Topic

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
--

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

  • region chat +1
    but I think region + any online mutual buddies would be better.
    Posted 15 months ago by juv3nal Subscriber! | Permalink
  • why not organize chat sort of like KoL chat, with options you can switch between? there could be "region" chats that people can choose to enter or leave (even if they aren't in that region), "noob" chat where new players are likely to congregate, and maybe you could even make a special "beta tester" chat that we can use like our old global, seeing as it wouldn't increase in member size? Or if that's too exclusive, make it something like "Beta + level X and up" chat, X being a high-ish level, so new people can join once they are not asking about how to make salt anymore? Or even "Beta + subscribers" so if someone reeeeeally wants to join the special beta chat room, they need to be forking over some IRL currants, haha. You could even make channels for each of the giants, and one for the rook. That would be sort of fun. If there wasn't a "beta users" chat, I think I would hang out in Lem's channel because he's my fave.

    Or maybe even just make multiple "global chats" but have them cap at a certain "capacity" of users, so if there are hundreds of people and you reeeeeeally want to join global 3, for whatever reason, you can jump in a que to enter global 3 when someone else leaves. Otherwise you can just choose from one of the other open globals. I bet groups of friends can organize on their profiles which chat they want to meet at...

    these are just some ideas. I didn't read the whole thread so maybe someone else already gave suggestions like this. Either way, I'll be sad to see global go... I like chit chatting with lots of people, and I often recognize names of people who are on in my time zone even if we aren't "friended" in the game.
    Posted 15 months ago by Seylah Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't understand why you don't implement multiple global chats (and label them Global 1, Global 2, etc. until you have as many as needed). Or name them after the giants, or spices, or fruit, or whatever (making them not be cardinal, ie 1-2-3, will make them all more appealing so you don't have Global 1 jammed all the time). Just central places that we can virtually gather and share information and ideas is what people are looking for; the Help channel has started turning into that now that people know Global is going away.

    I used to think regional (or hub) was the way to go, but not so much anymore. As long as TP makes the world's distances essentially nonsignificant, then the communications conduit should reflect that.
    Posted 15 months ago by Lilith Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think I'm on the same track with Seylah

    And I vote for both!

    Regional chat... available to anyone, anytime...   want to see what's going on in Groddle Forest?   Open up Groddle Forest Chat and listen for a bit.  Got a rook attack?  Announce!!!  Found a last egg?  Let fellow Groddlers know.   Not much happening for you here?   Pick a new region and repeat.

    Random.  These (global) chat groups would be, initially, randomly assigned, with appropriate Glitchy names.   But you would have the ability to switch from one to another, based on occupancy.  And these global chat groups could be opened as demand dictated.

    (So, for example, if you were initially were assigned to the Global Chat Group called Chettia Churns Chatters.... but not much (or too much) was going on there....  You could switch over to the Global Chat Group called Buckward Vale Vetters.)

    I have no idea what I'm talking about...   but I'm thinking there could be a number of global chat groups available, based on demand.
    Posted 15 months ago by Pirate Apples Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like Lilith's suggestion way better than a random chat, although again if you were able to chose what chat you were in I am betting a lot of people would all go to the same chat and we would have the same problem.  Still, the idea is better than random IMO
    Posted 15 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like the Regional Chat idea - I think it would make it much easier to keep up a chat with peeps in the same area...kinda like local chat but covering a much broader area.

    Random chat kinda makes me think that it'll be what my radio sounds like when I'm turning the knob to find a station playing a certain song lol 
    Posted 15 months ago by sgjo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Regional Chat Question:

    If I'm somewhere in Grumbla and want to ask the fine people in Mazza'la Chat about some event that may or may not be going on in Shimla Mirch, do I need to walk all the way to Shimla to join that chat?

    Would there be a way to have a choice of regions and options to join at will so that I can talk the talk before I walk the walk? (ETA: I know we can TP - but many, especially newbs, won't have this option right away.)

    Having these 4 channels would be great:

    Grumbla Chat
    Groddle Island Chat
    Mazza'la Chat
    Miscelaneous Isles Chat

    I'm sure there are some problems with this approach but I'm not sure what they are (ETA: other than Stoot's "we Glitches change areas/zones pretty quickly compared to many games." Maybe regional chat is always elective rather than automatically changed when changing regions)
    Posted 15 months ago by The Cat Face Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Definitely both! I do think regional would be very handy, if you want to ask people to come help you dig some dirt or help with some other quest, it would be easier to ask in a regional chat so that you know everybody is kind of nearby. I could imagine you'd have regional communities forming based on the people that hang out a lot or live in a certain region. 

    On the other hand random chat would be just plain fun.

    So I vote for both.
    Posted 15 months ago by FrankenPaula Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I was thinking of the same idea as Seylah, Lilith, and PA - several "instances" of global chat, each with a unique Glitchy name and a limited capacity. Players would be randomly assigned to an instance when they login, but they would have the ability to switch to any other non-full instance at any time.
    Posted 15 months ago by Varaeth Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Go with Random Chat.

    Region chat will likely still be too big, as early on Groddle will be packed with people. Also, Random Chat would be a good way to meet and get to know new people.
    Posted 15 months ago by Sid Soloveitchik Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Knowing how I was playing before the reset I wouldn't get very involved with a regional by location chat because I'm constantly switching regions, so I lean towards random chat. As far as keeping in touch with specific people/instances, I've been using the 'New Street' group chat for awhile now and found it to work very well for that kind of thing. I also suspect with the death of global chat that the more socially minded group will see an increase in chat use over what they are now.
    Posted 15 months ago by Zara Wunderwoot Subscriber! | Permalink
  • to be honest, i never used global chat.  i used local chat, developed friends through local chat, then IM'd people i'd met previously...
    Posted 15 months ago by audiomodder Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I was going with Region Chat, but Sid's argument convinced me. I guess Region Chat would be pretty crowded too.
    Posted 15 months ago by Lexi Smart Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like the idea of having both, but I would only use regional. I *love* the idea of being able to choose which region to participate in.
    Posted 15 months ago by LilyBean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • My problem with having multiple instances for chatting is that would instantly make the chat feel too overcrowded.  It reminds me of when I was a freshman in high school and my ex bf (before we ever dated) loved to play Yahoo Pool, and we would always have a hard time getting into the same chat group/room things because the "cool" or "fun" ones were always full.  I imagine something like that will end up happening if players are allowed to change the chat they get put into or choose where to go.

    I don't want the chat to feel competitive or have to feel like I need to rush or log at a certain time in order to get into the chat I want.  And if you can't choose, random chat sounds like a nightmare to me.
    Posted 15 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Obviously both are attractive as they would perform vastly different functions, but if I had to choose one it would be random.  For one thing, it suits the game.  For another, as so many others have said, most glitches are constantly on the move while conversing, and only having regional chat would seriously curtail the ability to have anything approaching a conversation while wandering.  And Emlinel is right in pointing out that sometimes borders can be crossed without realising it, which would become incredibly annoying incredibly quickly.

    I also think that some people who prefer regional are forgetting that with a random roll of the die there will almost certainly be glitches in the chat who are nearby.  Yes, not necessarily as many as with regional-specific chat, but certainly enough for you to shout to about broken tinkertools etc.

    And while suggestions like 'neighbourhood chat' tied to your homes are great, the game has already made it very easy to set up and/or join groups such as these, and with the ability to be in multiple groups (as opposed to 'clan' systems other large-scale games have) there is no reason to require the developers to set this up - the community can build it.  The community could also very easily build a group for 'Ix chat', which could be turned on or off, whereas it could not create anything approaching global or random.  The only thing about relying on groups is that it might exclude newcomers who don't know about such things, but glitch is a pretty open and talkative world, and with guides etc it should be easy to get the hang of - if it becomes a problem, then maybe a mention in the tutorial or from the rock?
    Posted 15 months ago by Cindy Electronium Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I vote random. Global chat always felt kinda random anyway, because I never knew who would be in there (I'm not friends with *everyone*, lol). I'm sure some people (particularly new folks) wouldn't even notice. Make new friends in random, and then you have friend chat. I think you can make small private chat rooms, too, like inviting your friends to share a room.  Maybe you could have an informal help chat session in a regional? For things like, is this whole area mined already? Oh, ok, I'll do something else. ;-)

    ...Long story short, why not do both, but emphasize random as social, OOC chat and downplay the regional as informal help chat?
    Posted 15 months ago by Lady Cailia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Why not both?:)
    Posted 15 months ago by Geeki Yogini Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I am not a very big "chatter". I do like to chat with friends and those I meet once and awhile or click on an online friends name to send them an IM but beyond that....you guys choose!! :)
    Posted 15 months ago by Fstra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I second finding a way to include both chats, we already have both live help and global so two can't be impossible, but otherwise...

    Flip a coin. ;P
    Posted 15 months ago by Liza Throttlebottom Subscriber! | Permalink
  • For the launch implementation, I vote for random.  It's hard to predict in advance how regional will work out.  For some regions it might be brilliant, for others not so much. For me, global chat is already functionally random in the sense that I don't know who's paying attention to it and who's not.  So a chat that's actually random wouldn't seem much different (to me) -- just easier to follow and less likely to overload my computer or bring down the server.

    Random also would make load balancing easier, reducing the number of things that could go wrong in the beginning, making 24/7 a more achievable goal.

    In the longer run, there's much to be said for "chat channels" that players could switch between. These could be introduced gradually and experimentally to find out what works and what doesn't.
    Posted 15 months ago by Splendora Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm liking the sound of regional chat.  I know it probably sounds all dorky and idealistic of me (or dorkily idealistic, why not?), and is probably totally beside the point of these deliberations, but I'm imagining the different regions' chats evolving their own, unique personalities over time.  This sounds as though it would be a cool thing to see.  Imagine if, say, a regional chat culture comprised mainly of the hard-core sparkly miners started to form in Ilmenskie (complete with "regulars"), or a clique of treasure hunters and quoin chasers found its home in the ancestral regions.  I bet the overall vibe of chat would at least vary from housing quarter to housing quarter.

    I don't see random chat allowing for something this interesting.  I'm not saying it wouldn't be fun, and if it came down to it, I'd have no problem with random chat, either.  But (and I think this is the only thing that really bothers me), this comparison to "chatroulette" has me picturing all sorts of worst case scenarios.  I'd hate to see it turn into a hodgepodge of internet trolls going "Ooh, it's like chatroulette?  Time to whip it -- or its text counterpart, anyway -- out to some unsuspecting noobs!"
     
    Posted 15 months ago by Kipple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Waaaaay too many comments for me to read through to see if this was already suggested, but I'd go with random, but with the ability to change random groups.   So if you and your buddy are logged on at the same time, one of you can switch from, say "Global 2" to "Global 14", or whatever...
    Posted 15 months ago by Mr. Universe Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like the idea mentioned above of having Regional Chat as the default, because if you're spending a lot of time in, for example, Ilmenski and Uralia, you'd be chatting with other miners, and in Groddle Isle you'd be chatting largely with folks engaged in animal and tree gleaning, etc.  It seems logical and natural, and it would be easy for newer players (or players new to a skill type) to get help from others who know a lot about the activity in question.

    But I'd also like the idea of ALSO having Random Chat channels that one could join to talk about whatever with whomever...such as Random 1, 2, 3, etc., depending on what is optimal to keep the server population and channel population orderly and as un-congested as possible.

    If I had to vote for only one option, I'd go with Regional chat.  But I'd really like a mix of both, even if it were only a temporary thing implemented to test out which option the majority of players like best and what works best on the devs' side of things.  

    Edit to add:  I'm not a big chatter, personally, except in IM channels with those with whom I hang out most.  But I would be much more likely to chat in a regional chat, because it would be something of a replacement for and expansion on local/area chat, which I find frustrating to use.  I have to resize the pane again and again depending on local chatter and whether I'm involved in it, and the Local/Area chat pane gets so confusing and cluttered with messages of "Glitch 123 just left for Area" "Glitch 456 is here!" and so on that it's tough to keep up with conversation.
    Posted 15 months ago by Clara Net Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't generally monitor anything but /tells and local chat.  But, could you not have Global 1 - XXX channels that would simulate the smaller group chat effect.  That way you would have the ability to have say 500 spots in Global 5 and allow Glitchen the option to /join g5 that way if a group always met they could hang on their Global.  Or if G5 became laden with people discussing carnal relations with ovine made of faeces, one could move their chat and their partners to G126 leaving the unsavoury animal enthusiasts behind on G5.

    Eventually folks will head to a specific channel as their de rigeur and while it will be slightly cliquey with regulars and transients, it would reduce server and client load while still giving an illusion of the old Global.  It would be even better if the total limit maxed out at the 1k - 2k per channel, but I don't have any idea of server limits.

    It isn't perfect, but I think it is better than Random because I can be on whichever channel is my "norm" and Annie Oakley (if there is a Glitchen named this friend me LoL) can always /tell me and find out my channel or know that I hang on G324 and head there first.

    It is better than regional because it will be "global" just not global in everyone of the 300 bazilli-trillion Glitchen on at any one time.

    And you won't have to be a Speed Hacker to read text that flies by at 125 lines per second either.

    ~~TJ Fuzzybutt

    @the two previous posts - see what slow typing gets me!  I support their ideas ;p
    Posted 15 months ago by Thaddeus J Fuzzybut Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Kipple - I was going to finally post in this thread, but you just said exactly what I was trying to convey all along. Cookies for you!
    Posted 15 months ago by That Kid Tyler Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I personally like the sound of a Regional chat, like someone in the earlier posts suggested if we had a party then we could all talk without other fuss... Random seems like the thing you would need to meet new people. That's just my opinion :o)
    Posted 15 months ago by Britt_39 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like cookies.
    Posted 15 months ago by Kipple Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Random.
    Posted 15 months ago by Violet Faulds Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I vote Random. :)
    Posted 15 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like regional attached to house+people (homeless or not) moving through that Laurali proposed. And not just because I was there during the brainstorming in global chat. Here's why:

    Global chat is filled with a lot of people asking where a certain kind of vendor, shrine, or tree is. Or butterflies. If you scale that down to regional (mainly consisting of people who live in a region), they are going to be able to answer that question about their own neighborhood much better than they would about another. For instance, Someone who lives in Chakra Pool knowing where the nearest eggplant is for someone in Bortola is less likely than someone who lives in Bortola (even though they're currently looking for ghosts in Chakra Pool) knowing where that tree is. Meanwhile, the person from Bortola exploring Chakra Pool can have a second chat open and ask people who live in Chakra Pool where the nearest Purp-dealer lives.

    There would also be a sense of community between the homeowners and more of a feel for possible neighbors for people passing through. In fact, it could entirely influence someone to buy a tree house in Pasha's Quarter instead of a mansion in Dofsan Vex Quarter, all because the people are nicer (less snooty and more helpful, I hear) when passing through.

    But then, there would also be the quiet regions. Like the ancestral lands, since I'm assuming there will never be houses there. And the Deeps, but most of the people who would be there would also know a lot about them because they tend to be miners.

    Listen, I don't have a little heart by my name yet (I'll be paying full-price when I can actually afford it), so I wouldn't get a vote anyway (if the voting system had been implemented yet), but I'm tempted to go door to door in an attempt to convince people to throw more neighborhood BBQs and hand them a flyer with this proposal on it. My real-life neighbors will look at me strangely, but the word will be spread. And I may not be invited to the BBQs.
    Posted 15 months ago by Quirk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sense of community maybe but have you ever knocked on the doors of the neighbors on your street?  Most of them aren't even online, heck in the last test some % might even have stopped playing.  I'd be REALLY said if I was stuck with street/neighborhood chat and it was a ghost town.  

    At least with random we'll have the opportunity to talk with whoever is actually online and not stuck with whoever happens to just be nearby.
    Posted 15 months ago by Fleep Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 for random
    Posted 15 months ago by Catgofire Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I approve of a solution that don't crash my browser.

    Region Chat By House sounds like the most fun alternative for the community-building reasons mentioned earlier, but the reason for this exercise is that Global chat doesn't scale and it doesn't seem like region chat would scale very well either.

    Random chat would divide up the global channel into slices. When players connect to global chat they get added to one of these slices randomly.  When slices get too full, new ones are created. To make things less random, let people join other people's slices up to a max number per channel. To facilitate this, let people name their slice. If Striatic invents a fun new game he could name the slice he's on 'Write In The Air With Pickles!'  and then people who are interested in airborne cucumber calligraphy would have a place to migrate to temporarily without going to the trouble of creating a group.
    Posted 15 months ago by Anthropocene Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, and what Fleep said.
    Posted 15 months ago by Anthropocene Subscriber! | Permalink
  • What about Giant chat?  Like: the giant with whom you have the most favor is the chat group you're a part of.  Maybe top 3, so there'd be some overlap?  Newbies sorted at random, maybe?

    And of course, the mysteries Rook followers...
    Posted 15 months ago by Yarrow Subscriber! | Permalink
  • To me, there doesn't seem to be much point in region chat because there is already a local chat for the street and, like you said in the original point, we all move around a lot.

    Random chat makes more sense to me, and would give us the illusion of a global chat. (I like my illusions. They keep me snug and comfy.)
    Posted 15 months ago by anonymoose Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Regional makes a lot of sense. The issue of moving regions could be well addressed if it gave you the choice to leave or stay as you moved, rather than automatically booting you from the chat. 

    "You've left Groddle Meadow. Want to join Ix Chat, or stay here?" 

    I think something like that could work really nicely.
    Posted 15 months ago by Xev Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Neither: 
    Propose thematic chats independent of region, or regional chats where being in said region is not required. You just know that someone's going to be in chat and then forget that playing with their pickle might send them elsewhere and then suddenly they find themselves in Kalavana Chats, in the middle of a debate on whether belly button lint or ear wax is more offending to the nose. 
    Posted 15 months ago by Linar Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Belly button lint, hands down. Way more offensive.

    I really like the idea of chats you can choose based on some kind of logic - be it subject matter or region.
    Posted 15 months ago by Xev Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Isn't the current use of Groups and Group chats already an exact substitute for what everyone is saying they want? When I read that Global was going to disappear I wasn't surprised or upset; we have chat channels ready to go..lets use them!
    Why create Regional chat when there could be a group called Chakra and one called Forest and you just open them when in the area?
    You just want to talk to your friends? Make a Group chat. 
    You want some random? subscribe to some of the bigger groups and jump around from one to another... you're bound to find a fun conversation going on. 
    Posted 15 months ago by Zira Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Zira wrote
    Isn't the current use of Groups and Group chats already an exact substitute for what everyone is saying they want?

    While they technically are, as I have stated previously on this forum: it is terribly difficult to find groups other than those a) most recently created, or b) most populated. There are also limits on the number of groups that one can join, unless this has recently changed. 

    I agree that Group chats are nice. I agree that Group chats effectively fill the function for the topic-based chats that I and others have proposed. Yet: 
    1) The current implementation of the Groups system is such that it is difficult to impossible to find Groups that may lead to interesting chat; and 
    2) The Group chat system is not very welcoming to new users due to the steep learning curve (or infinite patience to sift through pages) required. 
    Posted 15 months ago by Linar Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Playing a lot of MMOs I'm used to Region Chat. Not sure what I think about Random Chat, it's kind of random.... I'll probably just hang in Group Chat.
    Posted 15 months ago by alkaline Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Linar, yes, I thought of these problems too.  However I believe that many (like me), haven't bothered much up to now with Groups simply because Global did, in fact, exist. My hope is that when Global disappears, Groups will find balance. 
    The speed of discovery by newcomers is undoubtedly a problem; a huge percentage of players never even go near forums in normal games, but Glitch has more interaction with the home pages than average so there's hope yet. 

    Going back to the original question (that I forgot to answer), I'd prefer random. It seems more Glitchy.
    Posted 15 months ago by Zira Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think I'm going to have put my vote in for Random. 

    As for the fact that it will take newcomers a while to find the right groups and, what's more, to use those chat channels, it took me quite a few levels before I tried global (really before I even realized there was a Global Chat). It was the fateful day of Prisencolinensinainciusol when someone in my local chat mentioned they'd figured out things in Global and I thought "WHA?! Global?!" and tried it out. The newbs will find their place.

    The reason I'm leaning more toward Random atm is because the people who I randomly met in Global have fast become my favorite Glitches. In a location I'm more focused on what I'm doing unless its a party. I think Parties are about the only reason I use my Local Chat currently and while a Regional one would be better, I change location way too often to ever hold down a lengthy conversation in that channel.

    To sum this up: +1 Random.
    Posted 15 months ago by Avery♥ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Isn't this a referendum issue for voting?

    Anyway, I like the idea of regional, with the option to pin/select a region other than the one you are in.  It sounds like a great way to meet up with other Glitchen to do things together, and also to communicate during street projects if someone gets sent to a nearby vendor.  It also sounds like a fun way to meet your neighbors.

    I'm all for the idea of there being a random chat room to join, but that's not where I want to spawn. 
    Posted 15 months ago by Jewel Stoned Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like the idea of Random; it's a quick way to meet new people and hang out in general without having to worry about being in an empty region or if the person you're talking to switched zones.

    Resident [or 'Region by House'] might be a fun way to help build community as well.

    Different types of channels have different uses and I think having the options of Local/Regional/Global would be helpful. Alternatively, people might just gravitate to Global and start asking Regional/Local questions [Where's a wood tree?] there which sort of defeats the purpose.
    Posted 15 months ago by Aoi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Both. Then we can choose based on what's going on in a given day.

    I also like the idea of a dedicated quest chat.
    Posted 15 months ago by chilirlw Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Why not both? 

    edit: and if that's not possible for some reason RANDOM! :D 
    Posted 15 months ago by Tundra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • if we could afford the other mean of communication for the regional info (for ex. party gatherings).. The Random-Chat would be even more interesting =) as I prefer Chat channel to be used for a chatting purpose.
    Posted 15 months ago by Anthraim Subscriber! | Permalink