A command commonly used in MMORPGs for self-expression. Most emote commands are slash commands.
Typically, "/me" is used for custom emotes; for example, if your character's name is Hiro and you type "/me picks his nose.", then it will display "Hiro picks his nose." in the chatboxes of nearby players. There can also be built-in stock emotes, such as typing in "/pick" to display "Hiro picks his nose."
Stock emotes can also trigger an emote animation and/or voice. Sometimes, they can even combine both concepts, such as using "/lol pretends to laugh." to display the laughing animation with the text, "Hiro pretends to laugh." On a related trope, console games often have a Taunt Button.
/me provides examples below:
- AdventureQuest Worlds has several of these, not too interesting, though.
- Animal Crossing introduced these in Wild World. You learn them from comedian/psychiatrist Dr. Shrunk in Wild World and New Leaf, but acquire them from talking to your villagers in New Horizons.
- City of Heroes provides a "/me" command which produces custom text-only emotes as well as dozens of pre-programmed character actions ranging from sitting down to eating a donut to turning into a pumpkin (/alakazamreact). Several of these are actually useful game functions, allowing heroes to flip coins, roll dice or play rock-paper-scissors in character.
- Club Penguin had a limited number of these, where you could direct your penguin to sit down, spin around or dance.
- Don't Starve's multiplayer counterpart Don't Starve Together features a variety of slash command emotes one can activate via chat. Some are freely available from the start, while others can only be obtained through loot drops or microtransactions. Interestingly, while most emotes have one standard animation (plus an alternate performed when riding a Beefalo), /sit and /squat both have two different associated animations that play at random.
- Inversion when Dota 2 gave out a Highly Toxic Lump of Coal to those who were near the top of Santa's naughty list at the 2023 Christmas event. It both banned you from the game altogether and gave you emote commands to taunt yourself with.
- Elsword has a few stock ones that can be triggered either via typing the appropriate command or selecting the emote from a list, with the characters having different reactions but generally the same emotes: Hello, No, Sad/Crying, Angry, and Laughing, along with a sitting emote that serves the function of restoring HP when in a field (not a dungeon). Certain costumes, when worn with a full set, unlock special animations with their own emotes that aren't in the list. In addition to a list or typing, these emotes can also be triggered randomly by simply clicking on your character.
- Final Fantasy XIV has a whole plethora of animations triggered by commands such as /dance, /laugh, or /blowkiss. What's more, all of the default emotes are different based on the character's race and gender - Male Miqo'te will step forward and wiggle their ears for /joy, while female Miqo'te will clap their hands together and kick up one foot. There's even commands just for facial expressions! And for the writers, /em [text] functions like the classic /me.
- FromSoft's 'Soulsborne' games (the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring) have "Gestures", used to communicate with other players in the absence of a voice-chat system, or just to fool around. Several NPCs (notably the Plain Doll and the Fire Keeper) will react to gestures. A few puzzles even require the use of gestures.
- Dark Souls also has Carving items which play a voice clip when used. They were created by Hawkeye Gough, and it's used by dropping the carvings on the ground, making a noise that sounds like Gough saying a short phrase. Elden Ring has a similar set of items called Prattling Pate, a set of hollow clay sculptures that says phrases in a creepy voice when blowing in it.
- Though not an MMO, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has these at specific times: when asked a question, rather than a yes or no like in previous games, you can respond using 4 emotions.
- The Trope Maker must be IRC.
The /me command, like much of the IRC protocol, wasn't part of the original design.
- League of Legends has a /taunt command.
- The workers in Lethal Company can point in the direction they're facing, or do a Happy Dance for a bit of fun for the player.
- Most MUDs have a large number of predefined emote commands.
- For instance, instead of needing to preface emotes with '/me', one might simply type 'smile', resulting in 'You smile' to you, while other players would see your 'Player Character smiles.'
- Some, such as New Worlds Ateraan periodically adjust the master list of emotes, adding the names of notable characters as possible emotes which result in some characteristic expression.
- Among the unlockables in Overwatch are "Emote" animations for the various characters, with three available for each character.
- Paladins often has battle pass rewards that have unlockable emotes for you to use in-game. Some characters even have mastery emotes, unlocked for purchase when you reach a specific level.
- Sky: Children of the Light launched with a bunch of unlockable emotes, which you could obtain by interacting with specific Ancestor spirits throughout the campaign. Each new expansion then added more and more emotes, including ones that come in multiple lengths (e.g. a simple clap vs. a cheering ovation), ones that involve two players (e.g. dancing), and ones that work best while running.
- Steam implemented "/me" for instant chat, but removed it due to scammers trying to pass themselves off as admins. The command "/me" caused color to be different, giving the false appearance of adminship.
- Toontown Online has many of these. They're called Acting Lessons.
- Warframe has a number of emote commands which are accessed by opening the in-game Gear menu and using the mapped button / key to tab over to the commands. You can select which emotes to take with you using your Arsenal. While many are available by default, others can be purchased from the various Syndicates and Baro Ki'Teer.
- In World of Warcraft, the slash command "/rofl" will display an animation, play a voice, and show text that you roll on the floor laughing.
- A unique example, copy and pasted from Wikipedia; "A new add-on called High Roller, which promised to ensure high rolls using the in-game Random Number Generator, was created for the MMORPG, World of Warcraft. After installation, when the user typed /roll, the add-on rickrolled the user."
