Post by Sencha on Aug 1, 2016 3:10:49 GMT 10
Disclaimer: Forgive me if this rambles or is excessively riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. I'm fighting a minor cold and hoping to squash it before Thursday and therefore I dragged out the big guns. Unfortunately, my big guns, ie. my cold medicine, is tailored for those who have high blood pressure (hypertension) and it makes me drowsy.
Right then, to the topic.
The Chat System. SSO follows the usual formula for most MMOs and offers it's chat system in layers. SSO's chat is based on two factors, range and inclusiveness. Global chat and Say chat depend on range. You have to be in the general area to 'hear' what is said and have others 'hear' you. This is not unusual either. Most MMOs have their versions of this. Step into any major city in a game like Final Fantasy 14 and you immediately get all the buzz.
Then you have the inclusive chats. These are your friend chat option and your club option, and the group option. You have to be invited into one of these to use them. Again, not unexpected for an MMO, just working with different terminology here.
But SSO is missing one thing that I really believe it could benefit from; the whisper. Also known as a tell in some circles. The closest thing we have is Friend chat, but friend chat requires an invite and is sort of permanent. At least as long as you remain a friend the other person. Whispers/tells are not permanent. They're an instant thing, rather like Say is, but between you and the other person only. They are perfect for a quick question or a request. And they are private, rather like Friend chat. With none of that speech bubble stuff going on over your character's noggin.
So why add in a Whisper/Tell function?
See, I have this theory that a lot of the drama and fuss in this game could be solved or at least stemmed with a whisper/tell function. If everyone wasn't airing out their laundry out for everyone to see, then random people might not join in on it or get to know about it. I'm certain that sort of thing happens a lot. People do stick their noses where they don't belong. And its easy to do such in a game where nobody knows the real you.
With fewer participants, the drama might not spread and we won't get whole clubs acting like the Sharks and the Jets over a simple slight (brownie points to anyone who gets the ref). So if player A has a problem with player B, a whisper/tell exchange between them, rather than a public discussion, might keep the problem from snowballing. Because if either player's friends decide to join in to back up their friend, then we end up with an avalanche. I found myself in the middle of one of these back on Wind Star. Two clubs were having an argument and all I wanted to do was get my quest on. It made it really awkward for me to be there, to be honest. So much negativity was flying back and forth between the two groups that it made me uncomfortable. I was even more off-put so when one club decided to offer me a spot in their club. Seriously? I declined, of course. I can see you arguing over something really silly with those other people. I don't want a piece of that. I'm Switzerland over here. Leave me out of it.
A Whisper/tell function also allows a player with a question for another player to ask without the whole server knowing. This might help the shyer players who don't want their words all over global or say. I would appreciate this when politely declining someone's blind invitation to something. The rest of global doesn't need to know that I'm busy with my own things and that I really don't want Cindy Flowerchild's group invite right now.
A whisper/tell chat option should still be monitored and filtered, of course. Also, one would not receive whisper/tells or be able to send them to someone on their ignore list.
Those are my thoughts on the chat stuff so far. I checked this, twice-ish, for mistakes, but my brain is impersonating cotton candy at the moment. I'll check it later for errors when I feel less like fluffy stuff.
I invite any and all thoughts on another layer to the chat system in SSO.
Right then, to the topic.
The Chat System. SSO follows the usual formula for most MMOs and offers it's chat system in layers. SSO's chat is based on two factors, range and inclusiveness. Global chat and Say chat depend on range. You have to be in the general area to 'hear' what is said and have others 'hear' you. This is not unusual either. Most MMOs have their versions of this. Step into any major city in a game like Final Fantasy 14 and you immediately get all the buzz.
Then you have the inclusive chats. These are your friend chat option and your club option, and the group option. You have to be invited into one of these to use them. Again, not unexpected for an MMO, just working with different terminology here.
But SSO is missing one thing that I really believe it could benefit from; the whisper. Also known as a tell in some circles. The closest thing we have is Friend chat, but friend chat requires an invite and is sort of permanent. At least as long as you remain a friend the other person. Whispers/tells are not permanent. They're an instant thing, rather like Say is, but between you and the other person only. They are perfect for a quick question or a request. And they are private, rather like Friend chat. With none of that speech bubble stuff going on over your character's noggin.
So why add in a Whisper/Tell function?
See, I have this theory that a lot of the drama and fuss in this game could be solved or at least stemmed with a whisper/tell function. If everyone wasn't airing out their laundry out for everyone to see, then random people might not join in on it or get to know about it. I'm certain that sort of thing happens a lot. People do stick their noses where they don't belong. And its easy to do such in a game where nobody knows the real you.
With fewer participants, the drama might not spread and we won't get whole clubs acting like the Sharks and the Jets over a simple slight (brownie points to anyone who gets the ref). So if player A has a problem with player B, a whisper/tell exchange between them, rather than a public discussion, might keep the problem from snowballing. Because if either player's friends decide to join in to back up their friend, then we end up with an avalanche. I found myself in the middle of one of these back on Wind Star. Two clubs were having an argument and all I wanted to do was get my quest on. It made it really awkward for me to be there, to be honest. So much negativity was flying back and forth between the two groups that it made me uncomfortable. I was even more off-put so when one club decided to offer me a spot in their club. Seriously? I declined, of course. I can see you arguing over something really silly with those other people. I don't want a piece of that. I'm Switzerland over here. Leave me out of it.
A Whisper/tell function also allows a player with a question for another player to ask without the whole server knowing. This might help the shyer players who don't want their words all over global or say. I would appreciate this when politely declining someone's blind invitation to something. The rest of global doesn't need to know that I'm busy with my own things and that I really don't want Cindy Flowerchild's group invite right now.
A whisper/tell chat option should still be monitored and filtered, of course. Also, one would not receive whisper/tells or be able to send them to someone on their ignore list.
Those are my thoughts on the chat stuff so far. I checked this, twice-ish, for mistakes, but my brain is impersonating cotton candy at the moment. I'll check it later for errors when I feel less like fluffy stuff.
I invite any and all thoughts on another layer to the chat system in SSO.