Make Chat Level-Based, Please!

ulkaur

I have an idea to stop the spam that goes on in Protector's Enclave. Add the character's level to the chat, and add under Chat options a way to filter what levels we want to see in chat. If a player has to devote time to level a character they, will not waste time on the game if the option is to level to say 30 and the spam, and then delete and start all over again.

This would best be applied to public chats, such as LFG, Zone, and Trade.

sockmunkey

New players are already limited to using /tells until level 15. If you also deny them the use of zone chat. You have effectively muted them. How welcome would you feel in a game if the only way you can interact with anyone is from close proximity /say chat? In a game that is instance based.

How would you be able to ask simple questions? How would you find help, or a guild or even a group if you cant even use Zone until 30?
It would be a severe handicap to new players and will most likely drive many away.

And it would do nothing to stop the spammers. Yea, level cap might slow them down. Their disposable characters will be slightly less disposable. It will simply take them a few hours more on the 'ol bot-o-matic to make a new one at high enough level to spam again. This also ignores the fact that they ALREADY have hundreds of level 60's that makes up their farming labor force.

Hurting new players for a minor inconvenience to spammers seems a poor trade off.

yokihiro

sockmunkey wrote: »

New players are already limited to using /tells until level 15. If you also deny them the use of zone chat. You have effectively muted them. How welcome would you feel in a game if the only way you can interact with anyone is from close proximity /say chat? In a game that is instance based.

EQ2 has levelbased chats as well. You can't chat in 80s level chat when you are not 80 yourself. But you are right on the fact that they just would bot their toons to max level then. Maybe one day it would be silent, after that it would just continue.

Best thing would be a captcha system. Valid for like 5 hours. If you want to use chat, answer a short question and then you can freely post the next 5 hours. This way they could not automatically spam the chat anymore.

stercogburn

This doesn't really work in practice. I've seen it tried in other games.

Idiots still level up to cap and make any chat channels they can access spamtastic.

Uh, not that I'm always the most sensible person at any given time on any given chat channel

ulkaur

You misunderstand me. I'm not saying to take it away from anyone. i'm saying allow me to ignore it. I would go into my chat settings and say, for example, Ignore all chat level from levels 1-30.

It wouldn't affect guild chat, party chat, or other specific types of chat, but allow ignore for Zone, Trade and LFG. It won't mean people aren't spamming away, it's just not on my screen. And it's easier to hurt a spammer who would choose to level to 30 just to post once, as it will take them time to build up another account to that level, just so you can /ignore, and then you just do it again when they hit level 30 with the next annoying account.

Will I miss certain things? Yes, if I choose to. And somethings I should be able to choose to without leaving Protector's Enclave entirely. And now some spammers have taken to spamming LFG chat with their website bull**** and that you can't get away from unless you are instanced.

taurnilelensar

ulkaur wrote: »

I have an idea to stop the spam that goes on in Protector's Enclave. Add the character's level to the chat, and add under Chat options a way to filter what levels we want to see in chat. If a player has to devote time to level a character they, will not waste time on the game if the option is to level to say 30 and the spam, and then delete and start all over again.

This would best be applied to public chats, such as LFG, Zone, and Trade.

This is WRONG on so many levels

bioshrike

I think an optional filter that each player can set for themselves, which would include things like choosing not to display chat from players below a certain level, (which is what the OP described), would be a good thing. Similarly, the ability to set different block filters for oneself would also be nice. This is a per-player setting, not a global one, (if I am understanding the OP correctly).

yokihiro

Op describes it like it is done in EQ 2. If you are lvl 5 you can join the lvl 1-10 chat room only. If you are 13 you can then join lvl 11-20 chat room and so on. Then you can just set up what channels you want to see. High level players often don't want to read every day about lvl 5 players asking where to go or whatever, also to lock out spam. So you would just show the lvl "50-60" chat and get all the messages that are intersting for you. Makes life much easier because this works for trade etc., too. Why would I need to read about a lvl 34 guy trying to trade lvl 30 stuff in trade channel? I could just limit trade channel to 50-60 then and disable the display of others, same for lfg - if I don't want to see messages of people looking for Idris non-epic I could limit the chat to 50-60, too.

melodywhr

considering you can already block zone chat AND create multiple chat types, i'd say you already have some great tools in front of you. spam will always be a problem for MMOs and the like. it's always a constant battle and cryptic has been as on top of it as they possibly can.

the problem with the OPs idea is it is under the assumption that spammers won't spam the higher level channels but i assure you... they will. it might be a harder fight for them but they always find a way around the limits... and then cryptic does their changes... and the spammers do theirs... and cryptic does their changes... and so on... and so on...

ulkaur

melodywhr wrote: »

considering you can already block zone chat AND create multiple chat types, i'd say you already have some great tools in front of you. spam will always be a problem for MMOs and the like. it's always a constant battle and cryptic has been as on top of it as they possibly can.

the problem with the OPs idea is it is under the assumption that spammers won't spam the higher level channels but i assure you... they will. it might be a harder fight for them but they always find a way around the limits... and then cryptic does their changes... and the spammers do theirs... and cryptic does their changes... and so on... and so on...

What exactly has Cryptic been on top of? Every minute there are about 7-10 lines of invasive chat about some website that you can get gold and diamonds on. Whose side are you on?

The biggest problem with farmers is they have guilds that play the game for them and provide them with what they need to sell. They just have no means of advertising it in game. Allowing them to post to EVERYONE in the zone, trade and LFG chat gives them their advertising space. I say take it away from them.

You say making this change to chat won't stop them. If I see a level 50 advertising gold/diamond selling outside the game in a chat that i am in, i ignore the account. Why would a gold farmer build up a level 50 character for 3 flipping lines of chat when he's going to get mass-ignored and have to quit the account and start all over again? Where's the quick-term profit in that? They are about making a buck. I say take the power away from them.

If people decide to exist in all chat levels, that is their right. If Cryptic really wants to "be on top of it" , it starts by climbing to the top of it. Make the much needed changes to fix the chat problems, or provide a high-level zone we can do our auctions in that gives us a separate chat from the Enclave and gives people a place to go that's free of the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>-chat.

beckylunatic

We had a gold spammer posting in Sharandar last night.
/end thread

melodywhr

ulkaur wrote: »

What exactly has Cryptic been on top of? Every minute there are about 7-10 lines of invasive chat about some website that you can get gold and diamonds on. Whose side are you on?

The biggest problem with farmers is they have guilds that play the game for them and provide them with what they need to sell. They just have no means of advertising it in game. Allowing them to post to EVERYONE in the zone, trade and LFG chat gives them their advertising space. I say take it away from them.

You say making this change to chat won't stop them. If I see a level 50 advertising gold/diamond selling outside the game in a chat that i am in, i ignore the account. Why would a gold farmer build up a level 50 character for 3 flipping lines of chat when he's going to get mass-ignored and have to quit the account and start all over again? Where's the quick-term profit in that? They are about making a buck. I say take the power away from them.

If people decide to exist in all chat levels, that is their right. If Cryptic really wants to "be on top of it" , it starts by climbing to the top of it. Make the much needed changes to fix the chat problems, or provide a high-level zone we can do our auctions in that gives us a separate chat from the Enclave and gives people a place to go that's free of the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>-chat.

if there is a side to be on, i assure you it's not on the side of gold spammers. and trust me, if cryptic had been doing nothing concerning gold spammers, you would most definitely know. because i can remember when a single spammer account would fill up six lines. and gold spammers would climb up over the auction house and do the dancewave with their URL names. now, gold spammers have to come up with creative ways to spell out their wretched URL.

but like i said, it is an on-going never-ending fight. whatever steps cryptic takes, spammers will change their tactics. and so on and so on. just because the counter-measures aren't announced (stick with me here) doesn't mean that they are doing nothing OR haven't thought of the OPs idea. if you can recall, we just got the looking for group and trade channels.

it does not matter what counter-measures cryptic implements. the gold spammers will change their tactics. you don't have to be here long to see how factual that statement is. considering that a lot of people that are here are likely to be veteran MMOers, they are well aware of this. sure, it doesn't change the fact that spammers suck. there's just no simple solution to this problem.

i, personally, will enable zone chat if i am in a mood to answer questions and report spammers. if i'm not, i block zone chat. i already have that ability.

gurugeorge

Some people are misunderstanding the OP - he's talking about a filter that you can set yourself vis a vis other players, not a filter like EQ2 which is from the dev side blocking all players below a certain level.

I think the OP's idea is a good QOL idea for a player who dislikes gold/**** spam in chat, and I'd be all for it. But I don't think it would discourage spammers.

Anyway it's probably better in the long run to keep them in the "ghetto" of Zone, otherwise, if they knew they weren't being "heard" in Zone, they'd start infecting other channels, including custom ones.

Personally, when I'm in PE listening to Zone chat for fun or to help people (and fun can be had in Zone chat), I just diligently report spammers whenever they occur (about once every 15 secs with a different name ). I think that's about the best the average player can do.