Ever wanted to send a tell in an instance?

[Alcyon_Densetsu]

The social argument is somewhat weak when it comes to /tell in a dungeon. For starters, you're not isolated from others by being in a dungeon... you're already grouped with other players (social activity). If you're being anti-social to your group/LS/FC, but not to a /tell, something tells me that the anti-social behavior isn't due to a temporary lack of /tell.

An opt-in/out would be great, but since it's not part of the game yet, I don't really see that much of a problem behind it. It's a bit of an inconvenience, but nothing game breaking. Don't over-exaggerate the concern, it just makes it sound like you only talk to people through /tells while you dungeon. Why someone would choose ONLY dungeon moments to send a /tell to someone is beyond me.

Mmmh… I don't think you got my points right. Let me elaborate.

When playing ARR, most of my friends are active. If it's not crafting, it's usually running a dungeon or a Primordial fight. So it makes people unavailable a good 50% of the time, and more if you count that not everybody is busy simultaneously (takes two people to talk… ^^; ). I don't make it sound worse than it is, I'm telling you exactly what I observed. I heard people clearly complain about it, on this forum, as well as in my FC.

Besides, it's not about telling "only" in dungeons (never implied so), it's about being able to actually talk to people when you want, how you want… not all your friends are in your FC/LS, and beyond that you may not want to say everything publicly… I wager you don't use Twitter to talk to your friends, you rather use a private means such as texting or a Facebook chat or equivalent, right? You don't say things to your best friend or girlfriend/boyfriend out loud so everyone can hear it either, do you? That's exactly the same idea. It's a very weird limitation. I understand that some may wish to not be disturbed (I do, at times, especially when raiding), but then we use a dedicated feature in most MMO's: "/dnd" (do not disturb), and people who /tell you receive a message that "XYZ is busy". Simple as that.

Also, let's talk about relative takes on social interactions (the nub of the issue, sociologically). To me, refusing to be /tell'ed in a MMO is not just weird, honestly I find it a bit anti-social, unless you're genuinely busy (and then, back to an opt-in/out feature, such as a simple /dnd). Note that I'm not judging your take, we all have different social needs/limits, but if I accept yours, you should accept mine I suppose. Especially considering it's the norm in all other MMORPG to just let people talk as they wish without holding their hand that far. Honestly, I find it borderline invasive from SE to actually even do that, who do they think they are to decide of our privacy settings? See, different takes on social interactions: I'm not saying they meant to patronise us, I really don't think they meant anything but well, but I really don't agree with them on this.

I agree that it's not game-breaking, it's an inconvenience, but to a different degree depending on the person. I was really annoyed that I had to stop talking with some friends simply because they, or I, was entering an instance. Maybe I like having a very nice time with a special person (in which case the game is a bit secondary), maybe I simply don't want SE to control that part of my life. :/

Likewise, when you're in a dungeon, sometimes you want to tell something to a specific person within that dungeon without publicly exposing them on a public channel (should it be a piece of advice, things like that), but you just can't… it's weird, really. My rather extensive experience of Japanese culture tells me that it's probably acceptable there, that people will just roll with it without even thinking of complaining; but as seen from the west, it's a weird limitation of freedom, borderline intrusive. You should at least be able to choose it, and by default it should be allowed since that's the case in all online games —and harassment is a 1% of the time issue, this is not DOTA or LoL or CoD (well, this community may not be the nicest in MMO's, but nevertheless all other points stand).

On a side related note, a reason for this is possibly that they wanted to have less "harassment cases" to deal with, you know, considering DF puts you in place with other servers (thus harassment can be seen without consequence by some), and their customer service is awfully understaffed already. I don't know. But it's really strange to actually take the time to code this limitation when, by default, tells just worked.

_____
EDIT: can't reply anymore
(SE says I've posted too much today…
which I WON'T comment upon because I would rant say it's yet another form of social restriction that's really uncalled for… haha )

—Sooo dear Welsper, I'll just reply to you here, hopefully you'll see it.

@Welsper59: I like how you think. You're practical
I agree with you that it can be circumvented in the specific case of in-dungeon advice. But that was just an example, and well… Overall I think you're right not to bother, I wish I could but it's just one of these tiny little things, "quality of life" as they say, that add up together until they form a big bloat of no-longer-so-minor inconvenience. Though, honestly, I can live with it, I wouldn't have quit the game over these —at worst it made me ignore parts of the game, such as crafting which I felt too tedious to bother with due to an insanely long and messy item management that I hadn't experienced in many years.
And overall I think it's too bad, sincerely, because the game has some truly great things to explore (such as the crafting mini-game with skills and such), but it feels too much like SE is trying to make our life way more complicated than it has to be (read: when compared to pretty much all AAA MMO since ~2010).
But oh well… nevermind…