Worse than Barrens
Being able to communicate with fellow players and share experiences, stories and memories was a fundamental underpinning of the magic of virtual worlds. Getting to meet people from all over the world was for me a major selling point of MMOs as it changed the “game” experience and into a “world” experience ……….
…… MMO designers need to take a step back and stop the “coolness” arms race and focus on the basics again. One of those fundamentals should be to create MMOs and virtual worlds where people value communicating with each other once again. After all wasn’t that the point of being part of a massively multi-player online world in the first place — interacting with other players?
-Wolfshead
I had to include a couple of quotes from Wolfshead because they echo my own thoughts so well. Sadly, I can no longer play single player games, not for long at any rate. I get bored of them very quickly. With the exception of Rock Band, which I can play by myself, but only for an hour or two at a time. Even Rock Band’s better with friends however, and with a few bottles of red under the belt.
But his original post was about general chat in WoW, particularly the reduction in the amount of chat that’s going on. My reaction to global chat in Age of Conan is to turn the thing off. It’s full of non-game related dribble; political discussion or religious discussion which usually involves someone’s biased and uneducated opinion, garnered from some movie they watched. I’ve heard plenty of people refer to AoC global being “worse than Barrens chat”. So I turn global off.
My characters are all guilded so I have guild chat on, and I’m often grouped with my regular gaming partners so I have party chat and the advantage of a Ventrilo server. The occasions when I’m soloing I’m just questing, harvesting, or crafting, and have no need for global chat. The times I might be looking for a group, or looking for a couple of extras to fill a group with, I have to endure global chat. And it’s distracting and irritating having to extract the useful bits from the copious lines of rubbish that fills the channel.
If AoC had a decent LFG system, I probably wouldn’t need global chat at all. I don’t think there are a lot of idiots in AoC, because everyone I’ve ever grouped with has been fantastic, I think it’s two or three people who just start sprouting rubbish to each other, and the more subscribers your game has the more incidences you have of this sort of thing. Was it always like this? Has the type of gamer changed that much over the years, or am I just not as tolerant as I used to be? Or is it that I’m now a “seasoned” online gamer and don’t require the help of the game of choice’s community?
Something a little different »
Comments
Comment from Mobiii
Time: June 2, 2009, 4:43 am
I agree, its reminiscent of youtube comments. I think the chat content is due to the current lack of consequence.
Think back before WoW. The MMO games I played didn’t allow character transfer, which basically boils down to witness protection, and the games were tough enough that you couldn’t just PUG all the content. Your characters reputation mattered and being a dick meant you didn’t get a second invite.
Comment from caliga
Time: June 2, 2009, 6:50 am
I think you’re onto something Mobiii. There was a time when there were very few MMO’s and a character’s reputation meant a lot. These days you can swap and change games, servers, characters; it ensures total anonymity. I’ve come across one or two “keyboard warriors” who thought they could say or do whatever they wanted with no ramifications.
Comment from Buy WoW Gold
Time: July 11, 2009, 7:36 am
One of the great things about in-game money and virtual economies is that they never went through this whole economic meltdown. So take that to all of those people who think the real world is better then computer games!
caliga
Comment from Keiry
Time: May 26, 2009, 7:11 am
No, you’re not intolerant, and I don’t think it has to do with being more “experienced.” I turn global off as well–I hate to say it, but it’s the first thing I do when I start a new character–right after I pop up on the newbie island. I simply can’t stand looking at the moronic, insulting garbage that people seem to find amusing. Don’t get me wrong–I have 2 small boys, and I’m no stranger to potty humor or fart jokes. That doesn’t particularly bother me. But global isn’t even a platform for poop jokes or potty humor anymore. It’s an insult fest, interspersed with a few folks who are genuinely trying to find a group, ask for information, or learn about the game.
Why is it like that? I have no idea. I have to attribute part of it to some immature people who are taking advantage of the relative anonymity of the internet platform and who want to see how offensive or insulting they can truly be. I honestly get the feeling that some of the folks WANT to get the reputation of asshats or jerks. Perhaps it’s a way for them to feel like they’re getting some sort of recognition or attention. Alas, the rest of us have to suffer their stupidity.
My ignore list grows every single time I HAVE to turn on global to get fillers for a group. The second I see a stupid, rude or offensive comment, the person goes on ignore. And I know people say “use ignore, we have free speech, blah blah blah.” I disagree. It’s a pay-to-play game, and you are agreeing to abide by someone else’s rules when you log in. Sadly, it’s virtually impossible to monitor or police large chat channels, but I sure wish that someone would try.
Better yet–give us an LFG channel, strictly policed, that functions so we don’t have to even look at global.