No Option to Disable Whispers from Non-Friends?

[Clex Mix.7624]

1 minute ago, nosleepdemon.1368 said:

 

I think so yeah, people whispering you randomly should not equate to anything even close to ruining your play experience. Even "harassment" is hardly such - someone whispering a lewd remark or whatever is just so benign it hardly qualifies as anything. I can only assume, at risk of sounding like my own parents, that there's a fair bit of over sheltering going on. I personally blame Gen-Xers - they were too busy listening to Nirvana to pay attention to what their kids were doing on "Napster". Har har 😜 Going even more off topic, I shall personally be keeping my own spawn far, FAR away from all social media until their self worth has found some grounding. It's going to be outdoor sports and jiu-jitsu for them!

Lol, it’s not far off from reality... it’s just as bad when you see parents buying their tween kids gta 5 because they take no time to look into what they get for their kids.

 

On one hand you either have parents being overtly sheltering and on the other not taking an interest at all. But before we get too off topic players should know that by playing an online game they are going to be exposed to other people. You cant control how people are going to act, but what happens to the community when there’s an option to completely remove it from your play experience entirely? 

[nosleepdemon.1368]

1 hour ago, Clex Mix.7624 said:

Lol, it’s not far off from reality... it’s just as bad when you see parents buying their tween kids gta 5 because they take no time to look into what they get for their kids.

 

On one hand you either have parents being overtly sheltering and on the other not taking an interest at all. But before we get too off topic players should know that by playing an online game they are going to be exposed to other people. You cant control how people are going to act, but what happens to the community when there’s an option to completely remove it from your play experience entirely? 

 

I imagine most people wouldn't engage it, but it'd be a further erosion of the social aspect of the game. That's a sort of slope you don't want to slip too far down.

[AgentMoore.9453]

6 hours ago, Clex Mix.7624 said:

Um what makes you feel this is a problem first off? Or that it’s specific to this game?

More than seven years of personal experiences as well as firsthand accounts from friends, coworkers, guildmates, and other acquaintances who have played across multiple game modes and for varying lengths of time (also numerous forum threads on the topic, though with a grain of salt since I don't know those people personally). I also didn't say the issue was only present in this game (it isn't; humans can be repugnant anywhere you go), but that this particular game's communication tools leave much to be desired compared to instant messengers and other MMOs I have tried that offer better options.

 

Regarding predators, I don't think you understand that targeting people can happen for a variety of reasons, and a lot of them have nothing to do with the victim's behavior. I have had to walk many people through the process of reporting stalkers, managing harassment, and shutting down uninvited sexual solicitation from players who had no motivation to 'go after' their chosen victim other than liking the look of the character or the name or some manner of rumor they'd heard and chosen to act on. Kids play this game. Assault survivors play this game. Giving them basic tools to protect themselves so they don't always have to rely on staff intervention is a no-brainer. People aren't asking for ArenaNet to step in personally and deal with these people one by one, they're asking for a QoL that would let them handle it themselves with minimal effort all around.

 

I'll say again that I'm very glad you haven't had to deal with the disgusting portion of the human race, but your luck doesn't entitle you to shame or otherwise look down on people who could benefit from simple tools added to the game that would in no way affect you. Not a feature you'd use? Don't use the feature.

[Clex Mix.7624]

37 minutes ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

More than seven years of personal experiences as well as firsthand accounts from friends, coworkers, guildmates, and other acquaintances who have played across multiple game modes and for varying lengths of time (also numerous forum threads on the topic, though with a grain of salt since I don't know those people personally). I also didn't say the issue was only present in this game (it isn't; humans can be repugnant anywhere you go), but that this particular game's communication tools leave much to be desired compared to instant messengers and other MMOs I have tried that offer better options.

 

Regarding predators, I don't think you understand that targeting people can happen for a variety of reasons, and a lot of them have nothing to do with the victim's behavior. I have had to walk many people through the process of reporting stalkers, managing harassment, and shutting down uninvited sexual solicitation from players who had no motivation to 'go after' their chosen victim other than liking the look of the character or the name or some manner of rumor they'd heard and chosen to act on. Kids play this game. Assault survivors play this game. Giving them basic tools to protect themselves so they don't always have to rely on staff intervention is a no-brainer. People aren't asking for ArenaNet to step in personally and deal with these people one by one, they're asking for a QoL that would let them handle it themselves with minimal effort all around.

 

I'll say again that I'm very glad you haven't had to deal with the disgusting portion of the human race, but your luck doesn't entitle you to shame or otherwise look down on people who could benefit from simple tools added to the game that would in no way affect you. Not a feature you'd use? Don't use the feature.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are terrible creepers around and I’m not excusing their behavior. I think devs/gms should have harsher punishments for it. That’s pretty much a given. But from my experience the people that have had those issues in games are more... shall we say “friendly” than others. They either are too willing to reveal a lot about themselves, or do so with friends but in a public forum whether it be party chat/guild chat or even in /s. 

 

I get that females playing might feel slighted that they can’t be more themselves without the fear of possible creeps being creeps... but that kind of comes down more to a social phenomenon. It could be that behavior online generally is only met with either warnings on your accounts or suspensions and no real world consequences. 

 

But as far as saying other games have better options for chat functionality not a lot really do. Most just have the block function or appear offline.. WoW has addons but one of the few games that openly allows third party addons to the extent of changing the chat functionality.

 

I just don’t know if it’d be something that Anet would either think is worth the cost to change their system over it, but as I would advise anyone boy or girl, don’t be too personal with people on the internet.

 

 

[Malitias.8453]

6 hours ago, Clex Mix.7624 said:

It has less to do with the game design and more to do with communities as a whole now days imo.

Game design takes a major role in the socializing aspect of a game.
A lot of people communicate to overcome a challenge and with no problems to solve/challenges to overcome there is little need to communicate.
People usually also form bonds this way. Overcoming a new challenge together makes you see the other person as more reliable and you are more likely to form some kind of relationship.

You talked about how people wouldn't communicate in vanilla wow at times, even in group content, but simply being in a group doesn't mean you will communicate if there is nothing to organize. People have gotten a lot better at understanding video games and there are a lot more guides to watch/read now as well, so the "challenge" was heavily diminished.

What I'm trying to say in way too many words is that requiring a group for certain content is only the step to get people together, but the challenge is what incentivizes the communication. And that's game design.

[Ashen.2907]

On 5/17/2021 at 12:18 AM, Clyde.5178 said:

You can block anyone, but I shouldn't have to read a stranger's comments in a private message in the first place. I mean, we don't walk around in real life with our contact information floating above our heads, so why should we in-game? You can set yourself to invisible, but then it looks like you're ignoring friends. This seems like an obvious feature to include.

1) you don't have to read the whispers.

2) your real world analogy doesn't hold up because in real life random people can in fact speak to you if you are in a shared environment.

[Vayne.8563]

There are times I see people missing something important in a boss or something and after trying to talk in map chat, I whisper them. Like people attacking the vines in AB while they still have their stacks of slime protection on them, or running away and missing a chest that doesn't respond to autoloot.  I'm polite about it, offer a suggestion and most people say thanks after. 

The random whispers I've gotten in this game over the years have been overwhelmingly positive. Giving people an option to not get that sort of thing would be counter productive to community in my opinion. If a solo player wants to solo all well and good. If I'm standing next to someone and they're not reading map chat (which can happen during the octovine let's say) it's my best option to try to help them out.

[nosleepdemon.1368]

17 hours ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

More than seven years of personal experiences as well as firsthand accounts from friends, coworkers, guildmates, and other acquaintances who have played across multiple game modes and for varying lengths of time (also numerous forum threads on the topic, though with a grain of salt since I don't know those people personally). I also didn't say the issue was only present in this game (it isn't; humans can be repugnant anywhere you go), but that this particular game's communication tools leave much to be desired compared to instant messengers and other MMOs I have tried that offer better options.

 

Regarding predators, I don't think you understand that targeting people can happen for a variety of reasons, and a lot of them have nothing to do with the victim's behavior. I have had to walk many people through the process of reporting stalkers, managing harassment, and shutting down uninvited sexual solicitation from players who had no motivation to 'go after' their chosen victim other than liking the look of the character or the name or some manner of rumor they'd heard and chosen to act on. Kids play this game. Assault survivors play this game. Giving them basic tools to protect themselves so they don't always have to rely on staff intervention is a no-brainer. People aren't asking for ArenaNet to step in personally and deal with these people one by one, they're asking for a QoL that would let them handle it themselves with minimal effort all around.

 

I'll say again that I'm very glad you haven't had to deal with the disgusting portion of the human race, but your luck doesn't entitle you to shame or otherwise look down on people who could benefit from simple tools added to the game that would in no way affect you. Not a feature you'd use? Don't use the feature.

 

The thing is, MMOs are social games by nature. Having a way to outright block interaction with other players kind of goes against the design principles of that sort of game. If someone is unable to participate in a social game without blocking social contact, perhaps they should look for ways to overcome their problem instead of asking the design of the game to be changed for them. This seems like a drastic response, but consider the phrase "give an inch, take a mile: One should not expect to find mechanics in a game which are antithetical to its purpose. Once such mechanics are introduced, the design of the game will change over time as more players enter the game that expect it to be something it is not.

[Dami.5046]

Just stop whispers from SPvP and WvW. It would solve at least of the toxicity.  

[AgentMoore.9453]

11 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

The random whispers I've gotten in this game over the years have been overwhelmingly positive. Giving people an option to not get that sort of thing would be counter productive to community in my opinion.

You whispering someone and not getting an answer is virtually identical to you whispering someone and getting a 'this person is only accepting whispers from friends' message. The community will not be affected one way or another by someone's decision not to communicate with other players - this change would only automate something people are already doing manually.

 

21 hours ago, Clex Mix.7624 said:

I just don’t know if it’d be something that Anet would either think is worth the cost to change their system over it, but as I would advise anyone boy or girl, don’t be too personal with people on the internet.

Bad behavior is not a gendered issue and it is always the 'fault' of the person who is behaving badly, not the victim. While there are things a person can do to stay safe online, let's be careful not to imply that predators aren't responsible for their own bad choices when it comes to harassing others. Whisper preferences would also not require someone to be a victim at all - even someone who's just antisocial or not interested in talking to strangers would be glad to be able to shut these messages off, and I do not believe for a second that it would do anything to the community but provide relief for those who choose to use the feature.

 

4 hours ago, nosleepdemon.1368 said:

Having a way to outright block interaction with other players kind of goes against the design principles of that sort of game. If someone is unable to participate in a social game without blocking social contact, perhaps they should look for ways to overcome their problem instead of asking the design of the game to be changed for them.

You can already outright block interaction with other players by shutting off chat channels or blocking everyone in sight. That came with the game at launch. This suggestion would allow you to communicate with friends and known players without also subjecting yourself to the greater populace whose messages are currently being ignored or tolerated manually. This suggestion is literally people looking for ways to overcome their problem without having to constantly report players, involve staff, or nuke the entire chat system by going invisible/shutting off chat channels.

 

The opposition to implementing whisper preferences (and other communication QoL) seems to be the idea that people feel entitled to the DMs of others. I'd really like to know where that comes from, and why being denied the opportunity to whisper someone would ruin the game when it's already something that can be done (if they're marked offline, for instance). We can turn off map chat. We can block users. We can go invisible to completely shutter DMs. Why can't we employ preferences for whispers and Squad/party/guild invites as well? Literally what is the difference aside from a few lines of code?

[Clex Mix.7624]

2 hours ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

You whispering someone and not getting an answer is virtually identical to you whispering someone and getting a 'this person is only accepting whispers from friends' message. The community will not be affected one way or another by someone's decision not to communicate with other players - this change would only automate something people are already doing manually.

 

Bad behavior is not a gendered issue and it is always the 'fault' of the person who is behaving badly, not the victim. While there are things a person can do to stay safe online, let's be careful not to imply that predators aren't responsible for their own bad choices when it comes to harassing others. Whisper preferences would also not require someone to be a victim at all - even someone who's just antisocial or not interested in talking to strangers would be glad to be able to shut these messages off, and I do not believe for a second that it would do anything to the community but provide relief for those who choose to use the feature.

 

You can already outright block interaction with other players by shutting off chat channels or blocking everyone in sight. That came with the game at launch. This suggestion would allow you to communicate with friends and known players without also subjecting yourself to the greater populace whose messages are currently being ignored or tolerated manually. This suggestion is literally people looking for ways to overcome their problem without having to constantly report players, involve staff, or nuke the entire chat system by going invisible/shutting off chat channels.

 

The opposition to implementing whisper preferences (and other communication QoL) seems to be the idea that people feel entitled to the DMs of others. I'd really like to know where that comes from, and why being denied the opportunity to whisper someone would ruin the game when it's already something that can be done (if they're marked offline, for instance). We can turn off map chat. We can block users. We can go invisible to completely shutter DMs. Why can't we employ preferences for whispers and Squad/party/guild invites as well? Literally what is the difference aside from a few lines of code?

How are you going to try and assume we’re faulting someone  on the receiving end of any sort of harassment? This is a logical fallacy and it completely ignores everything else that was said... but if you don’t want people giving you unwanted attention within the realm of harassment or worse... don’t make yourself a target. That’s not even an Internet problem... it’s been a thing since before. No one said it was a gendered issue, but guys also don’t feel someone trying to be the least bit friendly is harassment either. We’re getting into a completely different realm of what’s probably permitted on the forums here, and probably because of the tenderness of people these days...

 

but to say its only only a few lines of code, again conjecture. You have to change the ui, make sure the ui functions with the new code, make sure the new code/ui don’t interfere with existing code and ui functions. No one’s excusing idiots on the internet who think someone being overtly open about themselves is somehow an invitation for anything remotely “non casual” but you’d be surprised at what people put out there about themselves. It’s WAY more nuanced than trying to point a finger at one party and saying it’s their fault.

[Vayne.8563]

4 hours ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

You whispering someone and not getting an answer is virtually identical to you whispering someone and getting a 'this person is only accepting whispers from friends' message. The community will not be affected one way or another by someone's decision not to communicate with other players - this change would only automate something people are already doing manually.

 

See this is the issues. If they're not seeing my message they could be affecting the group. A guy who doesn't know who doesn't stop attacking the octovine might not realize that he's doing something that's affecting everyone else, because all four sides have to die at one time. If he doesn't get that message, he can unknowingly affect the game of 50-100 other people.

 

Seems to me if you're participating in group content, even if you're not grouping, you might not know something and you might need some information. Particularly in this game which is fairly complex and things change all the time.  I've seen people screw other people by ignoring map chat and a whisper can and has helped.