I agree... I can't stand those annoying, ridiculous looking things. Here comes Mr. Hardcore AR Shooter talking his technical jargon and then all of a sudden, BOOM. Seizure inducing color attack! Little pink fairies, homopower rainbow afros, little men in scuba goggles, beatniks, clowns, trolls, kungfu Chuck Norris in sunglasses, and a menagerie of other madness. It's an oxymoron in action. Mercy. I say if you're going to break out some faces, go old school and don't assault everyone with a rainbow colored icon montage. Practically every one of those silly looking icon faces has a epileptic safe, old school text version.
You want googly eyes? 0_o / o_0
You want sarcasm? :\ :/ :| ;\ ;x :x
You want anger? :| >:| >:\ >:/ >:(
You want to display enjoyment in the evil of it all? >:) ;> :> >:D :D :D! :J >:] :\
You want a crazy man in a hat? q:| q:) (:p
You want to sick out your tongue? ;p :P q: >:p >:P
You want a man with a moustache? :{)
Dracula? :[
A smiley for every occasion? :] >:] :) :D :> :J ;) ;> ;D
Sad? :( :[ D: :c :|
Shocked? :O :o :O! :o!
Wanna give a kiss? :* :+
Misc wackiness: q:~) :*) :>) :-) :[|] 8) 8-) :=) :+) :(||) :c) :)~ :((||))
I just made who knows how many faces and not a single stomach turning color. Sorry, no afros, viking hats or Egyptians. Hmm, maybe >:) is really the smiling viking and I just never knew it, heh. Either way, I personally find the repertoire of smilies to be annoying as hell. That is my 20 dollars on the subject.