The New Chat Restriction in The Feast

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

I'd like to point out it's been 16 pages since the Community Rep came asking for suggestions for improvement, and nearly every response or suggestion has called forthe removal of quick chat/the restoration of normal chat functions. I would call that sufficient feedback, yes?

SE, with the Feast season 3 ending this month and the 3.55 patch being released, this needs to happen along with it. I don't forsee much interest in the new map or a preseason/season 4 if this issue is not addressed sooner than later.

[Zojha]

I would call that sufficient feedback, yes?

I would call the 39 pages before that, plus the dozen of other threads, sufficient feedback in the first place.

Did it change anything? Will the next 20 pages change anything? I doubt it. SE still doesn't have better solutions to its harassment problem, only the knowledge that people don't like being muted. My, what a surprise! I dare say they knew well in advance.

With a little luck, the next Feast season really IS going to be dead in the waters and they'll use it as opportunity to remove ranked entirely. Chances are, a month or two later the chat can safely be reinstated once the vets stopped fuming over that.

[Ama_Hamada]

I would call the 39 pages before that, plus the dozen of other threads, sufficient feedback in the first place.

Did it change anything? Will the next 20 pages change anything?I doubt it. SE still doesn't have better solutions to its harassment problem, only the knowledge that people don't like being muted. My, what a surprise! I dare say they knew well in advance.

With a little luck, the next Feast season really IS going to be dead in the waters and they'll use it as opportunity to remove ranked entirely. Chances are, a month or two later the chat can safely be reinstated once the vets stopped fuming over that.

Hire more GMs? have better GM policy? it is amazing how little they take in context and follow a strict checklist to take action on, even when ignoring context means suspending the victim of harassment for 9 days. "do not harass me in novice chat" *suspends* THAT is the main issue for this, SE does not know how make polices with gm regulation so they think they can quick fix it by chat removal.

[Februs]

SE still doesn't have better solutions to its harassment problem, only the knowledge that people don't like being muted.

Sorry ... but, what problem? SE arbitrarily decided that there was one without providing any reasoning or evidence. That's not to say that there isn't harassment in chat, obviously. There is, but ... so what? How is it any more of a "problem" in PvP than it is in PvE? Simply put, it's not. SE's is just operating with a double standard.

As for solutions, there's plenty of those, and removing rankings is not necessarily one of them. For starters, SE could refrain from segregating a specific portion of the game's population over a "problem" that is by no means exclusive to that party. That would be a wonderful start. They could also simply apply the same ToS to PvP that they do to every other aspect of this game, including these forums. Here's an idea: someone gets reported for harassment in chat? They get a 3 month ban - not just from chat either. I mean they get banned from PvP. Period. You want to snuff harassment out. That's a surefire way of doing it without persecuting ever single person in the game without just cause. It doesn't even require any additional manpower or resources, because this exact same system is used in the game already. Will SE have to buck up and earn the wages? Yeah, but I see no problem with that since we're the ones putting the bread on their tables.

[Zojha]

How is it any more of a "problem" in PvP than it is in PvE?

Put like that it isn't. PvP is more than just Feast, yet the issue only exists in Feast. And that's "Due to the majority of chat containing harassment and not actual strategy."
Or, at least that's the current state of information. Feel free to go back and review the live letter XXXIII video to check if that actually is the reason - I'm not a native japanese speaker, I have to rely on the translations of others, hence the quotation marks. I personally have little reason not to believe it considering the amount of correct info in that unofficial translation and the lack of selfish interest of the translators, but you never know - everyone is cordially invited to do a transcript and have different translators take a look at it. The mystery can be solved.

[Februs]

Put like that it isn't. PvP is more than just Feast, yet the issue only exists in Feast. And that's "Due to the majority of chat containing harassment and not actual strategy."
Or, at least that's the current state of information.

What they said in the live letter is nothing if not vague, but that's hardly the point.

Firstly, no matter what translation you go by, SE did not offer quantifiable data to back up their statement. They never showed us that "harassment" far exceeds "actual strategy." They just expected us to take their word for it. Now, I am inclined to do exactly that, since it's their company and, in theory, they have all the facts. I'd like to assume they wouldn't lie to us ... despite them having lied to us several times in the past. The thing is, even if I assume the best of them, that's not enough. What was the sample pool for this decision? Was it the NA data centres? Japan? All? And where, exactly, is the line between harassment and "actual strategy?" For all we know, wording something as impolitely as, "What the hell, healer?! Use Sacred Prism!" could be considered "harassment." Everyone assumes that "harassment" is the worst of the worst insults, but we really don't know where SE draws the line. Even letting out a choice curse after losing a match or dying (which is a perfectly innocent venting of frustrations) could be considered harassment, if they simply go by the profanity filter standards. We do not know, and SE isn't telling.

Regardless, the more important issue here is that it really doesn't matter what SE says about their reasoning, because their reasoning is flawed. Even if harassment (true, toxic, and horrible harassment) outweighed actual strategy, so what? SE is still operating with a double standard. Why is it okay for them to single out the PvP community for this particular issue, when PvE can, and often is, much worse? Further, why is it okay for them to single out the Feast players, in particular, over Front Lines? It's not, but they did it anyway. Worse yet, they did it without being able to adequately qualify what "harassment" actually is, nor could they distinguish between harassment in actions vs harassment in words.