Proximity Chat: a terrible idea that is really worth considering
So, I talked for a bit on discord about this, but I wanna put the whole thing in full here.
Now, all of us have seen proximity chat in some games, usually gone bad. Unfiltered chat is just that, unfiltered.
So, we can have toxic, racist, sexist etc players being able to broadcast how much of an idiot they are and frankly most people would just turn it off as soon as something like this happen.
So, why even put this post up? Because the game design allows for some amazing interactivity. Now, examples:
-imagine if for the election in a Science node, the participants have to publicly present their policies or even hold debates. For a random player, that isn't engaged in the daily politics, it would make the election an actual election, not just " this name looks cool"
-Bartering: as many items will be made by/gathered by players, being able to directly talk to the person you are buying from would be a whole other social encounter, much more that text.
-inter-guild talks: it might be redundant as there are so many ways to record, but i would imagine if 2 or more guild want to discuss some secret stuff, they would never write anything down. Sure, discord can be used for this, i would see it as a in-game alternative to it.
-Massive group singing: if you ever saw Queen's Live Aid concert, you know what i mean.
-Finding friends: there is no group finder (thankfully), so this would be another way to actually meet players. Imagine 2 players fishing and they start talking because...well, they are fishing, what else are you gonna do? They don't know each other, but from a 20 min chat, maybe they add each other and go raiding or something.
-The friendly "Hello". Just going around the world, walking down a road. Someone comes from the opposite direction, you exchange a polite "Hello" and you each go your different ways, never to see each other again.
Now, I am painfully aware how much flower power there is in this post, so coming back to reality for a bit, what type of restriction would there be to ensure that it cant be abused?
-Toggle on/off: easy, simple, effective. You don't wanna talk to people? Just disable it. They can't hear you, you can't hear them.
-Have proximity be a small, really small area around someone. Maybe 2m around them. Maybe its depended on where you are and how many people are around you. In the wild with only a few players its 10m, in a busy city its 1m. That's how we talk in real life.
-Being able to mute players from your proximity for good. Saw someone blasting music randomly in the city? In the perma-mute they go!
This is just what I could come up with now, I am sure actual devs would find even better ways.
The reason I think it is important is the way Ashes is designed to be. Player community. Giving a voice to it seems a fantastic addition, even though there are and always will be the loud, obnoxious ones that are still part of the community.
