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Quarterly Producer Letter for Q2 2024 ×

Chat Bubbles: We need an option to enable them for say, yell and emote chat!

Glzmo

By Glzmo
in Suggestion Box

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JediQuaker
JediQuaker

I don't want 64-bit chat bubbles any more than I wanted 32-bit chat bubbles. 😂

Lunnicus

Lunnicus

Posted
Posted (edited)
Chat is nearly useless without this feature, especially now that they have made the super servers with the transfers. The Bastion's chat flies by so fast in some areas that it isn't even a useful tool. Also when a friend says, "Over Here" I have to look at my chat window, then look at my map and figure out which one in a crowd they are. Im used to just looking for their chat bubbles after playing MMO's for years. I swear this game feels like they made it single player then halfway through were like, waitaminute, we could make this an MMO and make WAY more money. Some of the base features that are necessary for community growth and development are not available, chat bubbles being one ofthose simple yet incredibly important things. Edited by Lunnicus
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Stubacca

Stubacca

Posted
Posted
With server populations now a lot healthier, this is more important than ever. Chat scroll gives me headaches; chat bubbles do not.
Yes! And I thought I'm the only one who's getting headaches and nausea from the quick chat scroll! We truly need chat bubbles to help with that.
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MoltenRog

MoltenRog

Posted
Posted
Dear developers and other employees of Bioware, Lucas Arts and Electronic Arts!

 

A large part of the player base cannot enjoy the game properly because of the lack of chat bubbles (aka speech bubbles). Therefore, on behalf of the affected players, we are hereby suggesting and formally requesting an option to toggle chat bubbles for spatial chat (/say, /yell, /emote). This thread has started in beta, reposted after the forum wipe and run a long time and has garnered a lot of support ever since. The community has come up with a lot of ideas on how to improve the situation. The following is what we propose:

 

Here are bullet points of what'sbeen suggested/proposed by the players:

  • Add chat bubbles for /say, /yell and /emote chat that display whatever is said in these chat channels in addition to the chat window over the head of the player character that is saying it (both over your own as well as characters around yours).
    Preferably have them enabled by default.
  • Add a client-side option to toggle chat bubbles on/off for any text players type in /say, /yell and /emote chat to Preferences->Chat.
    This allows every player to decide for themselves whether they would like to see chat bubbles or not for whatever reason. Possibly give us an option to turn chat bubbles on/off for each chat channel individually and expand the choices to /party and /ops chat.
  • Add talking animations that triggers when typing into /say and /yell to visualize that the character is currently talking or shouting.
    Existing character animations may be reused for this, like the one used by the /talk emote.
  • Lower the range of /say to 25 meters (currently 40 meters) and keep the range of /yell at 50 meters.
    This has proven a good range for spatial chat in other MMOs to prevent clutter.
  • Add a slider to allow people to freely and individually adjust the range at which chat bubbles disappear from maximum range for each chat channel down to a couple of meters.
    This will allow players to find a good compromise between the amount of chat bubbles, clutter and performance for their individual taste and computer.
  • Add a slider to adjust the duration of how long chat bubbles remain on the screen in seconds with a gracious maximum value.
    This will allow players of all ages to freely adjust the duration of chat bubbles remaining on their screen according to their own preferences and reading speed.
  • Give us the option to freely adjust the font size in chat bubbles and whether the size scales with distance or not.
  • Chat bubbles for each chat channel/type should have a different appearance style
    Take a look what other MMORPGs like Star Wars Galaxies (still one of the best implementations of chat bubbles in MMORPGs to date) and/or comics typically use for what people say (bubble with rounded edges and tail that points to the character that says it), yell/shout/scream (jagged bubble with longer tail) and "emotes" (square bubble, maybe even without a tail) to distinguish between the various chat channels.
    Chat bubbles could also be sporting the same hue/color (be it border or background, depends on the style you choose) each chat channel is assigned to on your client.

 

Here is a short summary of the reasons why chat bubbles should be implemented:

  • Chat bubbles encourage face to face interactions with other players.
  • They encourage multiplay instead of solo-play - most desirable in a MMOG.
  • Chat bubbles improve communication and group/Ops group coordination between players.
  • They are an essential tool for building and strengthening the community, which is the main reason that keeps people playing and stay loyal to a MMO(RP)G for many years and even decades, even when the PVE and PVP content may have run it's course.
  • Without chat bubbles, many players "feel all alone" in the game (the chat window feels very detached from the game).
  • They allow people to focus on the world in front of them, and not a tiny chat window in a corner or anywhere else but near the center of the screen.
  • The fast scrolling chat window is impossible to follow conversations while in an area with a large amount of people.
  • Chat bubbles greatly improve immersion into the game world (click here to read a post explaining how if you don't understand).
  • The game world seems to be a lot less sterile and more alive when you can actually see player characters talking.
  • Making new chat channels is not a useful alternative.
  • People with various visual impairments/disabilities rely on chat bubbles in MMORPGs to even be able to effectively communicate and play with other players at all.
    The same is true for many older gamers.
  • Without chat bubbles, roleplay and socializing is nearly impossible especially in crowded areas, it's tedious and simply is not fun - especially in areas where there are many people or during questing and other parts of the game.
  • Chat bubbles help to pinpoint and find people that are talking in spatial chat in large and crowded areas.
  • Chat bubbles aren't only for Roleplayers - they provide benefits for a great many players with all kinds of playstyles - be it socializers, roleplayers, Group/Flashpoint/Operations PVE players and PVP combatants (that don't rely on voice chat), community builders among others.
  • A large amount of the player base want chat bubbles as an option. Bioware said they are implementing player's wishes - this is a top priority wish/issue for a large part of the player base.
  • Chat bubbles have been a standard feature in almost every mainstream, premium priced MMO released during the past decade that a whole lot of players are used to. There also hasn't been anything invented that's remotely capable of fully replacing chat bubbles for communication between players in MMO(RP)Gs yet (text to speech technology combined with positional audio is still far off from sounding natural).
  • People have started to cancel their subscriptions due to the lack of chat bubbles and missing official assurance by Bioware that they are being implemented soon.
  • /say and /yell chat channels are practically useless without chat bubbles. They are like /general with lower range.
  • Having a client side option to freely turn chat bubbles on or off to each player's liking will allow every player to enjoy the game, whether they need chat bubbles or not.
    Everyone has fun, everyone is happy, everyone wins!

 

 

Related Links:

 


  • German discussion of this thread / Deutsche Diskussion dieses Threads

     

     


  • Suggestions of features roleplayers want to have added in this game. Includes chat bubbles and many other items.

     

     


  • Thread to post questions that will be answered to the devs in a blog post. Make sure to ask about chat bubbles in that thread if you want them in the game and/or want to know what their status is. The more people ask about chat bubbles, the better the chance the developers will finally take notice and give us an update on

     

     


  • Bioware asks to post UI Feedback and suggestions in this thread. Head over to the official UI Feature Feedback Request thread and request chat bubbles to be implemented as the next UI feature!

 

 

Articles about Chat bubbles:

 

 

 

Timeline of statements about chat bubbles by Bioware representatives and developers:

 

  • November 2011:
    ,

    Articles about the Fansite Summits from November 2011, where Bioware's Studio creative director
    James Ohlen
    promised chat bubbles to be a
    "high priority in BioWare's list of things to do"
    . On a side note,
    confirmed this on the beta forums as well by posting
    "chat bubbles are a high-priority feature for launch or shortly thereafter"
    around the same timeframe.

     

     

  • January 20th, 2012:

    The Old Republic's German Community Manager
    wrote the following in reply to a German thread about chat bubbles.

    English Translation:
    "We have definitely forwarded your wish. But you can certainly understand that it isn't of high priority at the moment. Hence I sadly can't tell you anything about it at this time, whether chat bubbles are coming or not (much less when they are coming). I myself have colored my chat channels in different (partially very bright) colors. This helps me keep the overview. But yes it's really hard at large RP-events when the chat is speeding to no end..."

    Original German text:
    "Wir haben euren Wunsch auf alle Fälle weitergegeben. Aber ihr könnt sicher verstehen, dass das im Moment keine hohe Priorität hat. Insofern kann ich euch leider zu diesem Zeitpunkt nichts dazu sagen, ob Sprechblasen kommen werden (geschweige denn wann). Ich persönlich habe alle meine Chat-Channels in verschiedenen (teilweise ziemlich grellen Farben) eingefärbt. Das hilft mir sehr, die Übersicht zu bewahren. Aber ja, bei großen RP-Events, wenn der Chat rast ohne Ende, dann wird es wirklich schwer ..."

     

     

  • January 26th, 2012:

    An interview with Bioware's
    Cory Butler
    from January 2012 which has the first official mention of chat bubbles since
    James Ohlen
    talking about them at the Fansite Summit and
    Georg Zöller
    confirming it on the beta forums in November 2011.

    When asked about chat bubbles in the interview,
    Butler
    awkwardly avoids the topic by simply saying
    "I can’t really go into the specifics about chat bubbles just yet."
    .

     

     

  • February 17th, 2012:

    in the February 17th 2012 Community Q&A post, Bioware's
    Damion Schubert
    confirmed that chat bubbles will be implemented:
    "They're definitely on the list. We’ve got many active roleplayers in the dev team and chat bubbles have always been important to us. We actually had chat bubbles in beta, but there was unfortunately some serious performance issues that our implementation caused that, for example, made things really suck in warzones and the fleet. They’ll be coming soon, but in priority, the GUI team is focused first on GUI customization. I'll have a better idea of timing once we get past that. And yes, for people who hate them, whenever we do them, they'll be toggleable."

     

     

  • March 5th 2012:

    Bioware's new Lead Designer
    Daniel Erickson
    confirmed on the topic "The future of roleplaying" that chat bubbles are indeed coming and issues with chat bubbles having a negative effect on performance have been resolved:
    "Chat bubbles...yeah, chat bubbles. *bows his head in shame while applause roars through the room* So...this is...this is one of those weird...like... *sigh* ... there are things that you can always tell from our faces when we talk about it. There are things that are just kind of embarassing. Like we had chat bubbles in the game and for whatever reason there was a really strange technical... thing... with the chat bubbles that they totally dragged the performance of the game down. [takes a deep breath] We were like "chat bubbles...really? That's what's doing it?!" And you know, a tech came over and turned off the chat bubbles and framerate went way up and we were like "Oh god, okay." So...uh. We think
    we've got that worked out though
    . So chat bubbles: YES!"

     

 

 

A quote of the old, prose version of this post that was first posted in the TOR Beta Forums back in Summer 2011 for those that like to read it:

 

I'll be the first one to open this up..

 

The most important aspect of this game isn't frilly little animations that allow you to stand out infront of everyone. I think it's pretty ****** now in world of warcraft that you can disable chat bubbles because of the animation glitches it has caused and how *********** useless it is.

 

What difference does it make for your character to have chat bubbles and your character to not have chat bubbles, people can still see what you're typing.

 

The best thing about chat bubbles is that they are around for 1.5 seconds, how do you read a paragraph or two in 1.5 seconds. You'd have to be a computer.

 

In light of all this, I hope bioware NEVER, Implant chat bubbles its a waste of time, and they have better things to do then like fixing core parts of the game, instead of devoting time to their development to code in terrible suggestions.

 

IN BEFORE THE ITS EASY TO DEVELOP CHAT BUBBLES. " WHY DONT YOU DO IT THEN AND MAIL IT TO BIOWARE.

 

Bolded it so you can see it properly.

 

Peace

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Ciarra

Ciarra

Posted
Posted

For the hater.

 

If you can't state an argument without resorting to hating and screaming I'd advice you to keep your mouth shut. Don't even bother because no one will listen to your ranting.

__________________________________________________________________________________

 

As for the topic of discussion.

 

Yes, yes and yes, please do give us chat bubbles soon. I understand if people who doesn't RP find them annoying or doesn't see the purpose of them. Which is why I agree that they should be able to be toggled. But for myself as an RPer I find chat bubbles to he a very helpful tool. It both makes it easier for me to see who's talking at a given moment but combined with talking animations it also contribute to make my experience so much more alive and immersive.

 

As it is now I only need to look at my character when need to move it in some way, the rest of my time is spent looking at the chat window, which is sadly not making my RP experience very different from rping purely by writing, like on a forum or in a chat like on Skype. The reason I RP in an MMORPG is to get that deeper immersion than forum RP can give me.

 

So please Bioware, implement chat bubbles and talking animation and make the RP experience in your game as good as I know it can be. It might sound as a trivial matter but for us RPers it is all but trivial, it's an important part of our fun and gaming experience.

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kitsunegirl

kitsunegirl

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have to admit that I was never a big fan of chat bubbles... why? Because when I played a certain cartoony POS, farmed by thousands of Chinese people in dusty little rooms in some little village with too many syllables in its name, there wasn't enough people in one area to make chat bubbles useful (to me). So I never saw the value of them.

That's not to say I was always in favour of NOT having them... or against the idea of an OPTION for them. I am never against something that is totally optional for players.

 

And then I got into TOR, and holy hell, the way chat just scrolled and scrolled it made my eyes bleed. So now I really really want chat bubbles ASAP!

 

The ONLY thing I am against, is animated-say reactions, like if I type out something with a ! and my character bends over laughing... that's not conducive to RP, that's just obnoxious. The intention is good, its a neat idea, but it just doesn't work that well.

...unless of course they can somehow make them as an optional settings toggle... default off.

 

And finally, for the love of space hamsters named Buu, allow me to sit in chairs in the cantinas!!

Edited by kitsunegirl
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Glzmo

Glzmo

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  • Author
Posted (edited)
I have to admit that I was never a big fan of chat bubbles... why? Because when I played a certain cartoony POS, farmed by thousands of Chinese people in dusty little rooms in some little village with too many syllables in its name, there wasn't enough people in one area to make chat bubbles useful (to me). So I never saw the value of them.

That's not to say I was always in favour of NOT having them... or against the idea of an OPTION for them. I am never against something that is totally optional for players.

 

And then I got into TOR, and holy hell, the way chat just scrolled and scrolled it made my eyes bleed. So now I really really want chat bubbles ASAP!

Thank you for sharing that story. I'm sure there are many more former chat bubble skeptics out there that now feel the same way. :)

 

The ONLY thing I am against, is animated-say reactions, like if I type out something with a ! and my character bends over laughing... that's not conducive to RP, that's just obnoxious. The intention is good, its a neat idea, but it just doesn't work that well.

...unless of course they can somehow make them as an optional settings toggle... default off.

Star Wars Galaxies had automatic animations when talking certain things (for example, if you said "this is funny" you'd get a /chuckle animation. But, it was an option that could be turned on and off.

The more I think about it, the more I think that SWG had a lot of good features that Bioware would do good to recreate. ;)

 

Anyway, animated reactions to what one says isn't needed. A simple talking animation would be fine (or just have the character move the mouth or whatever), but emotes are better off being manually emoted via slash command (or even keybind).

 

And finally, for the love of space hamsters named Buu, allow me to sit in chairs in the cantinas!!
Yes, being able to sit in all chairs in the game would be great. Edited by Glzmo
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anonnn

anonnn

Posted
Posted

Tiny bubbles.... tinyyy little bubbles.... can I please have a Preferences setting for the font-size of chat bubbles? Teenie tiny chat bubbles might actually be quite excellent compared to behemoth ones.

 

And also I'd like a chat-bubble appearance for people that I've placed on my semi-ignore list, for minimalization effect.

 

By the same logic, would be awesome if there was a chat-bubble appearance setting for peoples on my Friends list.

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