SWTOR is #1 in at least 1 category!

[Trevalon]

So, After playing MMO's for 14 years now and playing pretty much every western MMO release (and some eastern) under the sun, I can honestly say that SWTOR is #1 in at least one category - The Most Vile Chat of any MMO I have ever seen.

 

Let me first say I am specifically talking about PoT5's Imperial Fleet Chat. Honestly, I have played everything from old school "Barrens" chat to 1999 FoH flame boards and I can honestly say I have never seen so many references to killing people in RL, male anatomy, or creative way's to defecate on ...anything.

 

I just have to wonder, does no one from Bioware ever just take a minute to go and read those chats? Understand I have pretty thick skin - I have never once "muted" or "closed" a chat in any MMO I have played and I have 0 people on ignore (outside of spammers) in every MMO I play, but for the first time ever I seriously thought about closing out of this particular chat.

 

I am sure I will be flamed for this thread and whatever, anonymity allows anyone to be a tuff guy and say whatever they want, but I just wanted to point out how absolutely horrendous the PoT5 Imperial Community (or at least the vocal ones in chat channels) are.

 

I hope it is isolated to just that server and that faction, the Pub side on POT5 doesn't seem quite so bad, but if this is how the general SWTOR community is then I have to say it is #1 in Worst Chat Channels Ever for any MMO out there (IMO).

Edited August 22, 2013 by Trevalon

[DarkDisturbed]

PvP server Gen chat is bad in every game.

[Nickious]

PoT5 is a pvp server right? What do you expect? They contain some of the worse mankind has to offer.

 

Just kidding but seriously there always seems to be a couple dumb *** talking in chat but I suspect that there common enough in MMOs.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Nickious

[Hockaday]

1. You're on a PvP server...what do you expect?

2. You've clearly never played EQ2 or WoW.

[Malastare]

I specifically chose to play on Jung Ma rather than Po5 despite having a lower population, just to avoid the junior-high children, frat-boy misogynists, and general internet trolls that seemed to infest Po5.

 

I understand these people exist in the world, but I avoid them whenever I get the chance.

[Glumish]

Wow, really?

 

I play on the Ebon Hawk server. I was sitting in Imperial Fleet the other day and I watched a person make some pretty 'noobish' questions, such as something along the lines of if their orange gear is useless because it has less stats than a green piece they picked up.

 

Nobody made fun of him. I was actually astounded, because all of us were helping him and helping him with his questions. I too have been playing MMOs for a long time, and I can tell you in (almost) any other MMO community this person would be ripped to shreds as a possible troll or mocked.

 

This isn't the first time I witnessed this on my server, people seem really nice and helpful towards one another, mostly those involved with PvE. They're more than helpful with getting you to learn stuff. I know it from personal experience. The PvP community on a server is rarely ever nice though, something I've witnessed. This isn't excluded to SWTOR.

 

I can go on the WoW forums right now and if you post an even somewhat silly question in the General forums you will be ridiculed and people will make '0/10 fail troll' comments throughout the thread. Sorry, but I think you're prematurely judging the SWTOR community here.

 

Early I said most MMO communities tend to mock players. However, the few games that are small seem to have a much tighter and respectful community.

 

Let's look at WoW though, know how it has cross server battlegrounds and dungeon finder? You will constantly see people being jerks in those dungeons and battlegrounds because there's no server repercussion to it. It's not like you're going to see that person again and even if you do, who cares? They're not even on your server, so feel free to screw over their group again. That's the mentality on WoW.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Glumish

[MaximusRex]

Never has there been a greater hive of scum and villainy than a PvP server.

 

That said, if you want it to improve, start reporting people via in game tickets, that is how they action accounts.

[Tsillah]

I'm on a PvE server and I've never seen our general chat go as badly as you describe. Sure there's some banter and lots of Hodor calls and things like that and it does get off subject regularly, but not like that and certainly not constantly.

[Slicksteezin]

OP,

 

If you are ignorant enough to think SWTOR general chat is worse than any other MMO, or anything on the internet for that matter, i suggest you ALT+F4

[mmjarec]

So, After playing MMO's for 14 years now and playing pretty much every western MMO release (and some eastern) under the sun, I can honestly say that SWTOR is #1 in at least one category - The Most Vile Chat of any MMO I have ever seen.

 

Let me first say I am specifically talking about PoT5's Imperial Fleet Chat. Honestly, I have played everything from old school "Barrens" chat to 1999 FoH flame boards and I can honestly say I have never seen so many references to killing people in RL, male anatomy, or creative way's to defecate on ...anything.

 

I just have to wonder, does no one from Bioware ever just take a minute to go and read those chats? Understand I have pretty thick skin - I have never once "muted" or "closed" a chat in any MMO I have played and I have 0 people on ignore (outside of spammers) in every MMO I play, but for the first time ever I seriously thought about closing out of this particular chat.

 

I am sure I will be flamed for this thread and whatever, anonymity allows anyone to be a tuff guy and say whatever they want, but I just wanted to point out how absolutely horrendous the PoT5 Imperial Community (or at least the vocal ones in chat channels) are.

 

I hope it is isolated to just that server and that faction, the Pub side on POT5 doesn't seem quite so bad, but if this is how the general SWTOR community is then I have to say it is #1 in Worst Chat Channels Ever for any MMO out there (IMO).

 

If you dont like it use the filter and if its a problem you probably shouldnt be playing due to age restriction. Its no worse than your average teenager. Theres plent of actual gameplay things that matter. This however is inconsequential

[CrazyMcGee]

Well ok OP, looks like you and me were brought up to be a bit more polite, because I completely agree with you. Well, not that TOR chat is worse than other MMOs, but that fleet chat is abominable.

 

And for everyone who replied, "well it's a PVP server", I am talking about Harbinger. Fleet chat is awful, but I was also on Voss once when several players thought that rape jokes were super funny.

 

I'm not young or naive. I know the bad words. I also know about poo, but it doesn't mean I want to be buried in it and that's what fleet chat is often like. There is homophobia, racism and sexism all the time. I just don't need to see it.

 

And before everyone tells me to turn chat off, there are also many very nice people and I enjoy chatting to them.

 

However, the problem, OP, is what do you think can be done about? BW can't sit in chat on every planet on every server and ban people - frankly I doubt they could keep up! And we can't really just ask everyone to be a bit nicer.

 

If I see people engaging in usual immature I'm-such-a-tough-12-year-old-boy-when-I-am-anonymous behaviour, I ignore it. If I see people picking on someone specifically, I stand up for them. If I think the level of chat is generally unacceptable, I say so. If I see someone truly cross the line, I report them.

 

But what else is there to do? The internet has created a big problem with accountability, which could only be solved by enforcing own name accounts, which then creates other risks, especially to children. So while people can be anonymous, they are going to think they are cool by saying things they would never say in real life.

 

I'm not a One Direction fan, but I did see a quote from one of them the other day who said when he tweets things, he imagines that his grandmother is reading it. If everyone in game did that, we'd be set. But we're just gonna have to live with it, because I don't see another solution. BW have given us the profanity filter and ignore, I don't see what else they can do that's practical.

[oaceen]

If you dont like it use the filter and if its a problem you probably shouldnt be playing due to age restriction. Its no worse than your average teenager. Theres plent of actual gameplay things that matter. This however is inconsequential

 

censor only hides offensive words, not people being hateful for no reason whatsoever.

[uniz]

best game for chat was a mmo that had a server wide tiered chat system. your level gave you authorization into the various chat tiers. there were 1-9, 10-19, 20-29 and etc with the highest level having their own separate one. this way all of the lowbies were stuck at the lower tiers and you couldn't hear them unless you decided to listen in to that tiered channel. for most servers level 1-9 was also used as the general help chat channel too with a few higher levels in it to answer questions.

 

the mmo that had this didn't have many if any chat issues. it was eq2.

 

chat in this game was horrendous during its first 1-2 months after release. the same was true for rift.

 

generally in mmos that have pvp and or easy leveling you get far too many children of all ages on that server. chat and mmo etiquette problems are much higher because of such. this game is no exception.

 

in this game if players annoy me in chat I just either put them on ignore or flip my conversation window to the one without general chat.

[Blackardin]

I'm on a PvE server and I've never seen our general chat go as badly as you describe. Sure there's some banter and lots of Hodor calls and things like that and it does get off subject regularly, but not like that and certainly not constantly.

 

On those occasions where the kids get out of hand I simply report them and notify them of such in general chat. The conversation quickly changes from the disgusting adolescent banter to an analytical discussion centered around the value of reporting people and what a horrible individual I am for doing so......then it goes quiet and normal chat slowly returns.

 

Problem solved on all fronts. lol

[TUXs]

/ignore works well. I suggest you learn to use it OP.

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

Personally I'd rather have the chat as is on Pot5 then have the ban hammer coming down every 5 minutes for anything like it was earlier in the game's life cycle. It seems to me they've either lightened up on the rules or people aren't reporting as frequently cause it used to be a big problem with devs being too aggressive. I got several warnings over stuff really trivial compared to the examples the OP is posting. IMO not enough enforcement is way better than too much.

[hadoken]

OP's history isn't what he says it is, or he wasn't paying attention much to chat in other games.

 

At worst, POT5 is as bad as every other game's general chat in capital cities. After all, it is pretty much the exact same playerbase you're pulling from. There's nothing unique about the players in this game.

[DOHboy]

Well ok OP, looks like you and me were brought up to be a bit more polite, because I completely agree with you. Well, not that TOR chat is worse than other MMOs, but that fleet chat is abominable.

 

And for everyone who replied, "well it's a PVP server", I am talking about Harbinger. Fleet chat is awful, but I was also on Voss once when several players thought that rape jokes were super funny.

 

I'm not young or naive. I know the bad words. I also know about poo, but it doesn't mean I want to be buried in it and that's what fleet chat is often like. There is homophobia, racism and sexism all the time. I just don't need to see it.

 

And before everyone tells me to turn chat off, there are also many very nice people and I enjoy chatting to them.

 

However, the problem, OP, is what do you think can be done about? BW can't sit in chat on every planet on every server and ban people - frankly I doubt they could keep up! And we can't really just ask everyone to be a bit nicer.

 

If I see people engaging in usual immature I'm-such-a-tough-12-year-old-boy-when-I-am-anonymous behaviour, I ignore it. If I see people picking on someone specifically, I stand up for them. If I think the level of chat is generally unacceptable, I say so. If I see someone truly cross the line, I report them.

 

But what else is there to do? The internet has created a big problem with accountability, which could only be solved by enforcing own name accounts, which then creates other risks, especially to children. So while people can be anonymous, they are going to think they are cool by saying things they would never say in real life.

 

I'm not a One Direction fan, but I did see a quote from one of them the other day who said when he tweets things, he imagines that his grandmother is reading it. If everyone in game did that, we'd be set. But we're just gonna have to live with it, because I don't see another solution. BW have given us the profanity filter and ignore, I don't see what else they can do that's practical.

 

I have not had too many troubles with harbinger chat (at least pub side), aside from jawas and bacon. Once in awhile will get a bit heated, but for the most part have not seen anything truly vile that an ignore doesn't fix out of the gate. For the most part I think our community is pretty well behaved (for the internet).

[Larkie]

I only skimmed the replies so sorry if this has already been said.

 

Certain people will behave as badly as they get away with. It seems very simplistic, but that's true - even more so on the internet. Why are certain servers worse, or certain factions worse? It's because of what everyone allows.

 

If someone is using racial or homophobic slurs, being misogynistic or just being rude or disgusting and nobody says anything..well, you've now told them that this behavior is acceptable. Will you get flamed if you say something? Sure, a lot of the time you will. So what? Do you really care what these pathetic people think of you? Personally I don't.

 

They should be embarrassed every time they choose to act that way. Because that is our job, as a society. Whether you like it or not, a game is a society. Plus, there are children that play this game. It is everyones responsibility to show children that such behavior is not only not okay, it's deplorable and should be looked down on.

 

Lastly, yes, fill out a ticket on them. Do /report spam on what they said and then fill out a ticket with their character name and explaining what type of thing they were saying. Click on their name and choose whisper then copy/paste the name to make sure you got it correctly. Unfortunately, don't expect them to be banned no matter how vile what they've said is. I've put people on my friends list that have said truly horrendous things and they're still around.. but they don't seem as chatty.

 

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this... I'll try and pretend to care.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Larkie

[hadoken]

I only skimmed the replies so sorry if this has already been said.

 

Certain people will behave as badly as they get away with. It seems very simplistic, but that's true - even more so on the internet. Why are certain servers worse, or certain factions worse? It's because of what everyone allows.

 

If someone is using racial or homophobic slurs, being misogynistic or just being rude or disgusting and nobody says anything..well, you've now told them that this behavior is acceptable. Will you get flamed if you say something? Sure, a lot of the time you will. So what? Do you really care what these pathetic people think of you? Personally I don't.

 

They should be embarrassed every time they choose to act that way. Because that is our job, as a society. Whether you like it or not, a game is a society. Plus, there are children that play this game. It is everyones responsibility to show children that such behavior is not only not okay, it's deplorable and should be looked down on.

 

Lastly, yes, fill out a ticket on them. Do /report spam on what they said and then fill out a ticket with their character name and explaining what type of thing they were saying. Click on their name and choose whisper then copy/paste the name to make sure you got it correctly. Unfortunately, don't expect them to be banned no matter how vile what they've said is. I've put people on my friends list that have said truly horrendous things and they're still around.. but they don't seem as chatty.

 

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this... I'll try and pretend to care.

 

No, in an MMO the correct course of action is to report them and then ignore them. Do not delude yourself into thinking you're embarrassing these players at all. All you're doing is giving them exactly what they want: attention

[Larkie]

No, in an MMO the correct course of action is to report them and then ignore them. Do not delude yourself into thinking you're embarrassing these players at all. All you're doing is giving them exactly what they want: attention

 

You're wrong. And, even if you're right in some cases about them not being embarrassed - again, it's still important to do so to show children that such behavior is not acceptable. You can disagree all you like, but you're wrong about the "correct" course of action being only to report/ignore. I've shut down plenty of vile conversations with one simple sentence. Does it always happen that way? No, but so what?

[hadoken]

You're wrong. And, even if you're right in some cases about them not being embarrassed - again, it's still important to do so to show children that such behavior is not acceptable. You can disagree all you like, but you're wrong about the "correct" course of action being only to report/ignore. I've shut down plenty of vile conversations with one simple sentence. Does it always happen that way? No, but so what?

 

lol keep tellin yourself that bud

 

You clearly haven't run into the level of trolling I see nightly on the fleet. There is only one way to deal with it. Hey, it also happens to be exactly how BioWare wants you to deal with it - imagine that.

 

You might think you're part of the solution, but you're actually part of the problem.

Edited August 22, 2013 by hadoken

[ImpactHound]

OP,

 

If you are ignorant enough to think SWTOR general chat is worse than any other MMO, or anything on the internet for that matter, i suggest you ALT+F4

 

It actually is. For example, WoW general chat and trade chat is activvely moderated by live staff in real time, as well as GMs responding to tickets very promptly(received a few warnings myself). It actually makes a big difference in quality. SWOTR players know they can get away with murder in chat, and it shows.

[Tsillah]

You're wrong. And, even if you're right in some cases about them not being embarrassed - again, it's still important to do so to show children that such behavior is not acceptable. You can disagree all you like, but you're wrong about the "correct" course of action being only to report/ignore. I've shut down plenty of vile conversations with one simple sentence. Does it always happen that way? No, but so what?

 

He's not wrong. It's the correct procedure to report people and by ignoring them you take them out of it. Playing the parent may work sometimes but often enough it doesn't and only makes things worse and it only encourages that behaviour when you try to police things.

 

Really, just because you think you were successful a few times doesn't mean, he's wrong about reporting and ignoring. Those things are there for a reason, so using them is very much appropriate.

[Larkie]

lol keep tellin yourself that bud

 

You clearly haven't run into the level of trolling I see nightly on the fleet. There is only one way to deal with it. Hey, it also happens to be exactly how BioWare wants you to deal with it - imagine that.

 

You might think you're part of the solution, but you're actually part of the problem.

 

You're wrong, absolutely and unequivocally. You are the one perpetuating the problem. That's why you see such a high level of trolling on your fleet. On my fleet? Not so much.