imguridiancity Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 The problem: New players start with a chat tab that includes trade chat. I don't remember the exact chat tabs you start with, but one of the first trials of new players is learning that they can create a new chat tab that doesn't include trade chat. The problem with having trade chat turned on is that communication is almost impossible because of the wall of text from trade chat. You can see this problem if you watch global chat and you see a new player on there who looks like they're shouting at someone in a heavy crowd. They have to repeat themselves several times and only see 1/3rd of the responses aimed at them. The solution: Change the default chat tabs. Like I said, I can't really remember what the default tabs are, but I would suggest something like: Global - Exclude Trade All - Includes every chat type Local - Exclude Trade, Global, Channel Battle - Whatever the current Battle is set to Specifically, the default channel players start on should exclude trade. Eggplant, Akshit, Seoulex and 1 other 4 Link to comment
Gilan Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 As a new player, that wall of text from the trade chat forced me to learn how to make custom tabs, etc. I don't know... all of my friends who play PokeMMO for the first time don't seem to have trouble with this. You'd have to be pretty oblivious to not realize that you can make custom tabs. I don't think the problem is significant, thus I don't fully support, and if it is accepted, I don't think it should be at a high priority. Link to comment
imguridiancity Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 As a new player, that wall of text from the trade chat forced me to learn how to make custom tabs, etc. It sounds like you did experience the problem, you just managed to fix it. Most new players don't. Really, most games don't let you alter the chat tabs; it's either use the tabs they give you, or you only get 1 chat and you have to deselect what you don't want to see. Here, you also have to specifically go to the chat tab settings to alter them, which can be confusing since there is also a chat section in settings. So it's kinda reasonable for a new player to get confused about this, which will render the chat almost entirely useless for them. I didn't have any trouble figuring it out either, but I'm a pretty smart guy, whereas the vast majority of new players are not. For a lot of them, this is even the first MMO they've played. Frictionless new player experience should be a top priority for any MMO, and this is even a really quick fix. inb4 "In next update" lock Link to comment
Emlee Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 There will always be individuals who can't figure out the chat tabs etc that will ask questions in global/channel and then miss the response. I don't think this makes it avoidable. At the end of the day people should just leave people alone to figure things out, if they need help with something specific that they cannot find the answer to then they should contact an ingame CM/staff member who can help them via whispers or the Support requests (that's still a thing right?). There's a reason why the storyline support request options comes up with "Figure your own shit out". TL;DR: you can't help these people. I'm not exactly against the suggestion but it's more or less imo not something that will accomplish what you think it will. Link to comment
imguridiancity Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 TL;DR: you can't help these people. I'm not exactly against the suggestion but it's more or less imo not something that will accomplish what you think it will. It's something that will make chat usable for players without having to adjust their settings, and thus will reduce the churn rate for new players. I'm not expecting cold fusion here. It's a pretty simple goal that adds almost nothing to the workload. Considering everyone changes this setting as soon as they figure out how, it's a bad default setting. It's pretty basic stuff really; I don't understand the push back. Link to comment
Gilan Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 It's pretty hard to miss the gear in the top right hand corner of the chat box. I'm giving "push-back" because I personally don't think that this is an issue... And the default tabs existed for about 2 mins of gameplay for me before I decided to change it. (wasn't really a problem, just not what I preferred, so as a player I changed it). Since the player is able to change it themselves if they so wish, I don't see the need to alter it to something else... Furthermore, just because you make new default tabs doesn't mean that everyone will like them. You will get people who don't like the default tabs and change them themselves... If you change the default tabs, I don't think that the issue will be solved. The issue can only really truly be solved by people clicking on the gear and changing it themselves. Since the players can make this change, I don't see the reason why the Staff should... Link to comment
Emlee Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 It's something that will make chat usable for players without having to adjust their settings, and thus will reduce the churn rate for new players. I'm not expecting cold fusion here. It's a pretty simple goal that adds almost nothing to the workload. Considering everyone changes this setting as soon as they figure out how, it's a bad default setting. It's pretty basic stuff really; I don't understand the push back. It's not really a bad suggestion, it's just not specifically needed since the majority of people will alter their chat tabs regardless (if they decide to continue playing). In a sense you're trying to work against the inevitable. If you could come up with more benefits to it then maybe, but right now it just seems as though it's to "avoid spam in global/channel" and "not make people have to change their chat tabs", neither of those are avoidable by this suggestion. If there were a more concrete reason then maybe, but I just don't really see one. If people were unable to customize their chat tabs then I'd support it/a change, but they can so it's kinda already solved in my eyes. Link to comment
imguridiancity Posted April 13, 2014 Author Share Posted April 13, 2014 I just reinstalled Windows on my laptop and had to reinstall PokeMMO. The current default chat tabs are: All - Everything Enabled Chat - Same as All except that System Messages is disabled (for some unknown reason) Battle - Basically just Battle Chat That... doesn't really make any sense. Obviously the default settings can't please everyone, but currently they don't please anyone. Bare minimum, change the Chat tab to something remotely useful, like All minus Trade or something. Link to comment
Recommended Posts