Emote Variation

[theguy]

So hey im bored of *tilts head* when im confused or asking a question, bored of *eyes widen* for shock, bored of *shakes* for fear just generally appalled by my lack of emote variation for general emote's like these, it's just so bad sometimes it might as well not be there just something to replace *smiles* every once in a while, something a little more in depth

So anyone give me tips on showing emotion?

[Doug R.]

The problem is that in Cantr, characters are hyper sensitive to actions. If you put more emphasis on something, then everyone viewing it will think there's more emphasis for a reason, and then start reading into it. *smiles* is a smile, nothing to read into. It is what it is. Start adding onto it and folks might get the wrong message.

Or, I'm just too lazy/uncreative to think of anything better...

[SumBum]

This is something I've really wanted to work on this round. Although, I don't think I've been very successful most of the time due to time constraints or just not caring to provide more depth in some situations. It is very difficult in Cantr to add more, like Doug said, and you better be prepared for someone to jump on it. I don't mean that necessarily in a bad way, but a lot of people aren't willing to overlook/play along with a sideways glance or a flash of some emotion that crosses your char's face or even an action that takes place behind their char's back.

Anyway, something I've been trying is to think beyond the face. Most of Cantrians' emotes are smiles, frowns, raised eyebrows...only facial expressions.

[theguy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesi ... rev1.shtml

Very basic but I just found this havn't read it all though but it seems alright, something like this but maybe a little more in depth would be cool

[mojomuppet]

I have one character that uses alot of body expressions. Smacks forehead, hands on the hips, points(alot and at everything), spreads arms wide, covers mouth, blows kisses, winks, hugs, shakes finger, stomps foot, ect....he is very outgoing and demands attention though. My others rarely do these things.

Confused * puts hands on hips* What?
Mad * puts hands on hips and stomps foot. What?
Happy *laughs hysterically and puts hands on hips* What?

[Doug R.]

Hah hah. Until you said "he," I thought you played Khandi.

[Dudel]

Oi, my emoting is a bit all over the place. I've one or two characters where I generally only emote one specific thing (but that's because I WANT attention paid to it) and then others where I try and sell their behavior with emotes/actions for whatever reason. But I usually fail with this and sell character behavior with speech patterns instead.

I'm a little "frightened", if you will, to share some of my emotes due to them being rather Dudel specific BUT simply finding a thesaurus might make you feel a little bit better about being redundant. Know it annoys me when I do the same emote several times and it tends to slightly annoy me, unless the character is supposed to be monotone or easy to predict or whatever.

Don't be afraid to emote random/odd things, either.

*Hops on one foot.* Hey... hey look!
*Hops on one foot.* Oh that fkn' hurt!
*Hops on one foot.* I stepped in what?

So the emote isn't my characters behavior but rather the very basic action. If you take care in the words your characters speaks you don't have to emote much at all, really.

[Rob Maule]

I think it's been mentioned before that even a *smiles* is appreciated. Just having a character that does more than talk is definitely a good thing. Livens things up and makes people want to log back in and keep playing.

[Misato]

Hah hah. Until you said "he," I thought you played Khandi.

[Idriveayugo]

So you play Khandi, Misa? Hmmmm....

[SekoETC]

Sometimes people assume my character is upset if she doesn't even *smile*. If you don't want to exaggerate it, you can do *smiles faintly* or slightly or subtly. If that might seem forced, you could write about a smile that's mainly visible in the eyes, since you can't fake that.

[KAOS]

Interesting topic.
In German, my native tongue, I don't find it too difficult to find variations - and it depends on the char which expressions I use more often than others.
In English it is much more difficult as I often don't know the adequate expression and have to look some words up. The dictionary always shows several words and it's hard to choose which one fits best for what I mean to say. It may be that some of my sentences simply sound a bit weird because a native speaker just wouldn't say it that way though every single word for itself would be correct.
Anyway I'm always happy to read "good" English emotes or just phrases that are new to me, hope it will help me improving my English.

[Misato]

So you play Khandi, Misa? Hmmmm....

Nope, but I know who does. ^_^ lol

[Marian]

If some kind of big character-defining thing is going on I'll put more effort into it, but if I'm just trading for coal or something routine I know I tend to just use a lot of *smiles* and *shrugs* with only slight variations. This bugs me sometimes, but then again not every post has to be a masterpiece.

[raspberrytea]

A lot of my characters have recently come in contact with fairly new characters who use a variety of emotes, and it's wonderfully refreshing.

However, on the topic of non-native English speakers emoting, the only error that has ever bothered me is the smirk. I have come to realize that very few people seem to understand exactly what a smirk is; more specifically, it's a type of smile that non-native English speakers appear to have difficulty grasping the nuances of. I can't exactly blame them for it, but it's frustrating nevertheless.