Language and the Internet

The language of virtual worlds 181

Theemote(orpose) method of communication allows a player
to express a character’s actions, feelings, reactions, gestures, facial
expressions, and so on. Not all MUDs use them, but they are a
dominant feature of those that do. They are typically statements
with the verb in the 3rd person singular present tense (though other
tenses can be found in certain circumstances).^13 For example, the
command to my character

>emote salute

would result in the following appearing on everyone else’s screen:

Langman salutes.

On my own screen, however, the software changes the message into
the appropriate person:

You salute.

Similarly, I might wish to express the following:

I type Others see I see

>look puzzled Langman looks puzzled. You look puzzled.

>pick up the Langman picks up the You pick up the

journal journal. journal.

Some verbs are especially common in the expression of emotes: in
her group, Lynn Cherny noted the frequency ofsmile,laugh,wave,
greet,grin,bow, andnod.^14 All possible social or cognitive contexts
arerepresented–suchashug,guess,think,glare,poke,andkill.There
are plainly parallels with other language varieties which contain
ongoing description, such as broadcast commentary and instruc-
tional narratives (as in cookery recipes). But emotes do things that
commentaries do not do, as illustrated by this sequence:^15

Ray can’t remember

Ray could swear he picked it up...

(^13) Cherny (1999: 202) illustrates the use of other tenses in expository narrative:Tom hated
14 that movie.
Cherny (1999: 117).^15 Cherny (1999: 123).