Poll

I have read a lot of posts on here regarding global chat. So let's get to the crux of it and see what people think has a matter of interest.

Edit: as trueden so elequently put I did not put multiplayer online which is what I was getting at

 

As its a single player offline game as much as an online game... the poll is kinda limited.

Yes, I will happily play shroud with or without a global chat. Single player offline RPGs rock.

 

The problem is not simply the presence of a global chat. One already exists, but is limited to to those with a Lord pledge or higher (i.e., the Noble's Magical Discourse Orb). Having others is not a problem, unless it becomes a truly "global" chat. Global chat ALWAYS devolves into a gold farmer and spam echo chamber. Further, Portalarium is a small team so they don't have the manpower to catch spammers to clear out the channel.

Now it they want to sell a Ornate Magical Discourse Orb in the Add-On Store for $10, and make it part of the character so it cannot be traded; I'm fine with that. That's a tax on every account who is going to use it for spam, and it can't simply be purchased once and used forever. Plus, you have the option to never have to worry about this, just by not buying the orb (or ever using it if you do). And, its not an immersion-breaking system, as it already adheres to established magical communication. Win-win-win.

 

I'm not a fan of the Orb. A spammer is already paying $45 to play the game, so an additional "tax" of $10 isn't going to bother them. It will only punish legit folks.

As if "global" chat like /whisper, /party, and /guild were not immersion breaking before? Should we have $10 "magic" fees to allow for those too?

 

Yes I would still play

 

/whisper is a necessary evil, but pretty much needs to exist regardless of other communication tools. I'd eliminate it as well, if it wasn't. IMHO, /party and /guild should be in-scene only unless you craft an appropriate orb.

 

The main issue for me still isn't spam; its that global chat competes with local chat and other communication mechanics like noticeboards. I think its exactly how a global auction house detracts from the development of a regional economy.

An add-on store chat orb would like be paying $10 to access a global auction house.

/g and /p aren't necessary mechanics either; I agree with Browncoat Jayson on that. When guilds go to war, a "fog of war" type mechanic might actually make some sense. Mailboxes will help a lot with inter-guild communication.

Anyway, I don't think the poll is helpful, since people arguing for global chat are saying that its more casual players who'll be turned off if its not there, and the people voting on the forums are more devoted to the game and more biased to playing it anyway.

 

Looks like many do not want Global Chat.

 

The question should read:

"Would you still play this game if there was a global chat after the game is released?"

Because the plan is not to have one. And, no. I wouldn't want to play the multiplayer version at release if there was a global chat. Thank you Portalarium for finally bringing us a game that doesn't have one.

 

I have yet to hear a convincing argument from someone who hates global chat as to why a toggle function which disables same for themselves is not a fair option. I mean if you can turn it off, then the only reason folks would not want it is that they do not want anyone else to have it. If you have it off, you will never see gold sellers, you will never be bothered by spam, you will never be bothered by smack talk. What for gosh sakes is the point, how can you be offended if you never see it? The poll suggests that there are actually people who will not play if someone else uses global chat..... makes no sense.

 

The poll assumes that you want a global chat.

 

The chat channels are good as they are.
Now lets work over the chat UI.

 

we wont get global chat and i must say i really like that. global chat is the cancer of the mmo world

 

The options in this poll are bias to get a result. The question should not be "would you continue player" since people have always been playing before nobles chat was in-game. The question should be asking if people would like a global chat channel, simular to the nobles channel.

 

Oh dear it seems my wording on this poll has gone a little a stray. You will have to excuse me as it is the first one I have put up here. I was not particularly favouring having global chat or not just interested in what people thought. I do understand that the game is not set up for this. I really wanted to avoid mentioning my own opinion but it is very tricky to word one way or the other could of been thought of as biased .

The strange thing is I'm with many of you I like it the way it is but had to ask it one way round or the other. I'm am pretty bad at this polling eh

 

No worries, as long as it's creating a healthy discussion. But yeah, I don't think many here will say 'i won't play shroud if i don't get global chat'.. especially since it's not planning to have it, and most of us plan to play it.

 

True enough speaking for my, or your, self - if we know how to turn it off. The downsides tend to be, from what I have seen, many new players in mmos get deluged right from the moment of character creation with the spam from merchants or morons, and their vital first impression of a game is 'what the hell is this garbage'. Even if 'every other game' has this particular feature, there is room for one that doesn't.

Also, and sadly not infrequently, people end up compromising because general chat does have some uses, and put up with the bad side in order to make use of the good, but that has a corrosive effect on many folks, over time - if you know a part of what you are doing will not be pleasant, it tarnishes the remainder and can often, given enough time, overshadow the fun part of the experience.

I can see merits in both having a global chat, or not, and with being able to turn it off - but I can also understand that if it is a big resource drain to police, and carries the risk of putting many people off the game, deciding simply not to have it is a perfectly reasonable option.

 

Perhaps an idea would be to limit how many times you can broadcast in a world chat channel to 1 paragraph per hour; this would allow easy communication with player run events and would limit the amount of spam - a debuff could be added simular to the current /zone debuff with an hour or two timer.

 

Then guilds would just have 60 people take turns advertising once an hour, spaced out so they have a message a minute. could even be done with bots.

 

Crap, hit the wrong one lol. I meant yes!