General Chat

[DrDestiny]

If you do not report players in game, you are part of the problem. When you report them, it enables the security team to actually check logs and take appropriate action, after the fact.

 

I most certainly DID report them.

[Andryah]

This is a US Company owned game, thus the US amendments and rules are exactly what matters. Games are under the direct control over the country the company resides in that controls it.

 

For the umpteenth time already.... 1st amendment rights in the US do not cover freedom of expression on private property.... and chat channels in a game are private property. The 1st amendment exists to protect freedom of religion as well as speech for/against and about the government. It exists because at the time of the founding of the US, it was common practice in Monarchies to persecute anyone who spoke out against actions of king and country... without trial, without appeal, and without any other recourse.

 

If you are going to spout about it.. learn what it means, and does not mean, first.

 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/first_amendment

Edited December 28, 2016 by Andryah

[aerockyul]

If you do not report players in game, you are part of the problem. When you report them, it enables the security team to actually check logs and take appropriate action, after the fact. They also log such findings to a player accounts and multiple reports by multiple players over time will eventually result in a ban stick on the head of the offenders. When you do not report.. then you are letting them get away with the behavior unchallenged.

 

Yes yes.. it would be cool if game companies employed paid staff to fish the chat channels for trolls and nuke them before you log in. But that is neither practical (because people literally log in and out all through the day, and move around in game as well..hence different chat channels), nor is it practiced by game companies, because it is impractical. So they give you tools to ignore not only individuals, but also entire chat channels, as well as tools to report offensive chat.

 

From a practical standpoint.. if you don't want to see it.. close the channel except when you actually need to use it. OR... you can counter-troll them.. but expect to get reported for it (because some of these players are actually fishing for reportable responses so they can grief others, this is a growing metagame for some players in games, on forums, and in social media channels).

 

The problem with the tool they supply to report players in game is that you have to be standing within their vicinity to report them for anything other than Spam (and one other thing, I forget what it is, but it isn't for harassment). If they're not around you then you can't really do anything as far as reporting them except as spam. When you stand near the player, there's a whole list of things you can report them for, including offensive names, harrassment, suicide threats, spam, and four or five other things. They need to expand that reporting function to all players in general chat, not just the ones you're standing right next to.

Could be a possible reason why no one is getting banned: how often are any of us standing directly around the chat trolls?

[Nempo]

For the umpteenth time already.... 1st amendment rights in the US do not cover freedom of expression on private property.... and chat channels in a game are private property. The 1st amendment exists to protect freedom of religion as well as speech for/against and about the government. It exists because at the time of the founding of the US, it was common practice in Monarchies to persecute anyone who spoke out against actions of king and country... without trial, without appeal, and without any other recourse.

 

If you are going to spout about it.. learn what it means, and does not mean first.

 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/first_amendment

 

There is the whole private property argument, however I suggest you look at later additions to laws to farther protect the right of free speech. The company can mute you...for a limited time period, that is all. Over censoring of individuals can cause a company to face legal matters. Which makes it a very, very, risky manuever to go around silencing people in America even on 'private property'. You may ask them to leave, you may create things they need to agree to in order to be there (user agreements) however there is a catch. If you fully commit to a user agreement, it locks you in to committing resources upon it full time around the clock. Resources you can use better in other locations if you add a simple little phrase that goes something like "Interactions online are not monitored" or "Online interactions do not effect the rating of this game". Such things basically mean, unless a person is ranting for days on end about the worst crap...they won't do anything.

 

There is also one additional thing that allows them to bypass it all entirely, if they give you a mute option you have control of (you can ignore people, or even close general chat in ALL MMOs for this very reason) then they figure you want to interact with this individual as you are refusing to use the tools given to you to filter them out yourself.

 

Seriously, act like an adult and stop whining about everything people.

[Nempo]

The problem with the tool they supply to report players in game is that you have to be standing within their vicinity to report them for anything other than Spam (and one other thing, I forget what it is, but it isn't for harassment). If they're not around you then you can't really do anything as far as reporting them except as spam. When you stand near the player, there's a whole list of things you can report them for, including offensive names, harrassment, suicide threats, spam, and four or five other things. They need to expand that reporting function to all players in general chat, not just the ones you're standing right next to.

Could be a possible reason why no one is getting banned: how often are any of us standing directly around the chat trolls?

 

Just ignore them and move on. eventually trolls end up talking to themselves without knowing it.

 

Though I do agree that every report feature needs to exist for everyone int he channel...Having to track them down to report them is a bit insane.

Which might be why you tend to see this stuff appear on planet more often than fleet.

 

Though I have seen and been a part of some great philosophical debates on fleet general chats on both factions...typically in the 2am+ period when the trolls have gone to bed.

[AlienEyeTX]

I was just playing my Juggernaut and was in DK when I had to quit out because of the astonishing level of crude racism in General Chat.

 

When did this bollocks become OK? This simple-minded vile idiocy is now OK on General Chat? Is anything being done about it? I reported it and complained about it in General, but there were 100+ others there too, and there was silence from them.

 

Is this OK Bioware? Is this OK EA? Is this OK for us Players? If it is, then it's not my game anymore.

 

I don't even know what gets said in General. One of the first things I do with every character is disable General Chat. Makes the game experience so much more pleasant.

[Aeneas_Falco]

the company is a USA company so the 1st Amendment's stands again sorry to tell you this

 

Bioware is a private company. It doesn't have to give players a platform to spew whatever they want, and banning players for racist comments in chat is not 'a violation of someone's 1st amendment rights.'

 

Your 1st Amendment rights have only been violated if the government curtails your freedom of speech.

[Everrgreen]

I found this quote sometime back, a player has it set in signature line (sorry I don't know the player's name): "It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more...than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so *********** what." - Stephen Fry

 

Use the ignore function; this is it's principal purpose and what devs supplied to us. And it works. I also change to another tab that takes all gen chat out of my face. Voila.

 

re: the ME problem that was also brought up on this thread:

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[AlrikFassbauer]

Bioware is a private company.

 

Well ... Bioware belongs to EA now, doesn't it ?

[DarthEnrique]

I'm sorry a lot of people think that this kind of conversation is okay in a game, it really isn't, while there is an ignore feature, what good does that do? I'm sorry but I think the general chat in this game is getting bad and needs some action. I was on the fleet the other day and people were talking about incest and some were giving details. This disturbed me because 1. The topic of incest should never be a casual and calm conversation and should disturb anyone with morals. 2. There are minors in this game and there are laws in the United States against talking sexually to or around minors. So there should be at least an upholding of that law. I mean seriously private conversations in a guild or whisper or group chat is one thing, heck you can even create a chat page for that kind of stuff, is one thing but where everyone can see it including minors? Then yes I do think and agree some policing needs to be done about conversations that can be highly offensive to people or can get someone into trouble, particularly for the protection of minors. Edited December 28, 2016 by DarthEnrique

[Joonbeams]

There is the whole private property argument, however I suggest you look at later additions to laws to farther protect the right of free speech. The company can mute you...for a limited time period, that is all. Over censoring of individuals can cause a company to face legal matters. Which makes it a very, very, risky manuever to go around silencing people in America even on 'private property'. You may ask them to leave, you may create things they need to agree to in order to be there (user agreements) however there is a catch. If you fully commit to a user agreement, it locks you in to committing resources upon it full time around the clock. Resources you can use better in other locations if you add a simple little phrase that goes something like "Interactions online are not monitored" or "Online interactions do not effect the rating of this game". Such things basically mean, unless a person is ranting for days on end about the worst crap...they won't do anything.

 

There is also one additional thing that allows them to bypass it all entirely, if they give you a mute option you have control of (you can ignore people, or even close general chat in ALL MMOs for this very reason) then they figure you want to interact with this individual as you are refusing to use the tools given to you to filter them out yourself.

 

Seriously, act like an adult and stop whining about everything people.

 

Actually, most of this is inaccurate. If BW wants to limit everyone in the forums to singing Kumbaya and praying to RNGesus, they can do so. That may have consequences from a business standpoint (boycotts and such) but they don't have to tolerate one single viewpoint they don't agree with. They cannot discriminate against protected classes, but racists, sexists, and bigots aren't such and thus aren't entitled to any protection against private citizens under such laws.

 

As for mute buttons, ignore, and whatnot those are good options I agree.

[Tsillah]

I'm sorry a lot of people think that this kind of conversation is okay in a game, it really isn't, while there is an ignore feature, what good does that do? I'm sorry but I think the general chat in this game is getting bad and needs some action. I was on the fleet the other day and people were talking about incest and some were giving details. This disturbed me because 1. The topic of incest should never be a casual and calm conversation and should disturb anyone with morals. 2. There are minors in this game and there are laws in the United States against talking sexually to or around minors. So there should be at least an upholding of that law. I mean seriously private conversations in a guild or whisper or group chat is one thing, heck you can even create a chat page for that kind of stuff, is one thing but where everyone can see it including minors? Then yes I do think and agree some policing needs to be done about conversations that can be highly offensive to people or can get someone into trouble, particularly for the protection of minors.

 

It's not a matter of what's ok or not. The reality is that it takes resources to enforce it. If they can't bring out regular content updates outside of story, what chance do we have of them enforcing anything in game chat?

 

Secondly, 99% of the time or more it's trolling. If people would just ignore them and move on instead of replying to them, they would die out, because they're not getting their reactions. But try to get the whole community on the fleet to ignore them. There are always at least a couple of people who bite and these trolls know it.

 

The topics are not ok, but you have to be realistic about what's achievable.

[Andryah]

I most certainly DID report them.

 

Then your job is done.... ignore them and move on. I really do not know what you thought you would achieve with this thread other then some forum drama and back and forth noodle pushing (arguing of semantics, morality, etc).

 

Lots of players get reported, some valid, some invalid (no matter how the reporting players feels about some topic)and some troll reports.. and unfortunately the security team has to actually investigate to determine the difference and validate the report and determine action. That takes human time as I'm sure a lot of these are queued up in their investigation inbox.

 

The really egregious ones are pretty straightforward to investigate, though they still have to check and see if the person reported was an instigator, or a pile-on, or a side comment to something someone else said. These things do snowball sometimes and the security team has to sort out the mess before issuing sanctions. So... it takes time, and player reports help them narrow down their investigation if the report is accurate and concise.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Andryah

[howieloader]

This thread is stupid...

[americanaussie]

It's not a matter of what's ok or not. The reality is that it takes resources to enforce it. If they can't bring out regular content updates outside of story, what chance do we have of them enforcing anything in game chat?

 

Secondly, 99% of the time or more it's trolling. If people would just ignore them and move on instead of replying to them, they would die out, because they're not getting their reactions. But try to get the whole community on the fleet to ignore them. There are always at least a couple of people who bite and these trolls know it.

 

The topics are not ok, but you have to be realistic about what's achievable.

 

This a million times over. For starters, no one is going to pay holiday pay for BW to monitor and ban people over Christmas. It'd also be an enormous job to monitor gen chat from all servers and instances 24/7. It's really impossible. This is why ignore and report exists.

 

And most people are trolling. Someone asked a moronic question in a gen chat. It was something about V and X and if IV was 11. I quickly summed up roman numerals plainly to which they responded about how I must love Trump or some stupid troll bait. I just said ok whatever. Left it at that. They said nothing more to me but another person who thought to school them further on roman numerals took their bait and this whole nasty debate between them ensued. Gen chat on odessen turned real ugly real fast. I switched it off and went about my merry way.

 

I know not everyone plays like I do. If gen chat is repulsive then you can turn off the chat, you can make your own chat channel and remove gen chat but keep other channels like guild chat, or you can ignore the offenders. If you turn off chat, which is my style, you will get a ping when someone whispers you and I get them sometimes when guildies speak after a prolonged silence.

 

I'm on harb and I rarely see anything too awful when chat is active. I don't fleet sit though. I did once read a hilarious chat while doing boring heroics on tatooine between army guys discussing rectal exams. I suspect they scared some poor kid from joining but hey I got to see a friendship form between 3 strangers from different countries. I considered following them to the next planet to keep my heroics somewhat entertaining I didn't though.

 

Seriously, if it bothers you then take steps that BW has given us. Easily done. And whatever you do ****DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS**** unless it's a special person that so richly deserves being trolled back. I think every server has that one special person.

 

But seriously, what's far more concerning than gen chat trolls are dictator like guild leaders who recruit new players then tell them they can't chat etc or they'll be kicked. That's what I worry about most especially where newbies are concerned.

[Eshvara]

It is kind of funny how you can say whatever you want in game, yet on the forums you get infracted for using words nowhere near as bad as what's being said on fleet or DK chat.

 

The forums have to be clean and tidy for the few people that can post on it and even go here, yet in game you can release all your verbal diarrhea?

 

 

 

snip.

 

Can you actually report people for being "rude"?

Whenever I click report, the only option is spam. Just because someone is rude, doesn't mean they're spamming. Or am I blind?

Edited December 29, 2016 by Eshvara

[SithKoriandr]

Turn off your general chat? It's really that simple.

 

It's like listening to the radio or watching TV, don't like it, turn it off or change the channel.

[DawnAskham]

There are some ugly people online - and while somemight actually believe their hateful and ugly speech, I feel most are simply trolling trying to rile up others.

 

As such, I just ignore chat that I dislike, disagree with, or find offensive in any way - and by ignore I just pretend it doesn't exist - no need to read chat if its filled with garbage.

Edited December 29, 2016 by DawnAskham

[kimiko_tomiyama]

Gchat used to bother me as well... then I realized Agent Smith and Agent K were both right about humanity.

 

Generally I tend to ignore it unless I see somebody asking for help. If I know the answer I do try to help. I remember being a newbie once.

 

Periodically I will snark back in character if I have nothing better to do. "How is building a wall supposed to be effective in hyperspace?" is typical for me.

 

Overall though I stick to guild chat.

[SlthBounteHuntah]

This thread is stupid...

 

Indeed.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Ignore cannot and must not be the only option. We hear hate-speech and all we're supposed to do is stick our fingers in our ears and shout 'la-la-la I can't hear you'? Your argument seems to be that so long as you can no longer hear it, then it's no longer a problem (" I really don't care as along as I can block them and don't see it anymore.").

 

That is not a solution, that's hiding.

 

I'm not having a go at you, but rather seeing this crap spewed out unopposed in General Chat really did make me sick to my stomach, and has certainly made me consider ending my Sub., since I don't want to contribute cash to anything that acts as a platform for this.

 

It's almost always trolling, welcome to the internet.

 

You can report but if anything were done it would take time and they wouldn't tell you if the accounts in question were sanctioned anyway.

 

Report, ignore and move on otherwise you are just feeding the trolls by fighting with them over it.

 

If no one ever replied to trolls etc. there would be little to no trolling.

[americanaussie]

It is kind of funny how you can say whatever you want in game, yet on the forums you get infracted for using words nowhere near as bad as what's being said on fleet or DK chat.

 

The forums have to be clean and tidy for the few people that can post on it and even go here, yet in game you can release all your verbal diarrhea?

 

 

 

 

 

Can you actually report people for being "rude"?

Whenever I click report, the only option is spam. Just because someone is rude, doesn't mean they're spamming. Or am I blind?

 

Agree with the top. Infractions are easy to obtain on the forums and there is much worse.

 

I really don't advise reporting someone for being rude, ignore is better, but I read on the forum earlier that your proximity to the person determines options. If you're beside them then you will get other options. I only mention that as I've seen options to report suicidal threats sometimes when I'm selecting ignore on bots. Must be some truth to it.

[Halinalle]

I just use "ignore" when people become too much for me to take. Some people spam random crap. Some people go on and on and on about religious stuff. Some people talk about politics or racist crap as well. I really don't care as along as I can block them and don't see it anymore.

 

Out of sight, out of mind?

It never fixes the problem. You're just selfish.

[TrixxieTriss]

I was just playing my Juggernaut and was in DK when I had to quit out because of the astonishing level of crude racism in General Chat.

 

When did this bollocks become OK? This simple-minded vile idiocy is now OK on General Chat? Is anything being done about it? I reported it and complained about it in General, but there were 100+ others there too, and there was silence from them.

 

Is this OK Bioware? Is this OK EA? Is this OK for us Players? If it is, then it's not my game anymore.

 

Racism, sexism, homophobia, etc are rampant on any server in general chat, but more so on the imperial side. Most of it starts off by the same certain people to troll chat, then others get involved, then the real bigots jump in because they see they have an audience.

Unfortunately this isn't confined to swtor and happens in all games, but there is a lot more here than in others. The only thing you can do is either put them on ignore, disable gen chat or report them if it's extremely bad.

The others who were silent probably had those people on ignore to start with, had gen chat off or just didn't want to say anything and get trolled themselves. But if you were offended enough to report them, there is a good probability that someone else did too and just didn't announce it.

I often report things and don't say anything when they are going to far and I've got a pretty high tolerance for crap talk in gen chat.

[Ahbal]

Racism, sexism, homophobia, etc are rampant on any server in general chat, but more so on the imperial side. Most of it starts off by the same certain people to troll chat, then others get involved, then the real bigots jump in because they see they have an audience.

Unfortunately this isn't confined to swtor and happens in all games, but there is a lot more here than in others. The only thing you can do is either put them on ignore, disable gen chat or report them if it's extremely bad.

The others who were silent probably had those people on ignore to start with, had gen chat off or just didn't want to say anything and get trolled themselves. But if you were offended enough to report them, there is a good probability that someone else did too and just didn't announce it.

I often report things and don't say anything when they are going to far and I've got a pretty high tolerance for crap talk in gen chat.

 

Rampant? I very rarely see any of what you've listed, and I've been playing for 4 years, mostly on BC and Harby. I reckon you are just over exaggerating, just like everyone else who loves to use the "sexist/racist/homophobic" cards when they're in a situation that "offends" them. Have you been on every server to know that "it is rampant on any server"? Seriously...and if these "bigots" were so bad....if everyone that gets "offended" uses the ignore command.....then the problem is solved. Those who are hurt easily won't see the "bigots" and those who don't care will have a laugh and continue playing the game, as it should be. The ignore command is there for a reason.

 

You all are making this a bigger deal than it has to be, stop acting like children, use the ignore tool if necessary and/or toughen up a bit.