Hearthpwn

Maybe private chat channels would be an option.  Something like an IRC chatroom where you have to know the name, and potentially password, so that people could talk ingame without the potential for being harassed by trolls.

Quote from RoxLinen »

I like emote system, prevent rages and abuse on chat, less work on blizzard report topics about toxic players.

^ this.

There's no need for a full fledged chat. The amount of people who actually talk about the game and are nice to each other is so small in these competitive games. I don't want to have to manually mute 80% of the people I play against.

The current emote system suffices. You can still kinda trashtalk (with the threaten and "mistake" option), and there's more room to be nice (well played, thanks).

If anything, they could expand on the current system (to add more variety to character quotes and more emotes), but that's it.

you can talk to friends while in games i think but not against the opponent unless they are on your friends list.

I think it's to keep the casual atmosphere of the game. Hearthstone is meant to be very relaxed so they probably don't want trash talk in every match.

If you are playing on a mobile device like the iPad chatting is really some kind of effort! If you get insulted and want to reply in an appropriate way it would be harder to so. 

Eliminating the chat from the game also eliminates the possibility of harrassment of minors playing the game. So rating boards perhaps will rate the game for a lower age...

I personally would love to see some friend chat being implemented into the battle.net client!

bye,
Darky

I am so glad there isn't chat, even if it isn't bad now I know that when the game launches you will get all kinds of people spamming harassment toward you. If you take a game like league of legends for example, I put someone on ignore almost every game because I would rather not hear their stupidity.

I'm 90% happy there isnt a chat now that I've gotten into the game. With the free2play model its going to invite all sorts of players and players with bad attitudes are among them. A match can flip so fast its bound to spark some rage. Plus, having a chat would encourage exploits and win-trading. 

On the other hand I had a really epic 40 minute long match and I would have loved to be able to talk to the guy throughout it. "Well Played' just doesnt cut it.

I like it as it is right now. Can play and relax. The worst someone can do is spam taunt emotes. Though, competitively speaking this does eliminate some mind games that can be played. But given that this is an online only casual game, that sort of thing may not really have a place.

The obvious answer: "Because of the flaming and abuse."

But then why is there the option to send emotes? It is also used to annoy the opponent. Besides, many times when I have said "well played" - meaning it literally - I have received a friend request afterwards, with messages along the lines of "get cancer and die" etc. The problem with emotes, I think, is that they are very easily misunderstood, whereas with a real ingame chat it is much easier to say what you really mean and avoid such misunderstandings.

Or perhaps I am just weird, but if someone keeps spamming "Hello", much rather than enduring it or just squelching it, I would really like to know what is his/her problem.

Back when I was playing MTGO, I really liked chatting (at least 99% of the time, and with the remaining 1% of cases, I just put on a "manual ignore" a.k.a. did not read the chat).

So, even if you did not want to chat with people or read their messages, why couldn't  the rest of us have an option to enable chat. Like, why cannot people select to enable chat from options? If both players were to have the option enabled, then they could chat while playing. Simple.

So what I am NOT asking is why isn't everyone forced to have ingame chat always on. Instead, I am asking, why cannot even those who would really like to chat, start chatting? And perhaps even more interestingly, what is it in hearthstone that makes it impossible to have that kind of option, whereas literally all other online games have at least the chat option?

I think the option to turn something like that on would be nice, but I also don't think it would fit well with the way the game was designed (visually and functionally). Maybe something they could do in the future, but they have been pretty adamant that they don't want to do that.

Good points: Let's remove emotes too! 

But seriously - because even if 1% of the people abuse it (and it would be higher, but let's lead with 1%),  then it would ruin the game experience for those people.   

If you watch or read the news, you should realize that "Good news is not news"; nobody - or very few - people report on happy things.  It's only doom and gloom, tragedies and complaints.   This is because people do not REMEMBER the good times; they do not remember when things went the same way they always do.  People only remember the bad things, and that's what they focus on.  That's why everyone hates Thoughtsteal - Who cares about the 10 priests that stole a blade flurry and couldn't use it, it's the ONE time they stole a legendary and stomped you that matters.  

The people with bad experiences will come to the forums - official or otherwise - and there will be nothing but complaints about behavior, because even 1% is a large number when you deal with as many people as play Hearthstone - and it will look bad to the game as well.   I imagine League of Legends isn't as bad as people say it is, but you only ever hear about the abuse, and it turns people off simply by existing even if it is not the norm.

Blizzard developed this game to appeal to the largest group of players they could, and part of that hinges on people not being wary of trying it because of forums.  You may say "Suck it up and don't be so thin-skinned!", but that's not the belief that Blizzard caters to - and I think I'm pretty glad of that.

Having an in-game chat would be bad for business.  You would gain no new players for having it.

Quote from dgoodm03 »

But seriously - because even if 1% of the people abuse it (and it would be higher, but let's lead with 1%),  

From what I've seen with Yugioh and the dueling network, the percentage would probably be closer to 80%.  With Hearthstone having more rng, people get pretty salty.

@OP Your entire post is irrelevant due to your argument being based on this statement;

"The obvious answer: "Because of the flaming and abuse."

That is not the reason why there is no chat.

The reason there is no chat is because nothing advantageous would come from having it. There is already a HUGE Hearthstone community without in game chat. It's not a needed feature. There would be no advantage to having chat in this game.

As a matter afact, it would go against Blizzard's model for this game as players would spend more time each turn if they are typing as well.

I would really appreciate the addition of in-game chat, as well as more user-to-user interfaces. Starcraft had it right with the ability to join different chat groups centered around different topics, for example. People will always be salty... but this should not result in taking away interaction between players. I do think and hope Blizzard will add these features at some point.

Imagine how great it would be for deck practicing! You join a Druid group and test out a ramp setup against a specific match you are weak in, and keep tweaking your deck until you get it just right with the aid of others. This, to me, is what a hearthstone community should be centered on: teamwork.

Another line of thought is that In-game chat might affect ladder in that you could get information out of your opponent that would influence games.

I agree that emotes are often misinterpreted, mostly because of what the heroes themselves say. Guldan's "That was a mistake" for Sorry, seems threatening, whereas Anduin's "My apologies" seems fairly sincere. I would love to have some emoticons or something that would help convey the intentions behind the emote.

Quote from Fortheundercity »

The reason there is no chat is because nothing advantageous would come from having it. There is already a HUGE Hearthstone community without in game chat. It's not a needed feature. There would be no advantage to having chat in this game.

As a matter afact, it would go against Blizzard's model for this game as players would spend more time each turn if they are typing as well.

I would think it is absolutely obvious and undeniable that something advantageous would come from having an ingame chat for those who want to have an ingame chat. Those who would not want to have that chat would just keep from enabling it. It is really hard to see how anyone would be worse off this way. Perhaps you could elaborate on this?

And if you think that typing in the ingame chat makes the turns take longer, well, that might just be. Then again, typing somewhere else takes just as much time, if not more - which is what everyone I know do from time to time while playing HS. Besides, you could easily make it so that you can only type in the chat during the opponent's turn.

Quote from shifther »

Another line of thought is that In-game chat might affect ladder in that you could get information out of your opponent that would influence games.

This is true. But why would this be a problem?

Quote from dgoodm03 »

Blizzard developed this game to appeal to the largest group of players they could, and part of that hinges on people not being wary of trying it because of forums.  You may say "Suck it up and don't be so thin-skinned!", but that's not the belief that Blizzard caters to - and I think I'm pretty glad of that.

Having an in-game chat would be bad for business.  You would gain no new players for having it.

I would not say "Suck it up and don't be so thin-skinned!" I would say: "Do not enable the chat unless you want to enable the chat, and disable the chat if you want to disable the chat."

I really do not see how Blizzard would lose players, old or new, for having the possibility to select whether you want to enable the chat or not.


***

In any case, thanks for all the comments. It's great to hear all kinds of opinions!

I think that, even if there's not an "In-game chat", there should be a general/trade chat of sorts, just for people to look for others to play against or to look for coaches or something of the like. Obviously, in this case, you could quite easily /w the person you're playing against, and it wouldn't be that big of a problem. I don't even see why they couldn't fit it into the screen. There's so much useless stuff on the screen as it is haha. One transparent little chat window wouldn't hurt anything.

Also, I probably would rarely message the person I was playing against. If their turn is taking forever, I might whisper them and say "you there?" but I wouldn't go much more than that. Having a chat certainly is in no way disadvantageous to the game. Sure, they already have a huge player base without in game chat. That huge player base is exactly why there should be a general chat window of sorts.

A general chat channel would be like twitch chat, only much worse. With added botting services adverts.

That's true. That part would be annoying haha.

I guess people who rage over emotes and who would relish a chat are in the minority. They also aren't 8-year-olds prone to crying who need to be protected. No one cares about my game experience. :'( :) Cursing someone out loud can only do so much.

Quote from Easyraider »

Quote from Fortheundercity »

 

I would think it is absolutely obvious and undeniable that something advantageous would come from having an ingame chat for those who want to have an ingame chat. Those who would not want to have that chat would just keep from enabling it. It is really hard to see how anyone would be worse off this way. Perhaps you could elaborate on this?

On a different note, this is interesting. A chat that can be toggled by players sounds like a very good idea. Yes, indeed, plenty of good can come from players chatting with one another in-game, regardless what Fortheundercity thinks.

Quote from SquirrelEyes »

Starcraft had it right with the ability to join different chat groups centered around different topics, for example.

Speaking of why there are no chats in Hearthstone, have you seen what goes on in the Starcraft chats? That would be highly unacceptable in Hearthstone. The target audiences aren't the same and Hearthstone pulls in people too I've read so it has much to lose.