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Chat restrictions on new players
micky1p00
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,594 Arc User
I know the gold sellers were/are an issue. But the current system is worse.
The Zone chat is dead. Not kinda dead, or slow, nope. Very dead. Necromancers gave up on it, deemed too dead.
Even the flat earthers and crazies not posting anymore.
Trade and the PE LFG don't look better either, there are probably several millennia old Egyptian mummies with more life in them.
The problem is that if I was a new player, and I've seen that lively chat, my conclusion would be that the game is also dead, 100% dead.
There is a lot of effort in "new player experience" but it all looks moot if the new player can't enable chat on their own (they need to finish half the leveling process first), so they can't ask anything, and the global chat is so dead I needed to check if I had it enabled.
No solution is perfect, but many free service companies battle the same battle and most solved it in better means. For example Valve games, and Google use phone attachment to account. It works well because people usually have a finite number of phone numbers - create account, get SMS with verification number put number in - you are assumed human. Ban = ban the phone number too.
If world wide SMSs are an issue, two factor authentication phone app. Takes probably a week to make one, same idea and no SMS costs.
ofc other means can stay in place, like buying any amount of ZEN, or the current system of getting some quest chains done. But it should be very clearly explained.
A chat full of crazy idiots that most of us disable is better than the dead desert there is now.
The Zone chat is dead. Not kinda dead, or slow, nope. Very dead. Necromancers gave up on it, deemed too dead.
Even the flat earthers and crazies not posting anymore.
Trade and the PE LFG don't look better either, there are probably several millennia old Egyptian mummies with more life in them.
The problem is that if I was a new player, and I've seen that lively chat, my conclusion would be that the game is also dead, 100% dead.
There is a lot of effort in "new player experience" but it all looks moot if the new player can't enable chat on their own (they need to finish half the leveling process first), so they can't ask anything, and the global chat is so dead I needed to check if I had it enabled.
No solution is perfect, but many free service companies battle the same battle and most solved it in better means. For example Valve games, and Google use phone attachment to account. It works well because people usually have a finite number of phone numbers - create account, get SMS with verification number put number in - you are assumed human. Ban = ban the phone number too.
If world wide SMSs are an issue, two factor authentication phone app. Takes probably a week to make one, same idea and no SMS costs.
ofc other means can stay in place, like buying any amount of ZEN, or the current system of getting some quest chains done. But it should be very clearly explained.
A chat full of crazy idiots that most of us disable is better than the dead desert there is now.
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Comments
2. I don't know if the world wide SMS is an issue but the one week to make one will not stop gold sellers because they don't need to make one after the last one was banned. They just need to keep making a new one everyday. When one is banned, another 10 are already ready to use.
3. I suggest for the new players, until they can have full access to chat. Give them temp access for (say) 10 minutes. When they want to use chat, pop up a graphic and asked them to type the text. If that matches, give them 10 minutes. After that expires and they still want to chat, pop up another one.
If typing to get through is too much, give them multiple choice.
Show them a picture, ask them to choose:
1. it is a dog
2. it is a cat
3. it is a dragon
4. if you choose this, you will be banned for an hour
5. if you choose this, you will be banned for a day
6. it is an orc
7. if you choose this, you will be banned forever.
8. it is a mimic
9. No, I don't want to play this game, please get rid of my account.
Yet for those that do not want, the current method should still remain (or any others added that fit those category)
2. What you mean by one week to make one? I've meant a phone app, that used as an identifier instead if sending SMSs. If you ban the account you ban the associated phone ID, and you can't use it to create an account again. This is why real life identifier like phone works well. Bots need to trash and recreate crapton of accounts, it's not feasible for all of them to have so many phones and sim cards.
3. Valid idea, but many of the captcha can be overcome by bots today, and the harder the captcha it's also harder for people to. But this can be another option too, anything is better than what is today I think.
should state one of the following:
* The game is too easy/hard
* Request a buff for your class
* Demand a nerf to another class
* Demand that a core mechanic of the game be labeled a bug.
This will serve as evidence that a player is real and not a bot.
I get that scammers flooding the chat are a problem so some restriction for new players is needed but I also think they shouldn't be choked by the leash either.
Maybe a puzzle of some sort would help like have people assemble a jigsaw puzzle screenshot.
▂▃▄▅▆▇█▓▒░ Drac ░▒▓█▇▆▅▄▃▂
There is supposed to be an image here, but the hamsters took it.
<div align="center">AKA Draconis of Luskan</div>
Take a backseat boy. Cause now I'm driving. ~ Give it up - Elizabeth Gilies ft. Ariana Grande
RIP Foundry: On that day, when the sky fell away, our world came to an end. ~Lifelight
In all those cases, PE still remained PE and the center of NW coming and going. Especially for newer players whom are the main issue and their impression.
Yule (Barb): 72k : Siren (TR): 78k : Torun (DC): 73k : Siren OP (OP): 76k : Siren SW (SW): 78k : Modern (F): 80k : Cherry1 (CW) : 68k Siren HR (HR): 78k
I believe a reason for less players in mod 16 is all the elite crybabies who insists the game is broken and impossible. They are actively trying to scare away as many people as they can, because cryptic took away their 1 shot bosses playstyle. Hopefully in time all these kiddos will be gone and the game can start to recover their player base.
I think Cryptic should add some sort of tutorial giving a short explanation ingame on stats, counter stats, and that all dungeons have enemy ratings + 50k in stats. This would make it easier to new players to understand the key mechanic of the game faster.
Problem isnt that dungeons are to hard, and ur 90 days number isnt real. Its just something u throw out there. Dungeons arent to hard, not for new players either. But the reason to do dungeons is less. Many campaigns to focus on so most new players dont feel the need to do dungeons. Once there was 2x daily quests from SH to do dungeons. It gave everyone a reason to. A task to complete. And it felt more like part of a daily routine. Now dungeons are optional and something most do when they have nothing else left.
When i was a new player myself i didnt sit around chatting in PE when the game was new to me. I did quests, learned the game, tried to figure out if i liked it or not.
When I try to use chat it tells me I have to complete 5 quest chains but google hasn't been helpful on what exactly those are. So in this regard more information would be helpful. I am enjoying the game myself so plan to continue however I can see many players getting frustrated and leaving before getting very far.
That was my rant now my suggestion
Have a beginners chat, that experienced players can qualify to participate in and be helpful. The need to be qualified would reduce what I suspect was spam in chat. Not sure how guilds work yet but I am sure if lower level players can join then guilds will want to have qualified members in beginners chat.
Now question for those phone authenticate folks above. What is to prevent someone from using an internet based number on thier smart phone? This would allow for phone auntication and still be transferrable to others.
Unlock chat
that information should be posted into the forums here and stickied IMO. Whole lot less quests then I was starting to think now to see where I really am on that list and focus. Instead of trying to test the chat as I finish quest chains that aren't part of that list.
You can easily make an argument that seeing gold spammers constantly is also a measure of a healthy game and it is still better than a dead chat.
The ability to chat / whisper / join a guild should be unlocked as soon as the introduction quest line in P.E is complete and you are given the quest to go to Blacklake. The fact that this is how it works should also be made crystal clear to any new player.
If they want to add extra account verification while signing up for an account or logging in that is fine, IN GAME such hurdles should not exist.
And to comment about everyone moving to the yawning portal, that doesn't seem right as I dont tend to see the random talk that used to go on 24/7 in pe.
If you want to park your toon, there are better places which load faster.
If you want random talk, well, god forbidden, there is Moonstone mask. There are a lot of "random" talk.
If you have VIP, you probably have no need to go to PE except once a long while.
If you don't have VIP, there are Yawning and Port that give you the 'services' and close to your quest givers.
If you have VIP, almost zero reason to go to PE except for a random quest or special event vendor.
As for the new player chat restrictions... meh.
Silence is a far better first impression than the former racist, homophobic, politically inflammatory, knuckledragging flatearth vomit that usually fills PE zone chat.
New players want conversation and comradre? Great.
Get in an active guild with a big alliance.
Turn on Guild/Alliance chat.
These chats tend to be more regulated, positive and supportive anyway.
I don't think anyone misses the toxic bile stream that was PE zone chat.
I am Took.
"Full plate and packing steel" in NW since 2013.
I assume no decent size guild would actively recruit random players they happen to see walking in PE, invite them into the guild with 0 communication such as asking "are you a bot?"
Any of my comments not posted in orange are based on my own personal opinion and not official.
Any messages written in orange are official moderation messages. Signature images are now fixed!
Don't need a 3rd party app to join a guild the /tell function works for noobs. In fact I joined a guild just so that I could use some limited chat function to ask questions in. As a noob I could still see zone chat saw someone recruiting for thier guild and sent a /tell praying it would work. Of course that is yet something else that should be posted and stickied for noobs like me to know about.
Once I got that list of needed quests it only took me a couple of hours to open up chat/AH/etc. But without that information readily available to new players I suspect PE loses 80+% of players wanting to try out the game. All above are valid concerns but making the information for unlocking chat etc. easy to find. Would solve the biggest ones IMO.