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Are long /me's signs of a good roleplayer?


mojojojo

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The answer is no.

 

HOWEVER

 

No one ever says short /mes are bad. This was never really something anyone believed. I think the right question would be, "Are short /mes a sign of subpar roleplay?" And the answer is still no. You can't just go around and cancel the way someone roleplays depending on the detail in it. If you're a bad roleplayer then it will be visible in both your lazy /mes and your detailed /mes anyway.

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Reading a room is the sign of good roleplay, not the length of your emotes. If people are going for quickfire, short emotes, respect the general tone of the environment and don't write a novel. If you're on a 1 on 1 scene and that's the feel, then that's the feel. I write long emotes as well as simple short emotes depending on where I'm at, while favoring longer ones personally.

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Don't 👏 support 👏 lazy 👏 roleplay 👏 and 👏 emotes.

 

It does not matter if one spews out a 70 or 250 character emote. What matters is that it contains sufficient detail where it matters and is not half-assed  such as "/me pats down person /b showinv" sort of things.

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Each to their own but if I have to stand around for a solid 60 seconds while you type out an artsy emote that drags situations to a standstill I'll probably avoid interacting with your character. Translating metaphors, similes and borderline riddles just to understand what mood a character is in isn't fun to me.

 

 

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3 hours ago, jcat said:

Long /me's and short /me's.

 

/me is for describing a character action that a character would see but that the player cannot see.  This connects to Scandolouz comment about thoughts, emotions, and all that.  Characters can't see that, so it shouldn't get a /me.  Show the visible hints of that, like /me curls her lip and turns away.

 

Example:  a facial expression, or a detail that adds flavor, that tells the other people in the rp something that adds to the rp.

 

chatbox space is very limited, so the best /me is the /me that communicates those relevant details that add to the rp in the least space possible.

 

long /me's that clutter up the chatbox with irrelevant details absolutely SUCK.

 

the chatbox is not the place for people to show off their creative writing.  Doing that in such a limited space that other people are trying to use is a detriment to rp.

 

My rule of thumb is that if other character can see my character doing something, like anim to light up a cig, then I don't need to do a /me about it.  There's rules of course, but in cases where a /me isn't required by a rule, that's my rule of thumb.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Larenis said:

Look at it this way. You can't do /me frisks Mister Potato. You need to be descriptive in that need to say where you search. You want to laugh? You don't need to explain how your vocal cords move.

 

2 hours ago, Свето said:

No. Long /me's don't mean you're a better roleplayer.

 

1 hour ago, xSkaikru said:

It really depends on the context and situation. Long lines don't always contribute to the situation. Sometimes they are a nuisance if there are irrelevant information, but sometimes they provide useful insight into the character and such.

 

I agree with all comments quoted above as part of my comment. Generally, sometimes during some actions, you need to be really descriptive. If you ask me "/me pats down from head to toe John Doe." is not sufficient. You should be more specific and exactly say where would you pat down the person because there is no such person who is going to path down exactly every inch of someone's clothes and maybe just because you missed that special inch, you can't find something important. While you can always have short /me's such as "/me chuckles.".

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1 hour ago, shaobadman said:

if "show don't tell" is a cliche rule it still has some validity in storytelling and fully applies here

 

Very true.  Show don't tell isn't a cliche rule, it's a bedrock foundation that's especially important here, because GTAW's first/third perspective is such that no other characters can know another character's thoughts or emotions except by the character expressing them in some way through words or actions.

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2 hours ago, shaobadman said:

apparently a few of us in this thread do and while i find that refreshing i'm wondering if there are rules against it, because it can be open to minor abuse as another user already said, where players use it for passive aggressive insults but you can't do anything because there was no action representing it, it's extremely lazy too, even if "show don't tell" is a cliche rule it still has some validity in storytelling and fully applies here

I would argue it fits in the first part of the Metagaming rule.

 

Quote

 

Providing in-character (IC) information to another player using out-of-character (OOC) means. Providing OOC information to another player using IC means. Using OOC means to find in-character information. Using OOC communication and/or information to influence anything in-character.

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, SCANDALOUZ said:

Depends.

 

Want to portray your character smoking?

   Just /me lights up a cigarette.

 

Want to showcase the Zippo that saved your character's life in Vietnam?

   /me dug into his pocket for a pack of Marlboro Reds and a Zippo lighter. He bit a cigarette and started the lighter up with a finger-snapping trick.

 

Detailed emotes are a good storytelling tool, but when it's just some meaningless-in-the-bigger-picture action, you should keep it simple.

 

IMO, and I'll fight anyone who disagrees IRL.

 

EDIT:

PSA: Stop emoting out thoughts and feelings. Please don't ask why not.

 

Yes!! PLEASE stop emoting your thoughts we can't read them

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1 hour ago, Koko said:

Reading a room is the sign of good roleplay, not the length of your emotes. If people are going for quickfire, short emotes, respect the general tone of the environment and don't write a novel. If you're on a 1 on 1 scene and that's the feel, then that's the feel. I write long emotes as well as simple short emotes depending on where I'm at, while favoring longer ones personally.

 

This.

 

I often roleplay with people from both sides of the spectrum — people that enjoy writing fully fledged sentences and people who like to condense their roleplay into short and concise emotes — I believe both are fine and acceptable, everyone is entitled to choose how they wish to roleplay and I think that's the beauty of it; the fact that the players are free to express themselves however they want. It's not up to us to make the call for them. 

 

That being said, I'm the adaptive type. I usually wait out until the other party I'm roleplaying with sets the pace and adjust my ways to more or less match theirs to the best of my ability and believe it or not, this helps tremenduously keeping the whole vibe going to the point it's not something I even think about. I'm certain if I were to keep it simple while the other party was truly invested into making their emotes very detailed and long, they would most certainly not like how I am not keeping up with their efforts and potentially send the wrong message to them. This is something I have personally seen before so I'm rather careful and in a way meticulous in my approach and how I come across to others. 

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