Emojis in ESO Chat: why or why not?

Leighlaa · February 21

The last forum thread I could find about this was from 2018, I hope that this isn’t repetitive, because I have some thoughts.

I am a little baffled as to why ESO doesn’t offer in-game chat emojis, either via achievement rewards and/or crown store purchase. I feel like it’s very pro-RP, would be a great way to monetize something entirely cosmetic, and you could absolutely have an option to hide them if people find them immersion breaking/just annoying. As ESO is expanding our ability to develop our character’s individual personalities, I think it makes a LOT of sense to also offer sets of emojis to further that customization.

I would group this type of account upgrade with skill styles, some of which are obtainable in-game, others of which are only purchasable/giftable. I think that emojis would be a fabulous way to allow for better communication, and I would imagine a good chunk of the player base would enjoy this!

I think it would also be an opportunity for ZoS to reach out to artists within the community, perhaps a contest for emoji art? Rewards could vary from crowns to houses to straight-up commission cash and promotional endorsements! I think the new heads of the game are doing awesome on their communication and transparency lately- in how they LISTEN to the community of the game they make. I’d love to see more incorporation of the community too, and this could be a fun, harmless, and likely profitable way to do it.

The complaints I can think of: immersion breaking, people being annoyed by little pictures or moving emojis in chat, people whining about the “best” emojis being “locked behind a paywall”, an artist does something reprehensible irl and then you don’t really want their art in your game, maybe there are system hamster-wheel type strains this would increase? I don’t really know how chat and memory or w/e computer tech stuff works, so I’m not sure if ESO can handle them, so maybe it’s all a moot point.

Anyways, I just thought it would be a fun idea. I went down an AI rabbit hole and had it generate all sorts of elderscrolls-esque emojis, and it was pretty fun to imagine the game with these. I’d definitely shell out cash (or at least gold!!) to get them all…

<- imaging this little guy was a daedric prince, like dagon!

<- or this is a face with the Morag Tong Spatter Lenses

<- this could be Mara's symbol!

There don't have to be a ton in every set, I just think it would be fun!

LunaFlora · February 21

emojis with Elder Scrolls specific art would be fun for chatting

Radiate77 · February 21

Wouldn’t be a bad addition. Definitely should not be sold or earnable though, if Emoji were to ever come about, they would need to just be baked into text chat as a tab.

mocap · February 21

Syldras · February 21

Leighlaa wrote: »

achievement rewards

I'm quite sure some people would not enjoy seeing what could also be a mount, pet or costume achievement reward being "replaced" by a chat emoji.

Unless they introduce achievements for chatting. Which would contradict the reduction of singular achievements in favor of saving server space, that they had in mind with AwA, though.

Last'One · February 21

Please… don’t! Or if ZoS adds something like this, then give us an option to keep the chat clean.

Syldras · February 21

Last'One wrote: »

Please… don’t! Or if ZoS adds something like this, then give us an option to keep the chat clean.

Well, OP wrote that there should be an option to disable emojis. Which would be the thing I'd do immediately because I really dislike little pictures cluttering the screen when I'm trying to focus on the actual game.

DenverRalphy · February 21

Syldras wrote: »

Leighlaa wrote: »

achievement rewards

I'm quite sure some people would not enjoy seeing what could also be a mount, pet or costume achievement reward being "replaced" by a chat emoji.

Unless they introduce achievements for chatting. Which would contradict the reduction of singular achievements in favor of saving server space, that they had in mind with AwA, though.

It's not like there's a shortage of achievements that don't already have rewards attached to them.

Not to mention, nothing's stopping achievements from having multiple rewards. Some already do.

That being said.. I avoid using the chat window as much as I find convenient. Emojis would be completely wasted on me.

SilverBride · February 21

I absolutely do not want more cartoony things added to the game. If someone wants to talk to me in game they need to do it with text, not silly pictures.

Rkindaleft · February 22

No ❌ because 🤷‍♀️ we’d 💔 get 😭 stuff 🤣 like 💀 this 🤦‍♂️

Yudo · February 22

Would be out of character and immersion breaking to me. The UI and chat included are part of the storytelling and this is what ESO is best at.

BretonMage · February 22

It would be nice to see some nice/positive types of emoji, like appreciation, admiration or celebration types; even better if they're Elder Scrolls-flavoured.

whitecrow · February 22

Ugh, no. Those things are infecting everything. I go on Amazon or Goodreads and they are all over the book descriptions, for books supposedly written and read by grownups.

Frayton · February 22

If there was an option, I'd disable it immediately bc it would pull me out of the game world. It's too "real world".

It's not that I don't like emojis, but there's a time and a place. ESO is not that place even if the emojis were ESO themed.

wolfie1.0. · February 22

🤑🤑🤑🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢💀💀💀💀💀😓😩😥😢😭

kargen27 · February 22

Syldras wrote: »

Last'One wrote: »

Please… don’t! Or if ZoS adds something like this, then give us an option to keep the chat clean.

Well, OP wrote that there should be an option to disable emojis. Which would be the thing I'd do immediately because I really dislike little pictures cluttering the screen when I'm trying to focus on the actual game.

The problem being emojis have become part of the structure of sentences instead of just an expression of emotion at the end of a sentence. Players would begin to use emojis in place of words so those who have them disabled would see fractured sentences.
I hate emojis. I can tolerate one at the end of a message but any more than that is annoying to no end.

katanagirl1 · February 22

There is already a purple emote text chat channel isn’t there? At least on PS.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · February 22

I think the icons they added infront of some of the flavoured dialogue responses were bad enough as they were, and looked out of place for Elder Scrolls. The icons just looked so cartoony and emoji like.

spartaxoxo · February 22

katanagirl1 wrote: »

There is already a purple emote text chat channel isn’t there? At least on PS.

Yeah they could make them exclusive to that channel. I probably wouldn't use it but this is one of those things that I don't see harm in either.

wolfie1.0. · February 23

kargen27 wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

Last'One wrote: »

Please… don’t! Or if ZoS adds something like this, then give us an option to keep the chat clean.

Well, OP wrote that there should be an option to disable emojis. Which would be the thing I'd do immediately because I really dislike little pictures cluttering the screen when I'm trying to focus on the actual game.

The problem being emojis have become part of the structure of sentences instead of just an expression of emotion at the end of a sentence. Players would begin to use emojis in place of words so those who have them disabled would see fractured sentences.
I hate emojis. I can tolerate one at the end of a message but any more than that is annoying to no end.

🫡

Leighlaa · February 24

I appreciate all the discussion! I am not personally sure how I feel about it. I've played games both with and without emojis. I agree that in most situations, having little images as part of the text would be annoying.

That said, I do think it would be a nice addition to perhaps the emote channel, like @spartaxoxo mentioned. That way, if you don't have that channel on normally anyways (most do not use it), you'd NEVER see these and be bothered by them anyways. Have the default turned to "off," make sure they are only additional rewards IF they're earnable (not as a replacement for a 'better' reward, like a title, dye, or mount), and have them be ELDER SCROLLS ART (gritty, natural colors, stylized and not new-google clean graphics style).

I don't know if I'd use them or not, just a thought!

Lucasl402 · February 24

We are all grown ups here. We can use words to communicate.

Carcamongus · February 24

I'm a career grumpy and I don't use emojis (back then we used to call them emoticons). They're overused these days and make it hard to take the text around them seriously. To grasp how overused they are, I read the other day a news article about messages with instructions written by a massive criminal organization from Brazil, Comando Vermelho, sent through Whatsapp. I was baffled not by what was written, but that the criminals used emojis. Rudimentary symbols, such as XD for someone grinning despite having an X instead of eyes, are enough.

twisttop138 · February 24

In fallout 76 we have no text chat and all communication is done via emojis. It's a little jarring for a long time mmo player, I'll admit. But it's kinda fun. I wouldn't hate emojis like that. They're not in the text box though. They're above your head.

AScarlato · February 24

No thanks.

Elvenheart · February 25

Only if when we type using emojis we get to see our character pull out a cell phone and texting in game. Otherwise it would be too immersion breaking 😉

(That winking emoji at the end means I was joking, btw. I really don’t want to see emojis in game chat and would immediately turn them off if possible.)

katanagirl1 · February 26

Leighlaa wrote: »

I appreciate all the discussion! I am not personally sure how I feel about it. I've played games both with and without emojis. I agree that in most situations, having little images as part of the text would be annoying.

That said, I do think it would be a nice addition to perhaps the emote channel, like @spartaxoxo mentioned. That way, if you don't have that channel on normally anyways (most do not use it), you'd NEVER see these and be bothered by them anyways. Have the default turned to "off," make sure they are only additional rewards IF they're earnable (not as a replacement for a 'better' reward, like a title, dye, or mount), and have them be ELDER SCROLLS ART (gritty, natural colors, stylized and not new-google clean graphics style).

I don't know if I'd use them or not, just a thought!

It might be a problem for consoles since we cannot turn off any text chat without turning them all off. So I would suggest adding that capability to consoles if these changes to the emote text chat are added.

Vonnegut2506 · February 26

Short answer: no

Longer answer: for the love of God, no.

bmnoble · February 26

I would rather people use words, way too many emojis in use now, can barely figure most of them anymore, even without adding ESO specific versions to the mix.

Bad enough remembering the various acronyms for various group content in chat, without the addition of having to decipher sentences or paragraphs filled with at this point what feels like modern hieroglyphs.

AScarlato · February 26

Syldras wrote: »

Last'One wrote: »

Please… don’t! Or if ZoS adds something like this, then give us an option to keep the chat clean.

Well, OP wrote that there should be an option to disable emojis. Which would be the thing I'd do immediately because I really dislike little pictures cluttering the screen when I'm trying to focus on the actual game.

My issue with this, is if some people communicate with a lot of emojis. If we disable them do we just not communicate with those people or see their reaction if they don't feel like typing out actual words?

I'd rather they just avoid adding a communication style that a lot of people would want to block, which would result in worse communication between players.

spartaxoxo · February 26

It would probably just look like one of these if censored

😱 OMG I love that new house --> [] OMG I love that new house

Or possibly

shockfaceemoji OMG I love that new house