Party Chat single handidly killed Online Multiplayer

[Nathaniel Grey]

Personally I feel that the days of multiplayer with strangers being fun has come and gone. Mostly due to the fact that no one talks anymore. Due to the fact that party chat is a thing. I remember the days before its inception when, not everyone but, a majority of people communicated. Finding another person with a mic wasn't like finding a diamond in the rough. Now, I go days without any sort of communication. While this is tolerable, part of the joy of playing with others has been lost. I loved becoming acquainted with new people. People who lived in states and countries that I've only dreamt about seeing. To me this enriched the multiplayer experience. I understand the reasons why people have run to party chat. Apparently there was, and still is, some toxicity. But that has always been there and it will never go away. I feel as though party chat has allowed people to shut themselves in a house without any windows or doors because people can sometimes be jerks. You don't do that in real life and I don't think you should do it online either. I feel the people who do are doing themselves a disservice.
Most of my real life friends have different consoles or we just play different games so parties are rare. I'm used to finding, not necessarily friends, but comrades who share my gaming interests online. At some point all your now friends were strangers and one of you had to say hello to the other. I'm just saying that we shouldn't lose the chance to say hello to a potential friend.


Party Chat sucks.

EDIT: I stress this is strictly a console issue. The PC community doesn't even remotely share this problem since not only do most talk but you can also type.

A lot of this love for party-chat seems to be anti-social people simply being anti-social. Which is fine, but I'm sensing that most of this reluctance to communicate has grown from shooters specifically call of duty. If that's the case (which I believe it is) it is a shame it has spread to all others genres of gaming and the gaming community in general. I'm interested if you all can share the games in which you received the negativity.

 

[Gray-Philosophy]

But doesn't party chat allow for adequate communication, within the party? Or do you mean written communication as opposed to verbal through mics?

Assuming the latter. I personally prefer text. It's easier for me to read peoples' messages at my own leisure, and it's less inconvenient when trying to follow multiple conversations at the same time because someone decides it's a good idea to talk to you while you're gaming.

Granted, the verbal communication makes coordination and sharing tactics a lot faster and smoother in the heat of action.

I play a lot of multiplayers, MMO's included, and to me it doesn't feel like the social aspect or the fun of meeting strangers is gone at all.

 

[Zhukov]

Umm... well, I just got done playing several rounds of Squad.

It's a milsim type game. Kinda like ARMA. It's currently in Early Access.

Anyway, I spent the whole time talking to a bunch of complete strangers. We did pretty good together. Afterwards I messaged the squad leader because he'd done an excellent job. We added each other so we could team up again later.

So, in conclusion, I have no idea what you're on about. There's nothing stopping you from striking up conversations with strangers in-game if that's your thing.

I also entirely understand why people, or at least some people some of the time, would prefer to just party up with friends and not have to deal with random idiots drooling in their ears.

 

[Mutant1988]

Umm... well, I just got done playing several rounds of Squad.

It's a milsim type game. Kinda like ARMA. It's currently in Early Access.

Anyway, I spent the whole time talking to a bunch of complete strangers. We did pretty good together. Afterwards I messaged the squad leader because he'd done an excellent job. We added each other so we could team up again later.

So, in conclusion, I have no idea what you're on about. There's nothing stopping you from striking up conversations with strangers in-game if that's your thing.

What he's on about is consoles, that lack the option of text chat, where a private party voice chat results in completely muted universal voice chat. That makes it somewhat impossible to strike up conversation with strangers.

It's a non-issue for PC, since PC games almost always have the non-obnoxious option of text chat.

I'd sooner say that consoles (And their lack of flexibility and options, not to mention pay to play services) ruined online multiplayer, rather than private voice chats.

 

[Nathaniel Grey]

Umm... well, I just got done playing several rounds of Squad.

It's a milsim type game. Kinda like ARMA. It's currently in Early Access.


It's a non-issue for PC, since PC games almost always have the non-obnoxious option of text chat.

I'd sooner say that consoles (And their lack of flexibility and options, not to mention pay to play services) ruined online multiplayer, rather than private voice chats.

Yeah I should have stressed that in the OP. This is strictly a console issue. The PC community doesn't even remotely share this problem since not only do most talk but you can also type.

 

[Spider RedNight]

Making..... friends? What's that?

In all seriousness though (well mostly because I don't take anything completely seriously) I prefer party chats because I'm not good with the whole "social interaction" thing and if I'm not in a party chat, I'm probably not chatting at all. I mean, if someone wanted to talk to me, they could just send me a message, right?

 

[tippy2k2]

I do somewhat miss it, even though for every pleasant person you'd run into, you would have to go through at least a dozen children who just learned what a curse word is, two dozen people blasting shitty music, and at least one 2-35 person who believes that his team is just dragging him down.

However, I am 100% fine with it and the depressing reason for this....have you ever played with a girl?

I have a group of people I play with online (ironically, strangers that I met playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare back in the day) but some of the most vile, disgusting, and hateful little pricks come out whenever there is someone with the sheer audacity of having a vagina is around. Frankly, we ultimately just ended up muting everyone before the damn game started because it became so common that it just wasn't worth trying to talk to anyone.

While I do miss running into those few random awesome people, it's awfully hard to wade through all the shit to find that diamond.

 

[Erttheking]

So I should be ashamed with not wanting to deal with assholes?

Yeah no. I play games to unwind, not wade through a sea of dicks to find the gems.

 

[Something Amyss]

Honestly? I don't remember these halcyon days of online before party chat. Party chat has made me more likely to actually mic up, to boot.

So I should be ashamed with not wanting to deal with assholes?

Don't be ashamed, just understand you're the reason online multiplayer has been killed.

 

[Erttheking]

Honestly? I don't remember these halcyon days of online before party chat. Party chat has made me more likely to actually mic up, to boot.

So I should be ashamed with not wanting to deal with assholes?

Don't be ashamed, just understand you're the reason online multiplayer has been killed.

You know, I've made a decision. People are always saying that (I know you're joking, bear with me) so many people are "ruining" parts of gaming. And frankly I think it's time to start taking pride in that.

WE CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS! We slaughtered online multiplayer, and our list of targets is long! FEAR US!

 

[DoPo]

I feel as though party chat has allowed people to shut themselves in a house without any windows or doors because people can sometimes be jerks. You don't do that in real life and I don't think you should do it online either.

Remove the "without windows/doors" and that statement becomes incorrect.

I feel the people who do are doing themselves a disservice.

I feel the people who are doing this don't feel as you do.

WE CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS! We slaughtered online multiplayer, and our list of targets is long! FEAR US!

Today - online multiplayer; tomorrow - online DRM; the day after - DLC; on Friday - Sealand's claim to be a country; over the weekend - microtransactions; next week - Konami; next weekend - that game that others liked but I didn't.

Come on people, chop-chop. We have a schedule to keep up with!

 

[The Enquirer]

In my personal experience, it only hurts in certain games, primarily co-op multiplayer. And even then, its on a group by group basis. While not completely unfounded I would say your statement is a bit of an exaggeration.

 

[Something Amyss]

You know, I've made a decision. People are always saying that (I know you're joking, bear with me) so many people are "ruining" parts of gaming. And frankly I think it's time to start taking pride in that.

WE CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS! We slaughtered online multiplayer, and our list of targets is long! FEAR US!

Think of all the power we have, given how much we're responsible. FER US, GAMING! TREMBLE BEFORE THE MIGHT OF MODERATE INCONVENIENCE!

I feel the people who are doing this don't feel as you do.

Yeah, I just have to say that I personally feel the novelty of getting called homophobic slurs every single outing gets old.

I'm really not sure what experience people think I'm missing, but this is the one I have and it's part of why I don't play a lot of MP outside of with friends.

 

[JimB]

I feel as though party chat has allowed people to shut themselves in a house without any windows or doors because people can sometimes be jerks.

I feel that I'm a lot closer to the end of my life than the beginning of it and I have to make a choice about how much of the remaining time I have I want to spend being exposed to fuckholes.

 

[Bombiz]

I feel as though party chat has allowed people to shut themselves in a house without any windows or doors because people can sometimes be jerks.

I feel that I'm a lot closer to the end of my life than the beginning of it and I have to make a choice about how much of the remaining time I have I want to spend being exposed to fuckholes.

@JimB
Well you are are the internet so you already fucked up their.
Also you ok? Wanna talk about something?

 

[LostCrusader]

If anything, party chat made me more willing to play online multiplayer games. There is a very good reason that the online experience on consoles has such a bad reputation, being stuck in a game on xbox live with 16-24 randos was nearly guaranteed to have at least one child or racist idiot. Not having party chat didn't force anyone to communicate anyway, it just meant you had to go mute people to opt out.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I only play online with friends with mics. I don't like very much to play with strangers.

 

[Something Amyss]

Also you ok? Wanna talk about something?

I think he's just referencing being old. It happens to all of us fossils.

If anything, party chat made me more willing to play online multiplayer games. There is a very good reason that the online experience on consoles has such a bad reputation, being stuck in a game on xbox live with 16-24 randos was nearly guaranteed to have at least one child or racist idiot. Not having party chat didn't force anyone to communicate anyway, it just meant you had to go mute people to opt out.

Bingo. And this is what the community told people to do anyway. This might be more to blame for the "death" of multiplayer.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

I've actually come to love the fact that some games ship without any chat feature now.

Sure, I understand the intended use of in-game chat- But it's mostly used for ten year olds to call each other the n-word in my experience. The only game I've ever found any use for it is in Left 4 Dead.

I don't think Splatoon was hindered by a lack of a chat function, and that's my favorite shooter to come out in a long while- and as bad as a game as it is, I don't think the lack of a chat function makes Star Wars Battlefront any worse than it already is. In fact, not hearing strangers curse at one another up and down probably makes me like it just a little bit.

 

[DementedSheep]

I only use a mic with people I already know anyway so it wouldn't affect me.