The New Chat Restriction in The Feast

[FreeKingStefan]

Hi all, so for those of you who haven't heard,during the most recent live letter,Yoshi P revealed that they will be restricting chat while on The Feast. You will no be able to say anything at all unless it's utilizing the auto translate feature. So let me just say, on behalf of the majority of the PvP community on Aether Data Center...

This is possibly one of the worst decisions SE could EVER make in regards to PvP

This is a team based game mode, and communication is key. They boast that there will be new macros added, but to what extent will they cover? SE, you need to understand that we, as the players, need to communicate specific things at specific time. Certain people may need to get medals, boxes may be spawning soon and you need to warn your team, you may be out of MP and need a BRD/MCH to assist, you may need to tell your team to get mid, get to base, push forward, fall back. You may need to coordinate with your team to burst down a target while CC'ing another. That target may change during the match. Communication is absolutely crucial in team based PvP, so removing that will make the Solo Queue gaming experience absolutely worse than it is now.

You may think this will put a bar on toxicity, and that players will finally reach a point where they are not flaming each other, but here's the thing...Censorship does not work in this world. Players will simply send tells after the game to talk ill towards their teammates that messed up or were not skilled. They will make alts on those players realms simply to express their disdain. This is what used to happen in past MMO's which didn't have in-match chat during PvP. Even through this censorship, people -will- get flamed, people -will- get told they suck. Taking away the player's ability to speak in one forum only makes the situation worse, as the emotion they are feeling will build up and carry outside of the match, instead of it being handled in the short match time during the game, and then being wiped clean as the next match comes around.

My proposed alternative solution:

Keep this "feature" and only apply it to those that are to receive punishment for their toxicity. This way, there is justified punishment for those people, as the previous punishment (permanent bans) is extremely harsh given the context of the situation. The goal would then be for them to realize that communication is key to success, as they will have a difficult time playing in The Feast without being able to communicate with their team.

[Genaxx]

Pretty poor choice in my opinion. I've seen worse in shouts. what next? Remove global chat?

[Ama_Hamada]

Pretty poor choice in my opinion. I've seen worse in shouts. what next? Remove global chat?

agreed.
AT THE VERY LEAST! let us have chat within the first 2 minutes or so, usually the toxicity is not early on. Also I find the battle grounds more toxic with the sexual text picture spam, 24 man dungeons have the same issues. I was in a pvp match where we had 3 healers and I could not ask one to change to a DPS so I just did it.

This also leaves to heavy balance issues letting premades having communications outside the game to coordinate

Personally I see this action happen because GMs are unable to handle all the reports and release fitting punishments to everyone.

[Februs]

Personally I see this action happen because GMs are unable to handle all the reports and release fitting punishments to everyone.

It's also likely that they are simply too lazy (or under-maned, as a much more forgiving person would assume) to monitor or investigate every complaint.

When it comes to PvP, SE has largely left the policing of illicit behavior to the players. Someone hacking? Report them with evidence. Found a glitch? Report it with evidence. Someone being mean or vulgar in chat? Report them ... with evidence. We've seen a HUGE number of these reports right here in the forums, especially in regards to cheating or hacking. The problem is that SE often turns a blind eye to our reports, they same way they often turn a blind eye to our complaints or suggestions (kinda like right now). It is a trend that has never instilled a lot of confidence in their level of commitment to their own game.

That problem is far worse when it comes to chat abuse, because what one person considers "chat abuse" is often a very subjective opinion. Some players are simply more sensitive to criticism than others, and SE has to sort out the real complaints which warrant attention from the ones that are an over-inflated grievance caused by a fragile self-esteem. Going through each complaint individually and passing a reasonable judgment on a case by case basis would be a lot like real work. By comparison, it's far easy to just slap everyone with the same punishment and continue turning that blind eye to the situation. The fact that they have blatantly ignored significant points of conflict, such as 3rd party chat options, player opinion and enjoyment, new players, and even their own mentor system is just proof that this was a slip-shod and ill-conceived idea that was implemented to avoid reallocating limited human resources ... ie: they chose the quickest, easiest, and laziest option, regardless of whether or not it was the right one.

[Cleanse]

Instead of banning everyone from chatting, mute those who are toxic for a time like they do in league. Or just leave it be... Communication is too important.

[Praesul]

The gap between the average and great player will now widen even more. Before, players could communicate and plan for the match ahead, so even a newer or mediocre player could help. With that option removed, newer players will be left even more clueless than before and get steamrolled even harder.

[TiramisuMacaron]

Did I miss the new map being called North Korea?

Jokes assize, on behalf of Primal, the majority of players I know are outraged by this as well.

This is the beginning of the end for feast if this goes through. If they want to do this, they need to take away rankings. The class imbalance a change like this creates is ludicrous.

Time to start playing monk.

[Zojha]

SE's thought process is truly genius.

They noticed ranked leads to increased toxicity, since Frontline is unaffected and they didn't try this sooner when Wolves Den was a thing.
Instead of them admitting ranked was a mistake, they go and mute everyone to prevent toxicity.

I'm damn sure they'll disable emotes in the Feast next, because angry people will resort to /slap next >_>

[Bartleby]

Chiming in just to state my disapproval as well. I'm sure just about everyone here has lost their temper in chat during Feast but this is doing so much more damage than it heals. The Matchmaking already creates heavily imbalanced games where players with the skill level of a Bronze/Silver rank are being matched as Gold/Platinums... removing any complex way to communicate with your teammates is just going to make the games that much more imbalanced, noncompetitive, and overall unfun.

[AngeVie]

Please do not remove chat in Feast! A lot of good can come out of chat: advice, strategy, etc. It is not all bad. Find another way to handle those that are being hostile instead of breaking an important part of a team based game. This is a very disappointing move.