An emote is an entry in a text-based chat client that indicates an action taking place. Unlike
emoticon
An emoticon (, , rarely , ), short for "emotion icon", also known simply as an emote, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers, and letters—to express a person's feelings, ...
s, they are not text art, and instead describe the action using words or images (similar to
emoji).
Emotes were created by
Shigetaka Kurita
(born May 9, 1972, Gifu Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese interface designer and often cited for his early work with emoji sets. Many refer to him as the creator of the emoji, a claim clarified in recent years. He was part of the team that cr ...
in Japan, whose original idea was to create a way of communication using pictures. Kurita would draw pictures of himself for inspiration for the emotes he created.
Nowadays emotes are a language of their own; emotes have progressed far past their original counterparts in 1999.
Overview
In most
IRC
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...
chat clients, entering the command "
/me" will print the user's name followed by whatever text follows. For example, if a user named Joe typed "
/me jumps with joy", the client will print this as "
Joe jumps with joy" in the chat window.
Allow me to demonstrate...
* Joe jumps with joy again.
In chat media which do not support the "/me" command, it is conventional to read text surrounded by asterisks as if it were emoted. For example, reading "Joe: *jumps with joy*" in a chat log would suggest that the user had intended the words to be performed rather than spoken.
In MMORPGs
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game.
As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a character (o ...
with visible avatars
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
, such as ''EverQuest
''EverQuest'' is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed by Verant Interactive and 989 Studios for Windows PCs. It was released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999 in North Amer ...
'', ''Asheron's Call
''Asheron's Call'' (AC) was a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows PCs, developed and published by Turbine Entertainment Software. Though it was developed by the Turbine team (with Microsoft's ex ...
'', ''Second Life
''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...
'' and ''World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
'', certain commands entered through the chat interface will print a predefined /me emote to the chat window and cause the character to animate, and in some cases produce sound effects. For example, entering "/confused" into World of Warcraft's chat interface will play an animation on the user's avatar and print "You are hopelessly confused." in the chat window.
With this being said, emotes are used primarily online in video games, and even more recently, on smartphones. An example of image-based emotes being used frequently is the chat feature on the streaming service Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
. Twitch also allows users to upload animated emotes encoded with the GIF format.
See also
* Emoji
References
Sources
"History of emotes and why we use them": ''Reader's Digest''"History of emotes in gifs": ''PC Gamer''"Complete history of the emote": ''Wired''
*First game launching emotes is Free Fir
Online chat
Pictograms
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