Is Global Chat a bad thing? POLL ADDED

Discussion in 'Archived Topics' started by Brian4, Sep 28, 2018.

?

Would you Like a Global chat Channel?

  1. yes

    68 vote(s)
    54.8%
  2. no

    45 vote(s)
    36.3%
  3. Does not bother me

    11 vote(s)
    8.9%
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  1. DavidDC

    DavidDC Programmer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    What i would do is... without adding a new global chat, extend the current zone chat. So we prevent flood for the upcoming futur or at least it will be centralized by region. Like grundvald = 1 zone, perennial coast = another zone, quel, forsaken vale, hidden vale, midmaer, etc. That would includes all the zone within that zone.
     
  2. Steevodeevo

    Steevodeevo Avatar

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    I voted no with my gut, I hate the platform global chat creates for the kind of asshats that love spamming in it. Then I read the thread through and changed my vote to yes. I hate global chat, I would mute it but I was compelled by the arguments against global censorship and for individual choice.

    Plus it just may help with retention, lots of players seem to be finding some comfort in the new QOL features, this would be another one..
     
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  3. Dulayne

    Dulayne Avatar

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    Like I say this is just throwing out semantics, please let this topic drop. If it is right or not again is beyond the scope of this topic at this point. It was just a suggestion. Thank you.
     
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  4. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    I voted no and here is why:
    1. I don't currently see spammers in my chat windows... and I would love to keep it that way.
    2. If someone needs a question answered or needs help, try zone chat first. If nobody is around that can help you, go to a popular area (Brittany) and ask people in zone chat there. This game is filled with helpful people who can answer your questions... you may just have to roam around to find them. (I think this helps exploration too.)
    3. If #2 doesn't work for you, is it really that big of a hassle to alt-tab out of game and search the forums for help? I've never ever played an MMO where I didn't need to look for help on a forum and to me, that's just a natural way to get answers and not immersion breaking at all.
    4. If you want global chat to advertise what you do or what you are selling... I DON'T want to hear it in-game chat. That's a distraction to me when 50 people are spamming sale stuff or events or whatever. Please use the forums or in-game bulletin boards to advertise what you want.
     
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  5. Mykll

    Mykll Avatar

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    You are so against Global that instead of turning that off for yourself you want nobody to have it?
     
  6. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    I do want a global chat channel that:
    • provides a way for new players to interact with knowledgeable ones
    • is free of RMT, in-game sales, and spam
    • is well moderated
    • is easy to opt in and out of
    I don't want a global chat channel that:
    • provides a platform for spam
    • is unmoderated
    • is on by default, or which you cannot easily opt out of permanently
    Since we don't have the resources to combat the negative, I voted no. However, I think Mingo's suggestion of making a common chat (optionally) available in open multiplayer would be fine; those of us who don't want to deal with spam have probably already switched to FPO or SPO anyway.
     
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  7. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    Yes. Besides my opinion that it isn't needed when there are other avenues already available to talk to other players (I didn't even included things like Discord or Teamspeak or even joining a guild and asking through that "global" channel)... The main reason is because it will need to be moderated to control the spammers and we all know the crew is thin enough as it is.

    I'd rather have them concentrate their time on fixing bugs and creating new content than policing a global chat channel or even coding up one with good enough filters to keep spammers out.
     
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  8. Mykll

    Mykll Avatar

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    Thanks. That is a better answer than just "I don't want to bother disabling Global." I agree I want them fixing stuff instead of moderating, both in game chat and forum chat.
     
  9. Black FjP

    Black FjP Avatar

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    I really don't understand how they will need to be moderated, you can simply block someone you find offensive or spamming, or not participate in global chat at all if you just hate everything.
     
  10. Daxxe Diggler

    Daxxe Diggler Avatar

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    In a perfect world, you could say just let the user block the spammers and not need moderation. However, here's the issue...

    The people who would use this for "help" to ask other players for info would likely be new players. Most of them would be free trials to see if they like the game. So, you can't restrict a global chat to only paid accounts.

    That means all the RMT spammers will create free trial accounts, spam away for a few hours, delete and create a new free account (after everyone gets pissed and blocks them) and then they come right back under a new name and blast their spam again.

    This leads to a new player global "help" chat that is littered with "buy my stuff" spam. It's unstoppable really and even if the Devs try to put filters in to block certain key words that spammers use... you will always get those creative ones with knowledge of ascii codes and character maps that will use symbols instead of letters to spell out their ads. They will break up words with all kinds of symbols and characters to get around the filters and get their message through.

    That means the Devs need to constantly monitor who is getting blocked and what kinds of messages are getting through their filters and constantly have to adapt and update those filters to limit the spam. It's a never ending battle that
     
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  11. Rada Torment

    Rada Torment Community Ambassador (ES)

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    No, personally I think Discord is the way to go these days. Some indie MMOs already took this path and trying to implement full discord into their games.
     
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  12. Jack SinAssist

    Jack SinAssist Avatar

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    People can't even police themselves on the forums. :p
     
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  13. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    SotA had this, but Discord changed their API and broke it. Assuming it gets fixed, it might be able to be integrated again. It's not really a replacement tho, unless there is a default channel enabled.
     
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  14. Alleine Dragonfyre

    Alleine Dragonfyre Avatar

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    We HAD Discord in-game and then we didn't.
     
  15. kaeshiva

    kaeshiva Avatar

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    I've answered the poll now - yeah, I wouldn't mind having a global chat, as long as I can turn it off when I don't want to look at it.
    Maybe implement it with 'off' as the default if you're worried about immersion, and one of the tutorially npcs can tell new folks about it if they're interested.
    The real concern is the need for moderation or filters or something, because people can be well, kinda awful. I like to think our community is more mature than most, but well, this is the internet.
     
  16. Alleine Dragonfyre

    Alleine Dragonfyre Avatar

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    True. But that's where fellow avatars come in to play with reporting here in the forums. Same mechanisms, in fact even more powerful ones such as check boxes and ignore buttons exist in-game.
     
  17. Rada Torment

    Rada Torment Community Ambassador (ES)

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    Yep, but I mean a full implementation. Camelot Unchained team is trying to do this, you can be in Discord (app) and be able to chat with your friends ingame, guild, global, etc (with all features available).

    What we had in sota is just an small thing, but with lot of potential.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2018
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  18. Net

    Net Avatar

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    I think that global chat is overrated, mostly it will be used for advertisement instead of forums and other options and some people will be persuaded by it so it is less transactions for those who do not abuse it to advertise their vendors and stuff. Other than that sure it can be used to help someone but so can be guild chat, the forums, and the discord (or search engine and SotA wiki). And if it is moderated it might be rather dead anyway. If it is not moderated it can be unusable due to too much content moving too fast. It might be handy now and then but most of the time it would be nuisance for me. And I do not really want to have to block everyone who abuses the chat for promoting their stuff. Maybe if there was option to block anyone who is not on my friend list and is blocked by at least three other people by default... anyway too much work trying to balance it and not really worth the effort. zone chat on Novia works just as well, minus it is not that good for advertising. Give me the option to join multiple organizations and have chat for different groups of people I want to hear from.

    I do not like Discord integration as a chat because its technology devs would have no control over, it would run on discord servers and if they change the API or anything the chat will break. If it is an option okay, but currently the map is not fully part of the game and it suffers all kind of issues, it is just very messy.
     
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  19. yinki2

    yinki2 Avatar

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    lets give it a try for one month see how it goes?
     
  20. Jackrabbit

    Jackrabbit Avatar

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    How would you even know and how could it possibly bother you since you would have your global chat option turned off?

    Why can't the people that want chat have it, and the ones that don't want it, simply disable it? Seems a reasonable win-win by all accounts, and more importantly, is INCLUSIVE of players instead of exclusive.
    Obviously, compromise is not the end target here.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2018
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