Conquest of the Horde

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No, I'm not talking about characters literally reading each others minds. I'm talking about players posting emotes that go into great detail on their character's thought processes.

Let me first start off by saying that this is not an attack on anyone. I'm not intending to insult the RP of others. I do, however, think that it's a topic that should be brought up, because I've been seeing it with increasing regularity over the past few months, and it's something I personally dislike.

I had always been taught that emoting out one's thoughts was poor RP. Even Priests, who have a great deal of mental abilities, cannot read minds, and throwing out such thoughts always provides the temptation of metagaming on the part of the other RPers. On top of this, delving too deeply into one's thought processes in a single emote can lead to a lack of action, which can make it very difficult to formulate a good response. To provide an example to illustrate and show people what I'm talking about (names completely made up on the spot, sorry if they're close to anyone):

"Jordan turns to look over the sea. Of course, he is angry that Lilian had betrayed him so, and he fully intends to get revenge on her. He isn't going to simply attack her though...no, that isn't his style. He instead decides to bide his time, waiting for the appropriate moment when he can truly make her suffer. Oh, how he would enjoy that moment!"

Now, all of this is well and good, but to someone RPing with Jordan, what do we have to work with? His turning to the sea was the only action he performed. As far as we know, he's not displaying his emotions, and we can't read minds, so that is the only thing we have to work on. Compare, instead, to:

"Jordan turns to look over the sea, gaze fixed on the distant horizon. His brow furrows angrily, and his breathing comes out loudly and heavily, the man fuming indignantly. He fails to acknowledge or speak to those around him, instead alternating between clenching and relaxing his fists, muscles tense."

Now this gives us more to work with, even if the emote itself is a little shorter. We can tell Jordan is angry. There is significantly more description here and we can act on it. On top of that, there is no extra information here that we aren't allowed to use, and thus less chance of metagaming ("Oh, this is about Lilian, isn't it?")

I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks.

Edit: edited to fix a typo.
I'll have to agree on this - but then I also don't want to hear long detailed PMs about why your character is REALLY an evil overlord from Planet X, or is Actually a Nice Guy Once You Get to Know Him. What a character does and says is enough for me to act on. It may mean that my character reads it wrong and doesn't give you the reaction you want - but again, that is my character, not me, and that too is a distinction I'm seeing is not coming across to people.

While it's a magic world, it's still somewhat real life to an extent. When you see someone perform an action, you can only assume what they're doing and why. Maybe that assumption is wrong, but still, that's all you can do unless you ask the person what they're doing - and asking is part of the interaction of rp.

Sometimes, mystery is good!
I agree in full as well. I see it as revealing so many wonderful spoilers about your character and not allowing us to roleplay and unravel your mystery!
Thank you for this post, I have pretty much revamped my entire RP-approach after reading it and I feel it has improved.
Sorry for thread-necromancy, But I felt that this thread is worth a read from our newer players and as the GM´s say if you have read it, its allways good to brush up!

Didn´t know how to do otherwise, except re-post this... Felt like the same thing to me.

*Shrugs and prepares to be punted*
I used to RP my thoughts like that, but I'd usually give a little more action. Though you're right; it does almost encourage metagaming.
People, READ THIS. We can´t read minds even if we have a world filled with magic.

Guest

True, Grakor, so true. 'Course, -I- had already known..yep. *Eyes dart around, scribbling on a notepad*
Suuure you did.
I'm guilty of this at times... it's a good reminder for me. :| Thank you.
Is posting your character's exact thought process the same as posting something along the lines of:

"[Character] is of the opinion that...."

It's a different way of saying "I think that...." but just putting the character in the third person instead of the first, right?
Right. For the most part, people cannot tell your opinion by looking at you. However, you could always put something like "Jack recoils a bit at the sight of the Forsaken, clearly disgusted."
Again, this is all going by what people can tell by your character's expressions/actions.
Mind-reading emotes:


Ikutak glares angrily at the night elf, because he hates night elves.

Ikutak watches so-and-so, smiling. "I'd really like to stab that person", he thinks.



Non-mind-reading emotes:


Ikutak glares at the night elf.

Ikutak watches so-and-so, smiling coldly.


See the difference?
Ah , thanks for clearing it up , Grakor and Qaza , I used to do this -Alot- to be honest , But now you've alerted me to its flaws , i'll stop doin it :)
Well, I'd thought I'd post to kind of, Y'know, bring this topic to attention.

Anyways, I agree on this as well. The whole deal where you type out your 'thoughts' in an emote, then magically the other members of an RP can somehow 'see' these is a little ludicrous. We don't need to know -what your character is thinking.

Seriously, in real life, can other people hear your thoughts? No.

So leave mind-reading emotes invisible to our eyes.

-Crackbone
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