User:ThielDR-217/sandbox

Definition
An emote is a physical gesture used for the exaggerated expression of personal emotion. Similar to emojis, virtual emotes are used to provide gestural of emotional expression in online affinity spaces, representing one aspect of the forms of discourse used in those spaces. Unlike emojis, however, emotes do not make use of visual art as a representation. Instead, they often fall into two different categories. The first is the written emote, or a described action in a chatbox such as "Jump for Joy" or "Laughs Uncontrollably." The second is a pre-programmed physical action that can be performed by a player's in-game avatar in certain MMOs, or Massive Multiplayer Online games, and multiplayer games overall. The purpose of these pre-programmed actions is to provide a simple universal gesture-based form of communication across digital spaces, and provide gestural modality to already existing forms of communication such as chat boxes.

History
Emotes are derived originally from the term Emoji, a Japanese word for pictogram used in online communication that was first created by a Japanese worker named Shigetaka Kurita in the year 1990. The first-ever "Emoticon", which was a form of text art that displays an emotional expression and acts as the ancestor to the modern emote, was created by Scott E. Fahlman during his career in the Carnegie Mellon University in 1982 where he proposed the use of digital text to produce emotional expressions in emails such as ":-)" and ":-(" in the year of 1982. Since that time, emotes have slowly evolved to be more complex examples of gestural modality used often in online affinity spaces such as Twitter, Facebook, and Video games (Particularly MMOs) and have shifted from mere static text art to stylized Emojis, animated GIF images, and in the cases of video games, fully animated pre-programmed avatar activities such as sleeping, dancing, eating, and more.

Practical Application
The practical applications of Emojis and emotes in online affinity spaces primarily revolve around their ability to provide emotional, gestural, and spatial modalities to what would normally be purely textual communication. Through the use of Emojis, sarcasm can be more clearly distinguished, emotions more clearly conveyed, and even basic reaction communications become possible, such as a simple laughing emote in response to a joke.

In video games, however, Emotes serve significantly higher uses than the augmentation of already existing communication. With the rise of private chat parties on console, as well as Communication apps such as Discord, emotes have begun to make their way into common everyday multiplayer games with the purpose of providing rapid universal gestures that allow for simple messages to get across. These messages often include simple concepts such as "Follow Me" or "Offer Trade" and may or may not include a character animation depending on the game. These emotes thus allow the player to communicate with others around them without the use of verbal or textual communication.

Usage
The use of Emotes in video games and through online affinity spaces is typically performed through a series of in-game interfaces that facilitate a selection of pre-programmed actions. For games such as World Of Warcraft, and Everquest, and many other PC games, that action is through the use of the chat box. The player needs only type / followed by their chosen emote, and the character will proceed to perform the emote in an animated fashion. Other games such as Fallout 76 provide emote "Wheels" for ease of access using controller controls for console games. Some games that commonly incorporate emotes include Warframe, Call of duty, World of Warcraft, and many more.

Some social media sites also make use of emotes in their communication services, such as twitch.