Chat Channels

[johnbgardner]

Perhaps people who want to keep market strictly for buying/selling should open a new market channel. As a player made one you can kick peopl out if they don't do what you want. Problem solved.

Problem NOT solved. Monday night at 8:30pm Central US time I created a channel named "General". After an initial period of about twenty minutes in which five people joined to see what the channel was for (general chat of course) the channel lay silent for eight hours. During that time there were (I counted) fifty eight posts (49 of which in the first twenty minutes). The creation of the channel was announced in New Player Assistance and Marketplace so anyone there knew it existed. During all that time, chat went on as usual in the other system channels. As I previously posted, chat is spontaneous and if someone wants to make a "general" comment to the community why would they make it to only four or five people in General Chat when fifty or sixty people are monitoring the Marketplace?

[LungTien Temeraire]

Not trying to be argumentative, but is there really any difference between a negative reply and no reply? Personally I'd rather see no reply since negative replies might scroll the original post out of sight and people could fail to see it.

When there is one post every 10+ minutes, it is rather hard to miss a reply, I think. I don't come often on Marketplace, and not for long, but when I do, I never see much discussions. The window size can still be enlarged in case, and we can go up and down in the channel with the arrows and the scroll bar.

And to say no rather than be silent lets ones know his question is acknowledged and be sure the one who replied can or can't help.

[Radier]

Ok, this has gone on long enough. I just returned last week to the game. Let me give you some perspective. If you think the amount of chat is excessive your kidding yourselves. Go to any I said any game and look at the market chats...

Fully agreed. I recently left World of Warcraft, despite running a guild full of amazing and friendly people, to return to Istaria. Having played for about five days now I have seen this issue build, peak, and crash down horribly on the community. A bit more perspective, perhaps...

In WoW the Trade chat channel is used for anything. Some commerce, most insulting, trolling, bickering, PvP announcements, etc. People learned to gravitate where most players will see their message (whether or not their message should even be seen, period, is another matter).

Marketplace chat is slow, with active discussion punctuated by an hour or more of silence. Last I checked, Istaria was prized for the "warm player community" which I have seen very VERY little this past week. It is one thing to debate the purpose of a channel, and it is entirely another to attack the community that uses it out of spite. Yesterday afternoon was definitely an attack, and it was disgusting.

[Sigi]

Problem NOT solved. Monday night at 8:30pm Central US time I created a channel named "General". After an initial period of about twenty minutes in which five people joined to see what the channel was for (general chat of course) the channel lay silent for eight hours. During that time there were (I counted) fifty eight posts (49 of which in the first twenty minutes). The creation of the channel was announced in New Player Assistance and Marketplace so anyone there knew it existed. During all that time, chat went on as usual in the other system channels. As I previously posted, chat is spontaneous and if someone wants to make a "general" comment to the community why would they make it to only four or five people in General Chat when fifty or sixty people are monitoring the Marketplace?

Why would you create a "general"" channel? You should create a market one. Strictly for buying and selling. People who chat in that channel you kick out. It were the buying/selling people who had a problem with chatting, not the general chatting ones.

[Loc]

I agree, it would look like they made their point at a cost to the community.

[Ssilmath]

Ok, I feel I have to chime in here...

Marketplace is where people buy and sell things. It's also where people come together in a recognized gathering point to participate in the community. Buying and selling happens, even through the chats that spontaneously break out. Even with said spontaneous chats, hours can go by with nobody saying anything, and days can go by without anybody needing to buy something. In that time, there is no reason to attack people for interacting with each other.

Some of the best RP I ever had, and certainly a great deal of enjoyable RP all around has happened in the market. If you do not enjoy watching that human interaction, then go somewhere else and return when you have a reason to go to the market. The name is erroneous anyways, it should be "Forum" or "The Gathering". Don't get hung up on a name.

[Shnarf]

It's probably because people don't have what you want or don't want what you have and has nothing to do with people chatting.

This is true at times but I find it hard to help people when you have 6 other people talking about the weather and someone asking for help gets buried in non market chat. Im not saying not to have any chat just would like to see it less in the market channel.

[Thicklesip]

The name is erroneous anyways, it should be "Forum" or "The Gathering".

Hey look, you figured out the issue!

I am not sure why so many people are demanding that their right to chat be respected. I can only speak for myself, but I want people to chat. It's vaguely dispiriting (and boring for everyone) when nobody says anything for hours and hours at a stretch. So, please, talk! The contention, and the reason this thread seems to exist, is that I want people to talk in the right places.

I exist in Marketplace so I can keep an eye out for trade opportunities.
I exist in 289374927 other channels so I can chat about whatever. No, really, I'm nearing the point where I have to figure out where to stick a fourth chat window. It's a bit silly.

I want people to chat, and discuss, and socialize and have fun. Even Chaos' Marketplace sounds infinitely nicer than the vast majority of MMOs' trade-oriented channels (although being especially proud of that seems a little silly to me, as it's just a fact that Istaria's community is generally nicer than most other MMOs', so of course it is). It's not the end of the world when there's some off-topic chatter, nobody's haranguing people to be quiet so we can go back to silence at the first peep, your right to talk is not being threatened. I repeat: you can talk all you want, nobody is coming to put you on global mute.

I'd just be really happy if people would take advantage of the infinity social channels to be social and use the designated-purpose channels for their designated purpose(s). I don't think that's too much to politely, "if you think of it I'd appreciate it" request.


ps. Someone explain to me why nobody will use General? It sounds like that's exactly what everyone wants: a big general-purpose channel to talk in. And then... nobody uses... General. Buh?

[Azrya Flambeaux]

A few things after reading everyone's comments.
First, think of it this way, if you lived in a small village in real life wouldn't you be socializing and chatting about this and that with your fellow villagers while doing your shopping? The vendors, the other shoppers would all view going to market as a way to keep abreast on news and events of everyone as well as goods.


Second, if per chance a General chat channel started thriving, I can almost guarantee that people would start asking for goods or selling goods. Why? Because everyone would be tuned into that channel the majority of their time. I personally don't fancy many tabs open. I usually switch between NP and Market just to see what's going on with everyone and if their are needs I can help with. Most of the time though market is open.


Third, the amount of aimless and annoying chatter in this game is almost non exsistent. I find that 9 out of 10 random non Istaria comments are at least intelligent or amusing. No trolls, no stupid babble.. No WoW like headache inducing nonsense.


Fourth, I don't understand why so many people have a HUGE problem with chatting
like this
not all the time
but probably when they
are busy fighting a mob and
want to get in on the conversation before
it stops and they then possibly miss
out on something they really need or
feel strongly about or can
help with.
I can let you know that I am here and have
something to say/offer by doing it this way
rather than type out a whole paragraph reply and
possibly losing you to a log or you thinking no one had
an answer for you.

[Frith-Rae]

am not sure why so many people are demanding that their right to chat be respected. I can only speak for myself, but I want people to chat. It's vaguely dispiriting (and boring for everyone) when nobody says anything for hours and hours at a stretch. So, please, talk! The contention, and the reason this thread seems to exist, is that I want people to talk in the right places.

Exactly this.

If I login to game and sit for a couple of hours and see nothing but dead silence out of MP or dragon chat or ANY chat channel - you know what happens? I logout and remember why I can never find the motivation to login. Because noones willing to just CHAT.

Now imagine you are a new player, been here a week or so, and during all that time you've seen maybe 3 conversations lasting 5minutes each in your MP channel. The channel you joined because it keeps saying it has the biggest population. But noone ever talks. Maybe in that time you also saw 35 advertisements for goods/servcies - but noone ever responded to take them up on it (or if they did it was in whispers).

Noone bothered to say they werent interested or that they didint have it - the comments just go unnoticed.

Why would you bother to buy a subscription to such a dead game? What would make anyone think that this was nothing BUT a dead game??

Is that a community worth involving yourself in? When people tell you to stop talking and go to some other chatroom because you are..interrupting their silence? (AR?)

Like Lung, I also respond to questions even if My response is "I dont know" or "no thanks Im good!" You know why - because then at least someoen gets feedback. That they know their message wasnt just entirely ignored by the entire populace of the game. Because even a little "thanks but no Im good" IS better than nothing - because its the friendly and nice thing to respond to let the person at least know someone is awake and reading.

Now I still say - if the world event people are taking up the channel you have a right to politely ask them to take the general chitchat elsewhere. course they have a right to refuse and you have a right to then /ignore to get your silent channel back. If people are RPing in there you have a right (esp. on Chaos) to ask them to please Roleplay elsewhere - and you have a right to/ignore to return your silent channel.

You have that rightto askNICELY - and they have a right to say "no". To turn anything after that into some t ype of attack/argument/rant whatever however is rude and uncalled for and unnecessary.

Its a channel in a video game - if its upsetting you that much - logoff and take a break and get some perspective!

We DO have a good commuity - even when people want to be left alone. There is a right way and a rude way to go about doing that.

But dont sweat the small stuff - and really - this is miniscule .

[Sigi]

Luckily this whole thing only pops up once in a while. Normally there is no problem at all.

[Chasing]

Marketplace chat is slow, with active discussion punctuated by an hour or more of silence. Last I checked, Istaria was prized for the "warm player community" which I have seen very VERY little this past week. It is one thing to debate the purpose of a channel, and it is entirely another to attack the community that uses it out of spite. Yesterday afternoon was definitely an attack, and it was disgusting.

If attacks are taking place in chat channels then I would recommend that whoever is being targeted takes screenshots of the chats and then submits a support ticket under harrassment/bullying.

[Tamianth]

It was just one person doing the attacking, and she was attacking everyone, just out of pure spite. It was sickening, and totally unnecessary, to be honest.....and downright childish. My son who has ADHD and aspergers acts better.

[Raptress]

The reason no one uses General is because Marketplace evolved to, in essence, be the general chat. It has the most members 95% of the time, and people are accustomed to using it to chat. Change is hard.

The only way that General is going to see real use and achieve what the OP desires is if there is a wholesale exodus of chatting to General. That is, if almost everyone in Marketplace at once goes to General and starts to use it as they once used Marketplace. In order for General to succeed in becoming the general chat, it needs numbers and it needs people actually using it for general chat purposes.

But again.. change is hard. And there will be some that resist it, especially if someone is making it a negative experience. If someone is attacking the chatters for talking in Marketplace, that's only going to make them want to defend themselves.

[Shadowedraven]

Chasing's point was valid ... if there is any kind of verbal attack going on in any channel, the person it's aimed at should take a screenshot and post it as well as resorting to their ignore button. But of course that is just my personal opinion.

[Steelclaw]

I see nothing wrong with off-topic chat in marketplace or any other public channel, provided it doesn't dominate the channel when relevant conversation is taking place. Off-topic chat is infinitely better for social interaction than dead silence.

The root of this rant seems to stem from some parties failing to yield the channel to on-topic chat. So, simple courtesy applies: if you're having an off-topic conversation and appear to be squelching on-topic chat, stop for a bit, or move the discussion somewhere else.

If you're feeling particularly outgoing, participate in the on-topic chat (especially if its a question, regardless of whether or not you can answer affirmatively). A simple "Sorry, I don't have one" goes a long way toward making the person asking the question feel welcome. You may be well established and don't think of yourself as an outsider, so a complete lack of response may be okay to you. To a real outsider, the lack of response (or abrupt silence) makes them feel ignored -- not the best way to build relationships.

Similarly, if you're trying to have an on-topic conversation and those having an off-topic conversation won't yield the channel, or see someone getting ignored amidst a flood of off-topic conversation, do the right thing, send your other party a tell, and continue there.

[Akrion]

I see one of the causes for channels such as Marketplace becoming a popular 'meeting ground' is that, by default, you can only really have 7 or so chat tabs open at any given time on one window. The user, unless they have a wide screen with multiple chat windows or the chat tab mod, has to pick and choose which channels they want open so they have enough room for PMs.

Assuming you have a separate window for combat messages, main chat + the two most popular channels on Order, Marketplace and Dragon, leaves you 4 tabs left. Add a couple player channels to that and you've got 2 free chat tabs for PMs before they force a new window. In my case I've got 'Main' chat, Group, Marketplace, Dragon, Role Play, Grassy Plains, and Clan Azuranous. I have a second window for my combat tab and PMs since I don't use the chat tab mod.

Really you're just not allowed enough chat tabs. Imagine if I tried to throw a guild chat tab in the above list. And General chat. The list of channels alone wouldn't fit in 1 window. Why, exactly, hasn't something like the chat tab mod been adopted more officially?

[Dragonboy]

Really you're just not allowed enough chat tabs. Imagine if I tried to throw a guild chat tab in the above list. And General chat. The list of channels alone wouldn't fit in 1 window. Why, exactly, hasn't something like the chat tab mod been adopted more officially?

Actually from the bottom left to the bottom right I have 3 chatwindows.
Bottom left:
1. Guild Chat... Mostly for my AFK button or location remembering (its a guild for me and my alts only)
2. Dutch chat channel... Lately I am completely alone there when I log in.
3. Crimson Dawn channel... Got a new name now since the rogue website.
4. New Player Assistance...
5. Marketplace...
(6. Role-Play channel... After a while I left it, but was in it for well over 3-4 months. (real time, not ingame time) )
Bottom middel:
1. Local or Area chat... The talking that goes on directly around you.
2. Combat logs...
3. Private messages/channels
Bottom right:
1. Group chat.
2. System chat... Finished quests, gathering reports and that sort of thing.

So from left to right I got 1 Hotkeybar, 3 chatwindows and 2 Hotkeybars.

To go back on topic...
An active channel is a happy channel, my requests are often ignored anyways or responded to in another channel I also inhabit. So please let people chat with each other.
It is not fun having 5 chat channels from which at least half is always silent.
(perhaps I should leave those then... Will think about that... )

[DrazilForce]

Hey everyone
first of all i would like to say hello to everyone here
and big thanks gos to istaria team for making such a fun game
I'm not sure if this topic was the right one to welcome new people..if so sorry

[Sigi]

No it's not the right topic but on the other hand in a weird way it is
Anyway, welcome and I hope you'll have a good time in Istaria.