If anyone has been following Divinity Original Sin, a cute online RPG with great co-op potential available on Steam, you may have noticed some interesting notes in the game’s latest update. It seems like the developers have chosen to completely abolish the in-game global chat.
In game chat is a staple of online multiplayer games, allowing players to communicate with each other across the virtual world they are playing in. Of course this obviously has numerous positives: it allows players to share tips, group up for help with difficult quests, organise raids or even forge friendships. However as with any online communication, there is a potential for a minority to ruin the experience with abuse and insults. This is no new feature, I remember the early days of World of Warcraft where some areas of global chat reached legendary levels of poor quality and this was in the days when the global chat was one of the best ways of putting together a dungeon group or raid.
The update tells players ‘We switched it off for now as there was just a bit too much profanity and insulting,’ but also explains that the feature will be back once proper moderation tools are in place. Also helpfully, and rather amusingly, linked in the update is an ebook of ‘The Gentleman’s Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness’ by Cecil B. Hartley. Presumably the development team are hoping this to be read up on.
Various games have taken different approaches to profanities and insults in game. League of Legends has the tribunal system, many MMORPG’s utilise a profanity filter and Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic resorted to heavy handed and ruthless moderation when it came to abuse in chat. This however is a new level entirely. Hopefully this will enforce the necessities of politeness on the in game community and hopefully the chat can be re-instated successfully.