The emote system has to be one of the more discussed topics here, with complaints popping up every month it seems.
I myself am not much of a fan. The emotes themselves are completely inadequate to convey much, beyond contempt or snark.
I feel like the intention was to be witty, but in the main, I think players feel insulted by many of the responses that are available.
For me, this comes down to intent, and the system is so limited that replies may be taken any number of ways, and so they are usually interpreted as insulting.
Changes have been suggested many times, but I wondered what players actually think of the system?
I will admit, I do get tired of muting every single matchâŚ
Beyond that I just see the system as a means of taunting, much as children do on the playground.
HS emotes are designed to annoy and mock your opponent, never used for genuine positivity.
Even whey try to be friendly, the emotes are so poorly executed that they always come off as insincere.
Just plain awfulness.
Emotes should just be removed altogether.
To give examples of other competitive games that does this much better, lichess is a chess server that is very popular.
There people are allowed to interact in chat, with predefined macros such as well played, etc, as well as chat. If you are an abuser of this, or simply behave like a child, and reported by multiple people the server will auto time ban you for a cool off period of ten minutes, if it continues the cool off period ramps up.
Thatâs the only way to crack down on toxicity like this IMO, have real consequences for being unsportsmanlike, nothing severe, but enough to give trolls a pause and make them reconsider if that emote spam is really worth a 15 min wait.
That said, even there, the existing emotes like well played, etc, can be misinterpreted as unsportsmanlike behavior, more often then actually used to show sportsmanship.
I just âHelloâ at the start and mute.
As they should
If Iâm greeting you in a friendy way, it usually means that:
a) youâre on my friend list, or
b) you have a cool nickname, and I havenât seen it before.
Both of those situations are rare.
With âWell playedâ, itâs even more dire - I use it as it was intended 1% of the time and all the other times itâs meant to mock my opponent.
Other emotes are pretty one-dimensional. I like the âWowâ and âOops onesâ precisely because you canât really use them in any other way than it was intended (to comment on your opponentâs, or yours, mistakes).
Oh, I also use the threatening one when I get tilted due to something annoying, but extraordinary, which happens very rarely. Usually I spam it until Iâm sure Iâm muted in that case.
In overall: 9/10 emote system. Could use a few more!
Neat hearing all the diff lines for the diff heroes/skins
I wonder what the point of voicelines are in overwatch if one is aiming to mute a taunting teammate. But some days you really just wanna shout âJust taking out the trashâ after every single kill. It helps to be able to cry âFOR THE LOVE OF CODâ in game during a bad round to express your own disappointment or to Yee-haw in game so you donât have to convey the emotion IRL later
We canât have freedom of speech in a type chat because we live in a litigious culture. This is something their lawyers told them they had to do, or theyâd get sued. And the lawyers arenât wrong. This generation of humans sucks.
Is the emote system bad? Sure. But itâs a social mirror, if you donât like what it reflects thatâs not its fault.
Well said. The thread is yours, you win.
You never truly know how your opponent uses an emote. You can only assume.
People take them way too seriously. They are just a way to add personality to the game and interact with whoever you are playing.
I personally use emotes for fun banter and im almost always a good sport about it
As far as i can tell most other people, besides a once in a blue moon spammer, do too
The worst thing about HS emotes is how they reflect the double-faced nature of some people. I hate that it brings that into the game.
Iâd much prefer if each emote clearly conveyed its intent. The condescending nonchalant tone of todayâs emotes is just awful.
Emotes arenât doing too little but too much.
Itâs also completely deliberate. Blizzard knows that there is a significant portion of the playerbase that wants to communicate for the purposes of upsetting the other person. If Blizzard could get away with selling an emote telling someone to go lose a coin flip to Fear and Hungerâs Harvestman (do not Google, youâve been warned), it would sell quite well. But because of the litigious culture, what they do instead is the most obnoxious emotes that they can get away with while maintaining plausible deniability. They canât just say what they mean, so they have to use sarcasm instead.
That said, I am from Detroit, so enjoying cussing people out is baked into me. I wouldnât know what too much looks like.
These are supposed to be larger than life characters and the emotes are supposed to represent their personality.
Emotes arent a problem. If people take them personally that is their own problem.
The old classic: itâs the peopleâs fault.
Itâs never the incompetent companyâs fault, but rather the customersâ.
Theyâre to blame for taking personally whatâs designed to be taken personally.
The core concept of the game is a deathmatch between you and your army vs thiers
Someone trying to kill you is considerably more rude than anything they could say.
In the context of the game it makes perfect sense for your opponent to be hostile. If you cant handle a little smack talk from a cartoon then its a you problem.
Emotes are literally meant to be taken personally.
Theyâre designed to evoke your emotions. And yet you blame the players for taking them personally.
Youâve lost this argument on all fronts. Youâre simply wrong, and I donât care about your belief that people are overreacting to these emotes. Itâs not even an argument; itâs just a political message.
You are just mad and salty; I lost nothing
Get rekt
Itâs nice that you recognize you havenât made any real argument here, just critiqued what you consider âsoftâ in digital play.
Congrats on that discovery.
You are so easy to provoke no wonder you cant handle a cartoon talking smack
Your admittance to being here solely to provoke with no real substance is commendable.
Owning up being shameless is a new one.