Hate the emote options in Clash Royale? Tough cookies, says Supercell. The taunts are here to stay...
If you’ve spent any amount of time playing Clash Royale, chances are you’ve run into a jerk or two … or three … or a thousand. And you know you’ve met that jerk by the emotes he or she wields. Although Clash Royale only has a small group of pre-programmed responses or “emotes” players can use to communicate with one another during battles, you’d be impressed what a goddamn jerk you can be with so few options.
And in and of itself, any individual emote or taunt doesn’t seem particularly menacing. But get a jerk spamming the laughing king or “wow!” button over and over again and even the most sportsmanlike of players is bound to get a little aggravated.
The controversy over Clash Royale animated emotes has lead to long discussions on Supercells official Clash Royale forum a devoted Clash Royale subreddit in hopes that Supercell will somehow change the available emotes or provide a way users bothered by them can mute them altogether.
In response the ever growing community discussion surrounding the emotes, Supercell posted a response on their blog that basically says, “Sorry, not sorry chumps, emotes are here to stay.”
“Adding an option to mute, or delete, emotes is a highly requested change. However, we have no plans to implement this feature, and we want to explain why,” the post read.
“One of our core design principles is: Cards that evoke strong emotions are the best thing for Clash Royale … they evoke strong positive and strong negative emotions from people. We don't want cards that are just "good" or "OK." We want cards that people will love - and inevitably when someone loves a card, someone else will hate it. These are the cards that create the most interesting conversations and will keep Clash Royale fun and fresh for years to come!
The same principle - evoking strong emotions - is at the heart of why we're not planning to implement a mute option. Emotes are loved by some and hated by others - even within the Clash Royale team! We believe these strong emotions are integral to the core of the game.”
The post continued stating that Clash Royale is a game played by humans against humans, and emotes help us remember that.
“Maybe they're a nice guy, maybe they're not - but there's a person at the other end of the Arena and not a robot. You can communicate with them and they can respond, regardless of language or cultural barriers.”
And it’s true. Through some magic that makes us human we are able to convey a sea of meaning with one single emote which can bridge the gap between players on the internet, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or language spoken. But despite Supercell’s assertions that emotes make the game infinitely more enjoyable, many players aren’t convinced and have even abandoned playing the game as a result.
“I don't have a problem with emotes, but I do with taunting because the implementation of the emotes facilitates it,” wrote forum member pooja98. “You guys are smart enough to implement a different emote system that eliminates taunting and rudeness, yet achieves the goals of what you intended.”
“Why would you tell us that we won't have the OPTION to mute taunts because that's how EVERYONE will enjoy the game best?” added forum member Fozzle. “Thanks for the >middle finger emote< to your player base.”
Still others go so far as to say the emotes are part of the company’s strategy to keep players buying upgrades.
“If you're pissed off then you're more likely to buy gems. Supercell has a team of psychologists on staff who are paid to do nothing more but figure out how to get you to spend money,” wrote redditor Wriggling.
While I personally love playing Clash Royale – emotes and all – I have, of course, run into some assholes myself. I guess I’ve just never let their taunts affect me too much. That said, I’ve always been a fairly easy-going person who lets most negativity in the world roll off my back – if anything, the weaknesses people point out in me have fueled me to become a better version of myself. That’s not a boast. It’s just how I’m wired. On the other hand, for people like my son or husband, two overwhelmingly kind, considerate and perceptive individuals who tend to take on the burdens of the world, such taunts would likely cause them to lose sleep or at the very least throw them into a terrible funk. From the perspective of a loved one who hates to see these special fellows' struggle with anxiety, I can understand why many are so passionate about removing the emotes system.
In a YouTube video about Supercell's emote announcement, popular Clash Royale vlogger "Clash With Ash" shared his own poignant insights on the effects taunts can have on some players.
“I’ve been having a real rough go in life over the past few months … I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety issues and I look at games as an awesome way to escape these feelings and get moments of joy and respite when life becomes a little to hard to handle. So during these really difficult times, I can’t lie: something even as benign and cheesy as someone spamming taunts at me has actually almost made me lose it. I know that sounds silly … I acknowledge it’s my issue, but my point is, not everyone who is behind those screens, which offer complete anonymity, are emotionally stable … Don’t get me wrong … sometimes a little banter in the games is absolutely amazing and fantastic and does provide that emotional release they mentioned in the blog post… but there’s no way to gauge [a user’s response to taunts] in the game right now … I’m not calling for an end to taunts or emotes, but I do think that maybe a mute button should be considered.”
At this point, it appears most Clash Royale players will just have to grin and bear the annoying emote spammers, or move on to less emotion evoking game choices. We at iDigitalTimes are interested in knowing your thoughts and feelings concerning the emote system in Clash Royale. Are they too taunt-like? Should there be more “comeback” options? What do you think will be the outcome for Supercell’s business as a result of their decision? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
