Toggle speech bubbles - Why speech bubbles are amazing and needs to be implemented.

I tried to find out information on this subject and the only thing I could find was a transcript of the February stream Q&A.

Q: Are there any plans for speech bubbles or other instruments (best solution optional, because some love them as me, but also some doesn’t like it) to the the local (say channel) written text above (or near) the character.
A: Not right now. When there’s a lot of people in one area it gets really messy.

I believe the lack of speech bubbles is to the detriment of players engaging with each other in an immersive and personal way. A lot of modern MMO's relegate all communication to a box in the corner of the screen. A decision that I believe creates a disconnect between players and characters. At times it can be difficult to even realize that someone is talking to you or who is saying what or where player engagement is taking place. Communication no longer happens in the world, it happens in a cluttered, disconnected box in the corner. The world feels a lot more alive if you can actually see interactions in the world, real life communication isn't relegated to a box. It is a part of the world, it happens at certain places, at certain times, between certain people. It is pretty jarring, at least to me, that a lively conversation between random people in a town manifests it self as an awkward staring contest in the actual world.

Role-players especially tends to favor this, but you don't have to RP to appreciate a living, interactive world. I know some people don't like speech bubbles, so the best compromise would be to enable the possibility to toggle this on and off. So that people who don't like it or people who want to hide their UI for screenshots or other things don't have to see it. But for me personally, if there is a crazy man shouting in the town square then I want to be able to identify that there is a crazy man shouting in the town square.

Since the developers have been quite adamant about not allowing addons that would fix this, then asking here is really the only option. Please don't relegate all communication to a box in the corner. The world feels so much more alive when you can see the person who is typing and it all becomes a lot more personal.

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Comments

Sokken

daveywavey wrote: »

Yes, having a chatbox at the corner of the screen where it's not affecting or impeding my vision is a lot more immersive than having bubbles of text shooting up in front of my face while I'm trying to look at the picture.

I'll agree that speech bubbles aren't immersive from a purely visual standpoint. But it is in my opinion way more immersive for communication and gives sense of a living, active player base. MMO's are not single player games, speech bubbles in a realistic single player game would be ridiculous, but it is an amazing way of showing player interaction in a multiplayer game. Most MMO's I've played that don't feature speech bubbles, seem downright anti-social. Like ESO and SWTOR (though SWTOR is basically a single player game trapped in an MMO).

daveywavey

vmangman wrote: »

]But why would you argue against something that doesn’t affect you at all since you can just disable it?

It’s one thing to have an opinion and another thing to push forward your opinion when it has no effect on your experience, but it has a negative effect on someone else’s experience. I do not understand why this concept is so difficult for some of you to understand, slayer.

I'm not "arguing against it", slayer. I'm all for customisation. If you want it as a feature cos it'll improve your game experience, then I'm behind you all the way. I was simply providing an alternative view to your general assertion that speech bubbles were more immersive, as I find the opposite. As you say, you could have it toggled one way, and I could have it the other.

For somebody who dislikes the concept of having opinions pushed forward, you're very aggressive to those who have a different view to yours. Simmer down, now. There's a good slayer!

PlagueMonk

If AoC has no plans to have chat bubbles atm then I'm all for asking to have them added as an option. If you don't want them then don't enable them. Pretty simple.

As with many others I like them because it helps me locate the speaker ON SCREEN and helps me feel like I'm speaking with the other avatar and not some text in a chat box.

VmanGman

@daveywavey

I understand that you’re new here and might be getting a little confused, but when you come in with negative comments such as “I’d disagree that speech bubbles are immersive” and “I don’t want to see speech bubbles for Player text” then you are effectively arguing against speech bubbles.

Your comments are clearly speaking against speech bubbles. Why would you speak against something that has no effect on you (since you could disable the feature) even though it would greatly improve someone else’s experience?

You could have just said that you would want to be able to disable speech bubbles... that would be you bringing forward your feedback in a reasonable and kind manner. However, you speaking negatively on them is the same as you arguing against them and there is no reason for you to do that since you can just disable them. I’m really not sure why that’s so hard for you to understand.

Stop acting like a fool.

daveywavey

Ugh, essay time...

vmangman wrote: »

@daveywavey

I understand that you’re new here and might be getting a little confused, but when you come in with negative comments such as “I’d disagree that speech bubbles are immersive” and “I don’t want to see speech bubbles for Player text” then you are effectively arguing against speech bubbles.

What does the length of time someone has been on a forum have to do with the perception of how a comment is read by somebody else?

vmangman wrote: »

Your comments are clearly speaking against speech bubbles. Why would you speak against something that has no effect on you (since you could disable the feature) even though it would greatly improve someone else’s experience?

If I was speaking against anything, it was your hyper-aggressive attack-heavy harrassment of anybody with a view different to your own. I've never liked bullies.

vmangman wrote: »

You could have just said that you would want to be able to disable speech bubbles... that would be you bringing forward your feedback in a reasonable and kind manner. However, you speaking negatively on them is the same as you arguing against them and there is no reason for you to do that since you can just disable them. I’m really not sure why that’s so hard for you to understand.

Stop acting like a fool.

There have been three individual people in this thread alone asking you to dial it back a little. Treat people in a reasonable and kind manner, and you'll be treated in a reasonable and kind manner. You've called people irrelevant, misinformed, illogical, ridiculous, and now a fool. Please take a look at how you come across in your posts before lecturing others about reasonable and kind feedback.

Now, on to the actual topic.....

If you'd care to re-read my comment, I said that I was ok with short NPC bubbles, I just didn't want to see Player bubbles. In the MMOs I've played, the general Zone Chat of an area is usually filled with "WTS" or Guild Recuitment spam, players comparing hard game content to horrific illnesses such as cancer and aids, and players swearing at each other using txt-spk. I can do without that popping up on my screen.

VmanGman

@daveywavey

The situation is simple. If you argue against something or bring negative feedback against a very simple aspect of the game that has no effect on you because you can just toggle it off, then you will be told to stop. That’s the whole point and the reason why comments like yours are upsetting. If it doesn’t affect you and it improves other people’s experience why do you need to speak against that aspect of the game.

Your feedback could sway the developers into not implementing the speech bubbles and that would suck because they’re important to many players and speech bubbles have no effect on you. It’s really very simple. Not sure why you’re struggling to understand this.

Tyranthraxus

Have to agree with the OP. The ability to toggle them should definately be in-game.

Some people don't like them - that's fine, toggle it off, if it's not off by default.

Yours truly went from playing SWG to SWTOR. The former had chat bubbles, and you could also scroll back on a chat-log to see anything you missed/wanted to read more-carefully.

HOWEVER!

The latter specifically doesn't have chat bubbles AT ALL - which really took me out of the game. Instead of seeing people chatting in the streets and in the open environment, the social environment in SWTOR feels quite dead - since you never know if someone saying something in chat is near or far, from you - even if they are standing next to you; You'd have to match the name in the chat screen with a specific name of a toon around you.

Yours truly would strongly support chat bubbles, as an option - a game feels far less-social, without them.

Jamation

I have a love/hate relationship with speech bubbles. I love them when I'm out and about in the world, but hate them in crowded areas, cities, or raids.
A toggle switch would be nice, but I'd also want it to auto turn off at certain points, like if you're actively in PvP. I'd probably have it on in the outerworld, but it could be used to distract me during a PvP fight or block me from seeing something which would be annoying.
And of course if there are speech bubbles there'd need to be a way to block people/block just their bubbles for spam or annoyance.

But the reason I like speech bubbles so much is because I have a hard time reading a chat box. I usually can't see the text going by all that well so if I'm in a guild I'll just park my text box in guild chat, but that means if someone is talking to me in general I won't see it. Speech bubbles usually at least give me an indication that someone is trying to get my attention.
(And I know I can just make the text box bigger, but I'd rather see the world around me for dangers/items than look at a box that is usually irrelevant to me. If I was smart enough to play with my HUD off I totally would).

Grimbolde

I'm all for speech bubbles. With so much going on screen it helps me catch some thing in chat I might have missed otherwise

Kionashi

I Like speech bubbles!

, that said, I understand the concept of feature creep, and I wouldn't mind if they release the game without speech bubbles and add them in a later date

Marcet

i love chat bubbles!! it should be in the game.

Sum12hate

Any of y'all ever read the king's avatar? "Look at my sword.. no the other one!" I would enjoy chat bubbles purely for the pvp tomfoolery I would use them for

Demidreamer

They allow you to interact with your immediate surroundings. Gives are relativity of importance or convenience if someone is talking in /say. Two examples come to mind.

Combat large scale- a small group of people talking in /say isn't clogging up raid chat with a secondary objective(guarding or covert). Also allows you to know who is all present and active in your vicinity. Using LoS in an active combat could be more optimally used.

Metro/City craftsman/tradesman- the power of convenience of being able to talk to the guy smelting bars right next to you. The odds of getting a stranger to comply goes up when your right next to him asking for a service.

In the end, I like having the use of talking in /say, there are situational uses for having the option imo.

Tyranthraxus

UPDATE!

In today's live-stream, it was confirmed we'll get chat bubbles, and toggle-able.

Hooray, for this! Not everyone likes them, but yours truly ALWAYS has them on, in games, because it makes an area feel so much more ALIVE!

ChaosHvR

In my early days of WoW, I would sometimes spend hours just gathering herbs or fishing and maybe watching something on youtube. That multitasking would make it tough to realize someone was trying to chat to you if you could only rely on the bottom right/left chat box; albeit that a whisper in another colour is a clear indication. HOWEVER, I met someone really cool, we ended up chatting on skype back then, and that was only because I saw the chat bubble and read it. I realized that earlier they had sent me a private message/whisper which I did not see - I kinda slouch backwards in my chair and the text is small in the chat box. So that chat bubble made me a new friend and great adventures doing quests together, eventually getting into a guild together and all in all just an elevated experience. I would totally vouch for some possibility of a chat bubble.

I get that in a busy metropolitan with potentially hundreds of characters in one place that the bubbles would be overwhelming but since you are doing things in the metropol/town/city (hub) that are expected to deal with other players, then you would be focusing on the chat box and therefore would miss less. Out in the world though - that is where the chat bubble shines in my view. That is where you are focused on battle, on NPC quests, story/lore, and everything else that also shows up in the chat box that may blow away a chat from someone that wanted to get your attention. This, out in the world, would be a great advantage to those that like the idea of meeting new strangers on their adventures - chat bubbles. I hope it is something that could be implemented down the line in the open world. Looking forward to seeing all you folks in the grand world of Verra!

Jxshuwu

Yes! They just need to not be all ''in-your-face''
I really disliked it when someone was talking to me or i was talking to someone and they'd completely ignore me or i'd ignore them on accident since i love player interaction. Chat-box talking is a no-no from me, but make it toggleable for the people who prefer to be busy with their own game.

Also as a side note, i'd kinda appreciate a smaaalllll tinyyyyyyyy pop-up icon for whispers (if thats even a thing in the game? i'd assume so) because just the text chat scrolling and it pushing whispers up is very annoying, this way i can realize i got whispered and come back to it when im done doing what im doing.

Oceiris

I love that they will be in the game. I used to not use them at all, until at one point in my days of WoW I recall as a mage someone asking me for water but I didn't have a clue because I was immersed in the game and not watching the chatbox. After that I switched on the bubbles and haven't gone back. Love it.

Rhuell

I'm so accustomed to the chat box being spammed with guild invites and cash sites that i've completely stopped paying attention to it unless i'm in a party.

I would welcome speech bubbles. Though, i'd probably turn them off in town for the previously stated chat box issues.

Maybe the ability to enable or disable speech bubbles could be a checkable box adjacent to the chat box.

Bladen

I absolutely love chat bubbles. I can see it already. I'm a bounty hunter after a heavily corrupted player, "Stop right there, criminal scum".

Honshu

I didn't really think about it until this thread, but yeah, every game I've played with chat bubbles is actually really pleasant.

I found this article while trying to google some MMOs that have done the same thing. I mostly know them from City of Heroes and I liked it there. I would also hope they would add it and let people turn it off if they really want to.

https://massivelyop.com/2021/02/25/massively-overthinking-are-mmo-chat-bubbles-the-best-thing-ever-or-an-interface-eyesore/

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