Custom Emotes

Bluef

Some discussion in another thread had me wondering how many people make use of regular, custom emotes related to their character and its behavior and attitude. I thought sharing them might be fun (and fruitful for those considering making some of these).

I'll go first to show you what I had in mind. Here are some custom emotes Bluef uses rather often depending on her circumstances.

Ebon wings folded gently at her back, Bluef Shayan'Kor, the Somnolent Wytch is nearby. (standard pose)

Bluef touches the black swan-shaped bindi at the centre of her forehead and inclines her head politely.

Bluef absentmindedly fingers the small grey pearls weighing down the hem of the dusky silk veil obscuring her face.

The ghost of a smile passes fleetingly across Bluef's lips.

Fluttering her stygian wings, Bluef smiles serenely, an otherworldly lustre in her eyes.

Bluef's piercing blue eyes inspect you thoughtfully.

Subtle, entrancing scents of tea leaves and orchids drift about Bluef's petite form.

Gazing to the heavens with arms spread wide, Bluef sings a soft song of the spirits.

What kind of custom emotes do you use regularly, if any?

Katsuragi

Katsuragi tousles her hair agitatedly.

and

Katsuragi drums her fingers thoughtfully against the hilt of the sword at her waist.


are ones that I use a lot. Katsuragi's still a fledgling, though, and has lots of development that could happen.

Dracen

So-and-so's eyes seem to flash dangerously.

aww yeah, dangereyes.

Herenicus

Herenicus runs a hand over his face.

This link may prove useful to someone

Caoimhaen

@Herenicus yay! Someone else who shares one of my interest in body language! 

Will post some of mine soon when I am on my laptop.

Kotaru

I made a lot for Kotaru because a bunch of the regular ones really.. didn't fit him. Like the deep rumbling laugh, or emphatic nodding. But I also did things like making different versions of something that could be taken multiple ways:

blink
Kotaru blinks with surprise.

blinkblank
With a blank expression, Kotaru blinks a few times.

blinkconfused
Kotaru blinks, appearing confused.

blinklost
Kotaru blinks, looking a little lost.

I also gussied up the preen emote:

Lifting his large, snowy wings from his back and reaching them around himself, Kotaru draws his small fingers through the feathers, intently cleaning them.

As an aside, I was really glad when emotes stopped using balance. I accidentally failed following people a lot before that. Anyway, I really like the idea of customizing the regular emotes/making new ones to suit your character. It really makes me feel like someone has put a lot of care into their character when I see them. I feel like some people consider them 'showing off' though.

Lorielan

I don't think anyone is looked down on for using custom emotes, they can lend so much to a character and we love to see them.

The only (minor) problem that can arise, and this is as true for custom as it is for hardcoded emotes, is when a player punctuates their character's every action with one emote. Seeing a serpent's fangs flash every thirty seconds, or a girl's eyes glimmer/shimmer/sparkle, while perfectly valid reactions, will all fall flat after a while due to sheer repetition.

Nim

The above issue can be somewhat multiplied, though, if it's a particularly long or elaborate emote.

Seeing X blinks. a dozen times would start to get annoying, but if cleverly used as opposed to just spammed, the simplicity of it might give it some longevity.

Seeing Overcome with surprise, X's eyes close for but a brief moment before opening anew. even three or four times in the same conversation could get jarring, since you're like, wait, why are they repeating the same elaborate action over and over again? Even if the action itself isn't elaborate, and only the text is.

Ellodin

i use very similar expressions very often, but it's not like i play a very temperamental sort of dude.  i guess my mild way of combating overuse of the same emotes is to not have any aliases and type them out every time, since that makes me conscious of how often i use certain things.  at times, i might use some variation to imply that the same expression occurred (e.g. "The kohl tracery around Ellodin's eyes shifts as he smiles." instead of "The corners of Ellodin's eyes crinkle with good humour.").

Caoimhaen

I an similar to Ellodin in that most of my custom emotes are on the fly. Some common ish ones include:

 "Caoimhaen shifts uncomfortably."

"Caoimhaen rubs the back of his head shyly."

"Caoimhaen's blue-green eyes meet (X)'s."

Dracen

Long time ago...
Soandso's left hand reaches up, scratching at his forearm carefully.

Bluef

This conversation reminds me a little of the thread where @Shirszae talked about feeling as though it took her a while to come up with responses during roleplay situations -- in that that's the way I feel about emotes.

People seem to use them fluidly in their roleplay, but for me it's a real struggle and I honestly chalk it up to my extremely introverted personality. I really love the emotes you are all sharing here though! It is fun little inspiring stuff that makes me want to get over my little internal struggle. 

Florentino

A few samples...

Florentino arches a solitary eyebrow in surprise.

Florentino displays his fangs in a menacing grin.

Florentino melts into the shadows.

Florentino nimbly flexes a black-gloved hand.

Florentino strokes his goatee thoughtfully.

Florentino briefly glances at a curious mechanical contraption fastened to his 

wrist with a strap.

Florentino twists his fingers and pulls a pulsating orb of light into existence, 

then idly proceeds to weave it into various fantastic shapes before banishing it once more.

Florentino nocks an arrow to his bow and takes aim at an imaginary target. 

Apparently satisfied, he swiftly returns the arrow to his quiver.

Aodfionn

anything + grunt 
cleave

I don't have any custom ones that I repeat often. Just this: 

His yellow eyes twinkling enchantingly, Aodfionn grunts and bows his head in respect.

which is just twinkle + grunt + formal incline.

Taraus

Taraus stifles a snort.

Taraus gestures vaguely.
(usually to punctuate a statement with no conclusion, or to replace a word/phrase mid-sentence).

I shamelessly and frequently use the hardcoded 'lol' emote, because it's fantastic.

I'm also a fan of using evade for custom entrances/exits (some form of jingling on enter, tripping over something on egress).

Katsuragi

Herenicus said:

Herenicus runs a hand over his face.

I picture this action, really:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lWroc8UlI7Y#t=103

Edit: Tried to copy the URL with the video time as part of the link, but it didn't work. Look at 1:43

Razzlo

Katsuragi said:

Herenicus said:

Herenicus runs a hand over his face.

I picture this action, really:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lWroc8UlI7Y#t=103

Edit: Tried to copy the URL with the video time as part of the link, but it didn't work. Look at 1:43

That is so incredibly terrifying...

Herenicus

Himadaen

Herenicus said:

This link may prove useful to someone

Indeed, it has a lot of useful info.

My character is still young and has much RP to do before developing signature emotes, but so far, since im in mhaldor, Bowing seems like my thing at the moment lol.

Rip

My huge custom emotes are...

Rip nods.

Rip smiles.

oh and if you are lucky enough...

Rip smiles and nods.

Caoimhaen

@Rip omgee! I'm so lucky then! I got a smile and nod before!

Hellen

Pretty much all my emotes are done on the spot. This includes most surgeries, which basically means that they're all different to some extent, even if the basic methods are similar.

In casual events, I find shorter emotes are often better just for the sake of speed. Speed influences decisions, I think, and lets the scene develop more... organically, I think is the term I'm looking for. Of course, if you're quick with typing, you can probably easily fit more detail in.

Adet

I have a few custom emotes bound to aliases.  The one which I use most frequently is a replacement of "hi" (because it seems anachronistic), which is along the lines of

Adet inclines his head towards $person. (targetted)
Adet inclines his head in greeting to those present. (untargetted)

I think I also changed "smile" to something a little more subtle, too.


I also have a few old custom emotes which I used to use whilst standing around writing, mostly to assure people that I wasn't completely AFK, just busy... the problem I have noticed with having "ambient" emotes -- or general body-language emotes -- is that they're very obviously deliberate - and so invite comment in a way that wouldn't happen normally.  This is less of a problem with poses, but previously I would feel as though, by putting out an emote along the lines of "Adet writes a couple of lines", "Adet scores out a page of his journal", I was suggesting that people should be paying attention to me now!

Another issue I have with body language emotes is that they are deliberate in a way that body language itself isn't.  If I want to show reticence or deception, I might want to do it in a subtle way -- but it's difficult to do that in a way that won't be picked up on immediately by whomever I'm talking to.  "Adet breaks eye contact with you, looking at the ground"; "Adet stands a little straighter, crossing his arms in front of his chest" - if they happened in conversation IRL, you might get the feeling that something's a little off - but having it as a custom emote shoves a huge tell right in front of you, the player, and it's then difficult to objectively decide whether your character will pick up on it (and I think for most people, the line is "if I noticed it, so did my character").

That was awfully stream-of-consciousness, sorry.  

Kez

I have gobs and gobs of custom emotes but I don't like to use them in public for reasons @Adet mentioned - I don't want to give people the impression that I want them to pay special attention to me by writing a special emote. Plus, my custom emotes tend to be written with specific people in mind, so those that I get close to each see different things that I've written over the time I've been getting to know them.

What I will do in public is "Kez gnaws on soandso." I'm not really going to go into what it is here beyond "it's a greeting for liked people," and I'm fairly certain I can promise that anyone assuming they can guess why I do that is wrong. I'm making that statement after multiple offers for a bone to gnaw on. I don't want a bone to gnaw on. If you want to know why Kez acts weird, ask Kez. If you think you know why Kez acts weird, put your damned bone away. Cripes.

Sorry for the rant. Custom emotes do seem to attract that kind of attention, though, and I don't know if that's a custom-emote thing or people drawing conclusions based on gossip or I just somehow put out that vibe with my cold and prickly personality.

Bluef

I've changed a lot of basic emotes to the manner in which I envision Bluef carrying them out. For instance, Bluef probably wouldn't laugh melodically all the time. That's not really her nature. Sometimes, if something is especially funny, she might. But more often than not something witty will elicit simply a wry smile (amusing but not laughable) or a gentle chortle of suppressed amusement. I find it easier to BE Bluef this way, not having to think when reacting, but still allowing for in-the-moment, customized reactions.