Very little in game conversations :(

I have stood (as an alt) in game for 2 days now. I have stood in Soltown, Andoris, Owls Head and Breamar. I have seen many people come and go. NO one I mean NO one except 2 people spoke during the whole time. I gave a free water village lot to the guy that spoke to me today. Its a really sad day for in game communication.

 

Don't take it personally, most are probably just excited to try out new stuff not live the game like you might do after launch

 

Yes most releases I try to at least do a wave as I run by and if possible I will bow and even whisper sometimes later. I really don't think it is personal, we just have a lot to see and some have limited time to see it. I use whisper a lot to interact while I am on the run to say hellos. Also it was great at the music concert in Port Phoenix to stop and be with others, and not run here and there. Hopefully most people will also take some game time for events, one way to say hello to many people

 

I'm sad you didn't come visit me in Solania

We been on the front porch jammin tunes...

 

Aye, I understand. I think that there should be some reward for using game features like in game talk instead of 3rd party communications. It makes the world seem so dead. I hate team speak. I think it ruins my experience so I do not use it much. Mabye I should implement some kind of reward in my town for in game socializing. After my underground biome gets put in

 

I actually just did this as an experiment. There is no one on my alt friends list lol.

 

To get back on topic, I usually say hello or wave ingame if I'm not in a rush whenever I can get my fingers to type out the words fast enough

 

Global chat is the solution. I agree, Shroud seems dead unless you are in a guild or have a large friends list.

May as well play Skyrim.

 

do not turn this thread into global chat. thank you .

 

I have chatted like a loonie, I never get a response. I was starting to think chat was just not working.

I'm going to friend some people when I get home tonight and see if it works a bit better.

I stopped and listened to a group playing music in Soltown (with a name like Solomon or Sol I tend to frequent the area). But I was restarting and wanted to get some skills up so I left soon after. No one seemed to be talking either. For the record.

A global chat would be nice for *cringe* "general" chat. Especially while we're testing.

 

I'm usually a busy guy while playing... run around Ardoris minding my own business. But i do answer everybody that talks to me. Today just stopped on the bank and met a player i adventured before with. I saluted him and started chatting and then two players more jumped in and we had a very nice chat! chatting in the bank with previously unknown players brings back memories

I can get how little social interaction can be frustrating, and the chat layout doesn't seem to help either. I don't want a global chat, but certainly we can make some improvements to the way communication works in game. For example, some auditive cues to know when someone is talking to you; so if someone says something with you as a target for the first time something like "Hey!" or "Well met!" is heard by yourself could be nice! it makes you turn around and look for whoever is talking.

Can't think of ways to really encourage communication in game besides players not knowing stuff and asking somebody... and that is already in game I remember seeing something like Social XP... never read about it because the concept kinds of repels me, but maybe there's something good about it

 

Very good post. Thank you!

 

Well, you know how I feel about it already. But, putting that aside...I had an interesting time yesterday in the Owl's Head tavern. I was hoping to find something going on and stumbled across someone testing .abc files on the piano in there. So I sat and listened and we eventually started taking turns practicing solo tunes, critiquing the quality, etc. Eventually we were chatting away and trying out various synced pieces. Later I joined a group doing this again and we had a grand time reminiscing about Ultima and fun nostalgia in general.

Music brings people together. It's no surprise that it also has the capacity to do that in a game.

Also, I am always testing things here and there and sometimes I will just walk right up to a random stranger and ask if they wouldn't mind helping me test something that requires another player. More often than not, they're happy to do so. I guess since we are such a small community right now sometimes you gotta go a little out of your comfort zone (I am not usually an 'approacher') to find company.

Also...I agree with KuB that chat interface needs major love. Why we still have not seen the return of the x to close a tab....I know not.

 

I still find the chat feature to be wonky. I get hung up in whispers and can't clear them easily for general chat. If chat was a little more fluid/intuitive, I would use it more. Else maybe I should read the instructions.....

 

I stopped and listened to you all for a bit. Great job! Gave a clap and was on my way.

 

Interesting experiment.

But, you know, if you just stay there staring blankly in front of you, passersby would just assume you're zoned out.

A better experiment (not that I'm suggesting it, but, well, I am! ) would be staying there and uttering random "hello"s or "how's going?" or other hook-up phrases, and THEN check who stops by.

 

"Roasted rat for sale!"

 

Hmm..
I'm constnatly engaged in in game conversations, with new players, not just friends.
My chat is non stop all day in the game. I can get burnt out from so much chatting! A lot of it is done in guild, party, and whispers.
And, when I see someone in a town, I send them a whisper hi, instead of local, because it seems like whispers stand out more in your chat window.
There are tons of us talking, we're just not talking in local.
If you want to be part of the communication in the game, try sending the people you see around you whispers and get a conversation started!
That's what I do.

 

Rat-on-a-stick. Rat-on-a-stick. Come and get yours while they are... Uh.. fresh. Rat-on-a-stick, the best thing since sliced ones.

 

You're indeed a social person! I'll try to take Ravicus point of view here, or at least the part i think i share with him for this matter. I quoted that because that kind of social interaction is great (because social interaction is happening), but a world teeming with social interaction using these chats is a world of avatars standing still staring at the horizon. After all, those chats generates the same effect than 3rd party communications systems.

Of course i'm not trying to get those functions removed; their usefulness cannot be contested. The point i'm trying to make is that for this game, local chat should be the best choice among two or more people that meet someplace. That's the goal we need to make, because from the point of view of a new player looking for social interaction, it's better to arrive at a crowded plaza and see gesturing avatars and text over their heads than some characters staring blankly.

I think making the local chat attractive it's a goal worth of achieving... but it's probably a goal to be considered in a not-so-distant future (AKA soon (TM)).