Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
Recently my wife and I were discussing some aspects of the game when the subject of the commons arose. To be honest, we dislike the commons with a vengeance and are all too happy to stay away from them. The problems we run into are that Wizard City is the only world with a dye shop, and now the only world with a Bazaar. Why do you KingsIsle, force us to return to the one place where most of the problems arise from? I am not saying its only the Wizard City commons but the majority of it is. There are far to many work a rounds and flat out obscene acts that go on there to even warrant our return after school hours and no its not only children. At least I do not think so as some have adult chat but then there are several "children" with that now. I try to help when I am asked or if its asked in general but what can be done? You do not want or care about moderators, saying that they are not needed or that your employees do your moderating. Gee, I have yet to see an employee on the grounds. Nor have I seen any kind of action past your insistence that reports are dealt with. If you do respond KI, please don't give me the same old sob story of what is reportable and what is supposedly done. I want to know that my children are safe and not that you are working on it, or that every thing is okay. Mainly because it isn't. As far as I have seen, you are doing little if any about it. What does it take to make the problems go away? Loss of accounts of those who get tired of it or that do not want their children exposed to the rubbish that you will not clean up? When does the dollar become less important than the people who pay your bills? These are all questions I would love, as well as I am sure others would as well, to see answered.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
While I agree with most of what your saying about the commons area especially in wizard city.
I am not sure much can be done about a lot of the issues you have. aside from perhaps having moderators or Volunteer players(adult) who actively watch the commons area as players with some added features to their client to handle scammers and those making rude work around filtered comments. perhaps a MUTE, or BOOT option depending on offense. I am sure there are plenty of Parents or older players that could devote a couple hours of play time for that here and there.
Much of what I noticed about the commons and also the Ravenwood area, is the SCAMS, the text used to work around the filters, but the problem with working around the filters is if you filter too much it would be impossible to chat at all with your friends or we would all be forced to use MENU chat.
Aside from perhaps my suggestion above do you have any other methods KI could implement that may assist without detracting to much from game play
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
I agree with everything you both said and those are great ideas you have Mysterysoul. I would gladly volunteer to police the area a couple of hours a day.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
I agree that if there could be a dye shop, potions refiller and branch of the Bazaar on each world it would be an excellent thing! Of course, I don't know the logistics of what that would entail, but it seems like the dye shop and potion refiller could be duplicated as easily as all the other shops that appear on each world. Lord knows there is plenty of space available....
But yes, having to run that gauntlet of the WC Commons and then the Shopping District, and having all that "conversation" appear in your chat box afterward is very distasteful.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
This is a universal problem for games that are free to play. It is only magnified that this game is centered towards the younger crowd. Even if someone was booted, accounted deleted, etc because this is a free account they will come back with a different email address. It really would take 24 hour a day volunteer/paid service to monitor (more realms even compounds the issue). Adding another bazaar and dye location will allow players like yourself to bypass "high social areas", but the problem will still be there.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
artistd10353 wrote:
I agree with everything you both said and those are great ideas you have Mysterysoul. I would gladly volunteer to police the area a couple of hours a day.
I agree with the volunteer because i would..I think its hard enough for young kids playing without the temptations of easy play and being ripped off. there was a female offering her self for codes and cards..Something wrong in the neighbor hood. The bad words being spelled is just wrong too. The common areas and shop area are getting to become the PITS of wizard city. Otherwise when do you plan on opening SOME new worlds?
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
kingurz wrote:
Adding another bazaar and dye location will allow players like yourself to bypass "high social areas", but the problem will still be there.
That is what most of us want and as far as the problem will still be there, its KI's problem and they refuse to fix it. If they will not fix the problem, then at least give us a viable workaround with dye shops and a bazaar in another location NOT accessible by the free players limitations. That way we do NOT have to put up with it and I will not have to spend 30 minutes of my time reporting every time i return to the dreaded commons of WC. Sad part is, my wife and I both enjoy sharing our knowledge with others as well as handing out gold cards on occasion. Can't do that anymore without several getting mad at you for limiting what is given and reporting you for not giving more. If you will not fix the problem KI, at least fix the situation.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
All very valid points and I agree 100%. Here is what I do to get around the problems in The Commons.
I go to a very empty realm. Stay away from Ambrose at all costs and all the realms on the first page.
If I am in a crowded realm and I don't want to see what others are saying while I run through The Commons on my way to The Bazaar or The Dye Shop, I press Ctrl-G. This turns off the entire User Interface. Nothing appears on the screen at all. You can't see a thing people are saying. When I get to The Dye Shop or The Bazaar, I press Ctrl-G again and User Interface is active again.
Granted, this does not fix the problem in The Commons, but it does keep me from having to see all the shenanigans that are going on there. Hope this helps.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
While I have no idea what this would involve as far as programming is concerned, I would like to offer this suggestion/solution. Create specific realms that are available to the "free" players. Name them accordingly to avoid confusion. As it seems these "players" have an entirely different focus, why not group them all together. Confining these players might actually make it easier to "monitor" them. Once the player has paid to advance in the game, he/she can no longer return to the free realms. This solution would definitely support the paid members who detest returning to the WC commons even when necessary.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
MaidenMagic wrote:
While I have no idea what this would involve as far as programming is concerned, I would like to offer this suggestion/solution. Create specific realms that are available to the "free" players. Name them accordingly to avoid confusion. As it seems these "players" have an entirely different focus, why not group them all together. Confining these players might actually make it easier to "monitor" them. Once the player has paid to advance in the game, he/she can no longer return to the free realms. This solution would definitely support the paid members who detest returning to the WC commons even when necessary.
WoW! I really like this idea. I think you might have stumbled across something. There are good points and bad points to this as well, none of which I can comment on right now unfortunately.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
I have observed it is getting worse. I think we need to make an effort to enforce community rules. There are a few ways to do this.
We can have no cruising rules - so if somebody stays too long in one area in the commons, they instantly get transported to another random area in the game. The same rules should apply to people visiting each other's houses.
Also, while it is true that people can just come back with a new name, they also have to start a new character and that can be a nuisance. People get used to their online personas, and don't really want to change too often. Thus, it is worth it to ban people even though there are technical workarounds.
Another way to assist is to give people reputation points, and if they loose too many, they may have stricter restrictions on how long they can hang out on the commons.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
MaidenMagic wrote:
While I have no idea what this would involve as far as programming is concerned, I would like to offer this suggestion/solution. Create specific realms that are available to the "free" players. Name them accordingly to avoid confusion. As it seems these "players" have an entirely different focus, why not group them all together. Confining these players might actually make it easier to "monitor" them. Once the player has paid to advance in the game, he/she can no longer return to the free realms. This solution would definitely support the paid members who detest returning to the WC commons even when necessary.
1) that is a fantastic idea... just separate them out completely. Have set servers for paying members
2) im getting tired of creating long posts to have them never get posted. -to sum up my long post: "the gift giving idea in the test realm will make this problem 1000x worse"
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
on most games like that the have a GS (game sage) and what they do is the are in the commons in all the "realms" and the watch the chat box and to keep it clean and then you have GM (game master) who are workers for the game that have the power to boot and such as for the GS are players like the rest and have only the power to send names to the GM
but it would be a good idea to hire GS and have them watch over the chat box for i seen a lot of bad talk even though there use non bad words per say how ever some find ways around it and it is not a good idea to let them run a muck
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
we should surely include in game moderators and have a bazaar, potion shop, and a dye shop on each world. i agree with the payers only realm. lastly it should be to where payers can chose if they are on payer or free player realms. If anyone has played or seen the game freerealms they have had in game moderators and it has worked pretty well i haven't seen any bad language and they have a less restrictive speech setting. This game has good settings but there are holes in it.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
Maiden Magic has a wonderful idea however its not the first time that it has been brought up. KI refuses to "segregate" its players and I can understand why. This is not the answer nor will KI instigate it. In game Moderation is the ONLY alternative that KI has at this point to make the game 100% better than it is. The restriction of chat are only as good as the holder of the parental password and in most cases, that is not the parent. So, a good idea goes bad. Many have offered to Moderate for free and yet KI still insist that its employees do the moderating. Okay, where are they? I started about a week after the game went live. Over a year of almost continuous game play later, I have yet to see any employee of KI, they were a special badge and are easily identifiable so I am told, yet I have never seen a single one. KI? When will you take your security issues that you yourselves instated, to the next level? The task force you have at hand is greater than any you could believe possible and its FREE. All it will cost you is the training period to teach us what you want done. Your game environment can ONLY become greater than what it is and a safer place for all of us. Most importantly, OUR children. YOUR bread and money as it were. Let us help you and create the best RPG on the market. Bronze this year, Gold the next. Your call KI. Your task force awaits.
James DreamRider GrandMaster Balance No Retreat No Surrender and No One gets left Behind USArmy Retired
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
So long as people can physically get away with it, it will continue to happen. Reporting the activity may help curb the tide but it will never go away completely.
Solutions?
a. Switch Realms -- the scammers/socialites/freaks, etc will typically flock to the highest pop realm to maximize their effectiveness, just find a low pop realm and you should rarely run into them.
b. Adjust chat/security settings-- Disable bubbles, turn off friend/trade requests, or as previously suggested, disable the entire UI temporarily. Out of sight, out of mind my friend.
Does this solve the problem? Not really, but at least its something we can do to prevent others from ruining our game experience for us. Anyway, just my two cents. :-)
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
I know, the problem is bad but segragation has way too many flaws. I have many free player friends(including free relatives)Sometimes we like to go and farm lord nightshade, but if this happens we will not be able too.Besides, cramming millions of free players in a couple of realms is a bad idea, and would create extreme lag for all players.
Yes the commons do have problems and something needs to be done soon, but this is not the solution.
Re: Do you dislike the commons as much as I do or am I
I just wish they would make another bazaar and pvp. I get so annoyed running, walking, standing, or flying throught the wc common that I turn off everything while i am there.
balloons, text friends and group. i am a grandmaster and no i dont want to make friends with a single digit wizard so they can call me like a genie everytime they need help. AND, you can't possibly have anything i want to trade.
