Is there no General chat?

Please no. I wouldn't donate any money towards policing people in general chat. It's going to cause more problems than it's worth.

 

If there is one thing that I learned from playing Archeage. . a general chat in game is a magnet for spammers selling gold and such. I'd prefer SOTA not have this!

 

Respectfully, if you looked at the actions of most people in today's world, how many click on web page pop-ups, then complain about spamming. I mean this sort of spamming is rampant, be it through E-mail, telephone and etc. The best we can do is try and control it because to avoid it is to throw out the baby with the bathwater. General chat has a lot to be desired, along with a lot of disgusting activity. What is the crime with trying to preserve the good by controlling the bad? Community is maintained by good communication. Restricting chat to clique groups certainly does not promote game wide community. I have not yet unplugged my phone because of the nightly robo-calls notifying me of a community alert about crime in my area or thanking me for a cancer society donation I made 10 years ago for the thousandths time. Should I disconnect my phone in protest?

 

God I hope not (to a global chat). Global chat has been so abused by gamers in other MMOs that I think gamers don't deserve to have one any more IMO. Abuse it and lose it.

 

Why is this even an issue?

It's 2015, for Gargoyle's sake!

If there's no ingame global chat, there will be out-of-game global chat. Restricting communication features in an online game will NEVER work, ever. The sooner all the game designers of the world realize this simple truth, the better for everyone.

And while at it, there's already a Portalarium-endorsed global chat:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=5

Go figure. Just an added annoyance of alt-tabbing between game client and IRC client/web page. But it's there.

 

Personally its depressing fellow gamers destroyed one of the primary enjoyments related to MMO gaming, Global General Chat. Why else do we play an MMO if not to socialize with other with similar hobbies? The story, graphics, and playability of no MMO can match that of a single player RPG.

Gold sellers spam general chats, because we buy gold. Attention seekers spam general chat, because they receive attention. Gamers sell in general chat, because it reaches a wide audience. Whiners /ignore in general chat because it makes them feel important. The "bored" gamer will discuss real world topics such as politics, or religion, because grinding in an MMO is tedious and boring.

General chat isn't what is broke, its the gaming community.

Do we admit defeat and openly admit gamers, especially those of us who enjoy the MMO genre, are too immature, anal, and selfish to include such a useful and common tool as in game General Chat?

I suppose so.

Shameful.

 

I fully agree with what you said, but in the case of SotA (where they try to stay 'realistic' with other topics such as no automap as well), I'd say that it's different reason. Having said that and considering the fact that there's a Lord+ Orb for communication with the promise that we can 'buy everything with in game currency', I wonder if we could purchase an orb to communicate somewhere down the line.

 

Apologies, but I have Necroed this thread because I have some more thoughts on this important community topic. After visiting several of my other "early access" alpha MMOs underway, I notice that I keep avoiding SotA and I've been wondering why. The gameplay is on a par with others and the world is much more promising, but it just feels so empty. I also had a number of questions about R16 and realized there was no one to talk to other than here in the forums. Now, this is hands down one of the best forums I've ever seen, the community here is just outstanding, but I don't want to have to log into a forum every time I have a question. And, to the person who recommended IRC as my "best bet", you're showing your age my friend. I remember IRC, I was using it around the same time I was using my 300 baud modem and Compu$erve. I'm not sure I would even know where to find an IRC client anymore (please, no links, thanks).

Seriously, I totally understand how global chats pull a game down into the gutter and I don't want to see that any more than any of you do. But I think the alternative of a silent world is far worse. Yes, I can join a guild, and eventually my wife and I will. We typically level up as a duo and get to know many other players before deciding on a guild. We don't like to guild hop so we make our decision carefully after playing with others and getting to know them. So that's not likely to happen for some time. Until then, we run around as a duo playing essentially what amounts to a 2-player co-op game with a lot of animated NPCs who usually don't talk back. I've had a few good experiences with an occasional question I repeat several times in several areas where I get a kind and informative whisper, and this often leads to friendships, which is a nice organic way to grow a community. When it works. The more I think about this game, the more I shun it in favor of others because of the empty feeling that no one is there talking, listening, chatting. The global chat experience is so hard-wired into my MMO neurons that I don't think I can play without it.

Bearing in mind the cesspool, gutter problem, here's how I usually deal with it in every MMO. The first thing I do when I start a new MMO, after setting up the various options, etc., is create a new chat tab that I rename to be my "Main". My wife and I both do this and include in it things like /say, /whisper, /party, /system, that kind of stuff. I rename the stock main tab to "Global" and make "Main" my default tab. This allows me to visit Global when I want to and to otherwise be free of it. If you've spent any time listening to most global chat, you'll realize that it is erratic and unpredictable. There are times that make you cringe and revile with disgust, and then there are fascinating discussions that I never anticipated, and then are times when there is just really good new game info that I would not have otherwise ever heard. I don't want to throw away my web browser just because there is a /r politics sub-reddit!

But the overall thought I want to leave in this thread is this: the absence of a global chat makes the game feel dead. Massive Multiplayer is in part defined, not just by the presence, but by the VOICE of thousands. You don't have to listen to it if you don't want to, but it's like the difference between listening to Pandora and listening to live radio. Pandora might as well be my iPhone playlist, it's me, just me, whereas live radio is alive, dynamic, and present. It's part of what made SNL successful, the idea that there are thousands (and in SNL's case, tens of millions) of real live people out there experiencing the same thing at the same time. And TALKING in real time about it. That's community. For me, that's a large part of what's exciting about MMOs. It's why I hate instancing, and it's why I have come to an amicable separation with Global Chat, with joint custody and frequent weekend visits.

 

I believe the design goal of *not* having a global chat is one of the best ideas related to SotA. The whole environment of this game is built around the concept of what I'd call "good things are worth figuring out". About the only thing Global Chat is good for is the *possibility* that new players can get help. And there has to be a better way to help people who come to SotA than exposing them to a Global Chat.

How about an audio notification (max once per X seconds) if someone issues a local message nearby? (i.e. when I type a local message, everyone around me hears a 'ding' if they are close enough to see the text being displayed over my head). That way if someone who doesn't mind helping others is occupied with a vendor, they can disengage to see what was typed. If you don't want to hear the dings, uncheck the 'I want to hear local chat dings' option box. Also I would say the time a message sits on the screen over-head may need to be lengthened a bit.

 

I agree there are ways around a general chat, too. Once players can publish books, that would be a way of distributing information in game. I also think there should be bulletin boards in bigger towns and cities. If they really wanted to get fancy, there could be a way to access the forums in game through a bulletin board, too, so that you could post questions/search for answers without the dreaded "alt-tab".

 

On the home page of this website, under the Community drop down, there's a link for chat. It's their chosen communication method. They use it for fielding questions during live hangouts, and give away prizes only to people participating in IRC. I know that several players monitor IRC all day and all night, so I still think it's your best bet. But I don't use it, and I'm certainly not going to try to convince you to use it.

But you see, this isn't an MMO. It wasn't designed to be an MMO, and isn't intended to be an MMO. It is a multiplayer game with some MMO-like features, but even in its most MMO-like state, it isn't an MMO. The game is made up of instances. Some of them, such as towns, have some higher population caps, but it's measured in dozens, not thousands. Some of the adventure instances are capped as low as just one person. Portalarium NEVER calls this game an MMO. They call it selective multiplayer. There are four modes of play. Two of them are solo. One lets you include just your friends. The fourth mode lets strangers into your instance, and that's the one that makes people think MMO. But it's not an MMO.

So, unless Portalarium changes direction, there are going to be a lot of disappointed MMO fans.

 

Apologies accepted if...

...if you give this link a try: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=5

It's a Portalarium provided, web based, account linked IRC client. So you don't need to download, install or configure a client, nor remember any more password than your own (or Steam's, like me). You can even ignore it's IRC! Lazy bum paradise!

And I'm very proud of my age, btw. I took me a lifetime to reach it, and you C$ nooblet won't be able to belittle it with these puny tricks.

I'm with you on this. But it seems it's a lost (or, rather sadly, surrendered) battle. I'm sure there's a better way than giving up. I setup my chats much like you - leaving global/lfg channels from my main tab and adding tabs with spam channels in the background.

Since you mentioned it, and I want to pester you with links, try this: http://www.avatarsradio.com - you're welcome.

 

Ok I think I'm finally getting it. This isn't an MMO. Honestly, that was news to me, particularly given LB's legacy of creating what many argue was the very first Triple A commercial MMO. That's too bad, because I am an MMO junkie and I've been seriously jonesing for a new MMO to call home and it now appears this is not going to be it. My inexplicable aversion to the game now makes more sense. There are plenty of single player and co-op multiplayer games out there if that's what I wanted, but I don't. So I'll abandon my pledges and donate them to the cause of giving Richard the pleasure of developing what he wants, instead of what I want. It wasn't gelling for me and I guess I see why now.

 

I think i disagre with Frank here.
The Multiplayer Online mode is definately MMO. It's just that with the other modes this is not 'just' an MMO it's also a bunch of other things, like single player and coop.
What you were talking about earlier with the game feeling empty is more about the number of players currently in the testing phase.

Instead I'd advice you to set an alarm on your smart device about 6 months from now. Until then ignore SotA, but when that ringtone pops give it another small try and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

I knew when you asked for "no links", that I'd be forced to provide many. Sorry, can't resist!

This is the public game FAQ:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=19

Relevant quote:
``Will this be an MMO?

Shroud of the Avatar is a new form of multiplayer online role playing game we are calling a Selective Multiplayer Game. This will allow players to choose how they want to play. Play options will include solo offline, solo online, friends only online, or open multiplayer online. For players who play in the default open multiplayer, Shroud of the Avatar will feel very much like a traditional MMO. However, Shroud of the Avatar also includes a full solo player story crafted by Richard Garriott and Tracy Hickman, best known for his best selling Dragon Lance series of books.''

I was quite suspicious about the meaning of this paragraph - especially long term, because I feel that pre-alpha doesn't answer most of the questions I (still) have.

It turns out that MMO and SMO may look very similar, after a consideration.

With how many people you interact at the same time, in an MMO?

Once you realize that "massive" (besides some activities in EVE, sorry to always plug shamelessly) is just a buzzword, and that you enjoy your content with a relatively restricted group of people (5-50, I'd say), having Stormwind with dozens and dozens of unknown players buzzing by, or Ardoris with a few players you know, it's mostly the same, if you ignore the eye candy.

 

I understand what you are saying and I'm sorry the game feels dead right now. We have a very small player base right now for one thing. Global chat while sometimes I don't mind it probabaly won't make it into the game IMO. I'm hoping for lots of activity going on around us when we release. For example perhaps you might see a guy next to you taming a creature, or testing out some poison, or you might see a bard playing a song and you migh join in, you might be able to jump in on a conga line. Of course this game will be different than it is now, more people doing more things, fishing contests, treasure hunts. I think it will feel very alive when all is said and done. We are at a difficult place right now. We are not done and we are waiting and waiting, sometimes in the stillness of the night. Hmmm that is a song I think or at least 'in the still of the night".

 

I think Spoon's advice is the best (but all of your comments are well taken. God, I love this community. What a refreshing change from the usual smart-ass leet speek crowd). My wife and I are currently playing another MMO but I suspect it will have a shelf life of no more than 6 months, so we will naturally be looking again around that time. I will happily check back to see how things are doing here at that time. Meanwhile, I'll probably still keep an eye on this forum. I've kept our game clients up to date for every patch and will continue to do so. Hell, if I have time, I may even try and participate in the land rush at R17 (I always wind up with a house all the way out in BumF**k Egypt where it's even more dead).

Always good to hear from you, Majoria. I do realize that the player population is low and that could change. But I wouldn't rely on that as a constant. ArcheAge is a good example of how it can work in the opposite direction. That game's Alpha servers were often so full there were queues to log in, and every imaginable spot of land was taken up. There was bustling activity in every corner of the world. And then at release, the big spike increased. But then it became a wasteland of empty servers that felt dead (at least it was when we left a few months ago, and we deleted the game and gave away all our stuff so we haven't been back). The level of activity went way DOWN after release. Of course, management had everything to do with that and we can all hope that LB and crew will do a better job. The point is, with this game's niche status and unorthodox approach, I'm not at all clear that there will be *that much* additional activity at release. Probably, but I'm not certain. Still, if all the activity around you might just as easily be NPCs because there is no interaction, it's just not going to feel like a community. I'm pretty serious about this global chat thing. Allow me one more example.

Yesterday there was a huge patch for The Repopulation, one of the other MMO's my wife and I have been tracking. Full of new content and features, it was a glorious and exciting update to a game that is already very compelling in many ways in its alpha state. So I logged in and immediately placed a house in one of the new housing zones. I had tons of questions and the General chat was just full of great, informative discussion about things that were working and things that weren't, as well as all the exciting commentary on the wonderful new features. The entire time that I was having these great interactions in General chat I was thinking about this thread and also what a difference from the time that I logged in to R16 and couldn't get a word out of anyone. Night and day.

Ok, I've beat the dead horse long enough and made my points. Thanks for the intelligent conversation and suggestions. I did not know about the resurrection of IRC into the modern world, I may even visit some of your links, Katrin!

If only we could join a guild made up of all of you in this forum ...

 

By the way, @Katrin, what is meant by your reference to "shameless plug" in connection with EVE Online? Are you affiliated in some way with that MMO? Have you been tracking The Repopulation? I made a post in their forum last night about the new Work Order and Trading Post features making their trading system better than any other game in the genre with the possible exception of EVE, although the crafting system beats EVEs hands down. We really enjoyed out time in EVE, but the age shows in so many places ...

I think I'm allowed to hijack my own thread, am I not? ;-) To bring it back on topic, just *imagine* what EVE would be without active chat. I had separate windows for Local and Global chat, it was so vital to the experience.

 

I am Wanderlust in game, and my wife is Whimsy. Thank you!

 

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HELL NOOO GLOBAL CHAT !