Global Chat

[RazorBrains]

I think disabling global chat and forced to use /global was not a good idea. Now global chat is dead, the game community seems dead. I admit I am a person that usually tunes out global chat, and don't talk much in global other than to answer questions or ask questions. I can see what the intent was, but I am not sure this was the right approach. Agree that if there were substantially more people, there would be a need to disable chat or have chat tabs or something. But with a small community this really makes the game feel more lonely.

My other concern is how will newbs even ask questions? It will be real hard for new players to use /global especially if nobody is using it. 1) they might not figure it out 2) they will be embarrassed because nobody else is using it.

I would suggest reverting this change and think more deeply on a future solution.

 

[Mzuzi]

Community matters, especially for a beginning game. Even though i want it zone specific like EQ, the community needs to build in this game at release asap or it will leave players feeling lost, alone, in a seemingly unpopulated world.

 

[Calkrow]

It's an attempt to stop people staying on the /global channel by default. Some people just don't seem to pay attention to the channel they're talking in and there's been all sorts of one sided conversations going on

 

[RazorBrains]

It's an attempt to stop people staying on the /global channel by default. Some people just don't seem to pay attention to the channel they're talking in and there's been all sorts of one sided conversations going on

I understand the intent. But the repercussions of this change are that global chat is now dead. Which makes the game feel dead. I think there needs to be a better way, I agree I don't have a better idea at the moment to solve this problem other than to revert the change. Probably more ideas need to come forth. However as it stands this change is worse than the problem its trying to solve.

I am not a big in game chat person so I don't know how other games are trying to solve this. There is a wealth of experience possibly people have better solutions.

At release maybe they can change local chat to zone chat, if there is enough people in every single zone this could solve the problem. Even this would not work though if the newbie zones are dead down the road, as newbies need a way to read other peoples questions/answers also. Some people like to read solutions but don't like to post. This forum is an example of that, I am sure there are a lot more readers than their are posters.

 

[Drazo Kan]

the global could be a checked/unchecked option, so as to leave the player free to choose whether or not to follow the discussions on the global.

I admit that even I who am not at all English speaking, I had the impression of being alone on the game this weekend.

 

[Undone]

The main idea is that I didn't want it to become a "default" channel. What if we add them back into the dropdown, but after you send the message it flips back to local/group? Would that be equally as annoying? We recognize chat & tabs need a ton of work but our focus is elsewhere atm so I'm just trying to stick to low hanging fruit here.

 

[RazorBrains]

We can test it, see how it goes I get that you are trying to satisfy some people who are complaining there is no disable chat feature. However just from a game perspective, I would think you would want chat to be active at this stage and initial launch. Socializing is a big part of MMO's. Possibly after launch you "might" have to look at some alternatives, and certainly at some point have some disable global chat toggle (put it on a Wishlist so people know you plan to fix it at a later date), but plenty of games use global as a common channel. It might be a little annoying to some to see that wall of text, but a dead global = dead game IMO. If you really feel like this is a huge issue that needs to be solved, then another non ideal option is just to empower some people to moderate the chat a little bit, tell people to take it to private if they get carried away.

 

[Undone]

We can test it, see how it goes I get that you are trying to satisfy some people who are complaining there is no disable chat feature. However just from a game perspective, I would think you would want chat to be active at this stage and initial launch. Socializing is a big part of MMO's. Possibly after launch you "might" have to look at some alternatives, and certainly at some point have some disable global chat toggle (put it on a Wishlist so people know you plan to fix it at a later date), but plenty of games use global as a common channel. It might be a little annoying to some to see that wall of text, but a dead global = dead game IMO. If you really feel like this is a huge issue that needs to be solved, then another non ideal option is just to empower some people to moderate the chat a little bit, tell people to take it to private if they get carried away.

I'm not trying to satisfy any complaints. I'm trying to prevent mistakes that even I make frequently: mainly that sometimes global or ooc chat is selected when you meant to talk to group or local. The basic premise is that if you want to talk in global or ooc it should be an active decision - just like sending a tell requires you to take some action - it's not something that is "default" when typing a message and hitting enter. A lot of this comes down to bugs and/or UX issues with the chat window that will likely be resolved with some work there - but again I'm trying to put that off in favor of other more pressing issues. I wasn't trying to get rid of the visibility or usability of global or ooc, I just don't want it to be the "default" channel after talking in it once.

 

[Xavure]

The main idea is that I didn't want it to become a "default" channel. What if we add them back into the dropdown, but after you send the message it flips back to local/group? Would that be equally as annoying? We recognize chat & tabs need a ton of work but our focus is elsewhere atm so I'm just trying to stick to low hanging fruit here.

I think for the moment that would do the jobs, new player would at least be able to use it .

 

[AdricLives]

I say give it a little more time, this week is a bit slow anyways because of the upcoming wipe.

 

[Aetrion]

I don't like global or zone chats in MMORPGs because they tend to disassociate the social aspect from the game from the gameplay. You don't talk to the people who are around you, so where you are and what you do becomes irrelevant to social interactions unless you are engaged in a definitive group activity. The sense of actually meeting someone is lost when you're always able to talk to the whole world.

 

[GeneralK]

Would it be low enough hanging fruit to implement cycling through the most recent 3-4 channels used with "Tab" while chat bar is open (press enter, hit tab to cycle through the last few used)? Not that that is newbie friendly. It could already be there and I wouldn't know it.

Or as you start to type /g it spells it out color coded /group, when you add the L it goes to /global in green, add U it spells out /guild etc. Think that's pretty common way to do it so that the player has more feedback as they type. Then leave global off as a default "press enter' channel.

What about a default extra chat tab that is just like global/help/ooc? Of course then people will forget to swap back to main chat tab but that's a pretty common thing.