Please do something about the sharp decline in the quality of zone chat

Celenaro

I was a beta tester. I played during the 5-day early launch. I bought 6 months of paid subscription time right after launch to support the ongoing development of the latest installment in my favorite game series. I remember the way zone chat used to be: helpful, friendly, relevant. I remember the invasion of gold spammers and the fantastic effort Zenimax put forward to eliminate that problem--including active moderation of zone chat. These days zone chat is absolutely horrible once again. I have to turn it off because of all the spam. This time it is not the gold selling bots but immature players flooding every zone's primary communication channel with nonsense. You know what I'm talking about. The people who spam "*** [insert item tag here]", start arguments, troll and harass others. I suspect it is partially an influx of children due to the recent change in the pricing model (which I very much support as long as the crown store continues to sell only DLC, cosmetic, and convenience items).

ESO is rated M. For that rating I would expect an environment where adults can relax and enjoy the game with other adults. The boorish behavior displayed by an extremely vocal minority of the player base makes such an environment difficult and severely harms the in-game social community. We shouldn't have to come to the forums to get a respite from the incessant trash talk. I would like to see Zenimax take this problem as seriously as they did the gold spammers and enforce the rules of these forums in-game through active GM monitoring of zone chat. I'd like to be able to use zone chat again to talk with people about quests, find a group, sell items, and generally shoot the breeze with other players. Am I alone in this? I think ESO is something special and I worry that without any changes to the status quo the community will soon be as trashy and infuriating as most other MMOs.

Rune_Relic

The in game playerbase was one of the things that keep me here too.
Just saying...

Turelus

While I am all for a mature and grown up public chat system there are tool in your hands to handle this yourself.

Firstly if someone is trolling, bothering you or others in chat there is the option to ignore them.
Secondly should any of their talk break the EULA there is the ability to report them.

I don't think all of these are children either and that's labelling that all children are too immature to know better. There are plenty of adults who use chat the same way and they were around even at the launch of the game when it was a paid subscription model.

Tandor

I find the answer to chat problems in ESO is to disable the basic Zone Chat and have the English Zone Chat open instead. I don't encounter any problems with the resulting chat but still get to see people asking/answering questions etc. Based on past experience in other games it may also help that I play on the EU server rather than the NA one.

Sotha_Sil

is this thread real or ?

Grebnu

EU server is mostly fine, hardly ever troll posts or anything. I've ignored one or two guys, so not bad. This game has a lot better chat than most of the MMOs I've played, LoTRO comes close (although because of F2P there is more trolling, luckily it is quite rare).

IGNORE is your friend, and REPORT his beautiful cousin (you shouldn't go to her too much, or you'll get slapped in your face)

Danikat

I've not encountered this problem, I wonder if it's because I'm on the EU server.

But like someone else said if they're breaking the EULA (aka the rules of the game) you can report them and ZOS will take action. If they're not then the best you can do is block them and move on.

I also second the assertion that there's a very good chance some or even all of them are actually adults. I know it might seem logical to assume adults know better but you'd be surprised. I've seen incredibly immature behaviour on sites where it's extremely unlikely anyone under 20 would even attempt to post (for examples ones relating to the practical aspects of home ownership, or hiring employees).

I even have to deal with it at work. At least once a week (usually much more) we get emails like "OMG you have 2 help me i dont no what to do i bet u will never even reply and you dont care but you have to help me or i will do it myself plz reply now". Swearing is relatively rare, but not unheard of. And I have to admit I'm always tempted to reply with "You're right, I don't care. If it's not important enough for you to take the time to type a proper email it's not important enough for me to sort out for you."

Egonieser

Grebnu wrote: »

EU server is mostly fine, hardly ever troll posts or anything. I've ignored one or two guys, so not bad. This game has a lot better chat than most of the MMOs I've played, LoTRO comes close (although because of F2P there is more trolling, luckily it is quite rare).

IGNORE is your friend, and REPORT his beautiful cousin (you shouldn't go to her too much, or you'll get slapped in your face)

Agreed, EU is fine in terms of player chat and maturity. US is where all the trolls reside by the looks of it, as majority of these complaints seem to come from there. Be glad you're not swatted by some kid!!! (LOL, bad joke but you get my point)

ThirtySevenCoins

Like others I have not encountered this on EU server.

Elloa

Yep, same here. On Daggerfall Covenant EU server the chat is as friendly as ever, even in peak time in Wayrest (which I suppose is the busiest city in peak time)

In my experience, best way to keep a chat clean and friendly is to be vocaly friendly. In every situation I always find that the best way to counter an annoyance is to have something nice instead that is more vocal/take more space. Chat is spammed by annoying kids? Start an interesting and mature discussion, or wish everyone a great day. This will not shut up the annoying kids, but will dilute them and they will become more and more insignificant.

If you want niceness and friendlyness to dominate the place, people need to be vocal about it, be more visible, and take more space. It will spread and there will be no space left for the idiots! The idiot will either get bored and stop, either being diluted and becoming insignificant, or they will follow the good example and be nice instead.

andreasv

Just wanted to add that EU server does not show such problems.

phairdon

The Greenshade zone chat became fairly heated & nasty earlier tonight. Would go as far as to say its the worst I've ever read.
Thank goodness its a rare occurrence.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO

Again, this seems to be a mostly US-centric problem. I have heard so many stories about games where chat on the US servers or during US peak hours is full of jerks, idiots, haters and trolls, but EU servers or EU hours are nice and civil. I honestly wonder why.

Some trolls are not broken beyond repair, but I have stopped bothering. It's not my job to make them grow up or learn proper manners. Only in extreme cases do I have to use the /ignore function. at 49 years of age and after decades of online training, my mental /ignore is mostly strong enough.

A real life equivalent is that I'm not feeling forced to pay any attention to loud phone conversations on the bus about much too personal problems, or feel compelled to engage in arguments between strangers I don't want to know. Their life and their problems is not my concern just because I happen to be in the same public space.

Hocofaisan

This one thinks there is a way to turn off zone chat, yes?

Alphashado

It's mostly bad in the lower level zones and it's nothing new. Every MMO has toilet chat in the lower level zones where people hang out that are too dumb or too lazy to level up their characters.

It can get bad in any populated zone though.

And it gets worse with B2P and even worse with F2P

firstdecan

Walk_Brass wrote: »

ESO is rated M. For that rating I would expect an environment where adults can relax and enjoy the game with other adults. The boorish behavior displayed by an extremely vocal minority of the player base makes such an environment difficult and severely harms the in-game social community. We shouldn't have to come to the forums to get a respite from the incessant trash talk. I would like to see Zenimax take this problem as seriously as they did the gold spammers and enforce the rules of these forums in-game through active GM monitoring of zone chat. I'd like to be able to use zone chat again to talk with people about quests, find a group, sell items, and generally shoot the breeze with other players. Am I alone in this? I think ESO is something special and I worry that without any changes to the status quo the community will soon be as trashy and infuriating as most other MMOs.

I would agree that a lot of the zone chat is inane, but it's not a problem that needs to be addressed. They're doing exactly what you want to do: shooting the breeze. An 'M' rating does not mean every player is going to be a sophisticated, educated 30 something with the practiced eloquence and diplomacy of a corporate professional. The game has opened up, for better or worse, to more young adults (18+) who have sporadic income and did not play because they could not afford the sub. Now they're in the game, and they're behaving exactly the same way they do on any other MMO or Xbox live or what have you.

Either turn off zone chat, use the ignore feature (mine is liberally used and I have to clear it out every couple of weeks), or learn to enjoy the inane conversations. It can be quite entertaining if you allow it to be.

Kinsaven

Hocofaisan wrote: »

This one thinks there is a way to turn off zone chat, yes?

Sure, but you shouldn't really have to or feel forced to just because a couple of players can't behave. I enjoy zone chat a lot of the time because there are a lot of decent people who you can have really fun and interesting conversations with.

I agree that in this case ignore, and especially report are your friends. Use it well and use it often, so hopefully these people will be dealt with.

Edit: That is not to say that I wouldn't agree with some extra moderation of chat.

bellanca6561n

Yes, the EU server tends to be more polite but I've never found ESO to be a very polite game really.

Too many anti-social mechanics at work, too little incentive to cooperate, and the least multiplayer of all multiplayer games. That translates into needing other people less which means less incentive to be civil.

It's not the Landroval server of Lord of the Rings Online, not now, not at the beginning, not with or without a subscription.

And with the 5 guild thing, and such massive numbers per guild, even guild chat can be rough.

I simply shut off zone chat. Yes, I wish I didn't have to but that's online gaming with few, precious few, exceptions.

Pallmor

I was in The Rift the other day and the zone chatters didn't even know the difference between a Burgundy and a Bordeaux.

Athas24

Sotha_Sil wrote: »

is this thread real or ?

^^ ha-ha!^^ I was thinking the same thing. Grow up and turn your Zone chat off if you don't like it.. *SMH*

Aett_Thorn

Pallmor wrote: »

I was in The Rift the other day and the zone chatters didn't even know the difference between a Burgundy and a Bordeaux.

Gasp! Who let peasants play this game?

Betahkiin

The ¨WOW¨ effect on the chat channels, finally reached TESO TU...

MercyKilling

Remove zone chat from any and all tabs. Problem solved.

Vyle_Byte

I have played on both servers tho am from US and I definitely have to agree that you dont see this kind of thing on EU. Always enjoyed the chat on that server because people are friendly, it is NA that has this issue. Honestly the only time i really see crap in chat is in the lower level zones. But it has ALWAYS been that way, lower level. Higher level zones just dont seem to attract such immaturity. I wonder if its because the immature never level up (or grow up haha).

LucyferLightbringer

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO wrote: »

Again, this seems to be a mostly US-centric problem. I have heard so many stories about games where chat on the US servers or during US peak hours is full of jerks, idiots, haters and trolls, but EU servers or EU hours are nice and civil. I honestly wonder why.

Do you really wonder why? Or are you just afraid/unwilling to admit the obvious truth i wonder :P

Vyle_Byte

Also, for those who keep saying turn off zone chat, that is the point of OP post yes? He doesn't wish to turn zone off he wishes to enjoy zone chat. Just sayin, that's not the point of the post. Asking for ZOS to do a little moderating in their game really shouldn't be too much to ask. Should be a part of their job.

Athas24

Vyle_Byte wrote: »

Also, for those who keep saying turn off zone chat, that is the point of OP post yes? He doesn't wish to turn zone off he wishes to enjoy zone chat. Just sayin, that's not the point of the post. Asking for ZOS to do a little moderating in their game really shouldn't be too much to ask. Should be a part of their job.

Moderate what? People should be allowed to say/ do whatever they want so long as it's not harassment or breaking any of the codes of conduct. Any more "policing" simply begins to take away free speech in game, and that would be a much larger issue. If someone feels like being an idiot, fine whatever. If they don't, grow up and ignore it or read past it. I think people who are saying remove the chat from the OP's tab are simply saying that there are methods in which one can "deal" with the chat. The point is, if zone chat sucks deal with it... by tolerating it or shutting it off.
Heck you can join 5 guilds. If you want to be social, you could leave guild chats on and turn zone off. If your guilds are full of fools, get new guilds.

Giraffon

The way I deal with this is I have two chat tabs. One tab only shows guild chat, tells, and whispers, the other one shows everything including zone. If zone chatter becomes annoying, I'll just switch to the other tab for a while and then switch back later when things have settled down or when I switch maps.

It works really well. I suggest OP give this approach a try.

RDMyers65b14_ESO

The first thing that I do when I make a new character is to turn off zone. I have had to turn it on in Cyrodil but that is the only place. The immaturity of some of the players is horrendous.

Maidenname

There is no way to control the zonechat.

Yes. @Turelus ...


..

Turelus wrote: »

While I am all for a mature and grown up public chat system there are tool in your hands to handle this yourself.

Firstly if someone is trolling, bothering you or others in chat there is the option to ignore them.
Secondly should any of their talk break the EULA there is the ability to report them.

I don't think all of these are children either and that's labelling that all children are too immature to know better. There are plenty of adults who use chat the same way and they were around even at the launch of the game when it was a paid subscription model.

@'...... I sent a report ... Of course idk what OR any actions will be taken, so I just click the button to ignore THEM.

Now.... The GENUINE question is, what is the maximum NUMBER you can put people on IGNORE? Unlimited???

BigM

Can someone show me where free speech covers the idiot jerks in game? Last I knew this isn't about our rights in a Nation. nope this is about what is in the rules of ZoS. Isn't harassment against those rules and language in zone chat would be covered by that.

Also ignore will only hold so many jerks. It is up to ZoS to over see the chat and kick people that break it. ZoS you created a great RP game and then you allow jerks to ruin it. You already have lost a ton of people over the B2P thing, you really think the people that act like little brats in chat will support you? You already made enough mistakes with the game let us not ruin anything else in it please!