[quote]The problem with that idea though is that you just know you are going to end up with everyone hanging around in that dark alley behind the closed pub . Hmmm, maybe the streets should be local and uninhabited
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Interesting point. I’d have to disagree, however (at least at this point in the discussion). Surely, if allowed to meet on the street, people will do it (and possibly ignore the established meeting places). Is this a bad thing? I think we’re not really talking abot a game here, we’re talking about a community - a place for people to come and meet. I think that hindering this ability - the ability to self-organize - will hinder the feeling of community itself. If we were talking about a game, then I could see some need for restrictions, because games tend to be based on rules; rules are there to define the game; if people are allowed to break the rules, it’s no longer the same experience.
But, we’re talking about a glorified chat room. A great idea, in and of itself, but what if the restrictions on interactions were no more strict than the rules for posting topics on the forum? Nothing blantantly inflamatory, and give the power to the users to block-out anyone who they don’t want to listen to. If this doesn’t work, then chat rooms as a communication model are a failure (and that doesn’t seem to have been the case).
Now, I believe we need to bring something new to the table. Something innovative, and clever. Some new features that will get people interested in the whole idea. Now, keep in mind that it’s been quite a long time since I’ve been in chat rooms on a regular basis, so maybe some of these features have been implemented elsewhere, but here’s a few more ideas that popped into my head (I’ll refrain from reiterating the features that have already been suggested):
***** (for lack of a better term) next-gen language filter *****
First of all, I think if people are going to swear, then the world’s best language filter can’t do too much. There’s nothing that is going to stop them from getting around the filters…so let them say what they want without the complaints of being censored.
Furthermore, the choice to censor, or not to censor should be up to the person who has to read it - not the person who is writing it. A language filter would act on the client’s side (since it’s an individual choice), and work on incoming chat messages only - outgoing messages are delivered to the chat servers in their original form. So someone who types “f***” in a message, and has the filter turned off will see the real deal appear in their own chat bubble - while the filter people see the filtered version.
Something other than the typical word-match scheme would have to be used. Some way of mapping words (even the ones that contain “$” in place of “S”, and “|” in place of “l”, extra spaces, special characters, etc.) to a table of filtered words, or even phrases.
Now, this idea operates on the assumption that people who don’t like censorship in the least degree will refrain from trying to bypass the filter, if they feel that they’re not being censored (even if they are aware that a language filter is being used by some people). In other words, I think most people who are against censorship, are against it when it changes the experience of ALL viewers/listeners/readers. There’s bound to be complaints anyway, but if we give people to right to say what they want, and the right to not hear what they don’t want to hear, I think it will make for a better experience overall. Do you guys think this is a fairly good assumption?
Besides, a client-side language filter spreads the computational burden onto a much wider number of computers, and then only when it’s requested - while every user benefits by faster message transmission by comparison (albeit a slight difference).
***** organized, in-world events *****
Nothing fancy here. Think, scheduled chat sessions from lead personalities in the community: i.e. Sun engineers, the developers of some new, hot game we’re talking about in the forums, etc.
***** Simple, real-world-dependent changes *****
This is more an art issue than anything else, but seasonal changes in the landscape.
Or perhaps little details for fun, like clocks on the walls of the pub, showing the server’s local time. An Alien Flux “leader board” on the wall.
Sound. Background chatter that changes depending on how many people are in the pub.
***** Public areas *****
Similar to the streets. Open areas that are never closed (perhaps peer-to-peer) that people can go to and gather. Gardens, forests, paved areas, parks, etc. Public areas are where people get dumped when a server unexpectedly crashes - allowing persons who were holding conversations before the crash, to reorganize themselves at a different pub, or just out on the street.
Some of these ideas are perhaps a bit outlandish (this is essentially a chat program, not a game, right?), but since we’re brainstorming here…
