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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Emotes to improve cross faction communication
by Amanda Miller 
Mar 3rd 2009 at 8:00AM
Then the dance ensues. I salute, and the Mage waves. The Mage starts /saying things that I don't understand. I shrug. I wait for awhile, hoping that this will signal that I am willing to let the Mage go first. I'm hoping that my politeness infers that I will help.
Finally, I point at the Mage, then at the mob. Taking a leap of faith, the Mage tags it, and I run around behind to help, perhaps with a guildmate at my side.
After our parting farewells, I sit down to await a respawn. Personally, I think it would be much easier if I could say "I'm here to save the day!" or "I come in peace." Of course, there is some charm involved in finding a way to use our current emotes to communicate other messages, especially after Blizz added new ones in 2008.
How do you communicate to a player of the opposite faction messages that aren't directly built-in to emotes? Are you aching for a certain emote that would help you do this, or do you enjoy having to puzzle it out by piecing together existing ones?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Factions
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 7)
MetalIcecrown Mar 3rd 2009 10:22AM
I usually point at the player, then point at the mob, then question them.
Naix Mar 3rd 2009 10:26AM
"much easier if I could say "I'm here to save the day!" or "I come in peace.""
Uhh its there already.
I'm here to save the day! = /flex
I come in peace = /wave
Drow Mar 3rd 2009 10:36AM
I had a similar thing happend, that really shocked me. It was in Dragonblight, and I was soloing all the quests from Venomspite and had headed into New Hearthglen. I was on the last part of the quest-line, the group quest. I went in there, usually able to solo anything (even group quests), but just couldn't do it. A pair of alliance showed up. The mob was there. I knew I was screwed. But they just stood there, then they did the /attack command, and I saw "SomeAllie tells you to attack Scarlet Bad Dude!"
So I did.
And they helped, very much, then left....
Angels I tell you!
I guess they aren't ALL bad after all....
Eleph Mar 3rd 2009 10:39AM
I was finishing up some quests iwith my undead priest in Feralas, probably in my upper 40s level-wise, and I notice a flagged night elf druid in the area. After running around for a while and collecting loot, somehow I accidentally right-clicked on the night elf and hit it once with my staff. Now flagged, I immediately disengaged, furiously typing /sorry, /bow, /sorry. The night elf typed /lol.
Then I decided to have some fun. I'd engage, walk up to the druid, smack her once with my staff, and then disengage. We did this for a few minutes and a few more /lol. Fun, and unexpected. I have some screenshots on one of my comps of the encounter.
Keyra Mar 3rd 2009 6:57PM
I'm suddenly reminded of an episode of The Simpsons.
Bart: Ow! Quit it. OW! Quit it. OW! Quit it.
Seanguy Mar 3rd 2009 10:44AM
I am a part of 2 guilds on Doomhammer: one Alliance and one Horde (our sister guild). We use Skype to communicate messages between factions and have a vent server where we share our public login so that should a Horde player wish to coordinate something, we sent an IM to our Horde officer counterpart, and they send a message to that player. Been going strong for 2 years now, so no problems. We even used the Skype SDK to modify the Horde IM's to display in red and the Alliance IMs in light blue.
Irshalthra Mar 3rd 2009 10:58AM
I'll never forget a quest in Norgrand called "Bring me the Egg". Requires you to jump on a trampoline and fly over an egg and drop on top of it. I died quite a few times before I got the hang of it.
The next day I was running around and saw a group of 3 Ally trying it. I sat down and watched and noticed that they could not figure it out. Using /no and /agree I got them to stand in the right spot, but could not get them to release at the right time. I finally had to leave for work, so do not know how they did.
I understand we are enemies and shouldn't talk much, but sometimes it would be nice to talk.
automator Mar 3rd 2009 11:13AM
The available emotes make sense for two factions that speak a different language.
A combo of /point /hug /point /bow /charge works pretty well.
Want your "enemy" to take that named spawn? Point to the mob, Point to them, Order them to charge.
Lyncis Mar 3rd 2009 11:32AM
/wait
/calm
/cast Mind Control
/cast Power Word: Fortitude
Result: pleasantly confused Alliance who are happy enough to leave me to quest in peace.
(or sometimes twerps who attack anyway)
Emma Mar 3rd 2009 11:31PM
This happened to me once, I was so surprised and grateful I followed them around /cheer and /smile-ing :p
I felt bad that I couldn't return the favour though :< WTB druid mind-meld!
Thander Mar 3rd 2009 11:37AM
I don't help alliance. They are my enemy. I will always steal their mines while they fight the mob that agroed. I will always ninja tag quest mobs from them. I watch in glee when they attempt an elite quest and hope they die. I do anything I can do to give the horde an advantage on my server.
Emma Mar 3rd 2009 11:26PM
Then you have no honour and no place within the Horde.
lethian Oct 10th 2009 1:31PM
i agree with Emma, i also think this though, your the kind of person it seems to me that rather than give horde the advantage by oh idk being nice, and having the alli hate us more, u decide hey id rather be a d-bag and make em angry/upset . don't get me wrong, im of the philosophy if they are flagged there dead, unless your in a pvp server that is up to you, but stealing nodes and mobs is giving u specifically the advantage, not horde. not only that but it makes horde look worse and more malicious. both sides do it, but its just taht person being an ass.
Lemons Mar 3rd 2009 11:42AM
"Finally, I point at the Mage, then at the mob. Taking a leap of faith, the Mage tags it, and I run around behind to help, perhaps with a guildmate at my side."
See there's your problem: you helped the mage. It would have been much funnier to let him/her run in and die.
Joking aside, cross faction emotes like "I come in peace" wouldn't really help much, especially on pvp realms. It would probably become a tradition to do the emote right before cutting some1 down.
And plus this is w\World of WARcraft, we don't have use for your "peaceful emotes"!
PSP Daddy Mar 3rd 2009 11:51AM
Just last night, I was running through a cave in the Alterac Mountains (full of kobolds) and a gnome mage happened to be there at the same time. I'm a blood elf priest. After fighting separately for a bit, I started helping him out a little. He did the same in return. And I was grateful I did so after launching an assault on "the next mob in line for death" and then realizing he was an Elite several levels higher than me. Had that mage not been right there helping me out, I'd have gotten my head split open. As it was, we polished off the Elite in about ten seconds and completed the quest with ease. Pretty cool. I was bummed that we went our separate ways after that.
And it was cool that we showed our mutual appreciation with the occasional bow and LOL and wave. Good times.
Chris Mar 3rd 2009 11:51AM
I'd love to see a Babel Fish-type device in the game - because "the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."
Liltimmy Mar 3rd 2009 12:04PM
Great reference! Hitchhiker's Guide ftw
Ilnara Mar 3rd 2009 11:56AM
I find pointing at the mob then standing back typically works.
On a PvP server myself, 98% of the time, we end up going toe to toe before anyone tags a Mob, so it's pretty rare that there is hand holding on our server. Besides, if I see someone holding hands I immediately kill the Ally, and /sigh the Friendly player then move on.
Sanar Mar 3rd 2009 11:57AM
I find that /wait and /ready work very well to get the point across that I will help. If we didn't just lose Wintergrasp, that is.
Dewey Mar 3rd 2009 12:15PM
One of my favorite emotes from the batch they added before Wrath is /signal. "You give (Target) the signal." During the Lunar Festival, six guildies and I went up to see if we could get a group for Omen. We found some Allies also looking for help. So I went over to a gnome, asked her to wait, pointed at Omen, pointed at my healer. she nodded. When we were all in position, I gave her the signal and we all did our thing and killed him.