Aug 18, 2011

Posted by in Blue Milk & Cereal | 9 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Do You Like BioWare’s Cross-Faction Chat Solution?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Obviously, communication is a big part of MMO games… How would other players know what you’re doing without it? But most MMO games have more than one faction, and the developer sets limits as to how the communication between those factions should be handled. For example, in World of Warcraft – chat between the two factions is not possible at all. Players on opposite factions are only able to communicate via /emotes and physical character actions. Previous experience suggests that a completely open-channel communication between all factions leads to griefing and corpse camping and other potential “unpleasant” aspects.

With regards to TOR, there were a lot of rumors and speculative threads over the last few days, quickly confirming and denying the presence of a cross-faction chat. This chaos was halted by Georg Zoeller coming out and clarifying the topic in a fairly lengthy post. Here’s the most important bit:

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. 

In my opinion, this is the perfect compromise. The immersion isn’t broken by not being able to communicate with the opposite faction, who in theory are able to speak the same language as you. This also helps out role-playing immensely, as well as provides for just-enough trash-talking when you’re face-to-face with the enemy!

What about you? Do you think there is place for a cross-faction chat in TOR? Do you think BioWare’s decision is too limiting or too open?

Do you like BioWare's implementation of cross-faction chat?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

 

  1. It’s exactly what I was hoping for. It’ll allow for us to RP, but will still keep the two factions separate.

  2. TrooperNick says:

    BioWare knows they can’t always please everyone. By the looks of the poll so far, they have made another good call.

    This Trooper is happy with where cross-faction chat is headed, and I agree fully with Jennifer’s reply.

  3. Just perfect. There will still be abusive comments in /say — but at least it’s kept to a minimum. I really would not have cared if there was absolutely no communication between factions, but this is the best solution imo.

  4. Abner Ford says:

    This was exactly what I was hoping for. I am sure this will be a common sentiment.

  5. Just what I wanted to hear.

  6. Best implemented cross-faction chat that I have seen since playing MMO’s with Meridian 59.

  7. I like the poll… but you’re incorrect about cross faction chat in WoW not being possible at all. When they introduced the Real ID option it is of course now possible. Not only that but also cross realm and cross game i.e. StarCraft.

    • Technically, that’s true… but it’s also true that that kind of “connection” will by default be free of the types of problems that creep into typical chat between players who don’t know each other.

  8. This makes perfect sense to me.

    If you want to be technical, planet or galaxy-wide chat has to be done via some sort of digital communicator. Why would the other faction have default access to what would presumably be encrypted communication? Yet, if you were standing within earshot of someone speaking galactic standard, you should be able to understand them regardless of their faction. Makes perfect sense from an immersion point of view.

    From a gameplay aspect, I can completely understand why you don’t want General or Trade channels being harassed and abused by cross-faction trash talk. If it were, 90% of players would just ignore the channels all together, which defeats the purpose of their existence.

Leave a Reply