SWTOR

[Fordel]

I have yet to see a MMO preview video where the people playing it did not suck donkey cock at the game they are playing.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Yea it was pretty clear they all died to the boss on purpose there.  Makes me wonder if it's not finished or they just didn't want to show it.

Raid zone finished before the mmo is realeased? You haven't been paying attention to the last decade have you?

[Malakili]

I have yet to see a MMO preview video where the people playing it did not suck donkey cock at the game they are playing.

I hate this so much.  Can't they just get some top tier raiding clan from another game to come show off their content, it'd probably make it look cooler if you have people who actually know what they are doing up there.  Seems like a better choice all around, the casual players will think it looks cool, the hardcores will see what the gameplay is like at a high level because they know what to look fore.  Win-win.

[Paelos]

I'd like the hardcore raiders in the audience actively beaten with bats during the presentation. Win-win.

[Sjofn]

The bizarre raid demonstration thing Blizzard does at Blizzcon now (invite some bleeding edge guild to fight bosses in front of an audience, basically) is surprisingly entertaining, but I think part of it was because of stuff like "Alright, fight Patchwerk, Thaddius and Anub'whoever at once."

[Sky]

Hardcore raiders couldn't make it to the demo because they'd have been kicked from their guilds for missing a raid. 

[luckton]

TBH, those eight people probably weren't even playing...they were probably still working on coding the damn game. 

[Lucas]

Looks like marketing has won again: James Ohlen confirmed that there will be no cross-faction communication:

http://swtor.tentonhammer.com/featured-post/swtor-creative-director-james-ohlen-at-syndcon/

Ten Ton Hammer: We are also curious about the banking system. Will players be able to share items between their own characters through the bank on the same server, or even across factions so long as it’s on the same account?

James: Currently no, you have to do it the old fashioned way through the mailbox, but only if they’re the same faction. There are multiple reasons why we don’t want the different factions to communicate with each other.

We had the big argument that this isn’t like Horde and Alliance, we all speak Galactic Standard so we should just allow it. So we actually did allow it for a little while. The argument against it was that, what happens is people start saying inappropriate things to the other side. That’s just the way it is when you’re on a different side and you gank each other, people tend to say inappropriate things.

So we thought that maybe it won’t be so bad, but then when we started doing testing with external people, and then we’d look at the chat logs and say, OK, that’s gone. And it wasn’t the swear words that were bad, let’s just say that lots of inappropriate things get said. Usually our testers are more mature, and if this is what was happening with them, imagine what will happen when we go out into the wild.

We just wanted to get rid of that, so that’s another reason why you can’t mail your incredibly dirty messages to members of the opposite faction. The unfortunate thing is that’s just human nature. Suddenly Empire players would start sending horrific messages – and I mean horrific – so that’s what we want to avoid.

Ten Ton Hammer: Maybe you could work that into some kind of system where you can gain dark side points based on how horrific your mail is…

James: *Laughter* I don’t think we want any systems connected to the things that would be said, that’s the thing.

Ten Ton Hammer: How does that translate to something like a PvP environment then? Is it a case where you’ll only see chat from other players of your own faction, and don’t see the other faction’s chat at all?

James: You won’t see the other faction’s chat at all, so they can’t chat with you and you can’t chat with them.

Sigh, I wanted to write something about the great possibilities CFC (cross-faction communication) gives roleplaying-wise (but also in community-building, and yes, precisely also because of the bad side of it) but it's useless, devs these days will always find the easiest way out for the immature kids out there. Fuck.

[Mrbloodworth]

Best to avoid the inevitable shit talk.

[Lucas]

Best to avoid the inevitable shit talk.

Yes, and that bottom line I can't  argue with; it's just that...I don't know, maybe it's because I see the enormous potential when it comes to cross-faction guilds and cross-faction storylines (IF DONE RIGHT, of course, and that's a big "if") have, so I wish people would embrace that idea instead of artificially blocking any creative idea. But hey, maybe I need to go back to earth and notice the hell we live in, I don't know.

[Sky]

Let's just say I'm WICKED FUCKING DUBIOUS of those who are testing this game.

[Mrbloodworth]

If this was a more player focused game, perhaps with some sort of diplomacy or regional land war system, maybe. This game is so on rails, its just best to avoid all the strife. I think you are thinking of another game Lucas.

[Lucas]

If this was a more player focused game, perhaps with some sort of diplomacy or regional land war system, maybe. This game is so on rails, its just best to avoid all the strife. I think you are thinking of another game Lucas.

Yes, in theory (I say so because the sandbox portion is quite barren, nowadays :P) I prefer sandbox games a lot more than theme parks, and again in theory, CFC works better in those ones, of course.

[Kirth]

Yes, and that bottom line I can't  argue with; it's just that...I don't know, maybe it's because I see the enormous potential when it comes to cross-faction guilds and cross-faction storylines (IF DONE RIGHT, of course, and that's a big "if") have, so I wish people would embrace that idea instead of artificially blocking any creative idea. But hey, maybe I need to go back to earth and notice the hell we live in, I don't know.

Forced spiting your players down the middle is mind bogglingly dumb. Especially in this game where you have this much lauded darkside/lightside system. I'm sorry to get all lore nerd here but if you pick sith but make all light side choices your not on the evil side anymore, There was even footage from comic-con of a quest where a jedi redeems a sith and later in that guys story that sith is working with the republic. so much potential wasted.

[Mrbloodworth]

Kill 500 orcs Troopers to convert?

[Lucas]

Ok. looks like Georg Zoeller is coming to the rescue on the official forums (bold is mine):

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=8314508#edit8314508

Today , 05:34 PM
   
Guys,

Let's back up for a minute and clarify what's going on here.

Nothing has changed since San Diego Comic Con.

As discussed at SDCC, the decision was made to separate the general chat channels by faction. However, this decision ONLY affects the planet-wide chat channels such as "General Chat." If you're standing next to another player (local chat), you can talk to them regardless of what faction you're part of.

The only thing we removed, as already mentioned at Comic-Con, was the ability to communicate with the opposing faction across the entirety of a planet to avoid the issues (like griefing, abuse, and other factors which led to a very unpleasant experience) which we saw way too often in testing.

We discussed the option of hiding the global chat and defaulting it off, but ultimately the ratio of negative incidents was too high to justify that. The reasoning here is simple: We really didn’t want to create a game option that essentially says "

• Give me an 80% chance of having an infuriating and annoying chat experience," and putting the onus on the user ("you can just /ignore them") is not our idea of a quality game experience.

Removing planet-wide cross-faction chat radically reduces the amount of reach a misbehaving player has before account action can be taken. We’ll likely add the ability to filter local cross faction chat as well.

Hopefully that clears it up a bit.
Georg "Observer" Zoeller
Principal Lead Combat Designer

[caladein]

Always assume your players are cheating xenophobic bastards and design your systems accordingly.  Otherwise you're just going to spend a lot of money on customer service and dev time to patch out someone's wide-eyed idealism.

[Merusk]

Keeping local chat in is the worst idea of them all.   Shit talking in PVP encounters will be tremendous.  Each and every "horrible thing" they saw on global will be macroed so it can be spammed once your opponent is dead.   Much like /spit or /wave or /laugh in WoW BGs.

[Rasix]

We’ll likely add the ability to filter local cross faction chat as well.

I imagine this is the first thing I'll do on every character.  It's like getting out of general or trade chat back in the day.

[Morfiend]

Best to avoid the inevitable shit talk.

During alpha and beta for WoW they had cross faction communication. They actually removed it half way through beta, as upward of 70% of the GM petitions had to do with CFC harassment.

[Threash]

Rift has cross faction communication without any issues.  There is about 10x more in faction shit talking than cross faction.

[Paelos]

Rift has cross faction communication without any issues.  There is about 10x more in faction shit talking than cross faction.

WoW just has Alliance.

OMG YOU F'KING NOOBS STOP GUARDING THE FLAG, ALLIANCE SUCKS!

[Lantyssa]

Best to avoid the inevitable shit talk.

Yes, because it proved horrendous in RIFT.  No, wait...

[kildorn]

Rift has cross faction communication without any issues.  There is about 10x more in faction shit talking than cross faction.

All my BGs were just trash talking the other side.

Cross faction chatter just.. lacks any real up side that I can see. You gain a minor chance for roleplaying, and lose a lot to ... the internet.

[Lantyssa]

Nevermind:  Lots more stuff after what I quoted.

[Rasix]

To be a little mean to Rift, I think it lacks the critical mass to be any sort of example on this.  Plus, the crowd that SWTOR is going to draw will be infinitely more vile.

[kildorn]

To be a little mean to Rift, I think it lacks the critical mass to be any sort of example on this.  Plus, the crowd that SWTOR is going to draw will be infinitely more vile.

Please, incest and hilariously age inappropriate relationships are canon! :P

But really, I dislike cross faction chatter. Because it goes.. bad places. And I don't like the idea of having to wait another hour on my quest mob won't spawn above the ground because all the GMs are busy sorting out who exactly was being a dick to who.

[Lantyssa]

'Whom' you pink-skinned, fleshy freak.

[kildorn]

I speak Texan.

[Ingmar]

I hope they give us the option to turn it off, I'm with Rasix, I don't *want* the other side to be able to talk to me.

[Shatter]

I hope they give us the option to turn it off, I'm with Rasix, I don't *want* the other side to be able to talk to me.

Nothing more lame then dying in PvP and getting a tell "LOL YOU SUCK L2P!!" or some crap. SWG comes to mind here

[Amaron]

Best to avoid the inevitable shit talk.

Yes, because it proved horrendous in RIFT.  No, wait...

I'm guessing you guys played on PvE or RP-PvE servers?

[Ingmar]

Randomly being matched up against other servers does not thrill me, there's very little opportunity to build up rivalries against opponents you see all the time that way.

[Nebu]

I hope they give us the option to turn it off, I'm with Rasix, I don't *want* the other side to be able to talk to me.

I'd be happy if I didn't have to watch their emotes either.  I love to pvp in these games.  I just don't want to listen to/read the rants of 13 year olds while I do it. 

[Surlyboi]

Yet another reason I don't PvP in MMOs.