RE: Should we revamp chats?

[Elizabeth]

....I....love that idea. going right to the ooc, than the location chat.

[Alexandrea]

New players who log into chats from the tutorial go into the Tutorial Hub chat, and may not know that there is a higher chance at meeting people in the OOC chat.

This.

Plus making ooc chat easier to find for new players, in there at least, as the tut hub checklist doesn't have that covered.

If they never click on the talk bubble (and even if they do if they are a gamer it won't show even the location chat let alone the ooc) how would they know to look?

Also... Is it possible for there to be a way for the forum or grid to 'alert' senior players who may be online (and sign up to help out) that someone has entered the ooc chats?

[Charlie]

Also... Is it possible for there to be a way for the forum or grid to 'alert' senior players who may be online (and sign up to help out) that someone has entered the ooc chats?

I don't think only senior players need to be alerted.

Perhaps there could be a pop-up counter within the forum that tallies the people currently active in the OOC Chat? Some kind of pop-up scripted to stay up in the corner of the forum page, and clicking on the number allows someone to be redirected to the OOC chat?

Or maybe, if a chat link is implemented in the header, hovering over it could indicate the number of active people there?

That said, I don't remember much of javascript, let alone coding a forum.

[Pi dArtois]

A chat button this forum page (at the top) would be awesome.

[Aaron Hunter]

Rather than offering any ideas (because I haven't got any!), I'm going to make an observation. It's something I was going to post in the bugs section, but maybe it's better posted in here to see if other people have had the same experience.

As people are saying, chat is dead... or at least it appears to be dead.

I stick my head into chat two or three times a day, roughly the same times that I always have, and I'm always greeted by a blank screen. I'm the only character in there, and there's no evidence than anyone else has been in there. In the past, I would enter chat and there would be a "left over" conversation that had occurred earlier. Ok, so the participants may have gone, but at least there was some evidence that people had been there. It also showed who had been in there, and using the time stamp option I could see when people had come and gone.

Over the last week, every time I've logged into chat, I've posted something. Just a quick "hello" or something similar. I then log out, and log back in with another character a couple of minutes later, and my initial post has vanished, giving an impression that nobody has been in there. There is also no notification that my first character had just been in there. I wonder if other players are having a similar experience? You enter, you see no evidence of activity, so you leave.

Imagine walking passed the window of a restaurant and seeing nobody there. It makes you think that the food is poor, so you walk on by. If you see people, even if they've finished eating, it makes you think that maybe the place is worth a visit.

Has the chat format changed so that conversations disappear? Is there a bug that causes new participants to not see what has previously been posted? Maybe the chat logs are just clearing really quickly? Whatever is happening, it gives the impression that nobody is there, or ever has been.

[Prudence]

I've noticed this too..I've gone in a couple times and seen nothing and no one. no sign of anyone ever entering chats for the whole day, week, etc

[Azraeth]

Yeah, it gives a bit of a 'ghost town' impression.

[Enzo Dragomir]

I've been in there for about three hours now, checking it between clients etc and nothing. I don't mind leaving my shell in there and just watching tabs, so if I don't say hi back right away, give me a bit, I'm probably peeling someone's face, literally. ( Don't worry, I'm a medical aesthetician, not a psycho... too much... heh)

That's what had to happen for chats to work when I first started path, there were people just parked in there. When Blood went up, most went in that chat to hang out. Then that died too. So, let's pick it back up again. I'll do my part ;)


Rock n Roll peoples! rock n roll.

[Azraeth]

^ That's probably going to be the best method to get things rolling, I think.

I'll drop by the chat later today.

[Pi dArtois]

You don't get me back until after Audit tomorrow and Tax Law on Saturday, but I was intending some sort of funky revival now that my degree studies are only 2 exams away from being complete.