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.

Depends on the game but I didn't see many people chat in the last few games I played. Of course, I'm playing in solo guilds and don't join up with all the private channels. I see much more chat in PVP. Maybe it depends on what you are doing if you see chat. In world zones with just PVE, not nearly as many people just talking like I saw in wow or runescape. Wasn't a day that went by in RS someone didn't ask for a g/f or b/f lol

What I think is weird is that I notice that people whisper you more when you talk in general. Too often I'll say something in general chats and then I get whispered answers. It's like they have some stigma that talking in general is for noobs or they are in witness protection. Because they whisper, now I have to thank each of them that may say the same things, instead I could have just thrown one thanks into general and everyone that wanted to know the answer would have got it too. It's odd too when someone asks you - again in a whisper - did anyone give you an answer, they had the same question. So now you have to regurgitate the answer to them.

I don't know what game started the whisper response from a general chat question but I saw it in Wurm and GW2. Ryzom they will answer in the general chat but a few whisper. I think of it like a manners breach, if I say something outloud in a crowd and you pull me aside to whisper the answer in my ear, isn't that overstepping boundaries. Or, if I email you a question and you call me to answer it, again, you should have answered via the method I initiated the question under. Maybe I expect to wait on the answer not have to go through a voicemail that says - calling to give you the information from your email - because I didn't pickup the phone.

The biggest problem I have with the whispering answer is that to other people they might think the question went unanswered so now they have to thank the whispers and report back to the chat someone whispered or someone thinks answering questions won't get an answer. New players always need to know it's safe to ask questions. How else can they start conversations, questions are great. I don't see nearly as many as I used to in games.

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.

Originally posted by nariusseldon

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.

 

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.

Originally posted by Kyleran

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.

This may be true. But still i have the chat box always filled up. Certainly not everyone is talking, but it is also not true that none is talking.

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.

Of course not. But there are lots of people chatting when you take a break doing AH or looking at gear. Not everyone is playing 100% of the time.

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.

i suppose i have no scientific measure not .. and i am too lazy to log chat-box and count. But my impression is that whenever i am in a game, the chat-box keep filling up. There is always a bunch of people talking about anything under the sun if you play D3, or PoE or when i was still playing WOW.

 

Originally posted by nariusseldon

But everytime i logged into any online games (MMO or not), the chat channels are always filled with chatter.

 

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.

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.

Originally posted by LoverNoFighter

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.

Originally posted by LoverNoFighter

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 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

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by LoverNoFighter

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 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

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!

Originally posted by mmoDAD

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.

 

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...

Originally posted by Novusod

 

The WoW crowd is so rude.

Pot calling kettle black.

Originally posted by Quirhid

Originally posted by Novusod

 

The WoW crowd is so rude.

Pot calling kettle black.

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.

Originally posted by Jemcrystal

Originally posted by Quirhid
 

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 ... ?

Originally posted by Nadia
i never had problems w voice chat

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!

Originally posted by LoverNoFighter

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 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.