» Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:40 am
I personally feel text and emotes are the best form of roleplay. Which is why I think virtual table tops are superior to actual table top RPG's. You have a moment to compose your characters response, and can apply accents and attitude with ease.
When I start making voices, on the other hand, I feel pretty stupid. I am not embarrassed to roleplay, but I am embarrassed to be a full-grown man faking a British accent.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:12 pm
I think it is very much personal preference. Chat bubbles remind me of comic books/comic strips/graphic novels; nothing that feels more alive. And in some cases it can be downright obnoxious.
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/5972/screenodin000ix0.jpg
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:22 am
I've been RPing a long time, and like many of you, I have settled into certain preferences on what mechanics I wish to use to RP with. For me, chat bubbles are at best a "meh", probably because I haven't RPed in an MMO since SWG that had them, and they could be a real pain and distraction. If I had the option to turn off, they would be okay, I guess.
The big one that bothers me is not being able to target another character for emotes. Now this is one that I used quite frequently, especially when in a crowded room such as a pub or in a large group of RPers. I'd almost consider it game-breaking, but instead I plan to rise to the challenge and over come the lack of ability. How? I'm not sure yet, will take some time to discover what method works best. I do hope this changes soon.
Right now, I'm more worried about how we're going to be able to be grouped with fellow RPer's with how the megaserver operates. I'm not keen on the idea of joining a guild before the game starts for real, and if we don't have some way to "flag" ourselves for RP, the chances we can actually find others may be pretty slim. If you know any work-around's for that, share them, please.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:35 pm
I did read a while ago that there would be an option at start up to join RP - dunno if that's still going to happen, I generally join those servers as they (on the whole) seem to be more mature.
But yeah, I have nothing at all against chat 'bubbles' It would work so much better than looking at the chat box and scrolling up through lots of meaningless messages to find the ones that are relevant to your character and others around.
Turn them off by all means if you want to read what the whole zone is chatting on - but give the RPrs the choice to speak to other players standing next to you without having to read through the rest of it all - I see NO downside to this and cant understand why it isn't implemented
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:15 pm
Nah, you were right, it's a risk you take with ordering online. I'll just remind myself while I'm not playing the game for four days that I'll have the map and book for years.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:24 pm
These are not chat bubbles, these are player's stores. You open the store by clicking it, so they can't go away and that's why it looks so bad.
In Ragnar?k Online, what your character says floats above its head with a darker background for a few seconds, not in a cartoony chat bubble.
Edit: By the way, I want chat bubbles.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:58 am
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:03 am
One work around I have used at various times before, is to create a separate chat tab for local/roleplay and move it to where I can easily see it on screen. This depends of course on the devs allowing the API to create separate movable tabs, which should not be a big deal as it affects nothing. It works really well if you can make the window transparent so that only the text is visible.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:41 pm
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:38 pm
RPers always get the shortest end of the stick. Sad but true.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:14 am
Sadly, I have to agree with you. 
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:55 am
Oh! I just thought of another important thing for RP!
Speech animations. This is one other subtle but critical thing.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:50 am
Guess I am to old school, I RP in the mid to late 90's in Neverwinter Nights Servers (they are small, 200 peeps max). I got used to RP with out chat bubbles and the screen mess that they will cause to. I only RP in small areas away from 100's people who are talking (or use a party chat) to listen to the other RP'ers better. Also, I can only RP with 5 or so people at a time before it gets to confusing. With 5 people, I can tell who is saying what just from their names. It is very very hard to RP with 10 people at once, to many sub dialog that is off topic. So I stick with RP in small groups and away from people or use a party chat or tells if the area have a lot of people in it.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:36 pm
Have to agree.. I RPed on a RP server in DAoC (Guenavere) and it was all chat windows. Most of my RPing was either 1on1 or with my group or my guild. If you bumped into someone on the street, you RP but those conversations usually didn't last long anyways. Overall though, I wasn't impressed with the /zone chat in ESO to begin with. And communicating with people around you was extremely awkward and inefficient. You had to get close, hope they stood still long enough, it was just not friendly to me. Maybe I just need more practice.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:38 am
That's the great thing about RPers, and the fact that they do get the short end of the stick: they don't let stuff bother them for long, but find a way to make it work. I very much want targeted emotes, but it's not game-breaking to me, and in the end, I'm going to figure a way to get around it if it is not implemented.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:17 am
It's important to note that RPers are the easiest group to please. We make our own content, and we stick around even when new content is really slow. Supporting RPers with these small things would be highly beneficial. I'm willing to bet we make up a larger percentage of the playerbase than most MMOs.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:53 am
Well said. Part of what puzzles me about not throwing RPers a bone every now and then. We don't ask for much, and what we do ask for would not require much. *shrugs* I dunno ...
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:55 pm
I think it should be an option and maybe it's one that can be done in LUA. Personally I'm an RPer not going to use them because I have no problem with using the chat window, if anything I find speech bubble more intrusive UI element that the chat window.
If there's one thing I've notice about MMO gamers in the last few years is that they really hate cartoons. Yet so many of them refer to their characters as "toons".
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:00 pm
I am not an RPer but from my experience RPers are usually the most loyal among the fanbase .Maybe its because they "invest"a lot more into their character than others. My commiserations that you guys didnt get your own phasing. Just surprised that Zenimax hasnt done more to appease you guys.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:50 am
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:44 am
<3 RAGNAROK! Nothing like the streets of Prontera for a shopping trip.
But yeah, those are shops and chats, not bubbles. Besides, later on they enforced to keep the streets clean of vendors, and it worked quite well. The chat bubbles in RO are just normal white text with a transparent dark background. It's probably as unobtrusive as it gets, and I'd prefer something like that for ESO as well.
http://www.whatmmorpg.com/review/ragnarok-online-3.jpg
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:00 pm
There was an equally annoying picture that I couldn't find at the time; it was a dozen or so avatars having a vital discussion about spam/spamming and creating enough chat bubbles to cover the screen. 
No one was selling/buying.
If they add it and allow it to be disabled per player choice, I'd be fine with it. As long as I don't have to use it if I don't want to.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:44 am
I am going to throw my 2 cents in here and say that chat bubbles might not be the best, and add too much clutter, but having the "interact with player" context menu have a talk and whisper option might work.
Talk makes the focus of your chat, and anyone looking at your character (soft targeted) have what you said in a subtitle area just above where your health bars are. Talk should also play a talking animation unless a /emote is added.
Whisper does the same but people looking at you won't see the subtitles, so it's private with the target of your chat. no animation is played unless specified.
I have not read all posts so sorry if this was already suggested.
» Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:00 pm
That is just as bad as the chat area. You'll be looking at the enemy health bar instead which is the opposite of immersive. You dont want to see the healthbar. The healthbar to begin with is intrusive for an RPer.
You want to look at the enemy *character*. You want to see what *he* or *she* says, relate it to a position and let the imagination flow on how the voice is (just think of Morgan Freeman when reading this and maybe you will get the idea).
Our brains are already drilled in understanding speech bubbles, they are in cartoons which most if not all of us have read at some point. That some people say its intrusive is... mindboggling. I cant even understand the concept of an intrusive chat bubble. Imagine how boring http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic would be if they wrote all dialogue in the lower left of the comic strip. Just line after line. No concept of position or sequence. Just /say and the characters looking at each other.
