The "correct" usage of /me's?

[ThomasNoman]

Hey, there.

 

Of course I know what /me is, generally. The short description of it is, /me is used to describe actions, right? After some time on the server, I have met several different type of roleplayers, and I usually judge their roleplay quality by, one, their spellings and punctuations, and two, the amount of /me's and how detailed it is. But, after I've seen a thread in Player's Guide, it's said that the longer the sentence is not always the best as it can be wordy.

 

Examples of /me's in situations

 

shaking hands

 

*Thomas smiles gently towards Scott as he extends his right arm towards Scott, expecting a handshake.

* Thomas offers a handshake to Scott, smiling towards Scott.

(Which one is preferred?)

 

 

Aside from GTA World, I also roleplay on an RP server on FiveM as an LEO (voice), I once asked the admins why their /me's are not required to be long?  They said, "We have animations and scripts that support roleplays therefore we don't need to make /me's long just make them as short as possible, so we don't spend the whole time RPing by typing those /me's"

On the said FiveM server, when we drink- we eat or anything that can be done via animation, we don't use me— we would simply play the animation and the animations are dynamic.

 

Examples that we use /me's on the FiveM server,

 

* John takes out info, and hands it over.

* Thomas takes the info.

 

* Thomas slings AR.

* Thomas checks pulse.

* Thomas grabs first aid kit.

 

I agree that the /me's is too short and not that detailed, which I can separate the way I RP when on GTA World and on the FiveM server, but one thing I'm thinking that I would be implementing to my RP in GTA World is the using of animation.

 

Instead of 

 

* Thomas rests his palm on the counter | /anim counterleanbar4

* Thomas takes a seat on the chair, smiling towards Scott then he says "Please take a seat" | /anim sitchair15, /ame smiles, "Please take a seat"

(Which one is preferred?)

 

 

I'm not saying GTA World or the FiveM server is right or wrong, but my question and discussion here is, what's the most effective way of using /me's and in what case that /me's is not necessary on GTA World?

 

[Juicebox.]

Personally I dont think that over-saturated /me's are that needed and I also dont think they are what define what a good roleplayer is. At the end of the day a good roleplayer is somebody who can portray their character in the most realistic way possible.

 

I can very easily type out a 3 sentence /me but that doesnt exactly mean that it's needed, you can easily type out a /me that can say a lot in little words.

 

/me reaches his hand towards Scott's, firmly shaking it. 

 

/me shifts his weight forward, leaning onto the counter

 

Essentially when I roleplay I try to keep them short and simple. They are there to describe what's happening. They do not at all define a quality roleplayer. 

[Ketamine Kowboy]

Personally? As seen is my rant-ish post, there is no benefit to extending /me's with pointless detail, but, there is no wrong way of describing something in a /me. 

 

Only real "rules" are to remain in 3rd person whilst writing a /me, and using them to describe your actions rather than any environment around you, of course, if you want you can describe your environment in a /me assuming you interact with it. 

 

Example: * Vasken Gezalian looks out over the poorly lit bar.

 

Personally? Out of your examples I prefer

 

"* Thomas offers a handshake to Scott, smiling towards Scott"

 

I would even go as far as to do

* Thomas offers Scott his hand, smiling.

 

But it's all personal opinion really, no wrong or right when it comes to length for simple actions, if you're doing something detailed using more detail is preferable. When doing medical roleplay some extra detail is required, when searching someone or when beating someone up, describing why and how you're doing it. 

 

Examples:

 

*Thomas crouches down, resting his fingers on Scott's neck, looking for his pulse.

 

* Thomas reaches into Scott's front left pocket, pulling it inside out.

 

* Thomas sends a kick towards Scott's knee.

 

Hope It helps, keep in mind this is just my opinion.

[liq]

It's a matter of taste and choice. You can do what you want with your emotes. The point behind them is to drive a scenario through, so it's usually good to be as concise as possible to maintain the flow of role-play and interaction. Becoming wordy only slows things down or results in misunderstandings.

 

Detail is welcome when it makes a point or when it shows or otherwise reveals something. Let me give you an example: most of my characters walk but one of them has field awareness embedded into him. He moseys instead of walking, and is prone to check his surroundings more often. 

 

Let's take your handshake scenario and dissect it with that logic in mind. Thomas wants to shake Scott's hand and he's smiling. What's the difference between Thomas smiles gently towards Scott as he extends his right arm towards Scott, expecting a handshake. and Thomas smiles and shakes Scott's hand.? Virtually nothing. It got the point across with 25% of the length.

 

It's also important to know your audience. One on one scenarios or group scenarios where everybody is on the same page can be more detailed for as long as everyone is used to the style and purpose of what you're writing. I think "knowing your audience" ties in with the level of knowledge another player has of your character. It's easier to freestyle when you're around those who know your character and have a good idea of what to expect out of your writing.

 

Skillful roleplayers are judged by the quality of their characters. It takes a lot to develop a character. It takes even more than a lot to keep a character going through communities like GTA World which are very factionized, in the sense that more often than not characters are purpose built to role-play mobsters, gangbangers, cops, et-cetera that it's hard to find people who just build a character and run with it. It's also hard to find roleplayers who account for development as it comes to them. I've met all sorts of players and perhaps the worst are those who are knowledgeable but have this fixated path for their character, and if you somehow create a scenario that strays their character off that path, they'll cut you out. This community has a huge OOC aspect to it too and being able to keep what's IC and what's OOC separate is commendable, because role-play should be clean like that.

[Marksman]

50 minutes ago, ThomasNoman said:

*Thomas smiles gently towards Scott as he extends his right arm towards Scott, expecting a handshake.

* Thomas offers a handshake to Scott, smiling towards Scott.

(Which one is preferred?)

 

So in this case, the formatting of both actions are fine. The only thing I would not do would be use the same name twice. You've already made it clear the first time you are interacting with Scott. To input his name twice in one go is adding too much and, in my opinion, just looks plain bad.

 

If you're interacting with a second person, you should be using a new /me.

 

52 minutes ago, ThomasNoman said:

* Thomas rests his palm on the counter | /anim counterleanbar4

* Thomas takes a seat on the chair, smiling towards Scott then he says "Please take a seat" | /anim sitchair15, /ame smiles, "Please take a seat"

(Which one is preferred?)

Neither? Both? They're both different actions. They are not comparable. 

 

You're expected to follow the emote from a /me with a following animation. If you emote sitting down, you should sit down. FiveM (typically) is voice based, so actions are not at the core of their "roleplay". We're the contrary. Actions are the bread and butter. So they are detailed and descriptive, but not too much. You have to be intelligent about what you're writing, how you're writing and how much you're writing.

[Woona]

I feel it's a case by case situation; we're a text heavy role-play server, so expect more /me's. FiveM servers are more RPG-isque, so expect less /me's. 

[Hopout]

If you can paint a picture of what action/mannerism/emotion etc you're roleplaying clearly, the length or detail doesnt really matter much.(To me)

[Valkyria]

  From the other thread:

9 hours ago, Keane said:

short /mes in the streets, long /mes in the sheets tbh

/thread

[alina2137]

If we're talking about the correct usage of /me then it's simple. /me has a reason, it's there to describe the actions your character is doing. You should make it detailed when said detail is needed.

/do is there to explain your character and their surroundings, therefore I'm a fan of:

/do Natalie's wrists are iced out, she's wearing a Datejust and a Gucci bracelet.

and not

/me IS WEARING a Datejust and a Gucci bracelet.

But this is just me being conservative with how I treat the core rules/mechanics of the roleplay gamemode. To me, /me is there strictly for ACTIONS and not for explanation of your characters. You've got /do and /my for that.

Talking about /my, it's there because I see how people can simply not be fans of using /do [name] [description] so it's just easier to have the script put [your character name's] in front of the sentence.

In conclusion, /me, long or short, has it's purpose and I think that everyone should stick to using it as a way to describe actions. But I respect people who wanna use phrases such as /me IS or /me HAS, that's on you.

Edited November 17, 2020 by hentai!
grammar

[DomThomson]

I think it depends heavily on the person that is writing, some people like short and sweet /me's and some people like them longer, and I don't have an issue with either as long as they are longer then four words and are concise. But when it comes to using animations other then /me's, again, depends on the person, I personally like to /me even if I'm doing animations as it more explains what my character is doing as well as the fact it makes him more ''lively'' then if I just did the animation, this is also a reason why I personally like to write longer /me's that are descriptive, because it given me the chance to convay infomation as well as emotions much more realistically and give my character more life.