No emotes in festival areas has gone too far

[kapuras]

I was disappointed to see that using emotes in the the shrew-stomping garden has been banned this year. Seriously, half the fun of doing the festival quests in that garden is emoting yourself and others while you wait for the stomping to actually start. Now I know that some people find the forced emotes annoying, but that is what the choice in the options to not allow them is for. Most players I know were not happy with this change and feel that it should be reverted back to how it was before.

If a emote banned area does need to exist, it should only be in the actual stomping area, but the surrounding areas where the quest givers are should be fully emote allowed. This goes for the beer bashing arena in Thorin's Hall as well. No emotes in the battle area but emotes allowed in the quest giving area. Are you trying to make the festivals boring Turbine? Festivals are the ideal time for going all out with emoting and you have critically reduced the enjoyment quotient by over banning them. Those who don't like them have the option of turning forced emotes off. Having this option added was a good thing, but forcing the rest of us who like them to not use them during the ideal time for them is cruel and unusual punishment.

[Penter-Kar]

Just out of curiosity, do you really think that the ideal time to use a forced emote on someone is when they are trying to interact with an NPC? Especially if it's just before the NPC stops talking which prevents you from joining in on the event. Even someone that normally doesn't mind the forced emotes may have an issue with their being used in the event area around the event NPCs.

[Leixy]

I can see why the OP would want the emote area to shrink down in size.

As long as area of effect emotes couldn't encroach on the arena, this suggestion is fine.

We needed this emote disabling effect because you could use it to gain an advantage in the competition.

[robbie1435]

We needed this emote disabling effect because you could use it to gain an advantage in the competition.

Since we have the option to individually disable forced emotes, doesn't it seem fair that these "Emote Free" zones go away though. If someone wants to turn them off during the game, that's their choice. No reason it should encroach on people like me that like the /cheer and /clap and /whistle when someone achieves victory .

[JeauxLOTR]

Since we have the option to individually disable forced emotes, doesn't it seem fair that these "Emote Free" zones go away though. If someone wants to turn them off during the game, that's their choice. No reason it should encroach on people like me that like the /cheer and /clap and /whistle when someone achieves victory .

The "Emote Free" zones ensure that people can't use "consumable" emotes to cause other players to fall, cringe etc....

[robbie1435]

The "Emote Free" zones ensure that people can't use "consumable" emotes to cause other players to fall, cringe etc....

I was under the impression that these constitute as Forced Emotes, which can be disabled in the Social Options Menu.

I have them off, and while the graphical effect still plays when someone uses a "consumable" emote on me, it flashes "immune" over my head and nothing happens

I understand what you're saying, I'm just curious as to why these zones are necessary if we already have a method of individually disabling them.

[paintpixie]

I agree completely. I was very disappointed when I realized I can't even /cheer for somebody if they get the large shrew, or do anything at ALL. Can't dance, can't nothing. Just stand around, bored as all, waiting for the quests again. The option to disable the emotes should have been enough. This is just silly. I guess the crybabies cried loud enough to ruin the fun for everybody...

[Vilan]

Pretty sure this was instituted primarily to disable speed buffs in the shrew area. Emotes only got nailed as a side effect of the event debuff. Could be wrong though.

[Leixy]

Pretty sure this was instituted primarily to disable speed buffs in the shrew area. Emotes only got nailed as a side effect of the event debuff. Could be wrong though.

nah, a few years ago we could interrupt players trying to get the big shrew by using emotes, you could literally stun the players, make them fall down, etc...

Yes, the game has emote immunity now, but some people don't have it turned on, so they would fail the shrew challenge because they let people do emotes to them. Best keeping it disabled in the arenas, but the surrounding NPC areas should be accessible.

[Arbor]

Pretty sure this was instituted primarily to disable speed buffs in the shrew area. Emotes only got nailed as a side effect of the event debuff. Could be wrong though.

Correct. Speed buffs and griefing were the major reasons that the serious business buff was implemented.

I'll see if next year the buff can be limited to the actual arena but for now, chat will be the main way to congratulate someone.

[Vexendynamus]

I was somewhat disappointed that I could not /cheer for friends, but as far as I am concerned, the benefits of Serious Business warding the entire Shrew Stomp area far surpass the minor limitation. It was wonderful playing the Shrew Stomp for many hours without any Forced Emote rudeness.

/not signed

[Dmira]

Now I know that some people find the forced emotes annoying, but that is what the choice in the options to not allow them is for.

Disabling forced emotes does *NOT* prevent area-effect emotes. I wish it did. I have forced emotes turned off on all my characters, but that doesn't prevent someone from setting them on fire. I'm all for allowing cheering, clapping, and such gestures, but area-effect emotes should stay turned off unless Turbine decides to include such emotes in their disable forced emote option.

[robbie1435]

Disabling forced emotes does *NOT* prevent area-effect emotes.

Are you sure? Because with Forced emotes off the little snow thing that makes you /faint doesn't work on me. Nor do class based AoE emotes.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

serious business could be only turned on when event game starts not on all the time would work.

[Dmira]

Are you sure? Because with Forced emotes off the little snow thing that makes you /faint doesn't work on me. Nor do class based AoE emotes.

I'm sure. All my characters have Enable Involuntary Emotes unchecked (turned off). Yet, players are able to use the "dragon fire" emote (I don't know the actual name) to set my characters on fire. I hate that, as do others I play with. That's why I support Turbine's decision to turn off emotes in various areas during festivals, though I wish they could limit it to just the emotes that affect other players.

[robbie1435]

I'm sure. All my characters have Enable Involuntary Emotes unchecked (turned off). Yet, players are able to use the "dragon fire" emote (I don't know the actual name) to set my characters on fire. I hate that, as do others I play with. That's why I support Turbine's decision to turn off emotes in various areas during festivals, though I wish they could limit it to just the emotes that affect other players.

Interesting. This doesn't happen to me and I have the box unchecked. Might be a bug our one of our ends?

Remember: The visual will still show, but the effect will be counted as "immune"

[Halgoreth]

I'm really kinda surprised that someone would consider that this issue "has critically reduced the enjoyment", given that the negation effect has such a very limited scope. (However, I'm sure that the further characterization of it as a "cruel and unusual punishment" was tongue in cheek.)

I will say, though, that I was mildly disappointed when I discovered that I couldn't play music or dance in the Garden cavern. But, really, I have *so* many other emote-related gripes about the game, that this one wouldn't even make the list. At least there is a reason for it, even if they they appear to have simply used location name (Festival Garden) as the determinant for the effect.

Perhaps they could make it timer based, such as becoming effective when the "Shrew Stomp" announcement appears (and the quests become available) and then expiring again when the round ends. (Of course, that still wouldn't allow one to /cheer for the stompers. but it would at least permit them to screw around while waiting between rounds.)

I didn't even notice the "Serious Business" effect until I looked up to see if my 10% Speed Boost was still active. (I had activated it during the flower picking quests.) I was actually pleased to see that such buffs are disabled for the Stomp. Using a Guardian charge skill, for example, could give one a significantly unfair advantage when trying to stomp the big one.