Actual moderation of zone chat

tanais58crane · February 2021

Hello, you know Zone chat. That place in this game for people of all ages where people talk about sex, insult other players in all caps for hours, and post twelve calls for looking for group when not squealing politics like if they got their twirly tails caught by the door.

Zone chat is a mess, and it really needs more supervision. Be it game masters, or volunteer moderators with limited powers, the fact that one of the first things most players have to learn is how to avoid zone chat, should definitely be considered a problem on the developer's hands.

Don't mind the dog, testing the visibility of gifs in this forums.

kreatyve · February 2021

I don't disagree that more needs to be done with it, but I don't think they should put in-game powers in the hands of volunteers. I'd much rather they have someone on the payroll do that. Too much responsibility, and this coming from someone who's moderated multiple platforms for over 5 years.

netherdragon · February 2021

Like a week ago for the first time I typed in zone chat and complained about the combat overhaul, let's just say im never using the zone chat again lol

admiralwarlord · February 2021

You have the option that many follow, disable the chat zone. I only use this tool when I'm doing the BHE Legacy quest, when I'm running APE or Dragon Racing.

tanais58crane · February 2021

kreatyve said:
I don't disagree that more needs to be done with it, but I don't think they should put in-game powers in the hands of volunteers. I'd much rather they have someone on the payroll do that. Too much responsibility, and this coming from someone who's moderated multiple platforms for over 5 years.

Of course, having someone on a payroll would be better. But if that is not an option, volunteers with official oversight makes for a definitely superior choice to how things currently stand. Of course, they really shouldn't give volunteers the power to ban someone, but a temporal zone-chat restriction that leaves a flag to be later approved by support is a very different affair. Regardless, you can't disagree on that the worst possible choice is to keep things as they are.

netherdragon#0997 said:
Like a week ago for the first time I typed in zone chat and complained about the combat overhaul, let's just say im never using the zone chat again lol

Yours is the experience of most players, which is frankly a pretty severe problem that is currently just being ignored.

admiralwarlord#3792 said:
You have the option that many follow, disable the chat zone. I only use this tool when I'm doing the BHE Legacy quest, when I'm running APE or Dragon Racing.

Translation: Zone chat is so poorly moderated and full of toxicity that I suggest you disable it like many resort to doing.

Thank you for reinforcing my point, admiral.

kharkov58 · February 2021

I usually turn of zone chat when in PE. Other areas actually might have useful discussions in zone chat.

armadeonx · February 2021

I have one channel set to exclude Zone, Trade (and now Friend Notify) - life is much quieter

eladonwarps · February 2021

Zone Chat? You mean the thing everyone turns off when they start a new game?

Seriously though, the Ignore button is your friend. I keep a chat tab for Zone, Trade, and LFG, and only open it when I'm in a Campaign area with a difficult or rare BHE for monitoring. Should I dare keep it up on map change to a major hub like PE, event map, or latest content zone, I will surely see something so nauseating that my blocklist grows.

It's like this in almost any large Multiplayer game, and it's part of curating your experience for your own safety and comfort. I do similarly on social media and even friend groups IRL. Maybe it's part of being a woman, maybe it's something else, but to me it's part of life.

Personally, I worry the alternatives could be worse. Automated moderation is almost always used with good intentions and in practice turns against the most vulnerable.

luffyhaki123 · February 2021

Something needs to be done about it, just cause other mmo chat has it doesnt mean its ok, there is people saying racist stuff, hateful stuff, all kinds of toxic stuff. Turning off zone chat doesn't fix the problem, like he said SOMETHING needs to be done about it, and no most mmo games don't have this type of chatting going on, world of warcraft, guild wars 2, elder scrolls online thats just to name a few big ones, say racist stuff, you get reported and banned, neverwinter zone chat is other level. You can say anything and get away with it.

frogwalloper · February 2021

Zone chat serves one function and one function only.
It's there for parents too embarrassed to broach "the talk," and other...awkward... conversations with the family teenager.
Drop the kid off in PE for an hour, and when you pick the kid up again, there's guaranteed to be a few questions.

plasticbat · February 2021

frogwalloper#6494 said:
Zone chat serves one function and one function only.
It's there for parents too embarrassed to broach "the talk," and other...awkward... conversations with the family teenager.
Drop the kid off in PE for an hour, and when you pick the kid up again, there's guaranteed to be a few questions.

The game is supposed for 16+ years ago. If 16+ years ago "kid" still ask parent for "questions" instead of friends or figure it out out oneself, he/she is very good kid.

percemer · February 2021

Greetings,

We apologize that you had to deal with inappropriate behavior. In addition to the Terms of Service, we have specified In-Game Policies. We may take any actions and impose any penalties we deem necessary to discourage and punish any violation of these terms or any other illegal or inappropriate conduct.

If you notice that someone does not respect our policies or makes you feel unsafe, we invite you please to report this player either directly in-game (report with right click on message on PC) or to the Customer Support team / Community team.

Basically, we need the following information in order to take actions:

the account name (or PSN/Gamertag) - on PC, you can activate the display in the options.
the date and time at which this occurred (time zone too)

Thank you in advance for your contribution to making Neverwinter a welcoming and safe game for everyone.

Regards,

hexngone · February 2021

Automation in the game ... like the censor for text chat? Well, that works well, not.

Personally, I find Zone chat (when I bother to read it) to be a place where I can actually *help* new players and as a result find players to recruit. I never liked blind recruiting, I want to know about the person's play style and what they want to get from the game before I determine that they will fit well within my circle of guildmates. Zone chat is for that.

I *do* enjoy giving Dragon times with a 19 minute increment added in. It's true, and to the point - be patient.
At the same time I'll tell melee players to get a Doohickey instead of complaining because the Dragon died before it landed ...

Then there are time when you *do* need help, and Zone chat is the place to ask ... like a Quickling Den after the Combat changes ...

No, it is useful, you just need to learn to ignore idiots instead of responding to their stupidity. Works on TV, should work in game too.

tanais58crane · February 2021

percemer said:
Greetings,

We apologize that you had to deal with inappropriate behavior. In addition to the Terms of Service, we have specified In-Game Policies. We may take any actions and impose any penalties we deem necessary to discourage and punish any violation of these terms or any other illegal or inappropriate conduct.

If you notice that someone does not respect our policies or makes you feel unsafe, we invite you please to report this player either directly in-game (report with right click on message on PC) or to the Customer Support team / Community team.

Basically, we need the following information in order to take actions:
the account name (or PSN/Gamertag) - on PC, you can activate the display in the options.
the date and time at which this occurred (time zone too)
Thank you in advance for your contribution to making Neverwinter a welcoming and safe game for everyone.

Regards,

Yes, this is exactly the kind of official response that ignores the severity of the issue we are attempting to address, thank you for pasting it here.

The ignore system is not a healthy alternative to having zero active moderation of zone chat, and while I understand that this response is a kind of we-wash-our-hands-off-the-issue approach, if the developers care about the state of the game it should be addressed that you can have someone insulting other players and telling them to commit sexual acts in no other place than the main chat channel of a game available to underage players for entire hours.

This isn't a 'message sneaking past moderation' situation, this is a game so unmoderated that someone can sit in the main chat hub of the game, and insult, harass, and send sexual comments to underage players for several hours, during several days, without a thing being done about it.

Yes, if we report them they might be punished after some time by support. But that is not a solution.

The fact that their whole playerbase thinks their main chat hub is so much of a toxic unmoderated mess it is better out of the game should be a cause for concern, not to take out the champagne.

Actual moderation of zone chat

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