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Global Chat

TanagerTanager Posts: 634
in General Discussions
To me, ''global chat'' has always been the selection of channels that included General, Help, Looking for Group, and Trade. These are public, shard-wide channels. The tab to choose which channel was simply called ''chat'', with nothing to distinguish it from guild, alliance, party, say, yell, whisper, or system message chat text.

The new chat is strictly between individuals friended to each other. It can cross shards, which is awesome, but it is private chat and imo should be called such to avoid confusing it with the actual global chat channels.

Comments

  • RockRock Posts: 567
    A long time ago, wasn't on-shard private chat between two individuals called "whisper"?  I might be thinking of another game, but "whisper" does seem to be a fitting term at any rate.
    Rock (formerly Imperterritus VXt, Baja)
  • PawainPawain Posts: 10,106
    It is called global because you can chat with people on different shards.
    Focus on what you can do, not what you can't.
  • TanagerTanager Posts: 634
    I understand why they call it global chat, and I do like the feature. My little issue is that the shard-wide chat system, as a whole, has no name. We just refer to the individual channels. In the minds of some one new to the game, it is thought of as ''global'' because that is what almost every other MMO calls their server-wide public channel system. Rather than change what has existed (or rather, what has not existed) for many years, my suggestion is to rename the new one before it gets too set in the collective consciousness.

    My focus is on the longevity of Ultima Online, and making things needlessly confusing for new players is counterproductive. Not a huge deal, UO is special in many ways and they can just deal with that, but it seems like such a pointless thing to insist on being different from industry standard.

    Other MMOs do call it /whisper or /tell, but in UO the ; is whisper for open chat with a radius of one tile. So this new chat could not be called that. Private or even Friend chat would be much more accurate without adding to the confusion.
  • PawainPawain Posts: 10,106
    I think the name fits. 
    Whisper is for close players.
    Talking is for the players around you.
    Party chat is for temporary groups or private chat to another player.
    Guild chat is for groups with similar playstyles.
    Alliance chat adds to guild.
    Chat is for everyone on the shard channel. 
    Global chat is for the whole of UO.  The confusing part would be its more of a private global chat.

    I dont play anything but UO so other games nomenclatures do not confuse me.  And UO was first so those games need to change their names to fit the UO standard.
    Focus on what you can do, not what you can't.
  • TanagerTanager Posts: 634
    I am not saying the term does not make sense. But in this case, UO is NOT the first to use this nomenclature. We did not assign any name to our shard-wide public channel system, and we did not invent player-to-player private chat. Global Chat has been an industry term for many years, and it makes UO needlessly look out of touch for finally getting around to adding the word but using it in... erm... their own way.

    And I get that many UO players do not - and have not EVER - played any other MMO. Why care what the rest of the world does? But that insular type of thinking is how cultures become isolated and eventually die out from lack of new blood. For a new player - and UO needs them to survive - this is just pointless confusion.

    I am not suggesting that we change our term for shard-wide chat to match the rest of the MMO universe. Just don't take a widely-used term that some one else invented and incorrectly apply it to something new to UO. This thread was just wishful thinking, and I will say no more on it except that this is one thing that would help make UO a classy kind of old and not the doddering kind.

    *Whisper: Public, local chat with a 1 tile radius around the speaker
    *Say: Public, local chat with wider radius spanning many tiles
    *Yell: Public, local chat with wider radius than say
    *Party: Non-public chat within a group of up to 10 players
    *Guild: Non-public chat within a given guild
    *Alliance: Non-public chat within a group of guilds bound together into an alliance.
    *Chat (a non-name): Public fixed Shard-Wide (global) channels General, Help, Trade, Looking For Group, plus player made channels.
    *Tell: Individual, player to player private communication that can cross shards.

  • LynkLynk Posts: 186
    Gen chat was the worst thing ever designed.  Lets not add on.
  • TanagerTanager Posts: 634
    edited June 2018
    *sigh* I was not talking about Gen Chat....
  • LynkLynk Posts: 186
    What chat are you talking about mate
  • TanagerTanager Posts: 634
    edited June 2018
    I am talking about the new player to player private messaging that UO has decided to call Global Chat, with complete disregard for how the entire rest of the industry (which invented both shard-wide AND private chat) uses that term.

    *sigh* It is not a big deal, it is not going to change. I love UO, I do, but stuff like this just makes UO look foolish.
  • LynkLynk Posts: 186
    Sorry i havent seen that chat feature so i didnt realize.  Sounds unimpressive though.
  • RockRock Posts: 567
    @Lynk, global chat is really nice if you and/or friends play multiple shards.  It is an in-game way to stay in touch.  It even allows you to show self as offline should you just want to go elsewhere and "get away from it all".
    Rock (formerly Imperterritus VXt, Baja)
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