more communicative than a simple, "I think so."

Summary: As long as it gets the point across, it's all good, if not in all circumstances.
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