Console Text Chat yet?

slipHAZARD

CJohnson81 wrote: »

slipHAZARD wrote: »

Nice example. For the people that argue you can't see the font - this blows that argument out of the water

Thanks man appreciate it. Made the vid while laying on the couch with a simple $10 bluetooth keyboard (not that it's even needed) never once had an issue reading the chat on my tv. Infact no argument against text chat holds any sort of merit .

Yeah, this is solid. Thanks for the demo! It's hard to argue against something that works.

I wonder what it would take on their end to implement something like this. It could possibly be a really long term problem to solve. I work in an entertainment industry as well, and believe me, the creators really do love the game and want us to enjoy it. There's got to be something behind the decision to leave the discussion untouched. For all we know, there's someone's boss in a room just saying no every time it comes up.[/quote]

I honestly can't see it being that huge of an ordeal to implement simple text chat. But even if it is, it's something that NEEDS to be done. Every MMO has it, even Console MMOs.

I really do think at this point the only reason why this issue hasn't seriously been discussed and addressed is because of the devs stubbornness/arrogance to admit that they fudged up by not having it in the game in the first place. Probably just one person in particular who made the decision and if they were to include it now would mean that person was wrong all this time. Either that or they just don't give a shart about the console version. Because there is NO reason what-so-ever for the game not to have this very basic and much needed/requested feature.

BigMac_Smiley

There has been thousands of comments about this topic since launch, and not once since after launch has ZOS commented on the subject. They have even gone as far as deleting comments about it during there eso live episodes on twitch. To me that means they do not want to add it or even consider it. They are just hoping people will give up on it, and it had come close to that. This is the first topic in a long time to pick up traction. People are learning to live without it. For me I decided to cut my losses and move back to PC, and text chat makes it a 100 times better.

Snowstrider

Sadly no Even if its still such a huge requested feature ZOS keep ignoring it and Comes up with stupid excuses like that console players dont like to type or wont bother using it. How do they explain that i and many other people have got more text messages on eso then any other online game on consoles? Why not make it easier for us zos? Cmon

Asherons_Call

BigMac_Smiley wrote: »

There has been thousands of comments about this topic since launch, and not once since after launch has ZOS commented on the subject. They have even gone as far as deleting comments about it during there eso live episodes on twitch. To me that means they do not want to add it or even consider it. They are just hoping people will give up on it, and it had come close to that. This is the first topic in a long time to pick up traction. People are learning to live without it. For me I decided to cut my losses and move back to PC, and text chat makes it a 100 times better.

I agree that those of us that originally fussed about it have given up,... but this topic will never completely go away since we get at least one soul shriven every couple of weeks joining the forums exclusively to ask about why we don't have text chat.

SevenKingdoms

Eleusian wrote: »

Text would make grouping way to ez on console. Hence no one would use group finder. People that work on fixing group finder would have to do something else. Fix bugs or whatever

^^ Lol at this. So wrong.

slipHAZARD

Snowstrider wrote: »

Sadly no Even if its still such a huge requested feature ZOS keep ignoring it and Comes up with stupid excuses like that console players dont like to type or wont bother using it. How do they explain that i and many other people have got more text messages on eso then any other online game on consoles? Why not make it easier for us zos? Cmon

That's seriously all they can come up with at this point, excuses. There's no sensible or logical reason why text chat shouldn't be implemented and every argument against it has been disproven numerous times over.

So if all the arguments against it have been debated and shot down and it's clearly been proven that the majority of console gamers want/NEED this feature. You're left with only one reason why text chat isn't in ESO, flat out Developer incompetence. Now that's not to bash the devs but it's the only conclusion one can draw when you look at everything presented and discussed. Also by incompetence I am not implying that they are un-able to do their job, I'm sure they are all very talented people. But it's their failure to comprehend and overcome whatever it is keeping them from improving their game with text chat that makes them incompetent.

And personally I would be a paying subscriber for the game if it had text chat. The game is good. But sadly on consoles it feels primarily like a single player game without text chat. And that's something I'm not going to pay a monthly subscription for.

I mean how crazy is it that in a MMO, if I'm having difficulty in one area or boss and I see some one around that I can't simply send them a message or type in open world chat "hey would you mind helping me out with this boss real quick". In every MMO that i've played that's how 90% of my friends in that game were made.

lol even every single review for the game when it came out stated in one way or another how barren and empty the game feels without text chat.

Again, the only conclusion one can draw is Developer Incompetence

Just my opinion

Asherons_Call

Not sure about developer incompetence.. These guys are working for one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. I'm sure your resume has to be pretty solid.

I'm leaning more towards this being a high level decision from a director or a VP that is excluding text for budget reasons

Shunravi

I wonder if its some sort of policy thing a la; http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/182032/so-xb1-and-microsoft-are-the-reason-eso-doesnt-have-2-big-megaservers-between-all-3-platforms/p1

slipHAZARD

Asherons_Call wrote: »

Not sure about developer incompetence.. These guys are working for one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. I'm sure your resume has to be pretty solid.

I'm leaning more towards this being a high level decision from a director or a VP that is excluding text for budget reasons

No no like I said I'm not saying they aren't capable of doing it and yeah I'm sure they are probably very talented people. I was more referring to the company/developer as a whole rather then specifically people like the programmers. At this point maybe budgetary reasoning is behind it, mainly because the game didn't do as well as they hoped financially. But it should've been implemented at the start before all that.

And if I remember correctly when the PS4 came out Developers and Publishers alike praised the PS4 for being so easy/compatible with PC development. In fact I believe it's the reason why most PS4 Console "exclusives" still get a PC release. So if they already had it, scripted and working with the PC versions UI, I seriously doubt it would have been a huge money sink to include it into the console version.

I believe for whatever "artistic" reasoning behind it they decided to exclude text chat in the console version. Which was a BIG mistake. And the fact they have not rectified that mistake again leads me to Developer Incompetence, whether it be ego/arrogance/stubbornness .

slipHAZARD

Shunravi wrote: »

I wonder if its some sort of policy thing a la; http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/182032/so-xb1-and-microsoft-are-the-reason-eso-doesnt-have-2-big-megaservers-between-all-3-platforms/p1

I can't see what policy there would be that excludes text chat

CJohnson81

Shunravi wrote: »

I wonder if its some sort of policy thing a la; http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/182032/so-xb1-and-microsoft-are-the-reason-eso-doesnt-have-2-big-megaservers-between-all-3-platforms/p1

Yeah, someone did mention it being a problem with Microsoft and Sony a while back. I could imagine those companies demanding tweaks, ZOS just not getting their solutions approved, and with the launch being delayed as it was, the decision being made to drop it. Someone once commented that the PC text chat isn't all that great anyway, so perhaps taking that exact chat over to console was just going nowhere.

I don't think it's a matter of ZOS treating consoles like red-headed step children (I actually think we get preferential server performance, equating to almost no lag and few loading screens. That could also be because the hardware is standardized more vs PC, but I digress).

Snowstrider

NO it isnt and had never been a Microsoft sony thing its all becouse of Zos. Most mmos on consoles have text chat

slipHAZARD

Snowstrider wrote: »

NO it isnt and had never been a Microsoft sony thing its all becouse of Zos. Most mmos on consoles have text chat

100%

I understand the no cross platform servers but text chat..... That's all down to ZOS

bedlom

Yes, yes and yes.

Can you stop this nonsence pls zos, and pls give us a chat box on console for the love of all.

CJohnson81

Snowstrider wrote: »

NO it isnt and had never been a Microsoft sony thing its all becouse of Zos. Most mmos on consoles have text chat

I'm just doing a little more research into this, and I was wondering, what other MMO's are available on XBOX One? So far only turning up Neverwinter and all of the posts (most over 8 months old) say that it's text chat is buggy and doesn't even work unless you are over level 30. Some people reported that the XB1 isn't recognizing their keyboard. Anyone have an update to that messed up situation?

I'm also finding reports from July that say that keyboard support for XBOX One during gameplay is still in the works, period. So, while you can use the USB keyboard for web browsing and simple messaging within XBOX live, it's laggy, and not supported in-game.

The demo posted above was for DCUO, which is not on XBOX One. Final Fantasy is also not on XB1. Both games were also released on previous generation machines - which were completely different consoles on the inside (hence the hurdles to backwards compatibility).

So far my research has shown me that no newly released current-generation console MMO has working text chat. I'm new to this space, so please correct me if I am mistaken.

I'm also starting to think that maybe it's Microsoft who can't get the text chat to work, while Sony actually can, so ZOS have just made the console versions the same while Microsoft gets its act together. Remember that XB1's main goal was to become an everything machine with integrated live TV, gaming and other entertainment - all voice activated from the comfort of your couch. The keyboard doesn't really fit into that vision.

Dradhok

I think I just figured out why they won’t put text chat on console. They are worried that all of us console players will quit coming on the forums to enjoy chatting with text.

Spliffo

reguvin wrote: »

On the PC ESO every Player Knows eachother, thanks to Text Chat. Its used alot


On the Console ESO people Play together but they dont know eachother. They never Talk on Voice Chat

Haha this is the biggest load of crap Iv heard from these repeated txt chat treads yet. Consoles have great communities and just about everyone that plays enough knows each other. Maybe you should stop being anti social and plug your mic in and get into area chat around any of the cities that have people in them, you might just get to know someone yourself

slipHAZARD

CJohnson81 wrote: »

Snowstrider wrote: »

NO it isnt and had never been a Microsoft sony thing its all becouse of Zos. Most mmos on consoles have text chat

I'm just doing a little more research into this, and I was wondering, what other MMO's are available on XBOX One? So far only turning up Neverwinter and all of the posts (most over 8 months old) say that it's text chat is buggy and doesn't even work unless you are over level 30. Some people reported that the XB1 isn't recognizing their keyboard. Anyone have an update to that messed up situation?

I'm also finding reports from July that say that keyboard support for XBOX One during gameplay is still in the works, period. So, while you can use the USB keyboard for web browsing and simple messaging within XBOX live, it's laggy, and not supported in-game.

The demo posted above was for DCUO, which is not on XBOX One. Final Fantasy is also not on XB1. Both games were also released on previous generation machines - which were completely different consoles on the inside (hence the hurdles to backwards compatibility).

So far my research has shown me that no newly released current-generation console MMO has working text chat. I'm new to this space, so please correct me if I am mistaken.

I'm also starting to think that maybe it's Microsoft who can't get the text chat to work, while Sony actually can, so ZOS have just made the console versions the same while Microsoft gets its act together. Remember that XB1's main goal was to become an everything machine with integrated live TV, gaming and other entertainment - all voice activated from the comfort of your couch. The keyboard doesn't really fit into that vision.

I 100% understand your point and questions but it still has nothing to do with why ESO doesn't have text chat. I'll try to address your points in sections.

1. Regarding Neverwinter and the reddit example provided about in game text chat, these are some quotes from the very first reply :
"lots of people do the chat"
"Some people can be annoying or spammy but I honestly welcome the "connected" feeling that the text chat in MMOs brings."
"People will get better at using this feature as time goes on."
"It can be a pain to use the text chat with the in-game keyboard but it's still FAR better than voice only"
"it's alot easier to type text out if you download the Smartglass app"
So yes, while it may be buggy for that one specific game, they still at least have the option to use it or not. And as your own example proves, the benefits to having it far out weighs the negatives

2. Xbox One and it's external keyboard support isn't an issue. Both consoles have their own keypads and some/a lot of games developed have their own keypads for when you need to type something. For the precise reason that if you don't own a USB or Bluetooth keyboard you are still be able to text and chat with your friends or input data.

3. For Neverwinter, DCUO or FFXIV you DO NOT need a keyboard in order to have text chat.

4. There aren't many Current Generation MMOs out there because the current generation is still rather new as well as main stream console MMOs in general. But even Phantasy Star Online which was released on the Dreamcast back in 2000 had keyboard and text chat support.

4. The keyboard argument flat out doesn't hold water

CJohnson81

slipHAZARD wrote: »

I 100% understand your point and questions but it still has nothing to do with why ESO doesn't have text chat. I'll try to address your points in sections.

1. Regarding Neverwinter and the reddit example provided about in game text chat, these are some quotes from the very first reply :
"lots of people do the chat"
"Some people can be annoying or spammy but I honestly welcome the "connected" feeling that the text chat in MMOs brings."
"People will get better at using this feature as time goes on."
"It can be a pain to use the text chat with the in-game keyboard but it's still FAR better than voice only"
"it's alot easier to type text out if you download the Smartglass app"
So yes, while it may be buggy for that one specific game, they still at least have the option to use it or not. And as your own example proves, the benefits to having it far out weighs the negatives

2. Xbox One and it's external keyboard support isn't an issue. Both consoles have their own keypads and some/a lot of games developed have their own keypads for when you need to type something. For the precise reason that if you don't own a USB or Bluetooth keyboard you are still be able to text and chat with your friends or input data.

3. For Neverwinter, DCUO or FFXIV you DO NOT need a keyboard in order to have text chat.

4. There aren't many Current Generation MMOs out there because the current generation is still rather new as well as main stream console MMOs in general. But even Phantasy Star Online which was released on the Dreamcast back in 2000 had keyboard and text chat support.

4. The keyboard argument flat out doesn't hold water

Thanks for the response. I'll reply in turn.

1. I saw all of the comments saying that people still used text chat despite its flaws in Neverwinter. We don't know what causes those issues, and they may be inherent to the XB1. What we do know is that ZOS attempted text chat at one point and decided to drop it in favor of quick chat. If ESO text chat was buggy, etc. it would be just one more thing to add to the bug fix list. It seems that an executive decision needed to be made.

2.The XB1 Chat Pad wasn't available until November of this year. Without keyboard support, the only option was using the on-screen keyboard. No thank you. The other option is Smartglass, which I think works fine, but again the point to make was that the chat pad was not an option at launch.

3. See above - the on-screen keyboard sucks for anything.

4.We are talking about a current generation MMO and that makes all of the difference in this case. Remember current gen consoles couldn't do backwards compatibility because the system architecture was completely different. So far, we've only had examples of previous generation MMOs with text chat.

The only previous gen MMOs that work with the current gen consoles (after re-release mind you, these aren't being being run in a PS3 emulator on the PS4) are with Sony. I'm starting to see a picture where the limitation is truly with the console and not with the game. Text chat exists in the PC version! Imagine the pain it was to remove the code from the game without breaking it. ZOS would not undertake the dumbing down of their game just because "creative reasons". I think that for whatever reason, they are becoming the scapegoats for something the consoles can't handle in the current generation.

Remember that until XB1 released the big backwards compatibility update recently, the console couldn't play Doom. Doom, of all games - you could play it on a Tamagotchi - didn't work on XB1 without the backwards compatibility update. The engineering required is tough - so tough Sony won't touch it. I think it's speaking volumes to how different these new consoles are when compared to the older versions. That leaves us with one other example of a current gen MMO with text chat, and people just kinda deal with it being a piece of junk.

Asherons_Call

Spliffo wrote: »

reguvin wrote: »

On the PC ESO every Player Knows eachother, thanks to Text Chat. Its used alot


On the Console ESO people Play together but they dont know eachother. They never Talk on Voice Chat

Haha this is the biggest load of crap Iv heard from these repeated txt chat treads yet. Consoles have great communities and just about everyone that plays enough knows each other. Maybe you should stop being anti social and plug your mic in and get into area chat around any of the cities that have people in them, you might just get to know someone yourself

It's not that easy for some people. Not everyone is a social butterfly like yourself. Also "just about everyone that plays enough knows each other" is a generalization and not true.

EZgoin76

Considering all the recent updates to the XB1, including keyboard support, the console limitations are no longer a valid argument. If console limitations were the problem from the start then why not just tell us that instead of the BS excuses they gave us already?

@Spliffo Very few console communities are all that great. They are full of crass, egotistical, meatheads who have no idea how to socialize with the public. Just because were playing a game doesn't mean we should immediately drop all self respect and become Neanderthals. Nine times out of ten, when I go into a town, it sounds like a bunch of twelve year olds who just learned their first cuss words. Also, as soon as a woman speaks they act like even bigger idiots, why?

Not saying it's all bad. Guild chat is generally a lot better. If there's enough on to even hold a conversation.

It's not just a matter of being social. I can be sociable quite easily. That doesn't change the fact not everyone can and that zone wide text chat wouldn't help in other aspects of the game.

Snowstrider

People already use on screen keyboard While they type messages. People send more messages to eachother in eso than any other game on console ive played. So why zos? Just make Everything easier and better for us,your excuses and all arguments cant hold forever

Eztrelle

All...

It's not a technical issue. As an example FF14 has text chat on PS4 and its fine... Just use a USB keyboard and the chat window is fine. I think the real problem comes down to any legal liability/bad press that could be placed at the door of the developer/publisher/hardware vendor should little "Johnny" who gets his ps4 for xmas and plays ESO gets embroiled in chat that is not considered appropriate for a minor. I know it has an 18 certificate BUT there are no restraints that a developer/publisher can demonstrate to say that should a minor have a copy that he would not be exposed to adult conversation or worse. FF14 gets around this by requiring a monthly subscription paid by credit card.. thus giving the developer/publisher a legal get out. The voice chat in ESO console is next to useless... probably for the same reason.

Ez

Eleusian

REMOVE TEXT FROM FORUMs. It should be just like the game

whiteshadow711jppreub18_ESO

Yup still waiting on this ZOS, we need Text chat on Consoles, PvP tactics suck with other alliance members in-game without it..

This is from a PC to Console (PS4) transfer.. So I know what it's like with having Text chat and not having it.

Get it done ZOS, add it in, no excuses. Fix It......

Eztrelle

All...

It's not a technical issue. As an example FF14 has text chat on PS4 and its fine... Just use a USB keyboard and the chat window is fine. I think the real problem comes down to any legal liability/bad press that could be placed at the door of the developer/publisher/hardware vendor should little "Johnny" who gets his ps4 for xmas and plays ESO gets embroiled in chat that is not considered appropriate for a minor. I know it has an 18 certificate BUT there are no restraints that a developer/publisher can demonstrate to say that should a minor have a copy that he would not be exposed to adult conversation or worse. FF14 gets around this by requiring a monthly subscription paid by credit card.. thus giving the developer/publisher a legal get out. The voice chat in ESO console is next to useless... probably for the same reason.

Ez

To add to my comment, I think the same is true for the other massively multiplayer experience that does not require a subscription on PS4.... Destiny. Right from the first release over a year ago players wanted text chat in social hubs in the game in order to organise groups. This never happened and a good reason was never given in both these cases (ESO and Destiny). Having thought about it some more, it's probably not Bungie or Zenomax that don't want to implement it, but rather a requirement from Sony to ensure that legally any development on their hardware that is freely available to a minor does in no way potentially expose them to risk.

If I am right in this supposition, you will never see text chat on the console unless the service becomes a credit card based subscription service and that will never happen.

Nales

I'll will keep this thread bumped everyday until they either add text chat, the servers go down, or I'm no longer playing the game starting now

CJohnson81

Eztrelle wrote: »

All...

It's not a technical issue. As an example FF14 has text chat on PS4 and its fine... Just use a USB keyboard and the chat window is fine. I think the real problem comes down to any legal liability/bad press that could be placed at the door of the developer/publisher/hardware vendor should little "Johnny" who gets his ps4 for xmas and plays ESO gets embroiled in chat that is not considered appropriate for a minor. I know it has an 18 certificate BUT there are no restraints that a developer/publisher can demonstrate to say that should a minor have a copy that he would not be exposed to adult conversation or worse. FF14 gets around this by requiring a monthly subscription paid by credit card.. thus giving the developer/publisher a legal get out. The voice chat in ESO console is next to useless... probably for the same reason.

Ez

To add to my comment, I think the same is true for the other massively multiplayer experience that does not require a subscription on PS4.... Destiny. Right from the first release over a year ago players wanted text chat in social hubs in the game in order to organise groups. This never happened and a good reason was never given in both these cases (ESO and Destiny). Having thought about it some more, it's probably not Bungie or Zenomax that don't want to implement it, but rather a requirement from Sony to ensure that legally any development on their hardware that is freely available to a minor does in no way potentially expose them to risk.

If I am right in this supposition, you will never see text chat on the console unless the service becomes a credit card based subscription service and that will never happen.

The thing is the PS4 mmos that have text chat are re-releases of games from the previous console generation. Only one newly developed MMO for the current generation has text chat and it's buggy. None of those previously released MMOs is on XB1. I think there's something to this. I think the console companies are against keyboard support. Remember, the chat code already existed, why remove it for no reason? The console launch was already delayed, so why add gutting the text chat to the list of things to do? Because they hate us?

Artjuh90

Eztrelle wrote: »

All...

It's not a technical issue. As an example FF14 has text chat on PS4 and its fine... Just use a USB keyboard and the chat window is fine. I think the real problem comes down to any legal liability/bad press that could be placed at the door of the developer/publisher/hardware vendor should little "Johnny" who gets his ps4 for xmas and plays ESO gets embroiled in chat that is not considered appropriate for a minor. I know it has an 18 certificate BUT there are no restraints that a developer/publisher can demonstrate to say that should a minor have a copy that he would not be exposed to adult conversation or worse. FF14 gets around this by requiring a monthly subscription paid by credit card.. thus giving the developer/publisher a legal get out. The voice chat in ESO console is next to useless... probably for the same reason.

Ez

To add to my comment, I think the same is true for the other massively multiplayer experience that does not require a subscription on PS4.... Destiny. Right from the first release over a year ago players wanted text chat in social hubs in the game in order to organise groups. This never happened and a good reason was never given in both these cases (ESO and Destiny). Having thought about it some more, it's probably not Bungie or Zenomax that don't want to implement it, but rather a requirement from Sony to ensure that legally any development on their hardware that is freely available to a minor does in no way potentially expose them to risk.

If I am right in this supposition, you will never see text chat on the console unless the service becomes a credit card based subscription service and that will never happen.

hey should have stated this and not some *** reasons like people don't want to connect a keyboard to console or they can't *** read letters on a tv screen?
things like these are trying to defend ZoS without having any info on it yourself. these are as usefull as a candywrapping. tottally useless

Galbrant

I don't mean to be rude, but who ever decided to ax the text chat for eso console version is mental. I am still flabbergasted when I play the game every time. Trading and Grouping will be even easier if they just have this one core mechanic of mmos. PS4 and XBONE has keyboards functionality and even chatpads that connect to the controller. If I'm going to use voice chat it'll be only in a raid or I am with a friend. Strangers don't get to hear my weird strange voice. They have to earn it.