Please don't remove guild chat, here's why.

[Roser]

UOAM has some serious issues... over 2 different systems and 3 different OS's, and I've never been able to get it to work properly. It always goes though this buggy downloading patch stage every time I start it. Evan the map only works half the time for me.... I opt out of using this completely due it its sketchy nature.

On behalf of RIP, who uses the hell out of guild chat every day and all day, I strongly recommend guild chat stay's in. We have extensive conversations with guild chat and it acts as a fundamental basis for our guild communication. Many do not use IRC/Forums and are going to be totally lost for chat if this happens (at least for the first little while).

Hate to say it but, this will Harm many RIP member's game play... as well as many others around the shard it would seem.

Party chat... goodbye see ya later don't care, not gonna miss ya.
Guild chat.... I cant live without you, don't ever leave me!.

[Psilo]

Everyone is going to continue to use IRC.

I feel that completely ignoring the UOAM option, which is just like guild chat, and easier to set up than IRC for private communication detracts from your argument.

I am just being realistic, you guys can rationalize all you want about "other forms of communication".

But in a realistic world, here's what's going to happen.

1. People are either going to get IRC and use that, which means less UO gameplay.

OR

2. People are going to just log on less, cause you're making a 10+ year old game an even more hassle. The reason it's a hassle NOW and not in 1999, because in 1999 there was a thriving population, world filled with excitement and people around every corner. Newbies have a much harder time on UOSA than OSI 1999. You can bet your life on that, people who have played this game for years mop the floor with newbies in dungeons and now you're taking away the only form of communication for those that don't use ventrilo! And IRC doesn't work like that you can't say "hey there's 7 peoples running after me" on IRC. You can however on guild chat, and if you think that's abusing anything, then ventrilo isn't? Ventrilo definetly kills interaction and pvp, because people who use it have such an advantage. So it's just silly to take out guild chat at this point.

UO will never be the same, removing guild chat is not helping this old game at all. Especially since we need more new players to keep the game fresh, without an influx of new players thanks to me and other advertisers this shard wouldn't be worth playing. Unless you like seeing the SAME 30 people bank sitting at tournaments with their pretty neon clothing and hair, and for you that is what UO is.... *throws up*

Blackfoot and many other vets have indeed evolved into an IRC community. But for the rest of us that don't use IRC, and minimally use guild chat(cause it's only for saying meet at bank, meet at GH, it's going to really hurt. We're in the game trying to make the best of it we can, those of you who just sit in IRC babbling all day don't even try.

Either way this is all biased opinions. Whether mine or Blackfoot. Although I feel more arguements aren't selfish since I personally don't ever use guild chat, however my newbie guild mates that have 70 swordsmanship/50 resist sure as heck need it.

[Kublai Khan]

I don't think I will be able to play without this feature. I like to chat while I fish, PvM, or crafting w/o getting on ventrilo b/c wife is sleeping. This might be the end game for me. Who cares about party being cut out. Cutting chat is a huge deal.

[Psilo]

I don't think I will be able to play without this feature. I like to chat while I fish, PvM, or crafting w/o getting on ventrilo b/c wife is sleeping. This might be the end game for me. Who cares about party being cut out. Cutting chat is a huge deal.

I'm looking out for players exactly like you. If this was OSI 1999, you'd be fishing with other fisherman around the docks and they would keep you company. You would feel like you're actually in an RPG world.

However, fast forward to year 2010. Everyone power games skills, no one really takes their time with skills and you won't find other fishreman near the docks to interact with while you do your craft. This is why we need guild chat, it helps feel the void sometimes.

One thing guild chat doesn't do is limit player interaction. Let me make that clear, IRC and forums are what does that.. Most players use guild chat to meet up, then proceed to use regular "speech over head" chat. The guilds that interact will continue to interact even with guild chat, the ones that don't will keep using IRC and ventrilo and not play much UO.

"The times they r' a changin'"

[Derrick]

I don't think I will be able to play without this feature. I like to chat while I fish, PvM, or crafting w/o getting on ventrilo b/c wife is sleeping. This might be the end game for me. Who cares about party being cut out. Cutting chat is a huge deal.

I'm looking out for players exactly like you. If this was OSI 1999, you'd be fishing with other fisherman around the docks and they would keep you company. You would feel like you're actually in an RPG world.

However, fast forward to year 2010. Everyone power games skills, no one really takes their time with skills and you won't find other fishermen near the docks to interact with while you do your craft. This is why we need guild chat, it helps feel the void sometimes.

One thing guild chat doesn't do is limit player interaction. Let me make that clear, IRC and forums are what does that. Guild chat isn't as convenient cause journals are annoying to look at so never is guild chat "abused" to where you don't have to interact with players. Most players use guild chat to meet up, then proceed to use regular "speech over head" chat.

"The times they r' a changin'"

My question though was more rooted in, why are people not discussing UOAM as a viable alternative. This would allow players who aren't in the same guild (read as: allies) to communicate too.

I understand the nightmare that installing UOAM used to be, but it installs with our client installer now and works great.

I'm not proposing that the availablity of UOAM has any heavy bearing on whether we're going to keep guild chat or not, it just seems to be purposefully ignored in most of these posts.

[marmalade]

well chatting in UOAM would still involve tabbing from uo, which wouldn't really be viable if you were in a situation where you needed to call for help or organise a group of players in a field fight. same goes for the ingame chat; you wouldn't be able to click on the chat window to ask for assistance if you're being chased by 5 people.

this change will not affect me in the slightest because i use ventrilo. i dont need to tab to ask for help and communicating is generally alot faster than typing. pvpers who don't use ventrilo are already at a disadvantage because of the speed at which they can ask for help/call targets/perform complex tasks which need to be communicated to guildmates in a field fight. all of these things can still be done, but it takes alot longer when you're typing and not talking. removing guild chat will strongly encourage these players to either use ventrilo to compete, or to take up a different playstyle because there is NO way in hell they will be organising themselves in a field fight using ingame chat or UOAM. Its just not going to happen, they will not be able to compete.

i'm not really arguing against the removal of the system because i understand that it is not era accurate, but i'm fairly certain what i have described will happen if it is removed. from a pvpers perspective, there will either be more people using ventrilo, or less people having organised group fights.

[santa12345]

Hey, just wanted to let you all know.
I just finished rebuilding a
"classic"
car with my fellow workers. its really sweet and a lot of people like it.
we wanted to keep it as
"authentic" and "era" accurate
as possible.

we did this by ordering and installing all original parts, so the
"mechanics"
are the same and as authentic as it was
"back in the day".

a few things we debated as co-workers where, tires and radio.

Tires:

we installed brand new tires on mags designed to look like the original. i kind of wanted to go with old school tires and mags to keep it as
"era" accurate as possible. we found that new tires would not fit on the original mags.
i was warned that if we decided to install old rubbers/tires with the
"speed" we have on the
"highways of today", might get a
"connection lost" on the pavement.
which can lead to trouble on the road.

now with the radio.


i argued with some of my co-works, i wanted to keep the AM radio. i wanted it as original as possible.
i told them, keeping every aspect of the car "era accurate" would increase its value. i had a point !!, or did i.
While doing our research, we found that. YES some
"die hard authentic lovers" would pay extra for
"a classic, the way it was, radio".

doing this would close the doors to many
"would be active players" in our bidding war, once we put it on ebay.
why is that? most, or a larger population, enjoys new technology in "a classic" car. Cruising around with the roof down listening to opera/or a talk show host on AM channel is not appealing to most.
If we kept just an AM radio.
they could always
"install" or carrying around
"other communication devices" like an MP3 player with portable speakers. Having extra
"add-ons" would kill the
"in car atmosphere"


in the end, we kept the original design but installed a modern radio, even with MP3. it was in our best interest as sellers and in the best interest of any would be buyers. we have the technology to keep the classic feel with modern perks.

[Faust]

This would matter if we were in fact trying to sell a product.

[Chaos]

If not not mistaken UOAM would be better if you getting chased my 5 guys .. seeing if i remember right you can use a hot key turn on panic mode from in game and it will send out a distress call for you..

Maybe we need a good write up on all UOAM features .. but its been years since I've used it with a group of people.

Any Volunteers??

[BlackFoot]

When it comes to guildchat it wont affect me in the slightest. I just feel that all the arguements against it are really really weak. Usually, when it comes to keep known inaccurate mechanics it is due to some very good reasons.

I would safely bet more players new to uo are familiar with forums, irc, the internet in general, voice comm, and emails than they are with uo. They will not feel disadvantaged if they come here and the system simply does not exist.

Trying to say that it will unfairly disadvantage players who chose to only use guildchat isn't a good arguement for keeping an inaccurate mechanic. It is an optional disadvantage, much the same way the orcs disadvantage themselves in order to RP in a funner way. If you are already, purposely only using guildchat, you are already voluntarily putting yourself at a disadvantage to just about everyone on the internet.

Just because a player is new to UO does not mean they are new to internet gaming. If no one has access to guildchat, then no one is at a disdvantage to anyone else. Everyone has the same access to every other resource, they are free and on the main webpage.

The arguement about it increasing player interaction in game has contradicted itself a few times back and fourth now. Either the person arguing says, I like to communicate with other players at the bottom of dungeons while I am safely inside my house, or they say, it is just a system for us to find each other in game so we can play together. These directly contradict themselves. One arguement says it groups players together and one says it keeps them seperate with no need to meet in game. Pretty ambiguous either way.

I guess the point is, after ten years of internet use, If you can search out and find UO a strange (by modern comparisons), impossible MMORPG, install it, and learn to play it. You can also figeur out how to use UOAM without much trouble.

[Omnicron]

I have been trying to get UOAM to work for 6 months. I say keep guild chat.

[Knoc]

I really have to agree with the OP here. Please don't remove guild chat. I know I'm a very small minority here, but I'm running UOSA on my macbook pro through crossover games. My attempts to get UOAM running have not been.... positive. I know, small minority, but it does make a difference for me.

[BlackFoot]

try the new dl

[MatronDeWinter]

try the new dl

Doesnt work for me either, map shows up black. Yes the new DL.

[Rammar]

I was testing out UOAM chat last night. You can chat without tabbing by typing "-- <message>" in the game window. It's rather slow for me, however, and I got disconnected twice while testing it -- not sure what the issue was there.

I was unable to capture UOAM chat messages using razor, but before Faust jumps all over this, you can still run player activated botnets (legally) using a third-party hotkey program.

If we're getting rid of parties (as seems likely), it should probably be phased out. Removing the extra features of parties (loot rights, fame/karma sharing, etc.) then party-chat along with guild-chat.