Response to Rias' chat question

[Kent]

Rias said:

Oh, also one thing that hasn't been brought up - how are people feeling about the removal of in-game OOC and using IRC instead? I've really enjoyed communicating and even just chatting/BSing with the people in there.

I have mixed feelings about this change. I cannot greet anyone who logs in, if they aren't on IRC themselves. If I am playing from my phone, I cannot greet them as there is no easy way to IRC from my phone.

The other thing, one of the reasons this change was removed was because 'This is an RP intensive MUD'. But regardless of how RP hardcore a game is, there are some RL factors that cannot be ESP'd. How do you say, I am laaging badly, I have to go to the bathroom, I have to logout, I'll be back tonight, my character is removing and re-wearing his shirt because I am working around a bug....I am dealing with another sort of a bug, etc.

I got an idea from a chat-limited game I played (It was actually a pre-installed Internet Checkers game I played on my PC with Windows 7). It had a drop-down menu with over 20 preformatted messages you were limited to, such as Hello, I have to go, Yes, No, Thank you, You're welcome, Ouch, Still there?, etc. While not all of these messages would be relevant to CLOK, a number would be or could be adapted to CLOK.

We could have at least these messages,

Hello everyone!

Bye!

Greetings, N!
Bye N. (Where N has to be a one-word character name for both of these)

I'm lagging.

Ooops, I made a typo.

I have to logout. I'll back later.

Come back soon!

I have to logout. I'll be back in X Y (Where X has to be an integer, and Y must be either minutes, hours, or days.)

I'm dealing with a bug.

I'm going AFK.

I'm back.

That's too OOC for your character!

Send in a bug report.

Oops, scratch that last one.



and a number of other messages that would need to be communicated OOC.


This would have the benefit of eliminating the inane chatter what drives some newbies off yet still have a legitimate outlet to express what cannot be expressed IC. To prevent spam, perhaps only two such messages could be sent per player per minute.

[jilliana]

I think this was discussed some time back in another thread you started, Kent.

I think it was decided that these methods, although nice, aren't particularly desired for CLOK. We do have the tell method. Yes, not everyone has it activated all the time, but there are pretty easy ways to adapt an OOC issue and turn it IC. I think it is pretty safe to point out that most players on CLOK are pretty understanding if one has to leave abruptly, be idle for a moment or have some lag.
Long involved explanations aren't needed. An "oh goodness I forgot to make sure the fire is put out in my oven" would suffice even if you don't actually have to go put out that fire. It would be similar for the lagging. A simple "I don't feel so great" or "I'm sorry I'm not paying so much attention but it's hard for me to concentrate as I've got things on my mind" would do for that sort of thing.

People seem to be really digging IRC and I wouldn't be surprised if chat was removed entirely. If anything, I would love to see another IC channel where I didn't have to listen to everyone all the time but would want my penddent on.

[Kent]

Long involved explanations aren't needed. An "oh goodness I forgot to make sure the fire is put out in my oven" would suffice even if you don't actually have to go put out that fire. It would be similar for the lagging. A simple "I don't feel so great" or "I'm sorry I'm not paying so much attention but it's hard for me to concentrate as I've got things on my mind" would do for that sort of thing.

Maybe for you, but not for me. It doesn't communicate, I'll log back in tonight, or I'll be back the day after tomorrow, or I won't log back in until next week. Or, Is anyone else lagging, or only me? Or this is a stupid bug that makes me act this way, it's unfair for you to treat my character like he's lost his marbles because currently this is the only way possible to do this.

[merin]

If you're going to be gone for an extended period of time (days/weeks/indeffinet), use the BBS.

if not, then, if you play regularly, people will know. If anything, send them a tell as stated that says "sorry, I have to go," because life happens. Another alternative would be to as said use IC. Sorry i really have to x, i'll be back in a few days. You know what? I think I'm going to take a week off. Sorry. I know I'm taking a while, i just want to give you the right information.

I see where you're coming from here, sort of, but there are many ways already to get around it. And just because you can't be on irc that's fine. We'll all opretiate it fi you say hi I'm sure. We're not all jerks. Maybe just Jilliana. :). Joking, of course.

[preiman]

besides the people you can't send a tell to, are most likely the same people who wouldn't get the message on chat either. so if you can't tell them, getting chat back wouldn't really help you.

[xavier]

I am exceptional happy about having chat removed from the game. I don't have to listen to it if I didn't want to, sure. Though a lot of intelligent conversations were going on in chat sometimes. I realy don't miss the so and so logs in and immediately gets greeting IC and OOCly. it isn't necessary, if you can't say hi to them IC then that's life. There are a couple of people who I treat with respect, good humor, even like who's conversation over chat was just ridiculously not needed. Also some people play a character that acts exactly the same as they act on chat, so what's the difference?
I'm loving the IRC channel, for all the reasons other people have stated, I can play the game and not pay attention to it when things are going fast. I can still talk with players when I'm not logged into the game (especially beneficial now with hunger implemented again). Because it is completely seperate from the game I actually get to talk with the staff more when they are available instead of a mysterious GM says yada yada and nobody knows who it is, people pester them with questions, complaints ideas, etc and conversation is difficult at best in that setting because while you might be idling and only see 5 lines of text per minute, they might have 100 per minute or more depending on what they are trying to do. IRC allows them the same freedom to flip windows and comment on a conversation without interrupting their work by closing out some code editor just to answer a question.
That's my two cents on IRC. I love it, even though miranda is a pain sometimes, and I don't want to see the chat channel come back.