Emotes Feedback: Muting, Spamming, and PBE

RiotKovo·Aug 9, 2017·1 votes·28,967 views

TL;DR: You will be able to mute emotes, and we are ready to limit how spammable emotes are. We’ll continue to listen to feedback as these go to PBE and make changes accordingly.

First off... wow! We received an incredible amount of feedback and reaction yesterday after we announced we are bringing emotes permanently to League. This feedback is what helps us deliver a better experience, so we sincerely appreciate hearing your concerns upfront.

This is one of the reasons we’re gonna keep emotes on PBE for so long: So we can continue to make changes based on your feedback as you try them out.

We understand the clear concern about emotes potentially causing toxicity/BM. We also know that this product won’t be for everybody, so we can see why frictionless opting-out has been a major thread so far.

This is why we tied emotes to chat mutes. This type of muting is intended to punish people who are misusing the system, rather than blocking everybody right off the bat. In our tests, emotes have led to some really memorable moments when used in earnest, and we want to give those a chance.

Still, we’re ready to explore broader mute options like a “mute all enemy emotes” button, a “mute emotes” button for each teammate (similar to the ping muting button), or both.

There are systems that we already have in place, too, that we can adjust during testing. One that’s in place is an “ammo” system, which limits the ability to spam emotes (similar to how pings currently work). We have a lot of leeway to make this system as strict as it needs to be. We can adjust how frequently emotes can be used before a timeout period, how long that timeout period is, how frequently emotes can be used at all, etc.

Emotes will be in testing on PBE until we are ready to do a staged rollout starting with a small number of regions. If you have a PBE account, we would really appreciate you giving them a try and leaving feedback as soon as you’ve had a chance to play with them.

Thank you again—really. We know there’s work to do, and we’re excited to start iterating based on these conversations.

76 Comments

Gator RaidAug 9, 201754 votes

Please add a permanent opt-out button in the client to permanently disable emotes.

I don't mind you guys putting them in the game, and other players can buy and use them if they want, that's their choice. Personally they're not for me, so it would be great to have a button so I don't have to mute everyone as soon as I get in game.

Overlord ForteAug 10, 201710 votes

This.

I'd rather not contend with the visual noise and disruption to the game scape emoting in general would bring, and hate the idea that I have to forcefully mute allies to block it out at all. Not all emoting is abusive in nature, and it can simply come down to 'I think its ugly and don't want it cluttering up my screen uselessly'. Tying it to chat muting is basically a barrier of entry and disincentive to actively removing the problem, as you may be forced to decide on muting an otherwise healthy ally's chat.

The underlying assertion is, essentially, 'We at Riot want people to buy emotes and show them off completely until they become a problem', rather than 'We at Riot want people to buy emotes and show them off, but for those who don't want them, here's an option in the client to disable them wholesale'.

I get it's to push sales and insure you'll have people buying into emotes without fear of it being 'meaningless'.

But, much like custom/changed maps in Ranked/Competitive, the added noise can contaminate an otherwise sanctified experience for some.

Final CutterAug 10, 20172 votes

I agree, like how you could disable /all chat too!

ShínyAug 9, 201727 votes

I'd rather have a disable all emote button please.

HellioningAug 9, 201725 votes

I, personally, don't care (I don't think emotes are going to be any more annoying than mastery icons already are), but why not just have a 'disable all emotes' button in options?

RiotKovoAug 9, 201716 votes

While this is an option, it's definitely the most extreme option. There are other things we want to try first but if it comes down to it, this is definitely something we can do.

NefasAug 9, 201740 votes

We can only say so many times: we don't want this crap in the game. If you are going to insist on putting it in, then you better let people opt out without having to mute all text. That is just ridiculous. The extreme option is you adding this crappy Facebook chat junk in the first place without giving people an immediate opt out.

Sleepy SonaAug 9, 20178 votes

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MidasRegalityAug 9, 201717 votes

It's probably more so for clarity. Just like how riot gave options to disable the upcoming arcade map, it shoudlnt be any different for the emotes. They're much more visually distracting than something like Starcrafts emotes that are only in text.

Tox715Aug 9, 201718 votes

Please go with a mute all emotes button. If I see people flashing that tacky stuff in game I'm not gonna hesitate in muting someone I would otherwise talk to so I don't have to see it, which ultimately will just be detrimental to the team.

LostFr0stAug 10, 20175 votes

Has there been any gameplay issues with how large the emotes are and how you can literally block the health-bars of ally CS from the enemies if you're on blue side especially? (red side has the disadvantage here due to the viewing angle of the game)

I know people will argue that taking damage will remove it, but if I'm in a melee vs ranged matchup I won't realistically be able to get rid of that emote in time to get the CS (since I'd be sitting back so as not to take extra harass until it's worth walking up for it).

RiotKovoAug 10, 20179 votes

This was a concern of ours but we very rarely see it happen in-game but something we will keep an eye on.

We did feel that they took up a bit too much screen space and they have been scaled down since the original videos were taken.

Packun FlowerAug 10, 20174 votes

If this was a concern might i suggest making then unusable while in combat?

YordleassaultAug 10, 20178 votes

Don't take this the wrong way, but in a ranked game, I will aim to grab every chance to deny precious creep farm with this, as it is a strategical option I will have the privilege for on blue side. (Just as I will use my blinding dart to deny Nasus his stacks.) And I am pretty sure I am far from being alone with that. Honestly, I would rather like to have this "strategic privilege" of emotes removed somehow. Obviously, emotes being hid by minions would look terrible, and I really don't have a valid idea that could solve this while retaining the current form of emotes, but still... I'd rather have this thing not be in the game, instead of randomly getting on the advantageous or disadvantageous side from champ select. Even if the influence doesn't seem that terrible, it's still there... One idea though (that doesn't retain the current form of emotes): What if they appeared on the ground under the champion? They wouldn't ever deny vision then from anything. Sure, a small bit of their visibility would be _potentially _cut off (champion placement just makes that tradeoff nonexistent for 90% of the time) but a large player concern (and with it, a small unfair disadvantage) would be removed.

(PS: I'm sorry for the overwhelming negativity regarding this feature, hope you and the team don't get dragged down by it. Feel some support too! <3)

RiotKovoAug 10, 20174 votes

Thanks for the suggestion. We currently have a system in place that if someone uses an emote and then takes damage from another champion, their emote wheel goes on cooldown.

We have a lot of flexibility to tune how long that cooldown period is and can lengthen it if needed.

RiotKovoAug 10, 20176 votes

Also, health bars for minions and champions will be on top of the emote so players will not be able to block health bars with them

YordleassaultAug 10, 20172 votes

That's good to hear. But just my thoughts on that damage thing, I'm sure you'll understand this: As a Teemo main who's style of play is "poke 24/7 and kite literally everything", I will simply not get hit by traditional top laners unless they use up their abilities for it (often 2 abilities at least), which means this "break by damage" thing won't happen for them very often, or at the very least, it will be a lackluster option due to how much more taxing it will be for them than for me. (Plus they won't be able to use their own emotes 80% of the time because of my constant poke and poison.)

LostFr0stAug 10, 20172 votes

Sorry to be a bug again, but if I may ask:

What is the intended use of the white flag emote? https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gGsR8BwXjCQ/WYpjEfDyYkI/AAAAAAAArDA/oBIm6lucLZgAE55zZ5YzcVoqllRPXJGjgCLcBGAs/s1600/c6863ba1f980e3c7.png I showed it to my brother and he was like "wtf, why a surrender flag."

BØLTAug 10, 20177 votes

I don't quite understand.... it simply saves us the trouble of muting people at the start of every match. Adding an option to opt out of all chat and also having it opted out of by default was more "extreme" than merely silencing some potential distractions... I mean, if anything, this not being done may force people to develop a 'mute all' habit.

WorstLoLplayerEUAug 10, 20174 votes

This.

If that crappy FB thing gets live i'll just start my game /mute all

Tox715Aug 9, 201716 votes

The thing that bothers me about emotes is mastery icons at least look cool and fit somewhat into the game, emotes are just dumb and tacky and take away from game immersion.

SuperObnoxiousDec 13, 20172 votes

Thank you. I actually been contacting riot support but they tell me to go to these damn dead board post basically. Tired of manually muting emotes and legit asking riot to remove my emotes i get from the crappy loot system.

CrazFight Aug 9, 201715 votes

Who needs emote spams to annoy / tilt the enemy team

When u got nunu bot

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HalcyonDwellerAug 9, 201712 votes

Please do the separate button to mute emotes instead of tying it to chat or pings.

Some players only abuse one form of communication but are mostly fine in the others.
And some players are not annoyed by emotes but might be annoyed by chat, or vice-versa.

GorillaBearzAug 11, 20179 votes

Not gonna lie, I hate the emote idea and I don't want them in the game. Give me an option to permanently mute them. I don't wanna see them. Period.

SpideraxeAug 9, 20178 votes

Will this also effect mastery emotes?

RiotKovoAug 9, 201711 votes

We are actively working on integrating champ mastery into the new emote system. Once this happens, champ mastery will function the same way as Emotes.

Night 25Aug 10, 20176 votes

I like the idea of emotes in general, but i would love the options to mute "extra animations" like Mastery, emotes, dance, joke etc. without affecting useful forms of communication, like ping and chat. I don't like to stop people from communicating to me at all, unless they are being really offensive and unsportsmanlike, but sometimes i really find it difficult to focus on the game, with all the jokes and dances and Mastery spam. Sometimes i even mute all "champion voices" audio, even thought i would still like to hear my champion talking, just to stop hearing that annoying Teemo laugh from my toplaner. So could we have a way to use normal chat and ping, and just block any "unnecessary" animation from a single champion? I really like the idea of showing gratitude to my support and so on, but only with the option to turn it off without really affecting the game

Spice POWAHAug 10, 20171 votes

Will the mastery emote still look and act exactly the same please? I like the 3d emblem.

RiotKovoAug 10, 20175 votes

We will not be changing the look or animation of champ mastery

The12thman94Aug 10, 20178 votes

Even though this has been said I want to say it again. I do not want emotes in the game, I feel like they don't fit in the game. Also, players have plenty of waves to express themselves with champion taunts, laughs, etc. the only way I'd be okay with this is if we could mute all emotes and still be able to chat.

RiotDanCastAug 10, 20177 votes

Per game, per team, per people options are not going to be sufficient. The populace wants to not deals with these whole cloth. Please don't think this is a knee-jerk reaction from the players, but an appreciation of you sharing an idea to get feedback and we hope you listen to the feedback from the get go. It seems most of us are not interested, please do not ship this feature, and certainly not without a 100% disable.

If Denny's put a hamburger covered in pixie sticks and starbursts on the menu, I would not need to order it to know I'm not interested in it.

DeadUnbornAug 10, 20176 votes

Man I feel for Riot... I was part of the people that did the survey for this thing, and I never thought people would have such a negative reaction. What people fail to think of is that Emotes will be a "pay to use" feature (**how many chromas do you ever see in- game? **I think I've seen ten since they came out), so no one will ever see emotes as much as they think they will. I am impartial towards emotes as long as there is an option to mute players that abuse them (seriously someone who is gonna troll you with emotes when they come out is trolling you right now with pings, and no one has a problem muting them). However, I understand why people that perceive the feature as "kiddy" would like to not deal with it by having a full opt out feature.

LostFr0stAug 9, 20175 votes

While I can see the use for cross-team emotes when you know players on the other team, when there isn't that "connection" it gets very hard to argue it as "playful." I'll nevertheless attempt to try them out when they hit Pbe.

I was personally hoping emotes would only be for my own team, and I could use them to coordinate in soloqueue to unify decisions and shotcalling (baron, tower, bait, dive etc.), but since they're cross-team that's impossible since I'd be telling the enemy team our intentions...

It would make it easier to communicate while still controlling my champ. Current iteration kinda just makes it easier to bm while controlling my champ. :/

NinjaGuy69Aug 10, 20174 votes

In my opinion, Emotes should have their own mute button. You shouldn't tie muting Emotes to muting chat because people can actually use chat for a productive purpose (such as planning a strategy or praising their teammates for good teamwork). However, I can already tell that Emotes are most likely going to be used in a negative fashion once they hit live and they'll probably do nothing but breed toxicity.

Also, it's fair that Riot wants to maximize its profits (and has the right to do so) but why would you add a feature to the game that is only going to increase trolling/toxicity? Just by glancing over the Emotes that were announced yesterday, it's obvious that the ones that people are most likely going to use are:

The Blitzcrank emote (as a replacement for the "Enemies Missing Ping").
The White Flag emote (for the players who constantly spam "ff"/"ffs"/"gg" in /All chat).
The Jinx emote (to further taunt the enemy team).
The Crying Amumu emote (to symbolize Q_Q/salt in /All chat).

Do you honestly think that a substantial amount of players are going to use this feature in a positive way?

YordleassaultAug 10, 20174 votes

Excuse me, you missed the use of all those 4 being purposefully directed at teammates after each and every single mistake they make (or just seem to make). Solo lanes will be somewhat safe from this kind of thing (until teamfights start) but_ bot lane_?? Oh, the_** flamefest**_ there!

NinjaGuy69Aug 10, 20173 votes

Yeah....RIP bot lane when these Emotes hit live. It's going to be a toxic fiesta down there.

Support PositionAug 10, 20174 votes

emotes need a 2 per 10 seconds. And I think pings need to be a max of 4 per 10 seconds now. Toxicity is rising and your buster system DOES NOT do anything. Watch youtube videos even Rossboomsocks or anyone. Your system DOES NOT work AT ALL.

WeirWulfAug 10, 20174 votes

[deleted]

YordleassaultAug 10, 20174 votes

I like that idea, but does it really matter if they add it or not...? Yorick

Boxxy MorningWdAug 11, 20171 votes

Nothing matter. So why not? Sion

WorstLoLplayerEUAug 10, 20174 votes

That translates in "WE are adding that to the game even if the community poured tons of crap on this stupid idea".

What else could you expect from a Teemo main?

That said I appreciate the freedom Riot give us to mute this stuff right away, which I think 99% of the player will do. Oh, and, as a logical consequence, since 99% will be muting that, the same percentage shall never spend a single RP ( money ) on it. Maybe it's different on the Asian servers but i think that's what Riot will get from NA / EU server.

Have a good Life

EyesOfTheFoxAug 11, 20173 votes

I'd use emotes to tilt the enemy team for sure~

SanKakUAug 10, 20172 votes

Are the emotes going to have sound files attached or are they going to be purely visual? Just curious because I know in Hearthstone, the Warlock's emotes sound really obnoxious.

RiotKovoAug 10, 20173 votes

Emotes will have audio attached to them but we have a lot of flexibility to adjust

YordleassaultAug 10, 20172 votes

Will there be option for specific champion emotes that say a specific quote? I think it would be a very cool thing, just imagine the 1V3 outplay that you die in but all 3 enemies die as well, and just top it off with an "I'm taking everyone with me!" emote! I'd honestly love that!

HaraldTheSlayerAug 14, 20172 votes

Need a mute-all-button. These things will be used for tilting enemies or teammates. And they are a visual distraction I dont need.

AkumaYamiSep 19, 20172 votes

I would like to have an all emotions mute, such as laugh, dance, joke, and one other. the Mastery flashing doesn't really bother me, it just makes me smile and shake my head over it. But the annoying dance spamming, and laugh spamming are so annoying because of their character is moving and it can be quite distracting. I don't want to see people doing the whole ctrl 3,ctrl 3,ctrl 3,ctrl 3,ctrl 3,ctrl 3,ctrl 3,ctrl 3,ctrl 3 thing in my game because my eyes will have a tendency to look and distract me from farm, and as much as it is to try not to look, my eyes will go to the champion doing it. I was just in a game with the enemy Nasus and all he mostly did was spam the dance emote, in a very quick 0.01 second frame and when I go to mute his emotes, it didn't stop that at all, so I wasn't having a good game at all over it. I am concern about this emote mute thing as I wish it will work properly but right now, it just feels like its there with no purpose on the actual game and not on the PBE.

killer121001Sep 22, 20172 votes

As many others predict, I believe the only thing these will be used for is to annoy the other players, allowing a "disable emotes" button in settings would be the best solution to the hate for this idea but unfortunately it will hurt sales of this new gimmick so riot will be very reluctant to implement such an idea unless the community outcry is very great.

chubb100Oct 17, 20172 votes

I want to ban all emotes including the mastery one.

This has got to be the worst idea to put in the game. A bunch of children spamming them every match makes the game unplayble. Why did you even waste developers time to put these in.

GET RID OF THE EMOTES!!!!!!!