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Staff Topic

Your Opinion: Replace Global Chat with "Region Chat" or "Random Chat"?

Global chat will go away sometime soon. I know there are some people who think that should never happen, but I don't think those people have a clear idea of what it will be like with 1,000 or 5,000 or 25,000 participants (it'll break your computer, for sure).

We are considering two alternatives:

Region Chat
A chat pane which everyone in the same area as you ("area" could be as narrow as the thing we have called "hubs" — Shimla Mirch or Ix, for example — or it could be small groupings, like all of Groddle Isle, all of the Firebog areas, etc).

Pros: easy to understand (natural grouping), easy to know when you are leaving
Cons: we Glitches change areas/zones pretty quickly compared to many games

"Random" Chat
A chat pane with a random selection of the people online, simulating the old Global Chat, which would stay with you for a whole session (spanning over multiple reloads).

Pros: consistent for a play session, so doesn't force you to make a choice between staying put and finishing a conversation
Cons: not easy to understand/not tied to anything in the world
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So, what do you think we should do? (If we had implemented the damn voting system already, we'd be using that ;)

Posted 15 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • Region chat is the only one that makes sense out of the two options.
    Posted 13 months ago by Johnny Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I say random. I like the idea of a regional chat, but like you said, it's easy to leave a region and lose a conversation entirely. :\ I think random at least will connect you with a bunch of people you may or may not know, and it's not tied to a specific area.

    I really like what Fluxan said above - I think that housing quarters should automatically get their own chat that you gain access to upon moving in. It'd be nice to have, so you don't necessarily have to start up a group to get it. It'd also be nice to get a "randomize" or "shuffle" to click on so you can easily get mixed in with another random group of Glitches.
    Posted 13 months ago by Laerwen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i like the idea of random chat, with the option of being able to change the channel if you want.
    Posted 13 months ago by roguewords Subscriber! | Permalink
  • random seems better imo.
    Posted 13 months ago by onicoe Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'd just add that I actually assumed that we had "Random" in place already! It never occured to me that EVERYONE could be in the same chat room....
    Posted 13 months ago by Sweetbread Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Keep the Global chat, Region and Random Chat would be neat though.
    Posted 13 months ago by Brianbrainerz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Keep global chat.

    This morning, around 2:30am Pacific time there was a mass poisoning of all but 1 of the spice trees in West Spice.

    The message was put out on global chat and within seconds there were many Glitchens who arrived and began restoring the spice trees.

    There's a very good chance that wouldn't have happened without the ability to communicate with the maximum number of player found only in global chat.
    Posted 13 months ago by MeherMan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like the Region Chat idea, but would like it even more if we could select which Region Chat channel to use independent of our location in Ur.
    Posted 13 months ago by Syruss Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would prefer region chat over random chat.  Region chat would hopefully include all your neighbors when you're at home, which would be really nice.  You would also catch players with similar in-game interests, for example miners, barnacle-scrapers, or spice-pickers.  There might be more social stability too. For example, I keep seeing the same players at midnight in Ix harvesting spice so I'd like to be in chat with them.  There are also some neat economic benefits. I could go to Pollakoo with food to sell, and catch all the miners in chat.

    I probably wouldn't use a random chat - I don't use global.  I'd stick to groups.
    Posted 13 months ago by Lucille Ball Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't use Global and I wouldn't use Random.  I might actually use a Regional chat.

    +1 for Fluxan's idea to have housing neighborhood chats.
    Posted 13 months ago by mirth Subscriber! | Permalink
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