Post by Morreion on Jun 3, 2010 7:35:56 GMT -5
Player Perspectives: A World Without Words
MMORPG.com's Player Perspectives columnist Jaime Skelton explores the idea of alternate forms of communication in MMOs.
I'm very much a product of the time I started PC gaming (the late 90s). I'm not a text-only game fan (the text scrolls by too fast), but I like text communication in graphical MMOs. I'm not a fan of voice over net communication, especially with strangers, although among friends it can be alright. I thought that UO and DAoC handled chat well- no global chats, guild-moderated channels. I really hate global chat channels with a passion. They remind me of how far MMOs have descended from a community experience.
MMORPG.com's Player Perspectives columnist Jaime Skelton explores the idea of alternate forms of communication in MMOs.
One of the main barriers to removing text chat is its value for server and area-wide communication. Consider a hub city, for instance. Within that city may be a hundred or more players, each with different reasons to be in the city. You may have, among 100 players, 25 people wanting to trade their wares, 10 people looking to buy specific services or goods, 40 players looking for groups, 10 people just hanging out, and 15 who couldn't care less about any of them. If you strip away text chat channels, and toss them all into a regional voice chat, how will you moderate the rest? 100 people milling about in a single voice chat channel would be ridiculous, and while you could offer separate channels for each purpose, it would be impossible to do so with cross-exposure. That is, the people selling and buying things cannot hear group advertisements, vice versa, and the people just hanging out - who may be interested in both on a more casual basis - are also cut out of the equation.
Voice chat is also incredibly difficult to moderate. You can't turn on "chat filters" to prevent profanity from being censored across the airwaves. If players are to have voice chat systems, it must be under one of two conditions: free-for-all, in which there are no real rules of etiquette, or under constant surveillance, in which all conversations are recorded and there is a live GM present to act immediately on violations. Neither, however, work on a massive scale. The former "laissez-faire" method has been used to some degree, but is best served on a small scale where violations are few and easily reprimanded. The alternative method is costly in staffing, and risks a great deal of personal involvement and judgment on the part of the observing GM. Besides, text is easy to record and search for offenses; voice chat is not.
Voice chat is also incredibly difficult to moderate. You can't turn on "chat filters" to prevent profanity from being censored across the airwaves. If players are to have voice chat systems, it must be under one of two conditions: free-for-all, in which there are no real rules of etiquette, or under constant surveillance, in which all conversations are recorded and there is a live GM present to act immediately on violations. Neither, however, work on a massive scale. The former "laissez-faire" method has been used to some degree, but is best served on a small scale where violations are few and easily reprimanded. The alternative method is costly in staffing, and risks a great deal of personal involvement and judgment on the part of the observing GM. Besides, text is easy to record and search for offenses; voice chat is not.
I'm very much a product of the time I started PC gaming (the late 90s). I'm not a text-only game fan (the text scrolls by too fast), but I like text communication in graphical MMOs. I'm not a fan of voice over net communication, especially with strangers, although among friends it can be alright. I thought that UO and DAoC handled chat well- no global chats, guild-moderated channels. I really hate global chat channels with a passion. They remind me of how far MMOs have descended from a community experience.
