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Chatting about chat
maplestone
Member UncommonPosts: 3,099
Do you like ingame chat?
Wait ... let me rephrase that a little ... do you like the *reality* of ingame chat, not the theoreitcal ideal you might hope for.
I find myself wondering why on earth a game would include general chat channels any more. Obviously, there are a subset of players who are thick-skinned to the spam, the out-of-game rants about politics and race, the trolls and scams (and someone is posting them, so I assume they enjoy doing it). Obviously, given that I and everyone reading this are visiting a forum, there is interest in chatting. And I have to admit I'm probably on the hermit side of socialization. But when I'm actually playing, I find that having this little scroll of gibberish in the corner of my screen adds nothing to the experience of the game - it's just a constant source of annoyance and distraction.
Are there examples of really good in-game chat that you've experienced? (in the last couple of years - ignoring the age of innocence back in the early years of MMOs when the whole idea of chatting with random strangers halfway across the world was new and cool)
I'm curious to hear what people have to say about chatting and what you think it takes to make ingame chat work.
Comments
It's mostly for LFG and asking for any general question and stuff like that. I would prefer an mmo that uses a tool made specifically for these needs, had chat bubbles and other ways of communication, and get rid of this stupid thing.
IMHO, chat just is just a way for people to avoid talking to each others face. Sad that nowadays people consider a game where people talk alot in general, but never even try to socialize face-to-face a mark of good community. Chat isn't for chatting. It's serach engine.
Global chats are always terrible. I make sure to toggle then off not long after making my character. Zone/area chats work well for getting questions answered related to your area or looking for a group.
Guild chats can be annoying as well often, I usually have that kept in a seperate tab when i'm grouping/in the middle of something intensive.
Non-RP chat in general is an immersion breaker though. Can't really be helped i'm afraid.
My favorite chat system in an MMO is probably FFXI/XIV's system.
The chats were not always bad, in the old MMO era and golden MMO era it was a lot better*sure we had bad people but they were much smaller back then*
It would seem when WOW came out it did bring a lot of bad people with it, lets be honest here that is were it all started.
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Which FF Character Are You?
What about it makes it different?
I take the good with the bad.
I mean, battle.net chat channels were horrible but I met some cool people in them. Worth it.
Chat is one of the most important tools in a mmo (i do prefer regional chat over global one).
Yes, its full of trash and sometimes not worth paying attention.
But isnt like a forum like this? I just "filter" what diserve my attention or not.
I have allways all chats ON and then is up to me if i want to take part on it or not.
General chat channels can go away. Really is someone isn't on voice I probably won't be communicating with them anyway.
First thing I do is turn off any global or gen chat channels.
Aion is a good example of what not to do, they dont have a global chat, but the LFG channel is global, so everyone talks there and I cant find a group.
Not much thought was put into that...LOL
But when you spend time on a forum like this, you aren't simultaneously playing a game - it's not competing for your attention.
What do you actually use the ingame chat for? Does it have to be a chat to accompish those goals?
1) Spamming for trades, or various crafting work (like making jewels for people). It is much more efficient to say it to a channel where everyone in the city can hear, than trying to do it with "say" which has limited range.
2) Chatting with Guildies to see how they are doing, and to pass the time waiting for my dungeon to pop. I can probably watch tv, or read a book while waiting, i cannot check up on my guildies without in-game chat.
When im doing something in-game that needs all my attention i ignore chat window, unless im in group then i only have group chat and pm active. If possible, i like to have a sound when someone pm me.
My use with chat may depends the game im playing.
- For example in L2 i even like to have "heros" chat active, sometimes they give usefull information (Only heros can chat to all server).
- In region chat, sometimes someone need help and if im in mod for that i offer my help.
- Some good commercial deal can apear, someone that want to sell something fast for lower price and dont want to wait for AH.
- Some news about a quest or something like that, that i might miss it.
- Another example, in PoE is nice for a noob like me watching some discuss about what gems to use here and there, how a class should behave in some chalenge, etc. chat here has been very helpfull, special because theres allways ppl offer help for something.
Theres alot of things were chat can be very usefull, and that is impossible if chat is disable. I repeat, theres allways alot of trash in chat, no matter what game is, i just need to look there from time to time (when im doing something that allow that) and then pay attention to what i want, or even participate and just ignore the trash.
Maybe using a forum as example was not a good idea, jut want to say that i do the same around, i ignore alot of threads around too, but come here every day