Understanding JWA Emotes… Sarcasm or Sincerity?

With the introduction of Update 1.11 in early December, Ludia provided us with four Emotes and five preset sayings, and the JWA community instantly began a Love/Hate relationship with them. Many players disabled them on the first day, others spam them incessantly, while some of us use them fairly appropriately... and in very different ways!

The emotes and sayings themselves are fairly straightforward and simple to understand: You can either show you are Angry, Sad, Bored or Happy (Thumbs Up); or you can say Nice, Thanks, Oops, Good Luck or Well Played.

I ALWAYS begin every battle with a “Good Luck”. Because I do wish them luck! Now, I hope their luck isn’t better than mine because I definitely want to win, but I have heard too many Discord stories about stuns never working (Jimbohi), dodges never working (Ghastpixel), “crutch” dinos (ChrispyChris), non-stop crits, etc., and I wouldn’t wish that kind of luck on anyone.

Likewise, I ALWAYS end every Battle with a “Well Played”. While it is not the same as a “Good Game” which is what we often shout out in Discord to each other, but it’s the closest thing we have. In my current arena, there are no “easy” wins for me and I have yet to face an opponent this season who didn’t play as well as their four dino draw allowed against what my four dino draw allowed. They are ALL well played in my mind.

I also may throw up an occasional “Oops” if I try to distract an IndoG2, try to swap out on a Grypoly, or just do something that that I know was just plain dumb.

Aside from that, I mostly send out the Crying emote in battle! I cry when I see a level 30 fully boosted Maxima or Gemini, I cry when I know I am about to lose 3-1… I have even been known to cry immediately after seeing that I drew the absolute worst combination of dinos I could have drawn… 

As an admittedly naïve player myself, (thinking everyone is battling for fun, all battles are GGs, everyone is nice, this is just a game, I am better at JWA than IDGT, etc., etc.), it was recently brought to my attention that my very sincere emotes that I am sending in game are possibly being completely misconstrued by my opponents! Even worse, the emotes that my opponents have been sending me could possibly be sarcastic! HOW COULD THAT BE!!

Because it just is… When people see my crying, they give me the thumbs up! Unless they are meaning “Cheer up friend, it will be ok”, then I can show them exactly where they can stick that thumb up! Even worse, some of them say “Nice”. It’s nice that I’m crying? What are you, an animal?

And “Good Luck”… well it doesn’t always mean “Good Luck”. Many people will bring out those level 30 fully boosted Maximas and only then say “Good Luck!”, knowing full well I will have NO LUCK against that! They may as well just throw in an “evil laugh” and put their pinky at the corner of their mouth, to drive the sarcasm home.

The Well Played and Thumbs up emotes… Can’t get much more sarcastic than those much of the time, especially mid match. Those of us who are sincere are meaning “Oh that was smart. You got me!” but many of them are meaning just the opposite. Even the “Well Played” at the end of a match by many people can be more of a snub saying “You Lost because that was not well played at all”. Well okay, Ya Big Jerkasaurus! 

And clearly we all know that the Yawning/Tired emote does not mean “I’m getting tired… This will be my last match good fella”… Because that is about the ONLY scenario in which I see this emoji as being sincere… Primarily we see it used to iterate things like ”Hey, Patch 1.10 just called – They want their Dracoceratops (or Thor) Back!” or “You’ve already lost – just hurry up” and our favorite “Oh I see you are bringing out that overly boosted broken crutch dino to carry you – it won’t work”.

Even worse, many people I have talked to admit to only being sarcastic with Emotes after their opponent is sarcastic towards them, and then its game on!  

Give us more Emotes, Ludia! While we definitely can’t control or predict how the community will use these emotes (or how we perceive them), If we had the ability to say just a few more things sincerely and lighthearted (Good Game, I’m Sorry, Critalicious Rex, Lucky Duck, etc.) perhaps it would make the arena a better place overall. And while it's true that even the best of us are using them sarcastically at times (I myself have even thrown out a yawn or two before, ashamedly), don’t forget that there are also many of us who are enjoying the ability to finally communicate in game (even if its limited), and sincerely do wish you “Good Luck”, give a "Thumbs Up" when you make a good move, and think the battle was really “Well Played” (although we'd rather say "Good Game"). 

My closing thoughts revolve around what WE, as a community, are doing to make this game a little less toxic and a lot more enjoyable for everyone... We are all very quick to blame Ludia for their mistakes... but how closely are we looking at our own? Food for thought, simply because I love this game so much.

*Now the next thing we need is a greater variety of (or the ability to personalize) our in-game icons/avatars so we can better tell who we are playing! This could add even more strategy and communication to the game!