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Old 05-11-2002, 07:07 PM   #1
Sidmouth
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I was reading the 'forest for the trees' thread and it brought emote lengths to mind. Long emotes with lots of detail can be a lot of fun to read, make great logs and great atmosphere. On the other hand, they take forever to type, and I generally like to avoid long lapses in roleplay.

What's the happy medium? Moreover, how do you respond to people who are busy typing emotes for 2 minutes at a time? Does your character tap their feet, order another round of drinks, interpret the long lapse in conversation as thought from the other character, or maybe an awkward silence,? Or do you just wait for them to finish their emote?

Another thought- if you have a great long emote, should you split it up as much as possible to give the person you are roleplaying with constant updates and to let them know you're not asleep? Or is it better to do it all at once for the sake of continuity? An example:

emote: Sidmouth furrows his brow and frowns as he studies the letter intently. One hand nervously plays with the hilt of his sword while the other holds tighter and tighter to the letter, making his rising distress evident.

OR:

emote: Sidmouth furrows his brow.

emote: Frowning as he studies the letter, Sidmouth nervously plays with his sword hilt with one hand.

and so on...

-Sidmouth
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Old 05-11-2002, 08:07 PM   #2
Zhamel
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On the mud I Imm on, <CENSOR>, a Smaug MUD, we are trying to encourage the player to start RPing. They complain that the normal max character length for emotes, and other channels, are not enough to truely role play. Their wish is for me to extend the length so they can freely emote to their hearts desire. I, and many others, do not feel that this is needed to RP. We have had many RP sessions where the current max, the default, is sufficeant to seriously roleplay.

Those that want the length increased argue that it isn't possible.

Those that don't feel that the increase is needed don't want to spend a few minutes reading someones four to five line emote that basicly says "the wind is blowing through my hair".

In conclusion, there will always be those that want longer and longer emotes to "truely cover the feeling of the moment." There will be those that believe long winded emotes are just that, long winded.
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Old 05-11-2002, 10:06 PM   #3
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I'm not really a fan of long emotes. I prefer breaking them up, like in Sidmouth's second example, as it helps keep the flow of the roleplay going. Things can get pretty dull if you're constantly waiting for the other person to finish writing a ten sentence long explanation of their character doing one action.

And on some muds, the first example is actually a short emote. I generally like keeping things to one or two sentences per emote, and on occassion, longer ones are fine. But the main thing I think is important is to keep the flow of roleplay, and to not get too extravagant when you could easily describe something in a simpler, less narcissistic-sounding manner.
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Old 05-12-2002, 10:20 AM   #4
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I tend to keep emote length down to what ever I can type in about 5 to 10 seconds. If more needs to be done things seem to flow better if there are no large pauses, also being fast on the emotes helps your ability to use them in PvP combat to add some spice without hindering your tactics. Beating down the bad guy with your skills is nice, but its so much better if you beat them down with style.
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Old 05-12-2002, 01:01 PM   #5
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What about the other end of things: if someone is taking forever to get their next *mote out, how do you typically respond to that. Do you fill the space, or do you come check the topmudsites forums for a couple of minutes?
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Old 05-14-2002, 01:20 AM   #6
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As bad as it may seem to some, I tend to avoid characters who cause huge dead pools of boredom with emotes that are too long for their typing skill. There often seems no IC way to keep things moving with out disrupting the slow over emoter, usually if I simply must interact with a slow moving drama queen I just que up some ID skills and try to predict what they are about to do and have my responce ready.
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