Emoticons

[Coalhouse]

Old fogeys (such as myself) who grew up communicating exclusively with words (in a written context) might find this link useful:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons

This has bothered me for a while, both in the game and on the fora, as my interpretaions of some emoticons has not fitted the context.

For example I have interpreted "XD" as a grimace, indicating frustration or pain. Imagine my surprise to find it means:

"Laughing,[4] big grin,[5][6] laugh with glasses[7]"

Unfortunately this list is not comprehensive as (for example) the use of "@" is not explained extensively.

Also, from this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticons#Common_Western_examples I find that different counties use different lists of emoticons.

In the interest of fuller understanding, I was wondering if there was a consensus within the Arcane Legends community. Perhaps someone could write a guide.

[Endkey 2.0]

I believe there is a guide somewhere in the guides. Or maybe thats only for the abbreviations...

[Coalhouse]

Lol did you do this because of my random short convo with you in Garetta? Haha! Anw hi again XD

No, it's fine. I thought I had upset you without meaning to, until I did some research. I wouldn't want to upset anyone, not by accident anyway.

It did prompt me to do some research and then consider the subject.

Don't get me wrong, I approve of the basic premise of emoticons, in that they seek to replace the body language, facial expressions and intonation missing in comparatively impersonal communications. The only problem is that they seem to be quite ambiguous.

It has been shown that body language and expressions are cross-cultural, even between completely isolated societies. However, it can be seen from the first linked article, that several often very different "pictographs" can have the same meaning. This is not as much of a problem as the fact that the same group of pictographs can have different, even contradictory meanings.

Whilst I certainly do not seek to enforce some sort of "emoticon dictionary", without a general consenus the utility of emoticons may be impeded by lack of understanding and worse, misunderstanding.

After all, communication is what the web is all about.