Newbie experience and spoilers

[Khaylara]

More often than not when a new player asks one question on Global or Help, players follow it up with a flood of information that is meant to be learnt via exploration (spoilers).

Yesterday I actually saw a new player asking them to stop telling him so much, he was given at least 4-5 unnecessary spoilers.

I assume people don't spoil newbies's experience on purpose, I imagine they mean well but

-if a new player wants spoilers point them towards the Quest menu-Stuff to Do tab so they can decide for themselves if they do want spoilers or not. It has wiki links and it's their decision

-point them towards /Help when they ask a simple question about commands, if they ask how to make their character run or how to find bottles there's no need to tell them how to cheer up Riger or how to find a bow. If they insist to ask, use whispers to answer.

Many players (myself included)asked the community repeatedly to stop giving spoilers especially on global chats but it still happens (more often these days actually). We keep explaining that it is discouraged by the development team and frowned upon but people still give spoilers on chats where they can be seen by everyone cause "i only told him that death level 10 gives him a teleport to serbule, that's not a spoiler". A new player does not know where serbule is, they're just amused or bewildered by the death xp thing...It's part of newbie experience to discover what happens when they level in dying.

Could we please have some sort of message upon login or a tooltip to remind the players to not give (mostly) unrequested spoilers to new players? It carries more weight that way.

[Greyfyn]

Yes! Players still figuring out how to even use the chat system are bombarded by information they might find more fun to figure out on their own.

When I first started playing, I really liked the island experience because it was an introduction to how the game would work. The impatience experienced by new players seemed relevant to the story. Hey, you're stuck on an island, figure it out! You've lost your memories....

This whole experience continues to be undercut by Anagoge having access to Global chat. Sure, it makes sense for new players to have access to the help channel. But don't expose newbies to people jaded enough by repetitive questions to just cut to the chase and give all the answers. It's not helpful. Global chat should automatically open up when players arrive in Serbule.

Expecting players to not give spoilers is too much--that culture will not survive the transition to steam. There needs to be a decision at the design level about how newbies learn the game. Many don't read the pop-ups, which are then unavailable. Either quit making it mysterious and confusing, give them access to the answers, or let the game be true to the story and let them impatiently explore the island.

[Khaylara]

Imo it should be mysterious and confusing, new players have amnesia:) I don't know if they should be completely cut from any game-wide chat, maybe have access only to Help chat. Upon login every player would get a message reminding them spoilers are discouraged (maybe, don't know the best way to enforce this).
I guess I'm hoping PG will have a relatively nice community even after steam release but on this topic I think we need a nudge in the right direction. It's not a bannable offense to give spoilers but the devs could probably find a way to show their disapproval for the practice.

[kazeandi]

If you cut em off from all the chats, they'll think there's nobody online, the game is dead and leave.
If you leave the Help chat available, people will put spoilers there.

There's no way to get this right.

[ShieldBreaker]

Almost feel like, on entering the game you should get a choice of 2 modes of chat. Casual and Strict Roleplay. In Casual spoilers are not admonished and any topic is fine (within the TOS), sort of like Casual global is what lounge should be. In Strict Roleplay, Spoilers are frowned upon and talking about other games, real world events, current music and movies is a no no. So a new player is told here are the two modes, this one you might hear spoilers but is more lively, this other you won't hear spoilers and everyone should try to stay in character for immersion. Brave veterans knowing the ins and outs of the system could live in both modes, using tells to make answers to Strict Roleplay questions when needed.

We will probably just end-up managing, whatever the system is like at launch.

[Crissa]

If you cut em off from all the chats, they'll think there's nobody online, the game is dead and leave.
If you leave the Help chat available, people will put spoilers there.

There's no way to get this right.
At least on the help channel, the people who want to help will hear them, rather than on the general channel.

[Asashoryu]

Alternatively, make newbie isle chat work differently than elsewhere.

Sandbox all newbie area originating chat to newbie areas, then allow chat from outside the newbie areas to spill over into the newbie areas (preserving the feeling that there are a lot of people online so newbies don't get lonely). Just follow up any global say from someone on a newbie island with colored text saying something to the effect of 'As remote as this island is, you doubt many off-island actually heard you.'

...actually, that might not be a bad thing to enforce on most dungeons as well. : ) 'Underground, as you are, you doubt anyone outside of this crypt actually head you.' (ask for the numeric code to pass the shield).

[kazeandi]

We're already chatting globally outside, nobody's supposed to hear you in Rahu, from South Serbule, so this doesn't only not provide immersion, it also shakes your suspended disbelief, as it reminds you of "game mechanics.

[Tagamogi]

I don't think separating the tutorial island from general chat is a good idea. For one thing, I don't feel it really solves the spoiler problem: Someone who just teleported off Anagoge is still a newbie, and someone who has been playing for a few weeks may not be a newbie anymore but is still unlikely to want to read random spoilers for areas they have not explored yet.

In an ideal world, I'd love a game chat feature that works like the forum spoiler text and allows players to hide their answer. In my opinion, that would work better than tells since it allows other helpful players to see that the question has been answered, and allows other interested newbies to click on the spoiler link if they have the same question.

If that's not possible... hm. Maybe better chat management with the new UI will help.

I like the idea of running a login message once a month or so to remind players not to give out too many spoilers. Not everyone will remember to follow those guidelines, but I think it would still help to set some expectations for the game.