Noble chat broke or have the Nobles finally realized I'm an impostor?

I like the idea of selling my orb, but I think I would miss the bliderberg meetings.

 

It's not lobbying. It's a cautious look at just SOME of the ramifications of a global chat system.

If my argument is fear driven lobbying (and even if it isn't), this is a gross simplification. A gold farmer, buying 100 accounts at $45 a pop (and a whopping $4500 total) would be investing ALL that money into what exactly? To spam the people in multiplayer who happen to get sorted into their instance in given towns? I don't know about you, but if I am doing a large event, I have trouble getting three parties of players to sort into the same instance... versus a global chat, which, if it functions the way nobles and guild work, would reach people in multiplayer, friends, and solo in any instance including those that are solo play only. They'd reach a MUCH larger portion of their "target audience" before they could be banned and at a MUCH lower cost.

Also untrue. It's about the scope someone can effect. For example, you and I get in an argument in Deep Ravenswood over a questionable kill. I decide to be a pain and start yelling in local that you're a kill stealer and a meanie and you kick puppies. You can laugh at me, put me on ignore, or walk away. Ignore prevents me from whispering to you, which takes the teeth out of anything I can possibly do to you in the current system. Even if I complain to my guild, for hours, it has little effect on you. Now, with a global chat, imagine me "trolling" you to every player in every instance in the game. Current wait time for a customer service issue is what? 5-10 business days? And that is for transactions where potentially thousands of pledge dollars are in the balance. So, without swift acting support for a global channel, a troll could defame you in a global chat for how long? A gold spammer could spam in a global chat for how long? How long would it take for someone to potentially ruin someone's reputation?

Enough bullying and personal attacks go on here in the forums to keep the mods hopping, can you imagine in a global chat channel, where there is even LESS time to consider the potential for what you are saying in a heated discussion? And it has the potential to reach even more players than here on the forum and faster?

Hmmmn... yeah, no thanks.

 

I only take my orb out now and again, most of the time its gathering dust in storage.

I wonder if they could make it usable for people in a short radius if it was placed inside the owners house?

I don't mind a few peasants walking through my lot to have a sly go with the orb as long as they don't upset my dog.

 

Well, yeah, for the Noble global channel. I meant for any other they might create.

YMMV and just luck of the draw as to who happens to be on it and going on hours long diatribes on out-of-game political / economic / etc nonsense. But like I said, I'm not complaining about that -- I'm just saying it's not as pristine of an environment than any other global channel in any other MMO. It's not like some players haven't gone on hour long toxic spam on the Noble channel (yes, it's happened...I'm sure some on this thread know about this).

Yeah, I don't expect them to change or remove this perk. The question posed here is what, if anything, they plan to do for the people that can't afford to pay $1600 for a global chat channel. How about a $5 orb? Let them get creative.

I'm well aware of the ramifications and in no way am I saying or asking them to create a /global nilly willy. I'm just posing the question if anything can be done to mitigate the disparity.

My argument was about their need to moderate -- not about the scope. I agree with you about the scope that harassment or spam can have due to the reach of a /global, but that doesn't mean that moderating /global is any more or less work than having to moderate anything in the game, including /local. I would argue its much easier as a GM can immediately see the spam/harassment in global, where as in /local they have to be present or review the chatlogs, or develop new tech to "see" all chat in every /local in every scene in every instance.

As I said above, if a GM sat on the /global channel, they'd immediately see it and deal with it. In any case, everyone has the ability to /ignore any harasser or gold spammer on any channel. But yeah, the scope can be huge and seen by many, but so will the scope of the /ignore they'll incur, as every player is enabled to block them or /leave the channel.

This is exactly called fear, uncertainty, and doubt. We don't even have a true /global yet, and we don't even know if the devs have something creative in mind to mitigate this, yet we are already claiming #theskyisfalling. I'm actually agreeing with you that the ramifications can be huge, but we haven't even given the devs a chance to come up with something yet are calling for "yeah, no thanks".

 

As far as this argument is going. The people that paid the extra to have their own global chat channel wanna keep it, the peasants want something so they can chat with more then their neighbors.

If the development focus is on regional economies right now, they need a regional chat for trade/group/spam. This will satisfy the need for a wider chat audience for those that need help or want to trade, but at the same time not disrupt the pledges of privileged few.

 

A $5 orb would be lowering the perceived value of the nobles orb. They would have to somehow make it have less value or function differently.

For instance, pledgers pay a lot for tax free property deeds. They do also make a limited supply of cheaper addon store and in game options available. The catch being these are not tax free and will not be place-able until after all the pledge owners have been able to.

What is being suggested here would be akin to them offering tax free property deeds as an addon for people who can't afford the pledges.

Honestly though, the nobles chat isn't even used that much. People tend to talk to their guilds more than anything. And I personally feel the lack of full featured global/zone chat makes people more sociable when you see them in person. I always strike up a conversation and it's a vastly different vibe than the kind you get from global/zone chats l.

 

So, despite the fact that I have said nothing about exclusivity to the "rich" players or perceived devaluation of pledge rewards, my argument is because I want to keep something just for myself? I would rather their be NO nobles channel at all than have a poorly tended global chat channel. Unless it is closely moderated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it's a bad feature... You can say I am "fear mongering" all you like, but I have played plenty of games with a global channel and seen how toxic it becomes.. That is just the reality of it. Not to mention it attracts gold sellers because it makes advertising super easy. Realistically, it would mean having at least 4 people watching it full time with someone to cover 8 additional hours per week. It's a huge expense for something that is entirely unnecessary.

This is not a "class" issue.

 

Portalarium has stated on numerous occasions that there will be no general use public chat channel. If there were, turning it off would be one of my first actions after character creation. I would likely do the same if there were regional channels. I've never, in any of the many multiplayer games I've played found an open, large audience chat channel that didn't quickly degrade into a useless cesspool.

Just out of curiosity, as it seems that every pledge reward has detractors, are there any that people accept and don't have some problem with?

 

Snowball box? (everyone gets one )

 

Gold sellers are a fact of life in every single online game.....

No matter how you stroke it, they will find a way to sell their gold even if it means every town, and zone has someone standing there to spam, they will do it. It would be better to have a channel for them to spam in rather than to get the PM from them every five minutes. This will only get worse when they open the in-game mail system!

 

Lol if a gold spammer is standing in individual towns spamming people in person as they walk by I give him mad props for dedication. Probably would be better of spamming the forum at that point. Cheaper too! Only costs $5 to get forum access.

 

There are optimal conditions in an MMO that attract more gold-seller spam though such as:
Free account creation
Characters start in main towns
Unrestricted movement to major cities
Global chat channels
Easily farmable rare items

SOTA has only paid accounts, no global chat, players do not start in an optimal location for quickly-rolled bots and there is currently no mail ingame - plus its likely any mail system would not be spammable as SOTA seems to handle many mechanics a bit differently (I could see mail having limits, timers or costs involved).

Currently other than pure gold-sellers I am not sure what else would hold value and farming gold on SOTA is not down to an exact science yet and likely to change if the economy gets skewed one way or another.

I have no doubt some gold sellers will creep in (they always try) but I cannot see it devolving to standing in a city centre where multiple gold-sellers are creating a wall of spam selling gold and vanity pets.

 

I want to know if anyone ever actually goes to these sites advertised by gold spammers. I mean... I'll be honest I've purchased gold in other games I have played and there are a plethora of reputable "legit" websites that don't ever spam chat channels.

I mean, it's like email spam... Do people click that stuff too?! Why would anyone click something like that!?

 

Noble chat is broken for me too. I have the orb in my inventory but it says something like "sending message to /Nobles failed" everytime I try to send a message. :-/