Disclaimer: No spoilers in my original post but if anyone responds its possible there will be spoilers included.

 

I was running around one of the earlier zones recently on my second class (class B) and saw someone spamming general chat for help in killing a key character in my first class' (Class A) story line. Now, this wasn't spoiled for me because I had already been through it, but anyone who was still early on in the Class A story line would have had part of that story ruined for them.

 

The obvious solution here is to unsub from general chat. But then you miss out on a great source for help, the most effective LFG channel and a place to hear some good banter from time to time.

 

My question is: Is it unrealistic to expect other players to avoid spoilers in general chat?

 

Follow up: Do you think Bioware would penalize a user that is openly blasting spoilers in chat?

Frankly: This is inevitable.

 

You can't expect them to police general chat for any little comment or question that could be a spoiler, there is simply too much to do and it is too subjective.

 

If you absolutely care that much you have to unsub from general chat. Unfortunate? Sure. I for one would try to be careful what I posted as far as spoilers go but it only takes one person to ruin it if you are that serious...

Edited January 3, 2012 by inseeisyou

Frankly: Yes.

 

You can't expect them to police general chat for any little comment or question that could be a spoiler, there is simply too much to do and it is too subjective.

 

If you absolutely care that much you have to unsub from general chat. Unfortunate? Sure. I for one would try to be careful what I posted as far as spoilers go but it only takes one person to ruin it if you are that serious...

 

Pretty much this.

 

If you think that's the worst thing you'll see in General Chat, boy oh boy do you have some surprises in store for you.

I really haven't seen any of that on my server , probably because 3/4 of the players are space baring through conversations and cut scenes lol.

If you don't want to read spoilers don't read anything about the game.

 

Bugged quest complaints, issues with LS/DS choices, and quest difficulty problems could all be considered spoilers, and those would seem to be a perfectly valid question to confirm with other players in general chat.

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2012 by Jett_Skirata

My solution: I created a tab for all my characters called "No General". Has all the other channels but General. It helps immersion as I find the nonsense flying in general quite distracting.

My solution: I created a tab for all my characters called "No General". Has all the other channels but General. It helps immersion as I find the nonsense flying in general quite distracting.

 

Interesting. Does much of the LFG go through channels other than general? That's really the only thing I don't want to miss.

Dont play MMOs if you want a single player experience with no spoilers...

Disclaimer: No spoilers in my original post but if anyone responds its possible there will be spoilers included.

 

I was running around one of the earlier zones recently on my second class (class B) and saw someone spamming general chat for help in killing a key character in my first class' (Class A) story line. Now, this wasn't spoiled for me because I had already been through it, but anyone who was still early on in the Class A story line would have had part of that story ruined for them.

 

The obvious solution here is to unsub from general chat. But then you miss out on a great source for help, the most effective LFG channel and a place to hear some good banter from time to time.

 

My question is: Is it unrealistic to expect other players to avoid spoilers in general chat?

 

Follow up: Do you think Bioware would penalize a user that is openly blasting spoilers in chat?

 

If someone asking for help killing so-and-so constitutes a spoiler to you then yes, I think at that point you should probably leave the channel instead of asking Bioware to start handing out mod wrath.

 

It's one thing to have a guy explicitly stating spoilers repeatedly, but in your instance it was entirely 100% unintended and doesn't spoil anything of substance. For instance (Sith Inquisitor spoilers below)

 

 

 

 

Now, I wouldn't go about doing it myself and indeed used the spoiler tags here. However, I don't think it's fair to take account action if someone asks for help and that reveals a very tiny portion of the plot.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Excedrin

I always disable general chat unless I want to group, then I re-join until I find the group and disable it again.

 

Nothing of value ever comes out of general chat.

@ OP,

 

I have had this happen as well and it is extremely frusterating and disrespectful and I agree there should be penalties for it. However even if they made it a punishable offense, good luck getting through to someone to report it. So far the CS is just atrocious.

Dont play MMOs if you want a single player experience with no spoilers...

 

Didn't Bioware invest heavily in the single player aspect of this mmorpg?

Interesting. Does much of the LFG go through channels other than general? That's really the only thing I don't want to miss.

 

That's why I create a separate tab. When I'm interested in finding a group I can just pop back on to the default chat tab.

If someone asking for help killing so-and-so constitutes a spoiler to you then yes, I think at that point you should probably leave the channel instead of asking Bioware to starting handing out mod wrath.

 

It's one thing to have a guy explicitly stating spoilers repeatedly, but in your instance it was entirely 100% unintended and doesn't spoil anything of substance. For instance (Sith Inquisitor spoilers below)

 

 

On the SI questline you're eventually sent to kill your master, Lord Zash. It would not ruin the story in any significant way if I was told that this will happen (especially when the game hints at it ever since you're a much lower level). But that doesn't tell me anything about the context of her death or its meaning. Even if someone asked for help killing her or something, I don't think the story is truly spoiled.

 

 

Now, I wouldn't go about doing it myself and indeed used the spoiler tags here. However, I don't think it's fair to take account action if someone asks for help and that reveals a very tiny portion of the plot.

 

Interesting point. My question on Bioware's response was more out of curiosity. I'm not asking for them to try to police this. I more interested in people's opinions on this dynamic. They probably thought about it though since they invested heavily in story creation.

I have a second tab that only shows whispers, party and guild chat.

I spend most of my time in that.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Fraxture

Disclaimer: No spoilers in my original post but if anyone responds its possible there will be spoilers included.

 

I was running around one of the earlier zones recently on my second class (class B) and saw someone spamming general chat for help in killing a key character in my first class' (Class A) story line. Now, this wasn't spoiled for me because I had already been through it, but anyone who was still early on in the Class A story line would have had part of that story ruined for them.

 

The obvious solution here is to unsub from general chat. But then you miss out on a great source for help, the most effective LFG channel and a place to hear some good banter from time to time.

 

My question is: Is it unrealistic to expect other players to avoid spoilers in general chat?

 

Follow up: Do you think Bioware would penalize a user that is openly blasting spoilers in chat?

 

Simple solution, Close general chat till you need it. Its not Rocket science.

Didn't Bioware invest heavily in the single player aspect of this mmorpg?

 

not the last time I checked.. they want people to share the experience.. this is an MMO not a SPRPG

Simple solution, Close general chat till you need it. Its not Rocket science.

 

Yeah, so I'm not looking for a solution. I was interested in hearing some opinions. Nice green font though.

I always disable general chat unless I want to group, then I re-join until I find the group and disable it again.

 

Nothing of value ever comes out of general chat.

 

Pretty much that the only time I use GC is when I want t find a group it goes off right after I have one.

not the last time I checked.. they want people to share the experience.. this is an MMO not a SPRPG

 

Do you mean "share the experience" like we go to see Empire together in the theater and I tell you about Luke Skywalker's father during the "Let's Go Out to the Lobby" intro?

short answer, yes, it is unrealistic to expect a filtered general chat.

 

I have to admit I too am guilty of this from time to time, not generally asking for help on a specific guy but if I'm doing a mission and there's a funny line or something in the story, I generally will talk about it in general chat. I never really consider the 'spoiler' aspect of it. I just saw something funny to me and I wanted to share, the fact that I'm spoiling it for someone else doesn't usually occur to me in that moment.

 

Anyway, as I said to answer the actual question, I don't think you can expect this, the only reasonable that can be done to alleviate it a bit would be to add "LFG" and "Help" global channels so people could keep that stuff out of general if they chose to. Even then though it would still happen, much like people in WoW still advertised stuff for sale in general even when there was a buzzing trade channel.