When it comes to chat id's I would just take a page from Discord's handbook. Give us an @insertplayernamehere or #insertplayernamehere so we can ping specific people or quickly private message a friend, I'd they're offline any pinged messages would go to their mailbox.
Maybe add a mailbox icon to the sidebar of our player interface, kind of like a tutorial tip but its always there. It would flash when a new message arrives.
In the case of guilds you closed do an @leader, @admin, @moderator, @everyone, @online etc... so people can get in contact quickly. Also give guild leaders the power to determine who can ping who.
And of course add a silencer/hush/mute option to the options menu for the people who don't want to deal with mailbox notfications.
I get it, that its a kid game, but its parent job to keep things " between the line and in the correct circle " comes to appropriate content and actions on the game.
But one of my suggestions on this, is - " add a verbal talk feature ". Besides, i get so tired at end of the day from work, i dont feel like talking - " texting wise ". So be nice if we have a " push to talk feature " for 18 and up for adults and member's only. So that way, the feature is for mature audience only....
When it comes to preventing the complete exchange of information, that's basically impossible.
No matter what KI does people will continue to find ways of getting around the chat filter.
This is a massive issue though. One of the main reasons KI tries to be as strict as it is, is because they fear back lash for anything that may go wrong. At some point you have to realize the constant crackdowns and addition of new restrictions become more harmful than helpful.
You can't innovate if you're constantly being restricted on how you can innovate.
I get it, that its a kid game, but its parent job to keep things " between the line and in the correct circle " comes to appropriate content and actions on the game.
But one of my suggestions on this, is - " add a verbal talk feature ". Besides, i get so tired at end of the day from work, i dont feel like talking - " texting wise ". So be nice if we have a " push to talk feature " for 18 and up for adults and member's only. So that way, the feature is for mature audience only....
But how does one moderate such a feature?
I've run Discord for various games in the past, including a small Wizard101 discord server for my friends and I. And moderating a text channel is infinitely easier than moderating a voice channel.
Dealing with social misconduct in voice channels can quickly deteriorate into a "he said, that she said, that this guy said, that this girl said..." issue. In a text channel it's easy enough to get a snap shot of the conversation so there's physical evidence of what was and was not said.
As I understand it the Wizard101 in-game player report system takes not only takes note of the conversation that occurred at the time of the report, but also what led up to it and what transpired following the report. I do not know if this format could be worked into a voice chat type scenario, which would mean finding new ways of moderating such a feature.
What I mean to point out is that voice channels open up their own unique can of worms. Don't get me wrong it would be a cool idea to see in game, but perhaps such a thing is better left to different communication platforms.
This is a massive issue though. One of the main reasons KI tries to be as strict as it is, is because they fear back lash for anything that may go wrong. At some point you have to realize the constant crackdowns and addition of new restrictions become more harmful than helpful.
You can't innovate if you're constantly being restricted on how you can innovate.
True, and I am all for a less restrictive form of communication for non-open chat players.
However, the rules and restrictions are in place for a reason. Keep in mind the general age group which these restrictions are meant to protect. Mainly 10 to 13 year-old children who've gotten their parents permission to use text chat.
I honestly do not believe it is the 10 to 13 year-old kids who are finding ways of weaseling around the chat filters.
I think it far more likely the people who are working around the filters are much older individuals who possess more developed communication skills, problem solving skills, as well as a wider vocabulary.
These individuals are the ones we have to worry about in addition to the children. Horrible, dangerous people exist, and they use the internet as a mask all too often.
Kids can be respectfully naive when it comes to online interactions, and thus can easily fall prey to all sorts of despicable acts and happenings. As I said earlier the restrictions are in place for a reason, when addressing the issues with things like text chat it is important to consider who these rules were initially made to protect.
Yes its annoying for the adults who are unfortunately stuck using text chat, however it is possible to obtain open chat via other means. There are a plethora of posts concerning how one can go about obtaining open chat so I won't repeat their messages here. If you're curious I would recommend contacting KI under the "Contact Us" tab.
I can see a guild system being implemented on Wizard101, but in a limited form. They can let a person create a guild name with no restrictions that has be approved by KI.
Have a Club Penguin type mail system that has prewritten messages that let you teleport to the postcard such as "guild meeting" and the location can be at the guild leaders house.
You can add a guild vs guild option in practice pvp. Add a list of guild houses to visit such as the igloo system on Club Penguin.
You can also add a big guild leaderboard that has many different sections to it such as highest rated pvp guild (average of top 4 players ranked pvp rating that are in the same guild), best rated guild house (guild members get half a vote while non guild members get a full vote), most teams helped guild (counts the amount of teams any player in a guild has helped through the team up kiosk)
Hi Wizards! As some of you have seen, we've lifted the ban on talking about guilds and groups both in the forums and in-game. We want to find ways to get players together to enjoy the game, and this is one of those ways.
However, we are still keeping actual contact IDs from being posted, such as phone numbers, Discord names, and other outside names.
This presents a clear problem... how do you get together if there's no contact information?!
Well, we're open to suggestions from the community on ways to safely make this communication still happen. Thoughts?
Lets talk Guilds. I've played a lot of MMORPGs in the past and I feel like this would be a good feature in the game. Guilds would bring people in came to come together in more ways than just to quest or PvP. My idea of a Guild is of course someone to run it, other people to be higher ups, A Guild Hall that can be decorated (You guys could easily make an extra teleport icon and a couple Guild Halls about the size of the Massive Fantasy Palace or maybe bigger for people to teleport to as long as they're in the guild), Daily or weekly guild assignments (like defeating a certain boss or doing a certain dungeon, etc), Guild leveling system with perks or a guild shop or something along those lines so people have something to work for. Personalized guild banner (You could easily take the personalized flag system from Pirate101 and incorporate it here). I'd rather see new features in the game than a higher level cap and new world. I really think it would be a great feature and could possibly get people more interested. I've played the game for 10 years and would be glad to brainstorm ideas with you guys on any topic of the game as I've played the game long enough to have the knowledge to talk about improvements, new features, etc.
Communication in game is a huge problem, especially for people who play beastmoon or ranked pvp. I have several suggestions.
First, the open chat filter has gotten ridiculously and arbitrarily restrictive over the past few years. Every time I ask KI staff why I was warned or muted, no one can identify anything wrong that I said. KI needs to recognize that people make typos, and that this is especially likely to happen when they are rushing to type fast in beastmoon or other team events. People who are muted or who live in fear of being muted are trying to take their communications off the game.
Second, disallowing communications for people who are in ranked pvp or in beastmoon is completely unnecessary. A friend and I spent many hours of the latest beastmoon event just trying to chat friends who were also playing beastmoon. We weren't able to reach anyone to form a team and it was incredibly frustrating. Please allow us to chat friends in beastmoon so we can organize teams and not waste a lot of time just trying to communicate. I don't even understand the reason for these restrictions.
Third, we need account-wide friends or chats. Many of my friends are running 2 or more accounts. I don't have space to add all their wizards. Sometimes I don't even realize they are playing because we just aren't on wizards that have each other added. Switching around wizards to look for someone on a different friend list is an incredibly poor way to handle this, and it is disruptive to everyone in an organized group to have people leaving to try to do this. (And if they are playing pvp or beastmoon, or training pets, even if I do find them, I still cannot talk to them.) We need to have an account-wide friends or chat channel so that we can always chat our friends who are on.
Fourth, how about a mailbox system like in some other games where we can leave messages for each other?
Lastly, there are players who grew up with wiz and are now about 20 years old and yet somehow they still cannot get open chat.
Regarding groups, can we have a slightly different color for the group chat box? Sometimes people do not realize which box they are chatting in.
I think the social aspect of this game is something many longtime players appreciate and a lot more attention should be paid to helping players communicate, especially the easy stuff like rolling back some of the unnecessary restrictions added in recent years. Thanks.
If KI really wants players to get together and be more social, why is there a level 30 requirement on the new adventure party system? Do low level players not want to quest with people? Are they not worthy of joining groups? Hard to get excited about an update from which I'm being arbitrarily excluded. Not nice at all.
Has ANY thought been given to an in-game messaging system?
Since I left my first comment two years ago, I found a non-toxic social media board where I can communicate instantly with anyone else online. I have received assistance from that group. Had real-time communication.
I love the new Adventure Groups but without a way to contact the group members it isn't all that helpful.
Of all my in-game friends I have one, ONE who I cannot contact via social media. I have no way of knowing when she will be online or not. We cannot schedule times to be on to help each other out.
If W101/KI is truly wanting to be more social we need some way to contact or message friends who are not online. An in-box mail system where I can leave a message from someone on my friends list (Hey, I'll have free time tomorrow from 1-3 if you need help) or bulletin board system where I can post a message would be a great addition to the game.
Emphasizing on the mailbox system recommendation, have it set to allow only people within each age range to be able to communicate with each other through a filter so that everybody is protected in that aspect. Maybe only allow access to mailbox if you have text or open chat to protect the younger kids from getting unwanted messages and invites.
Emphasizing on the mailbox system recommendation, have it set to allow only people within each age range to be able to communicate with each other through a filter so that everybody is protected in that aspect. Maybe only allow access to mailbox if you have text or open chat to protect the younger kids from getting unwanted messages and invites.
That would have to worked out. Because a unilateral ban against age ranges would prevent me from e-mail my grandchildren (who do play btw)
Also, W101 has had past trouble with underage players aging into an older group but nothing can be done to electronically age them due to privacy laws.
As a long-time player, I have seen a lot of good ideas in this thread. A mailbox for offline messages and a way to be friends with all of your friend's Wizards at once instead of each individual character would be a good start. I shudder to think of how many friend slots my accounts take up on some of my friend's lists. The entire reason I ever went to Facebook or Discord instead of sticking with the social tools built into the game was that I constantly ran out of room on my friend list.
As a community leader running a group of over 39,000 Wizards and Pirates, I caution you to consider just how much work you are putting on the plates of unsupported volunteers by refusing to prioritize this issue. It is 2022, and this message board has been outdated for a long, long time. Once, I loved this game. I had time and inspiration to play it, write articles, stream, and make art. But now, I am busy managing a community without support, and it has burnt me out from enjoying the game I once loved.
This isn't my job. I have no professional support and no one to turn to when serious issues arise. It's very hard and very unfair. This game used to be my escape. I want to be a player again just having fun. If I shut my group down, I am sure other groups would replace it. But will they be safe for every player? Will they respect your terms of service as we do? I hope you guys make it a priority to figure something out soon because it is not sustainable or fair to expect your players to do this job for you as volunteers.
I don't like the idea of guilds and groups because I mainly play solo or help random people in game.
I played good game empire and it is a guild based game, which I really enjoyed but it definitely caters to people who have a larger community of friends and in game players or who can play more often (this will benefit more streamers and discord server groups) more than single players/casual players.
