A Common Theme - Contacting [appropriately] new players or old players returning...

[Darktweets]

In the last several weeks, I've noticed a lot of new players entering the game, or new [old players] returning, and I've seen a common theme with a lot of them. 

 

They turn off or remove the chat screen because it's too distracting, and they feel they don't need it.  [Directly stated by a few people in chat after they noticed the large chat bubbles when they were surrounded by teammates asking them what was up] 

 

This removes their ability to talk to their team, removes their ability to receive tells, and removes their ability to check email. 

OR

They remove local/broadcast/whatever chat,, and only have certain combat-oriented information up.

 

They don't respond directly to private tells/whispers or don't  respond in chat when asked information by their team leads regarding missions [example, running a mission that requires a certain NPC survive during a Task Force, and because that person is following them, the NPC dies]. So when a complex mission exists or occurs, a badge or a mission fails as the result, or a team-wipe happens [because they run into a mission filled with mobs, aggro them, much like "Leroy Jenkins" and most of us know what happens like that].

 

They don't respond to emails or they ignore them when sent asking them if they need assistance or help regarding whatever they're doing since it is to the detriment of the mission/badge run/assistance to their team. 

 

They don't run the tutorial. For a variety of reasons.  

 

They don't click 'help me' as a new player when they log in with a new character to identify themselves as a 'new player in need of assistance.'

They don't read the code-of-conduct or any of the rules, they just click 'agree' and then move on. 
 

When a mission fails multiple times in a row, because of the actions of a single person, and that person doesn't respond, patience is usually expressed by several individuals. When it happens repeatedly, and events constantly occur, one takes notice. 

 

I've personally tried talking in group chat. tried sending tells or whispers. tried email, tried everything I can possibly think of to address these players, in order to make it a more fun environment for all.

One can choose to ignore them, which ends up ignoring their global, but with a small player base, this proves inappropriate, and doesn't address the problem for other players who have yet to encounter these individuals. And it's not really something you address with the GMs who are already overcome with support tickets for a variety of individuals who are doing worse things. 

 

So, I'm looking for respectful, code-of-conduct approved ways of politely discussing commentary with these new heroes/villains/players who are ignoring valuable or informative things that will help the overall importance of being a part of a team. Because I've run out of ideas on what to do next.. and I'd really appreciate some feedback. 

 

[Techwright]

On 9/4/2024 at 2:31 PM, Darktweets said:

So, I'm looking for respectful, code-of-conduct approved ways of politely discussing commentary with these new heroes/villains/players who are ignoring valuable or informative things that will help the overall importance of being a part of a team. Because I've run out of ideas on what to do next.. and I'd really appreciate some feedback. 

 

 

I appreciate the request for courtesy in dealing with this.  That said, I'm not certain there's much that can be done. 

 

I don't know if anyone has ever submitted it as a suggestion for the development team, but I've long felt there's a need for a team/league leader override: a command the leader can activate that flashes a central message on the individual player's screen: "READ YOUR TEAM/LEAGUE CHATS!"  Something that cannot be hidden or ignored.   Barring that it seems you only have a couple of choices:

• Have a significant portion of the team place their avatars in the face of the offending player's avatar and jump up and down, or something until the player realizes they are trying to communicate.  This is not very practical, and may actually put the team in some danger for failure.
• Have the leader issue a 3-strike warning on team/league chat that refusing to pay attention on said chat will result in dismissal from the team.  Then fulfill it if those warnings go ignored.  I'd personally follow up with an in-game email to the player explaining why they were cut from the team.

You must remember, short of a sudden malfunction of the UI chat box (which I admittedly have never heard of) the player themselves has made a deliberate decision to either close their chat box, or ignore what's going on within it.  They do not get a berth on a team/league without initiating some form of chat, demonstrating their ability to work in chat sessions.  Even on those occasions where buddies ask to join a team/league, the one who is speaking up for both should be able to communicate with his/her colleague.  It really is in the player's hands as to how this plays out, including consequences for their actions/inactions.

 

I'd also like to note that its not just new players who have done this.  I've been on many BAFs where players get so into combat that they fail to pay attention to chat.  I suppose it is possible that they may also not like what's playing out in the chat.  Not everyone likes corny jokes or innuendo conversations, and that might lead to a few chat turn-offs.

[Scarlet Shocker]

I feel uncomfy with this for a couple of reasons.

 

Firstly there's a strong whiff of "they're not playing the way I want" - it's their prerogative to act any way they choose within the rules that HC ToS sets out. If that inconveniences anyone else, so be it.

 

I'm not sure, if these people are so difficult to communicate with, how they'd get on a team in the first place. But assuming they have, it's incumbent upon the team lead to ensure everyone knows the task at hand and is up to speed. If, as a team lead, you're not getting good responses from a new team member, let them know. If they still refuse to cooperate, then why are you running the mission/SF/TF/Trial with them on it?

 

It is very easy to be overwhelmed by the GFX/UI/UX in this game. I'm an experienced player and I often resort to mindless button mashing because I can see literally fuck all with all the various power effects. I'm just trusting that my "nearest target" button is actually the one I want to be aiming at and it almost always is. But in such cases where combat is still quite frenetic (and few pauses between mobs on many teams) it's very easy to miss any comms.

 

In short, as team leaders, it's up to you to ensure your team is up to snuff and able to complete the mission at hand. But it's not your call to tell others how to play, until such time as you're reliant on them in a team situation and that takes negotiation and communication.

[Triumphant]

Some of us are extremely poor multi-taskers.  Myself, for example, I can typically only  parse information in the chat box or concentrate on combat.  I can't do both at the same time.  If I look at chat while in combat, I die (or screw up badly enough to throw off the whole team).  If I concentrate on combat, I will generally perform well (granted, we all have bad days) but can't parse information in the chat (at least, not without becoming distracted and taking a dirt nap).

 

This holds true even if I'm in voice chat in discord.  My brain is simply ill-equipped (for whatever reason) to being able to handle juggling two information streams at the same time.  I do my best, but if I don't respond to a team leader's command, it isn't obstinance, or laziness, or the fact that I've turned off my chat box, I just literally missed what you said because I can only concentrated on one thing at a time.

 

I always follow the team leaders commands to the best of my ability.  It's just that my "best" often leaves a lot to be desired.  I don't know what else to say about that. 🤷‍♂️

[Crysis]

If I am multitasking, which I often am, playing the game solo on indoor missions while sitting in a boring conference call, I almost always turn off my chat box.  Entirely.  If I think about it, I sometimes even use the ghide function to just isolate myself fully from invites, chats, general chat, whatever.  

 

And increasingly, I'm playing on a handheld PC.  Chatting is awkward and takes some effort on those devices.  It's hard enough to play this game via keyboard+mouse on a smaller device (I bought a folding keyboard and small mouse for travel) but that screen size is so small I really need the screen real estate back that the chat box takes up otherwise.

 

And lets be honest, many of us who play regularly are here from the Live days, and that was 20+ years ago.  My eyes aren't what they were 20 years ago, and the chat box needs a higher font size for me to use effectively, and that just takes up even more real estate.

 

I will open up the Team chat box if I'm teaming, but habits being what they are, I sometimes am guilty of not reading it regularly as I should.

 

I'm sure my SG mates think I'm being a snob or rude, but I don't mean to be.  I'm just more focused on gaming than I am on chatting.  I'd also say some of the BEST times I've had playing COH or any other multiplayer game is via voice chat, not typed chat.  But there's precious few people who want to play that way, either due to shyness, language barriers, 'immersion' concerns or even technical limitations of their hardware.  

 

I just type all of this first to address your concerns that individual preferences and playstyle may just make the chat box less than useful to some players.  

 

PS-I have more than 30 people in my global ignore, but none of them for failure to respond to me.  All because they were, IMHO, jerks and people I don't wish to ever play with again, let alone talk to in game.  

 

PPS-To the idea of allowing a team leader to override my screen with their forced comments dialog or whatever.....that is going to open up an outrageous form of in-game chat spamming.  I already have people who ask me to read their blog or website or whatever showing up in broadcast.  Imagine if I could simply interrupt your play session at will?

 

As with all things, you do you, let others do likewise.

 

 

Edited September 6 by Crysis
Words and thoughts

[MoonSheep]

2 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

In short, as team leaders, it's up to you to ensure your team is up to snuff and able to complete the mission at hand. But it's not your call to tell others how to play, until such time as you're reliant on them in a team situation and that takes negotiation and communication.

 

or just kick them from the team and carry on - usually the easiest option for non responsive players

[Lunar Ronin]

20 minutes ago, MoonSheep said:

 

or just kick them from the team and carry on - usually the easiest option for non responsive players

 

This is the way.  One star in player notes, and then /kick.

Edited September 6 by Lunar Ronin

[cranebump]

Sure, there can be mitigating factors (like technical ones) for someone on your team just not responding to important communications. But someone hopping on a team, then intentionally choosing not to respond to reasonable comms isn't exercising a "playstyle." This is a behavior called, um, I think the technical term is...Oh, yes!  "Being a dick."

 

Nailed it in one!:-)

[Scarlet Shocker]

2 hours ago, MoonSheep said:

 

or just kick them from the team and carry on - usually the easiest option for non responsive players

 

I'm hesitant to kick without fair warning but yes, once you've had a few goes at saying "pay attention" and got nothing it's the big goodbye

[WuTang]

Hmm, 10 posts and this is one...

 

 

[MoonSheep]

25 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

 

I'm hesitant to kick without fair warning but yes, once you've had a few goes at saying "pay attention" and got nothing it's the big goodbye

 

i agree completely - i’ll make a few attempts to politely get someone’s attention, including team messages and a tell so it’s a different colour

 

mostly only on MO or speed runs though, i don’t notice as much on regular TFs or mishes if someones wandering around - they’re usually tasty veng bait

[Ukase]

Interesting. Allow me to share an embarrassing moment. I was on a Numina with @blapperella a couple of days ago. For whatever reason, despite the team being level 50, they wanted to run it at +2. No big deal to me. Maybe they want to unlock some incarnates or whatever. But it was a speedy run. 

They clearly wrote in chat while doing a chat task in another zone - "Don't enter mission until I zone in, or the mission will bug low". (words to that effect, they were probably more clear) 

I read the words. But sure enough, when the mission posted, I entered. It was a speedy run is my only defense. And I really didn't save the team that much time with my ATT to the back room. I was ridiculed, mocked, fussed at for being illiterate and who knows what else. I thought it was a bit of a fuss over nothing - because who cares? It's a speedy run, and in speed runs, one doesn't wait around for everyone to enter zone. Still - it wasn't my speed run, and I should have heeded the request. 
For whatever reason, even though I read it - by the time the mission posted, I had forgotten it in those 90 seconds or so and didn't follow the instructions. 

So, that's on me. Days later, I'm still wondering why/how it happened. I can only conclude it was a combination of things. The scariest part is aging. Even though I'm in better physical shape now than I've ever been in my life. My dad died of a brain tumor. Maybe I have one? It would be a bit paranoid to get that checked out for something so innocuous. 

There are a lot of things that make new and/or new(returning) players do things that we might never think of. 

The chat window being closed. I remember about 3 years being on a baf with a guy who wouldn't pass the star to the league lead. On the surface, not that big of a deal. Not like we don't all know what to do in a BAF. But the league leader wanted that star back, and Siege was dead before we were able to get this guy to open his chat screen and see the messages before he finally passed the star. 

I know on retail - I would very often close my chat screen when solo, but never teamed. And I closed it because I was playing on a laptop and the screen was way smaller than what I have now. And I want to say I was playing 600X800, so everything was super big. Opening the chat screen just cluttered things up. 

So, as much as it amazes me, there are still people playing on machines as old as this game is. Why they don't upgrade...that's anyone's guess. Some folks feel like they can do the big computing on their phone, so a computer is now a luxury they needn't spend cash on. Silly casuals. 

I like the idea of a league/team leader being able to flash words across our screen if they can only do so a couple of times in a 30 second window or something like that. I dunno if such a feature would ever come to pass, though. 

I personally feel like any player that doesn't have their chat window up when teamed is simply an idiot. There's just no rational reason for it that I can think of. Maybe I'm the idiot, but I just don't grasp why anyone would do that. 

I do know that it's fairly easy for the chat windows to get messed up. On retail, I used to mess it up all the time. I don't know why it doesn't happen any more. Maybe my typing has gotten better. <shrug> 

I wish I had a solution, but I'm afraid the easiest solution for me is using stars and notes. I'll 2 star a player like this with a note like "non-responsive". 

 

[UltraAlt]

On 9/4/2024 at 2:31 PM, Darktweets said:

which ends up ignoring their global, but with a small player base, this proves inappropriate

 

I think the max ignore is only like 20 or so.

Once you have 20 on your ignore list and ignore someone else, it kicks the oldest ignore of the list.

 

On 9/4/2024 at 2:31 PM, Darktweets said:

tried everything I can possibly think of to address these players

 

I don't think there is anyway to stop seeing the chat bubbles other than putting someone on ignore.

So stand in front of them and chat and they should see the bubbles. 

That is the attempt I would go for.

 

Honestly, I'm assuming most of this behavior must be happening on Excelsior because I'm not seeing it on the other servers.

 

I am wondering how these players get on team if they can't see any chats unless people are blind inviting them.

 

[COH Radgen]

I've seen this WAYYYY too often in an Incarnate trial when the league star gets to someone unexpected.  You tell in chat to pass the star to the league lead, you sent personal messages and nothing.... your last response is to start a vote to kick from league but should that really be the option there if they're still participating?

[BlackSpectre]

I like the idea of having a a command that sends a message that appears on screen that says something like "The team leader is attempting to contact you. Please read chat." Put some spam controls on it, maybe only able to be used once every 10 minutes, or maybe twice while inside a mission... or something like that. Have a little beep accompany the message. 

 

If targeting a specific individual is an issue, a general message could be sent to the whole team. Something like "The team leader is issuing instructions. Please read chat." Also with spam controls, of course.