Friends Chat Channel

[Manfredjinsinjin]

Enable a chat channel that sends to everyone in your Friends list that's online. The purpose is to create an instant community out of friends for every character without having to join/form a guild to accomplish the same result. This will result in people getting together more easily for groups (and maybe guilds) and also reducing "tell hell" when things are going on.

 

The send and receive should be by the character's Friends list, so your broadcasts go only to your friends, and you only see what your friends have sent. (Now that I describe it, I think this is actually how Facebook works.) 

 

I know chat channels are not easily manipulable, but I also know they have been altered on occasion, so I thought I'd post this suggestion. It might even be possible to use the /join channel feature if that's still in game as a base for this feature.

 

 

[GenghisBob]

Just because you have someone as a friend does not mean that they have you as a friend.  When you add to your friend list, it does not ask that person if they want to 'friend' you as Facebook does.

 

That doesn't mean that your idea is bad, just that it would need a few kinks worked out.  :-)

[Mattsacre]

I've had "friends" try to "friend" me on facebook when they are anything but a "friend"...our "relationship" would be dubious at best :) Your idea is sound, just needs a confirm function from the other side, perhaps in the interim you can use a private channel to fill that function. They "subscribe" in effect to a private channel, so by doing so they are confirming their desire to join or not.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Mattsacre

[Manfredjinsinjin]

Just because you have someone as a friend does not mean that they have you as a friend.  When you add to your friend list, it does not ask that person if they want to 'friend' you as Facebook does.

 

That doesn't mean that your idea is bad, just that it would need a few kinks worked out.  :-)

True enough. I'm not sure of the purpose of one-way friending. I would think it would be generally beneficial for friend adds to only go through if/when the other person adds you. If that were implemented, then this idea would be feasible. 

[Willbonney]

Um, wasn't this the point of private chat channels? 

Edited February 4, 2013 by Willbonney

[Mattsacre]

Yes and no, private chats you had to join each time you logged on, and a code string could be set by the "owner" of the private chat to limit access. as the "owner" left then the next senior person in chat would be allocated ownership unless the previous owner assigned it before leaving.

 

So you had to actively join a private chat, manually entering every time you logged on, most times in the case of auctions etc. they would post the code and the private chat #X so all could join if they wish, but others not wanting auction wouldn't have to contend with large market chat scroll.

 

What manfred seems to be asking for (correct me if wrong manny) to have a new channel that you lock in called "friends" not unlike market or OOC, that you have a preselected friends list, that has automatic access when logging in, without having to actively join like a private chat, and those friends also are entered into the chat without some manual selection each time.

[Manfredjinsinjin]

^^ persactly. Instant "hi all, howyadoing" to your friends. Their reply on the channel is only seen by their friends, which includes you, but ofc you don't see their friends' chat. 

 

So this does create a requirement for two-way friending, which I would suggest should be the default anyways. One-way friending is kinda weird. 

 

The upside is you get a lot more ability to socialize, collaborate and form groups of your friends .Which leads to them friending each other, which creates a nice network, which means everyone has more support and more fun in game. I hope :D

 

<edit - changed the approach, see below>

Edited February 8, 2013 by Manfredjinsinjin

[rodsmith3510]

i agree. That is how much other mmo's handle it as well.  Gives any individual the ability to create a private channel that is then there forever untill they delete it.  At that point anyone who knows about it can join it unless when setup  the creator  also setup a password.

[Mattsacre]

I wonder, would I have to friend myself when I want to talk to the voices in my head via chat? :)

[SiSL]

If that would save Market channel from "Hey how have you been?" chats, I'm all for it...

[GenghisBob]

What if my 'private chat' channel has my 8 friends on it.  I log in and am connected to this chat.  One of my 'friends' has 15 people in his 'private chat' channel and only 4 of them are the same as my 8 friends.  How is this supposed to work???

 

If the friends ALL have to be the same for ALL members of this 'private chat' channel, I think that is called a 'Guild' channel.

[rodsmith3510]

The way it would work if done like most mmo's out now is the two diff channels are diff.  The only way you would see the ones in his channel is if they also manually joined yours and the reverse would be the same.

 

The way most do it is if You make a channel for yourself and your friends.  It's yours.  it's there forever and once anyone signs into it.  They are logged into it automatically when they log on.  That way you can talk in it forver unless you manually leave it.

 

Of course this also works a lot better IF the diff channels have their own tab so youi can bring it up and only see what's there.  Unfortunately that would be a client mod so  not possible at this point.

[GenghisBob]

So, you want an unlimited number of chat channels that are automatically available and logged into when any member logs in.  And, this person may be a member of several different friends chat groups.

 

We can't even gate consistently without crash to Megan or stuck at galaxy map.

 

I'm not saying it doesn't sound like a good idea, I'm saying it doesn't seem like something we will see 'soon'.

[Manfredjinsinjin]

Ok, a more defined approach based on the comments so far. 

 

To take the example, you have four friends. You select channel "Friends" and your chat goes to those four people. Using the private chat channel system, you now basically have an automatically created chat channel to which they are automatically subscribed. Call it <yourname friend> or whatever. They can reply back to the channel and their chat is seen by those four in the channel.

 

If they create a Friends channel, it's named after them and it works the same - only if you're on their Friends list will you see the chat. The channels go away after logoff or after timeout, so you can reuse the chat channels.

 

So you basically have an dynamic chat channel system which uses your  Friends list to subscribe members.

 

The problem it relieves is that you don't have to group, guild or suffer /tell hell to talk to a number of your friends at once. That's why so many people use the public channels, because the existing methods are too limited for the need. You can have friends outside of group and outside of guild, and you yourself can be ungrouped and unguilded, and there isn't currently any mechanism outside of manually created private channels to cross those boundaries. 

 

This suggestion would help people connect and start doing things together with only one requirement - have people on your Friends list. Doing things together is where you get groups and guilds from, so I think this idea would support those activities.

[Mattsacre]

There is a way to sort of do what you want..and  you don't have to mod client (i think).

Just have old private chat channels function as of old, but rather than you have to manually tell them what the code is to get in, it sends them a auto generated prompt, via the "message" key at top that "your friend X is on private chat #23 and the code is Y". It's true that the first friend will have to start the private chat when they log on, but there after, people on the friends list get auto invites. As the old private system worked..when the first friend logs off or leaves chat (and they don't /command who is to own the private chat) then it devolves to the next longest in the chat as the new owner. If your friends list was extensive enough you could concieveably keep that private chat all day, as people log in and out and the chat is reassigned ownership.

 

I don't remember what the upper limit on the old private chat was, perhaps someone else can educate us on that, so that could be a problem if too many folks were hogging the privates with "friends" private. The olny real difference to the old and new "friends" private would be the auto invite via a code sent aand the stored list of friends it would pick up from. It of course would require a friends confirmation as stated in previous posts to get on any friends list, and be able to be deleted by either party if so desired.

[Willbonney]

You're talking of creating a true "social network" type platform in a game from 2000.  I doubt if the system would support it, and even if it was tried, would be buggy as hell and take a lot of resources to fix it up.

[Mattsacre]

You're talking of creating a true "social network" type platform in a game from 2000.  I doubt if the system would support it, and even if it was tried, would be buggy as hell and take a lot of resources to fix it up.

True enough, I'm not so social I need it for myself :) and agree it would most probably be a bugfest. And is it something you want Devs taking limited resources/time to do when there are other problems going on? My posts were more of the academic nature, more of the "could it be done within clients limits" rather than the "should it be done". It's way down on my list in reality.

Edited February 8, 2013 by Mattsacre

[Manfredjinsinjin]

True enough, I'm not so social I need it for myself :) and agree it would most probably be a bugfest. And is it something you want Devs taking limited resources/time to do when there are other problems going on? My posts were more of the academic nature, more of the "could it be done within clients limits" rather than the "should it be done". It's way down on my list in reality.

 

 

You're talking of creating a true "social network" type platform in a game from 2000.  I doubt if the system would support it, and even if it was tried, would be buggy as hell and take a lot of resources to fix it up.

No, I'm talking about connecting an existing feature with another existing feature to do something (imo) very useful to everyone.

 

FYI, all a Suggestions forum is for is to see who would like having that feature in game. It is expressly not for throwing unfounded claims of negative consequences. 

 

The only question to be answered here is "would  you enjoy this feature if it were in game?", and if yes, "is there something else you'd like to see happen about it?". If no, all you have to say is "I wouldn't use it".

 

All the rest is in dev territory, ok?

[jrichards]

I imagine the easiest way to do this would be to change the functionality of an existing global channel....like maybe Enforcers.  Then add the ability via net-7.org to add players on your friends list to this channel.  If both you and your friend's name are both in the channel you will see each others chat messages.  However their could be an issue as to how the channel is created each time its empty.  Since the client would be creating private channels for users that had linked each other what happens if yer in more than one 'friend's group? Or would it always be just a single channel that you could only see the text of your friends list players?

 

 

Interesting concept for sure.

[Manfredjinsinjin]

I imagine the easiest way to do this would be to change the functionality of an existing global channel....like maybe Enforcers.  Then add the ability via net-7.org to add players on your friends list to this channel.  If both you and your friend's name are both in the channel you will see each others chat messages.  However their could be an issue as to how the channel is created each time its empty.  Since the client would be creating private channels for users that had linked each other what happens if yer in more than one 'friend's group? Or would it always be just a single channel that you could only see the text of your friends list players?

 

 

Interesting concept for sure.

That is a very good question. FYI in Live there were a couple hundred private chat channels available. You created and joined them with manual chat commands. I'm not sure if those are in game, but if they are, that's the resource I'd like to see used.

 

Re the rest, at this point all I can say Is "I dunno" and "it depends on what the system can do". In the scenario you proposed, only if people had friends in common would they see each others' chat, so you'd be Venn-diagramming each person's Friends list. This expands the communications bandwidth, but places a natural limit on the rebroadcasting so you don't get too much chatter. I like it and think it's probably superior to what I was thinking of.

 

Re the value of the idea, I think if it worked out, it would really help people connect up in game. The huge elephant-in-the-room problem with MMOs is that they are built to put people in the same virtual place, but lack the support to help people hook up to play together. The burden is all on the players to "make friends", "group up" and "form communities", but the method presented is an LFG chat channel and a couple of general public ones? In the real world, I'd call this "inadequate resources combined with unrealistic expectations".