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There seems to be this complaint about players rarely chat anymore.
But everytime i logged into any online games (MMO or not), the chat channels are always filled with chatter. So where is this strange notion coming from?
Last time i was in STO, D3, PoE (you name it), there are always chat about price checks, gameplay (how do i increase my dps? Where is the best place to farm? Where i can buy x?), and even rl stuff.
In fact, i found that most online games are as much a chat room as games. If chat and down-time is what you want ... just pause what you are doing, and talk in channels. There are plenty of people to talk to.
Comments
In EQ everyone was very relaxed and chatted.
I played Vanguard and chat was a bit less but still there.
Then I played WoW for a week to see what it was about and less people chatted, it was no longer casual chat, it was LF DAILY or something.
Then I played Guild Wars and almost no one chatted.
Then I played Vindictus and no one chatted ever.
Mind you, all the while I still played EQ, so I can safely say that I could accurately judge the amount of chatter games had. And I agree with everyone else that people for whatever reason, chat much less in current MMO, your reputation is no longer important, in EQ your reputation meant everything.
It depends on the game.
In a game like EverQuest, I can ask a question and get a reasonable answer. In a game like WoW or Diablo 3, I'll probably have 10+ people talking about how I should just go uninstall life.
I dunno, when I played TSW, outside of people looking for groups or selling stuff, chat was pretty quiet. Aion's got some pretty solid global chat channels, if you can filter out/block all the gold seller spam that keeps coming through.
But I think the complaint about players rarely chatting anymore applies more to people you are grouped up with while playing the game, particularly if they are a PUG. The combat mechanics of modern MMO's are so fast past and furious, with little downtime between fights, that there's really no time to chat, you just move from encounter to encounter.
I'll bet even in Diablo you aren't chatting a whole lot while furiously killing all those mobs that are spawning in front or around you.
Add in the fact many people only read their guild chat, or talk over voice and you'll find chat channels reallly are pretty quiet compared to how they were many years ago.
Understandable why they've changed, but still pretty obvious people don't type to chat as much as they used to.
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There are games designed around communicating with other players while there are games designed to keep you too occupied with your own actions as long as you're playing the game (and not idling). Whether these consequences were intended or not prior to the implementation of the game is not important.
The combat system for instance when it incorporate a mechanic like the game "Whack-a-mole" where a mole pops-up that you have to hit it within a few seconds otherwise you'd lose the opportunity... that kind of combat discourage (or prevent) chatting/communication. (WoW, Aion, Rift...etc) Example: When you dodge, you get a special ability that you can use in the next few seconds otherwise it would go away.
The combat system in a game designed around resource management and tactical/strategic approach (EverQuest / FFXI) promotes and encourages chatting.
There are other things that promotes/prevents chatting like the Auction House. In other games trading was done by player-to-player communication. But the auction-house made it easy for you to look for items without the need of looking for it or communicating with other players. Auction House discourages chatting.
The Questing System is also another example. It's not only that there are 30/30 of them in your Quest Log (annoying mundane errands) but it's the pre-defined path that keeps you always in the run and tunneled through the content not giving you a break to breath and look around. Every other player is a lemming occupied looking at the GPS map and Quest Log trying to finish the unfinishable quests that keeps pouring and pouring at you in every quest hub. That discourage chatting and communication.
Compare that to games that give you more freedom where you can actually "decide" on where to go from the options you have talking to other players "I want to go to Mistmoore, I've never seen it. They say there's good loot there!" and another would reply "No, let's just do Solusek Eye since it's closer to us than Mistmoore and we don't have a Wizard to teleport us." then you'd say "Fear not, a friend is joining us soon and he's a level 35 wizard which can port us to Lesser Faydark!" and your friends would say "Yay!!"
I will end here.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Voice chat was the worst thing that could happen to the genre.
Kicked immersion right out the window.
Also led to MMOs not having speech bubbles anymore.
I would kinda have to agree with this. It's like cheating. Although to argue in the defense of Skypers and Venters they had no choice when games do nothing about gold sellers and drama queens.
i never had problems w voice chat
Cross Server dungeon finders killed immersion for me
- makes mmos a lobby game
- people care less about talking because you will probably never see the other server players again
EQ2 fan sites
Since I cannot get a party because I do not play tank, healer, or super mage I kinda think talk is cheap when it discludes THE RANGER. Without a Dungeon Finder I would never have a hope of getting in a party. A party where people, omg, talk to me!
Sad but true. The WoW crowd is so rude. If you lucky some one will tell you to google your question or point you to the wiki. Majority of the time you just get a bunch of insults. Those communities are so toxic sometimes you just have torn off the world chat.
OP using global chat channels to determine chat activity is kind of misrepresentative. It's a global channel therefore the chances of 1 or 2 of several hundred players chatting is obviously going to be quite high. You need to look at local channels, so either normal chat in your immediate vicinity or group chat. When was the last time you saw any PUG group chat in a game like WoW? I mean actual chatter, not just bitching because someone screwed up... When was the last time you saw strangers talking in /say? When I used to play FFXI I would have idle conversations with all kinds of players that I had never met before every single day, and many of these became contacts that I would later go on to play together with.
One of the other posters hit the nail on the head really. The obsession with action combat in recent MMOs and the whole 'constantly have to be doing something or the game sucks' attitude has led to players simply not having time to chat even if they wanted to. Add to that the fact that MMOs are slowly removing every reason for player interaction and there quickly becomes no reason to chat anyway...
Idle chatter is a component needed for building a solid community as it leads to players making friends and generates positive experiences. The only way we'll see this return is if we see a reduction in combat pace, return of downtime and the return of player interdependency that stimulates social interaction. Unfortunately all these features were 'streamlined' out because some players didn't like the idea of interacting with others in a multiplayer game...
Pot calling kettle black.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Are you a WoW supporter or do you have something personal against Novusod? The only game meaner than WoW is Halo. Lol, Halo is so cruel it's humorous rather than intimidating.
I'm not a "WoW supporter", whatever that means(*), I only have issue with the use of "WoW crowd" and the broad statement that they are rude. Sensible people don't use such terms or make such assertions. He's rude.
(*) You call people "WoW supporters" seriously? What is this, politics, war ... ?
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
People sure do make odd choices for "This! omg THIS is what wrecked everything!", sometimes.
But I suppose every possible aspect of gaming has been identified as the ubervillain by someone, sometime.
What wrecked gaming was...Dice! The problem all started with Dice!
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I agree.....Once again I blame WoW.....Voice chat was around before WoW but WoW's playerbase couldn't function without it and immersion was gone.
Sure. Here is one:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5545374#5545374
Post #176, and i quote "how often do you see people just stop to chat. RARELY these days. it does happen still...but it's like seeing a sighting of Loch Ness."
There are, of course, other examples. You can use the search function.
Yet voice chat is popular, and almost mandatory.
So is it:
a) others just don't think immersion is "kicked out of the window", or
b) they just don't care about immersion?
Only chat you see today is everyone talking about some BS that has nothing to do with the game or just complaining about something which seems to be a fad for everyone these days.
Intelligent chat you never see!
or c) they don't often care about "immersion" and raiding at the same time?
Just not a lot of RP to get immersed in, when everyone's shuffling around the outside of the cave to evade the dragon breath.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I think (b) covers (c).
In any case, i have yet to meet any player that won't chat about RL stuff. So i highly doubt people are that crazy about 100% immersing in games.