I think that chat would be quite nice to have :-) I really enjoy chating with enemy team in other games like LoL or SC2. I often want to ask my opponent something after the game (for example about the card picks in his deck) but most people doesn't add another player after game just because there are so many rude players who just start insulting you after game when you add them :/
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.
You said that you "think it is absolutely obvious and undeniable that something advantageous would come from having an ingame chat" .... Yet you don't go on to describe what would be the advantage of it! xD That's pretty funny... I posted why it would not be advantageous, why do you think it would benefit the game?
As I mentioned already, the Hearthstone community is HUGE and well developed right now. There is no need for a chat in game ( during 1v1). Please prove that statement wrong, besides just saying "it's wrong".
Yea, it would actually be lazy of Blizzard not to do something considerate about chats. But given it took a long time for SC2 to get chats and things like user tournaments are missing I question where Blizzard's heads are. The emphasis on competition, and the competitive scene in particular, strikes me as an immature priority and I think it's part of the reason why SC2 for instance is not like Broodwar for the worse. But you have to admit, chats in Hearthstone are a tricky proposition. There are young players who are different (I love how this sounds out of context :p) who probably shouldn't even be exposed to certain things. How do you do that?
I accepted a friend invite once. He basically took 30 seconds to yell at me for taking 40 seconds on a turn, then disappeared. Haven't accepted an invite since.
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.
.... Yet you don't go on to describe what would be the advantage of it! xD That's pretty funny... I posted why it would not be advantageous, why do you think it would benefit the game?
As I mentioned already, the Hearthstone community is HUGE and well developed right now. There is no need for a chat in game ( during 1v1). Please prove that statement wrong, besides just saying "it's wrong".
Ok, let me be as clear as possible. For people who want to chat, it is advantageous to be able to chat. You cannot deny this.
Regardless of why they want to chat, being able to chat will make them happier than being unable to chat. So this is the need - the need to rather be happier than unhappier.
Some people need to chat because they are lonely. Others because they want to comment on the other persons play and receive such comments themselves. It really does not matter what is the reason.
The point is, if some people for any reason feel there is a need to have chat, then there is at least some need to have chat. That need would be to make some players happier than they were before. As this discussion illustrates, some people do feel that they would be happier if they had the option to enable chat. Therefore, I have proved you wrong when you say that there is "no need" for chat.
I accepted a friend invite once. He basically took 30 seconds to yell at me for taking 40 seconds on a turn, then disappeared. Haven't accepted an invite since.
No thanks, don't want the chat.
I have had these experiences too. But if you do not want the chat, you could just not enable the chat. Is there a reason why you think that no one should be able to enable chat?
The reason there is no chat is because nothing advantageous would come from having it. ... There is no need for a chat in game ( during 1v1). Please prove that statement wrong, besides just saying "it's wrong".
Ok, let me be as clear as possible. For people who want to chat, it is advantageous to be able to chat. You cannot deny this.
Regardless of why they want to chat, being able to chat will make them happier than being unable to chat. So this is the need - the need to rather be happier than unhappier.
Yeah, I don't see how "providing some users who want to chat, a way to chat" wouldn't improve those users' experience. While it may be up in the air about how many actually want chat function or not, I don't think you can blatantly state that nothing comes from incorporating a chat feature.
However, you are right to say that it is not a need, but rather a feature that some would want. The problem with this, is who is to say a want isn't good for the game?
Do we need Spectator Mode? No, the game is supposed to be played not watched. We also have twitch for that. Do we need new cards to ever be released? Nope, the game is fully functional with the current card sets. We can even go without any balance patches or anything to ever change the (consistently adapting) meta again. Do we need a system to check/ban bots? Nope, the game is about you playing and enjoying it yourself. Since a Bot still provides you with a semi-competent opponent, this gives more players in the pool to que against.
Erm... I'm pretty sure you see where I'm going with this. With me getting more exaggerated with each example.
We want new modes. Whether it's Adventure (Naxx), 2v2, Spectator, or something yet unheard of. They give you more things to do. We want new cards. They will allow for more deck types, and older cards to perhaps gain new synergies. It keeps the game fresh instead of repeating the same actions year after year. We want Blizzard to take action against Bots. My personal reason would be because they take too long on their turns. I actually wouldn't care if I fight them if they didn't slow roll every turn, and every attack. Others might feel like they are cheating, feels like the golden portraits/gold they earned are less valuable, or they simply want to fight a human. For whatever reason people dislike playing bots, those are all valid reasons to want action done upon them.
So in-game chat may not be needed in the game at all. But I don't think that should instantly rule it out from being implemented into the game.
I would say that the best way to implement it would be to make it an option you could toggle on or off, and have it defaulted "Off" when you first install the game. (Also, add an option for emotes to be on/off as well. So people don't have to squelch every game if they hate emotes) This way, anybody who actually wanted to chat would be able to do so. An icon of some sort to show that someone has Chat/Emotes off would also be nice IMO.
Unfortunately, in many cases, I think the option would be terrible. A global chat would be very... twitch-like... and that's not a good thing. (Only now, with more power-leveling and bot advertisement spam!) I believe that 1v1 chat would be heavily underutilized, as many would feel that they would give out too much information and hurt themselves by chatting. I would think that the best use would just be private group chats, where you can speak with multiple people at once, instead of PMing everyone individually. So overall... I bet I personally wouldn't use any such chat system much at all. But I'm not one to say "Don't implement something because I won't use it!"
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.
That just seems like a weak point in general.
There is already a whisper function in game, so people can always use that to type. There is also the emote system where people find it valuable to say for example, "Sorry" before using Burst-Lethal, or "Thanks" for pushing all of your minions into AoE range (Or before stealing them with Sylv/Priest).
There are also people Alt-Tabbing all the time. (Perhaps... *Gasp* to type on an instant messaging service!) I guess it would be in Blizzard's best interest to Force-Full Screen Hearthstone, and prevent any sort of Alt-Tabbing or anything during gameplay.
But... this still doesn't solve AFKing problems... Maybe Blizzard should require webcams, and use facial recognition technology to make sure your always ready to spend the "smallest amount of time" on your turn as possible!
.... I believe Blizzard gives you 90 seconds for your turn, and what you do with it (even if you just BM Slow Roll) is your choice. Since typing won't extend the time over those 90 seconds, I don't see why this would be an argument against implementing such a system.
I think the biggest problems people overlook when discussing an in game chat are that this game is both cross platform (I don't know on the backend how difficult making a chat system work for both PC and iPad would be but the user experiences for iPad would surely suffer) and that the game servers have multiple languages per region. An emote system bridges the gap in Asia between Japanese and Chinese players. How many different language clients are there? I know I've seen Chinese, Japenese, Russian, Spanish, Portugese, and English on twitch and yet there only 4 regions! The emote system is there for more reasons than just to stop flaming. It is a way to make the game client extremely adaptable. In game chat would compromise that design decision.
I have had these experiences too. But if you do not want the chat, you could just not enable the chat. Is there a reason why you think that no one should be able to enable chat?
The game already has an opt-in chat function. Aside from being able to talk to people who have no interest in chatting, what exactly is being requested here?
I think the biggest problems people overlook when discussing an in game chat are that this game is both cross platform (I don't know on the backend how difficult making a chat system work for both PC and iPad would be but the user experiences for iPad would surely suffer) and that the game servers have multiple languages per region. An emote system bridges the gap in Asia between Japanese and Chinese players. How many different language clients are there? I know I've seen Chinese, Japenese, Russian, Spanish, Portugese, and English on twitch and yet there only 4 regions! The emote system is there for more reasons than just to stop flaming. It is a way to make the game client extremely adaptable. In game chat would compromise that design decision.
My thoughts exactly. I think blizzard saved themselves a lot of coding, trouble and further delays/bugs when they skipped out on the chat option.
And while I would LOVE a chat option very very much I can see (and somewhat even agree with) their choice to not implement it because of this.
I accepted a friend invite once. He basically took 30 seconds to yell at me for taking 40 seconds on a turn, then disappeared. Haven't accepted an invite since.
No thanks, don't want the chat.
How did he "yell" at you? Did he type loud? The basic reason for no chat is because it is the internet and people, in general; are idiots.
The game already has an opt-in chat function. Aside from being able to talk to people who have no interest in chatting, what exactly is being requested here?
There is a chat interface. Friend request works just fine. If they deny your request then they don't want to chat with you. What am I missing?
1) The chat function you are referring to is only made available via sending a friend request and the other player accepting the friend request. The only similarity between the existing system and what I suggested is that being able to chat would depend on mutual consent - that is, that both of the players want to chat.
2) The ability to enable the ingame chat from options in the way I suggested (with ingame chat being deactivated by default) would in no way make anyone "able to talk to people who have no interest in chatting." I do not know where you came up with this idea, seeing as I explicitly stated in the very first post that both players would have to enable the chat in order to be able to chat.
3) With the current chat system, you cannot send a friend request during the match. Only afterwards. This means that you can never chat with the player you are currently playing against, even when both players would want to do so.
4) If you were able to send friend request during the match, this would enable using the existing chat system for chatting with your opponent somewhat similarly with what I suggested and most importantly without any further coding.
This implementation has an obvious downside in comparison to the what I suggested. Namely, those whose commonly want to chat with their opponent would soon find their friend list full of people they have only chatted once and have no intention to chat with ever again (unless coincidentally facing them in the ladder some time later).
Even so, I would consider this alternative much preferable to the current system. Like my initial suggestion, it would enable chatting for those who really want to do so without causing any problems for those who do not wish to do so. So yes, I would endorse this kind of solution, too.
This also means that you cannot rightly use the argument of coding challenges in a cross platform environment to argue against being able to chat with your opponent, because this could be made possible in an extremely simple manner - by allowing friend requests to your current opponent through the existing friend chat system that is already implement in HS across all the platforms.
I think the biggest problems people overlook when discussing an in game chat are that this game is both cross platform (I don't know on the backend how difficult making a chat system work for both PC and iPad would be but the user experiences for iPad would surely suffer) and that the game servers have multiple languages per region. An emote system bridges the gap in Asia between Japanese and Chinese players. How many different language clients are there? I know I've seen Chinese, Japenese, Russian, Spanish, Portugese, and English on twitch and yet there only 4 regions! The emote system is there for more reasons than just to stop flaming. It is a way to make the game client extremely adaptable. In game chat would compromise that design decision.
My thoughts exactly. I think blizzard saved themselves a lot of coding, trouble and further delays/bugs when they skipped out on the chat option.
And while I would LOVE a chat option very very much I can see (and somewhat even agree with) their choice to not implement it because of this.
I think Blizzard should remove emotes, or at least add a "F___ off and die" emote. I've played too many games where the game is just too heavily balanced in either mine or my opponent's favor and saying "Well Played" at the end just seems like a smack in the face. At least with "F___ off and die" we'd know exactly how each player actually felt.
after some thought, I changed my idea: ingame chat would be bad for the game.
reason? cheating on exp.
if you play ALL the card in your deck and kill all enemy minions, you get an insane amount of exp, even when you lose a match. it would be fairly easy for 2 chatting players to agree on this. both will earn more exp than winning or losing on round 5, just to say. this would be unfair to other people playing honestly.
also, a player with a daily quest that require playing x minions that cost more than x or less than y (or to cast z spells) could ask the other to let him do it for victory in exchange.
If you want to get as much exp as quickly as possible, you do not start chatting and try to arrange some kind of an elaborate scheme (like "you just let me play minions and I will let you win").
So lets just assume for the sake of the argument that both of the players
a) want to chat with each other, b) do not have max lvl champ (so that they would gain something out of this), c) are willing to make this kind of scheme (instead of actually playing a competitive game which makes HS enjoyable in the first place) and d) trust each other enough not to betray the scheme.
Even then the players could gain more exp by just playing the game as fast as you could and not wasting time in trying to organize this over and over again, and often attempting to organize this but the other player is unwilling.
So, while in theory there could be games where ingame chat could be used to gain exp more quickly, but if you play 100 games and try to get exp as much as possible without chat or with chat, I am certain that you would get the exp faster without using time in your attempts to organize this, especially since by far most of the time the other player will not do this.
And the very same thing also applies to quests and gold. You get them faster if you do not wast your time in trying to convince your opponent via the ingame chat.
One more argument against ingame chat shot down, yey!
There is a chat interface. Friend request works just fine. If they deny your request then they don't want to chat with you. What am I missing?
Are you serious?
Yeah? This game is not built around any kind of team element, playing friends is a 1-1 no reward (except practice) situation. Matches are randomly selected. The community of this game exists outside of the game itself. You already have the option to chat on a 1-1 level in game.
To me, this is not about whether a player should have the choice or not, it's about the discourse revolving around the game. Without getting too deep into the term, discourse in this case means the general language, tone, the manner of which people speak, and the social implications of it, on a macro level.
Every community has one or more specific discourses. When you open up the option to have an immediate chat, our discourse will most likely be affected more by the raging prepubescents than the constructive dialogue (which should be more common now because of the current system), and over all contribute negatively to our community. The amount of non constructive conversation would increase, and then in turn color the discourse. People are affected by the discourse as much as they affect it, this is another level where the community would worsen.
It's a bit like not poking a sore tooth. Take a look at the Battle net forums. Their sentiments are what would be unleashed upon us. Again, it's not about individual instances or choices, it's about how an immediate chat, on a macro level, would affect the way we talk about, think about and approach this game negatively.
Hopefully this is understandable, it's hard to explain with few words.
you can earn 4 times the exp from a long match than a short, insta-win. and BOTH players earn exp, so the other has the same interest in doing so.
There are so many flaws in this argument that I don't even know where to start. But I'll try anyway. 1) Many players are max level or have enough gold. They have nothing to gain. 2) Many players who are not max level don't really care about exp or gold. They have nothing to gain. 3) Many players who are not max level and do care about gold/exp still enjoy playing the game more without trying to rig the matches. 4) Many players who do not meet the criteria 1-3 do not trust the other person enough to be willing to let him/her do what s/he wants just because the other player promises in the chat that they will let that person win. I mean, really. Think about this for a while. How likely is it that a random person you have never met before believes you, when you say that you will let him win if you are allowed to play freely and do what you want?
But all these points are eventually irrelevant, because there is one big consideration that makes the whole of this discussion moot:
5) If long games earn you more exp (or help you to achieve more of the conditions required by a quest), it is because more things happen in long games than in short games. When more things happen and more turns are taken, it also means that more time is consumed. So while your exp/gold per game might be higher when you play long games, your exp/gold per minute is very similar in both long and short games. So you wont really save much time, you only need to play less matches.
Besidess, any possible little time gain for playing fewer and longer matches (due to not having to wait in the queue and in the card selection screen and in the intro and victory/loss animation screens) is utterly destroyed by the fact that you would need to convince the other player about the assets of this supposedly fast gold/exp gaining strategy. Even if you are a ciceroesque silvertongue who is able to convince, lets say 75% of the people not meeting the 1-3 criteria, there would still be loads of people who no one could ever convince. So, lets suppose that eventually 50% of the people you meet finally agree to play the game in the way you suggest and you would only ever spend only 1min of time in the chat per match to achieve this.
There is no way in hell that anyone could be this successful in organizing games games as quickly and as consistently as I have described above, but if we really assume you have this demigod skills, this would mean that you would still need to waste 2 minutes of time in the chat for each successful max exp/gold game you are able to organize. But if any average joe without any demigod skills uses that 2 minutes for actually playing the game, he will gain much less exp/gold per match, but much more exp/gold per minute.
Tell you what. I if/when the ingame chat comes, I will challenge you. Lets both play 30min against random people and see who gains more exp. You trying with these ingame chat shenanigans and me without ever using the chat. I'll bet $500 that you cannot beat me.
Yeah? This game is not built around any kind of team element, playing friends is a 1-1 no reward (except practice) situation. Matches are randomly selected. The community of this game exists outside of the game itself. You already have the option to chat on a 1-1 level in game.
No, you don't. You only have the option to chat with your friends who you already know. You can never chat with a player you have not met before. All the other points you made are not related to this discussion in any way (or at least you have not even tried to give any reason for us to think that they are relevant).
To me, this is not about whether a player should have the choice or not, it's about the discourse revolving around the game. [...]
When you open up the option to have an immediate chat, our discourse will most likely be affected more by the raging prepubescents [...] and over all contribute negatively to our community.
[...]
It's a bit like not poking a sore tooth. Take a look at the Battle net forums. Their sentiments are what would be unleashed upon us [...]
This is actually a good point. I think this is the reason why Bliz has not implemented an ingame chat. However, I think there is one big flaw in this reasoning. While you do mention "our discourse" and "our community" you fail to address how the discourse changes for those of us who would not enable the chat. How, exactly, is their experience any different from what it is now? Obviously it would not be any different.
So what you are talking about here, really, is not about those who do not enable the chat, but about those who do enable the chat. Indeed, many of those who do enable the chat might eventually regret their choice, at which point they would've already gotten many negative experiences from using the chat that might have tainted the hearthstone experience for them for good.
This is a real downside of implementing even an optional chat. But why is it, that despite these considerations practically every online game has the chat, but not HS? It's because the developers of those games believe that chatting makes people more involved in the game and in the community and that the positive outcomes of this is bigger that the negative outcomes of flaming and abuse.
I really honestly wonder why would HS be seen as the exception to the rule that positive outcomes of chatting are bigger than the negative ones. But if that really was the case (which I do not believe), it would have really sordid implications.
It would mean that in the player base of HS there is more toxic attitudes than in any other online game, and that it is only because Blizz prevents players from venting their abuse that playing this game can remain an enjoyable experience. It makes me sick to my stomach to even think that the game I really love would be a bigger source of disgusting sentiments than any other online game.
I mean, if I really believed this is the case, I would want to stop playing this game right now and urge everyone to do so, too. Because obviously it is just outright evil to deliver for millions and millions of people such a game that generates suppressed feelings of hate and anger more than any other game before. To me, that would look like the video game equivalent of a government mixing heroin in the drinking water.
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I think that chat would be quite nice to have :-) I really enjoy chating with enemy team in other games like LoL or SC2. I often want to ask my opponent something after the game (for example about the card picks in his deck) but most people doesn't add another player after game just because there are so many rude players who just start insulting you after game when you add them :/
Favourite HS quote?
"Did I miss it?" - Doomsayer
You said that you "think it is absolutely obvious and undeniable that something advantageous would come from having an ingame chat"
.... Yet you don't go on to describe what would be the advantage of it! xD That's pretty funny... I posted why it would not be advantageous, why do you think it would benefit the game?
As I mentioned already, the Hearthstone community is HUGE and well developed right now. There is no need for a chat in game ( during 1v1). Please prove that statement wrong, besides just saying "it's wrong".
my live stream;
http://www.twitch.tv/fortheundercity
Yea, it would actually be lazy of Blizzard not to do something considerate about chats. But given it took a long time for SC2 to get chats and things like user tournaments are missing I question where Blizzard's heads are. The emphasis on competition, and the competitive scene in particular, strikes me as an immature priority and I think it's part of the reason why SC2 for instance is not like Broodwar for the worse. But you have to admit, chats in Hearthstone are a tricky proposition. There are young players who are different (I love how this sounds out of context :p) who probably shouldn't even be exposed to certain things. How do you do that?
I accepted a friend invite once. He basically took 30 seconds to yell at me for taking 40 seconds on a turn, then disappeared. Haven't accepted an invite since.
No thanks, don't want the chat.
just wish i could say "bol hf" before every game. kind of became habitual after the years of cs
Ok, let me be as clear as possible. For people who want to chat, it is advantageous to be able to chat. You cannot deny this.
Regardless of why they want to chat, being able to chat will make them happier than being unable to chat. So this is the need - the need to rather be happier than unhappier.
Some people need to chat because they are lonely. Others because they want to comment on the other persons play and receive such comments themselves. It really does not matter what is the reason.
The point is, if some people for any reason feel there is a need to have chat, then there is at least some need to have chat. That need would be to make some players happier than they were before. As this discussion illustrates, some people do feel that they would be happier if they had the option to enable chat. Therefore, I have proved you wrong when you say that there is "no need" for chat.
I have had these experiences too. But if you do not want the chat, you could just not enable the chat. Is there a reason why you think that no one should be able to enable chat?
Yeah, I don't see how "providing some users who want to chat, a way to chat" wouldn't improve those users' experience. While it may be up in the air about how many actually want chat function or not, I don't think you can blatantly state that nothing comes from incorporating a chat feature.
However, you are right to say that it is not a need, but rather a feature that some would want. The problem with this, is who is to say a want isn't good for the game?
Do we need Spectator Mode? No, the game is supposed to be played not watched. We also have twitch for that.
Do we need new cards to ever be released? Nope, the game is fully functional with the current card sets. We can even go without any balance patches or anything to ever change the (consistently adapting) meta again.
Do we need a system to check/ban bots? Nope, the game is about you playing and enjoying it yourself. Since a Bot still provides you with a semi-competent opponent, this gives more players in the pool to que against.
Erm... I'm pretty sure you see where I'm going with this. With me getting more exaggerated with each example.
We want new modes. Whether it's Adventure (Naxx), 2v2, Spectator, or something yet unheard of. They give you more things to do.
We want new cards. They will allow for more deck types, and older cards to perhaps gain new synergies. It keeps the game fresh instead of repeating the same actions year after year.
We want Blizzard to take action against Bots. My personal reason would be because they take too long on their turns. I actually wouldn't care if I fight them if they didn't slow roll every turn, and every attack. Others might feel like they are cheating, feels like the golden portraits/gold they earned are less valuable, or they simply want to fight a human. For whatever reason people dislike playing bots, those are all valid reasons to want action done upon them.
So in-game chat may not be needed in the game at all. But I don't think that should instantly rule it out from being implemented into the game.
I would say that the best way to implement it would be to make it an option you could toggle on or off, and have it defaulted "Off" when you first install the game. (Also, add an option for emotes to be on/off as well. So people don't have to squelch every game if they hate emotes) This way, anybody who actually wanted to chat would be able to do so.
An icon of some sort to show that someone has Chat/Emotes off would also be nice IMO.
Unfortunately, in many cases, I think the option would be terrible. A global chat would be very... twitch-like... and that's not a good thing. (Only now, with more power-leveling and bot advertisement spam!)
I believe that 1v1 chat would be heavily underutilized, as many would feel that they would give out too much information and hurt themselves by chatting.
I would think that the best use would just be private group chats, where you can speak with multiple people at once, instead of PMing everyone individually.
So overall... I bet I personally wouldn't use any such chat system much at all. But I'm not one to say "Don't implement something because I won't use it!"
That just seems like a weak point in general.
There is already a whisper function in game, so people can always use that to type.
There is also the emote system where people find it valuable to say for example, "Sorry" before using Burst-Lethal, or "Thanks" for pushing all of your minions into AoE range (Or before stealing them with Sylv/Priest).
There are also people Alt-Tabbing all the time. (Perhaps... *Gasp* to type on an instant messaging service!) I guess it would be in Blizzard's best interest to Force-Full Screen Hearthstone, and prevent any sort of Alt-Tabbing or anything during gameplay.
But... this still doesn't solve AFKing problems...
Maybe Blizzard should require webcams, and use facial recognition technology to make sure your always ready to spend the "smallest amount of time" on your turn as possible!
.... I believe Blizzard gives you 90 seconds for your turn, and what you do with it (even if you just BM Slow Roll) is your choice. Since typing won't extend the time over those 90 seconds, I don't see why this would be an argument against implementing such a system.
I think the biggest problems people overlook when discussing an in game chat are that this game is both cross platform (I don't know on the backend how difficult making a chat system work for both PC and iPad would be but the user experiences for iPad would surely suffer) and that the game servers have multiple languages per region. An emote system bridges the gap in Asia between Japanese and Chinese players. How many different language clients are there? I know I've seen Chinese, Japenese, Russian, Spanish, Portugese, and English on twitch and yet there only 4 regions! The emote system is there for more reasons than just to stop flaming. It is a way to make the game client extremely adaptable. In game chat would compromise that design decision.
The game already has an opt-in chat function. Aside from being able to talk to people who have no interest in chatting, what exactly is being requested here?
My thoughts exactly.
I think blizzard saved themselves a lot of coding, trouble and further delays/bugs when they skipped out on the chat option.
And while I would LOVE a chat option very very much I can see (and somewhat even agree with) their choice to not implement it because of this.
How did he "yell" at you? Did he type loud? The basic reason for no chat is because it is the internet and people, in general; are idiots.
There is a chat interface. Friend request works just fine. If they deny your request then they don't want to chat with you. What am I missing?
1) The chat function you are referring to is only made available via sending a friend request and the other player accepting the friend request. The only similarity between the existing system and what I suggested is that being able to chat would depend on mutual consent - that is, that both of the players want to chat.
2) The ability to enable the ingame chat from options in the way I suggested (with ingame chat being deactivated by default) would in no way make anyone "able to talk to people who have no interest in chatting." I do not know where you came up with this idea, seeing as I explicitly stated in the very first post that both players would have to enable the chat in order to be able to chat.
3) With the current chat system, you cannot send a friend request during the match. Only afterwards. This means that you can never chat with the player you are currently playing against, even when both players would want to do so.
4) If you were able to send friend request during the match, this would enable using the existing chat system for chatting with your opponent somewhat similarly with what I suggested and most importantly without any further coding.
This implementation has an obvious downside in comparison to the what I suggested. Namely, those whose commonly want to chat with their opponent would soon find their friend list full of people they have only chatted once and have no intention to chat with ever again (unless coincidentally facing them in the ladder some time later).
Even so, I would consider this alternative much preferable to the current system. Like my initial suggestion, it would enable chatting for those who really want to do so without causing any problems for those who do not wish to do so. So yes, I would endorse this kind of solution, too.
This also means that you cannot rightly use the argument of coding challenges in a cross platform environment to argue against being able to chat with your opponent, because this could be made possible in an extremely simple manner - by allowing friend requests to your current opponent through the existing friend chat system that is already implement in HS across all the platforms.
See point 4.
I think Blizzard should remove emotes, or at least add a "F___ off and die" emote. I've played too many games where the game is just too heavily balanced in either mine or my opponent's favor and saying "Well Played" at the end just seems like a smack in the face. At least with "F___ off and die" we'd know exactly how each player actually felt.
Are you serious?
If you want to get as much exp as quickly as possible, you do not start chatting and try to arrange some kind of an elaborate scheme (like "you just let me play minions and I will let you win").
So lets just assume for the sake of the argument that both of the players
a) want to chat with each other,
b) do not have max lvl champ (so that they would gain something out of this),
c) are willing to make this kind of scheme (instead of actually playing a competitive game which makes HS enjoyable in the first place) and
d) trust each other enough not to betray the scheme.
Even then the players could gain more exp by just playing the game as fast as you could and not wasting time in trying to organize this over and over again, and often attempting to organize this but the other player is unwilling.
So, while in theory there could be games where ingame chat could be used to gain exp more quickly, but if you play 100 games and try to get exp as much as possible without chat or with chat, I am certain that you would get the exp faster without using time in your attempts to organize this, especially since by far most of the time the other player will not do this.
And the very same thing also applies to quests and gold. You get them faster if you do not wast your time in trying to convince your opponent via the ingame chat.
One more argument against ingame chat shot down, yey!
Yeah? This game is not built around any kind of team element, playing friends is a 1-1 no reward (except practice) situation. Matches are randomly selected. The community of this game exists outside of the game itself. You already have the option to chat on a 1-1 level in game.
To me, this is not about whether a player should have the choice or not, it's about the discourse revolving around the game. Without getting too deep into the term, discourse in this case means the general language, tone, the manner of which people speak, and the social implications of it, on a macro level.
Every community has one or more specific discourses. When you open up the option to have an immediate chat, our discourse will most likely be affected more by the raging prepubescents than the constructive dialogue (which should be more common now because of the current system), and over all contribute negatively to our community. The amount of non constructive conversation would increase, and then in turn color the discourse. People are affected by the discourse as much as they affect it, this is another level where the community would worsen.
It's a bit like not poking a sore tooth. Take a look at the Battle net forums. Their sentiments are what would be unleashed upon us. Again, it's not about individual instances or choices, it's about how an immediate chat, on a macro level, would affect the way we talk about, think about and approach this game negatively.
Hopefully this is understandable, it's hard to explain with few words.
There are so many flaws in this argument that I don't even know where to start. But I'll try anyway.
1) Many players are max level or have enough gold. They have nothing to gain.
2) Many players who are not max level don't really care about exp or gold. They have nothing to gain.
3) Many players who are not max level and do care about gold/exp still enjoy playing the game more without trying to rig the matches.
4) Many players who do not meet the criteria 1-3 do not trust the other person enough to be willing to let him/her do what s/he wants just because the other player promises in the chat that they will let that person win. I mean, really. Think about this for a while. How likely is it that a random person you have never met before believes you, when you say that you will let him win if you are allowed to play freely and do what you want?
But all these points are eventually irrelevant, because there is one big consideration that makes the whole of this discussion moot:
5) If long games earn you more exp (or help you to achieve more of the conditions required by a quest), it is because more things happen in long games than in short games. When more things happen and more turns are taken, it also means that more time is consumed. So while your exp/gold per game might be higher when you play long games, your exp/gold per minute is very similar in both long and short games. So you wont really save much time, you only need to play less matches.
Besidess, any possible little time gain for playing fewer and longer matches (due to not having to wait in the queue and in the card selection screen and in the intro and victory/loss animation screens) is utterly destroyed by the fact that you would need to convince the other player about the assets of this supposedly fast gold/exp gaining strategy. Even if you are a ciceroesque silvertongue who is able to convince, lets say 75% of the people not meeting the 1-3 criteria, there would still be loads of people who no one could ever convince. So, lets suppose that eventually 50% of the people you meet finally agree to play the game in the way you suggest and you would only ever spend only 1min of time in the chat per match to achieve this.
There is no way in hell that anyone could be this successful in organizing games games as quickly and as consistently as I have described above, but if we really assume you have this demigod skills, this would mean that you would still need to waste 2 minutes of time in the chat for each successful max exp/gold game you are able to organize. But if any average joe without any demigod skills uses that 2 minutes for actually playing the game, he will gain much less exp/gold per match, but much more exp/gold per minute.
Tell you what. I if/when the ingame chat comes, I will challenge you. Lets both play 30min against random people and see who gains more exp. You trying with these ingame chat shenanigans and me without ever using the chat. I'll bet $500 that you cannot beat me.
No, you don't. You only have the option to chat with your friends who you already know. You can never chat with a player you have not met before. All the other points you made are not related to this discussion in any way (or at least you have not even tried to give any reason for us to think that they are relevant).
This is actually a good point. I think this is the reason why Bliz has not implemented an ingame chat. However, I think there is one big flaw in this reasoning. While you do mention "our discourse" and "our community" you fail to address how the discourse changes for those of us who would not enable the chat. How, exactly, is their experience any different from what it is now? Obviously it would not be any different.
So what you are talking about here, really, is not about those who do not enable the chat, but about those who do enable the chat. Indeed, many of those who do enable the chat might eventually regret their choice, at which point they would've already gotten many negative experiences from using the chat that might have tainted the hearthstone experience for them for good.
This is a real downside of implementing even an optional chat. But why is it, that despite these considerations practically every online game has the chat, but not HS? It's because the developers of those games believe that chatting makes people more involved in the game and in the community and that the positive outcomes of this is bigger that the negative outcomes of flaming and abuse.
I really honestly wonder why would HS be seen as the exception to the rule that positive outcomes of chatting are bigger than the negative ones. But if that really was the case (which I do not believe), it would have really sordid implications.
It would mean that in the player base of HS there is more toxic attitudes than in any other online game, and that it is only because Blizz prevents players from venting their abuse that playing this game can remain an enjoyable experience. It makes me sick to my stomach to even think that the game I really love would be a bigger source of disgusting sentiments than any other online game.
I mean, if I really believed this is the case, I would want to stop playing this game right now and urge everyone to do so, too. Because obviously it is just outright evil to deliver for millions and millions of people such a game that generates suppressed feelings of hate and anger more than any other game before. To me, that would look like the video game equivalent of a government mixing heroin in the drinking water.