Articles - Dreams of Anarchy - Social Features (Part 1)

This is the fourth of a series of articles based on my extensive game experience. I have written editorials in the past with suggestions to Funcom on changes that I would like to see in AO to improve the game (some which were implemented).

These articles will be on the same subject, but it will be detailing what would I change if I was a Dev, and I will be very thorough going through each area of Rubi-Ka. Not only will I cover what I would like to change/update about my favorite game, but also what I would like to add to it...expect to read ideas about new quests and locations that could enhance the AO experience if they were ever done.

You probably expected me to cover Newland/Newland Desert this time around, but I thought to cover something that has been in my mind for quite some time. I will be reviewing NL/NLD in the next piece. Today's article will focus on the Social Features of Anarchy Online.

Let's start with emotes, we have currently 65 of them. Let's go through each category shall we?

Greeting
bow - curt - greet - kneel - salute - scared - surprised - surrender - wave

What kind of greeting is kneel? run it and you'll see that the movement is as if you lost your contact lense and you're searching on the ground for it. I assume the original intention was for the kneel emote was for a character to get one knee on the ground and bow his head. That emote would be great, specially for those who roleplay royalty or use the Feudalism governingform in their guild if it was redone. Use the original emote as /groundsearch.

Surrender would be used for often, if it wasn't that nobody ever raises their hands for 2 whole seconds and then puts them back down. Who surrenders for 2 seconds? have you ever seen than in any movie or on TV?

"Put your hands up and come our slowly"
::suspect comes out of the building with his hands up::
::2 seconds later his arms go down::
"He's going for a weapon! Open Fire!"
::suspect is dead::

So how about the emote instead keeps the character's hands up (even when walking) he uses the /surrender command a second time?

Imagine someone surrenders to Omni-Pol and is escorted with his hands up for more than 2 seconds? wouldn't that be fun to watch? I'd get a kick out of it for sure, and I think you would too!

And a new greeting could be added, how many times have you see in sci-fi movies/series the salute of the fisted right hand pounding on the chest (left side)? It would be a nice new emote to play with.

Gestures
cross - fishsize - gloat - italian - nod - nono - pray - shrug - speech - thinker

My personal opinion on /cross is that it should be removed, I've rarely seen anyone use it in years, and I'm not a religious man but was such an important religious gesture needed in a world 30,000 years into the future where there no evidence of the old religions on RK? (even tho I like the /pray emote to stay because it's pretty much a standard praying gesture among many religions).

Fishsize is also pretty useless, unless they intend to add fishing as a new skill, in other words I'd remove it. The /thinker emote to me seems to fit more under Athlete category than gesture...who would make this pose as a regular gesture?

Approval
applause - blowkiss - giggle - kisshigh - laugh-b - laugh-s - prostrate - swroyal - thumbs

This category is nice, the only thing that bothers me is that /thumbs is very similar to /speech and perhaps it could be redone a bit, maybe shaking a first at the character's head level a bit like cheering for someone since we obviously can't have the classic 'V' with our fingers (but we can always dream right?). Also adding another laugh which doesn't seem like you're about to drop on the ground out of breath would be nice, not everyone want to roleplay a rotflol you know? just a lol =P

Dislike
angry - bulge - fblock - flip - moon - puke - shake - slap - spit

These are in my opinion the most used emotes in the community, who has not done /moon /flip and /shake at a few people? hell I have. Now there is a few things in this category that either should be moved or removed. The emote /bulge is useless, sames goes for /puke because they are just not used at all, roleplayers use /me throws up on the floor and (trust me on this I've seen quite a few RP throwing up in a bar) I have never seen anyone use that emote for what it was intended to do...but it has been used for other purposes which are not PG-13 and /fblock is also rarely used.

Dancing
ballet - chicken - disco - flamenco - pulp - rocky - ymca

These are also very popular, specially at in-game parties hosted by AO DJ's. Some new emotes here would be great, like /hiphop /salsa /tango /breakdance /moonwalk come to mind. Perhaps watching more MTV may inspire some Devs to add some of them?

Athlete
backflip - strong1 - strong2 - strong3 - strong4

In my opinion /strong1 should be renamed /armscross and moved to the Gestures categories. A new emote does come to mind here, /pushup which gets the character to get down and do a few quick pushups. Other possible emotes: /shadowboxing, /situp, /highkick, /lowkick, /highpunch, /lowpunch.

Relaxing
adjust - drink - eat - itch - legshake - lounge - read - scratch

These are often used emotes, however I think 2 should be removed, /adjust and /itch seem like, well...as if you're 'touching' your private parts, and there are some kids playing the game (just my personal opinion guys). There is a rarely known command which SHOULD be included in this category, and it's /sleep (like /lounge it requires for you to sit).

Now to the last category.

Directions
apachi - lookout - pointba - pointfor - pointlef - pointrig - pointup

Good emotes, except that there is one missing, /pointdow (point down), otherwise this set of emotes seem to cover things nicely.

Well, I've gone through all 65 emotes (66 if you count /sleep) and shared my ideas and suggestions with you all. Feel free to post and share your own voice and comments about this article.

Please remember these are suggestions based on what I would do if I was an AO Dev. Maybe one of them will read this and use an idea or two, I can only hope. Anything can happen in AO, trust me on that.

Last updated on 12.07.2011 by Khuri
Article written by Windguaerd
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