Authenticated Players
ZookiTabooki
Posts: 637 ✭✭✭✭✭
There have been some lively discussions on the merits of adding social features such as chat and the ability to organize in-game events and the like. During these discussions, there has been a lot input from various members either denouncing or supporting these features.
These are great discussions because of how much I have learned from the experience of others with games like Ingress. I have been able to see the merits on both sides of the argument. Issues such as personal safety, tracking and toxicity are just a few of the detractors. Yet this is a social game, or at least a game that encourages social interactions and I feel like the toxic and unsavoury types among us are ruling the day; tying game developers hands behind their back.
The problem is anonymity. I belong to a whatsapp channel for Pokemon Go players in my neighbourhood. There is next to ZERO toxicity in the channel. Why? Because whatsapp authenticates (to some degree) their users which discourages toxicity altogether. We know who each other are, by our real names and we have each others 'number', so to speak. Getting banned for toxic behaviour has a much more serious implication.
My point is, having the option to authenticate players and restricting social features to such is likely the best way to have our cake and eat it too. Then authenticated players can choose which social features they want to engage in and go from there. There are always solutions to every challenge. Player Authentication is a concept developers should consider to help deal with this one.
Comments
Bump on this one! It's far to difficult to find and organize with other players. Pokemon Go failed to listen to the masses and went from everyone with a smart phone playing to only handfuls here and there. On behalf of the die hard HP fans, Niantic please address this before we lose the few players we have. Players download for the game but they stay for the friends.
Apparently I missed this thread when it was originally posted, but I agree wholeheartedly. I'll copy my thoughts from another thread I happened to stumble upon recently, which wasn't even related but the comments sort of went in that direction anyway.
I would also like some form of in-app communication. I installed Ingress and played it for a couple days just to see what it's like, and the chat functionality looked great. I announced my presence, and was immediately welcomed by other local players. It was perfect for coordinating any sort of group effort.
I've heard the arguments against it including harassment, spam bots, etc. Those are all valid points, but it still doesn't help me understand why the chat functionality exists in Ingress and not PoGo or HPWU.
Then there's the argument that Ingress attracts an older audience than PoGo or HPWU, so leaving in-app communication out is necessary to protect minors. At first I thought that was a pretty good explanation, but I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe I'm wrong, but don't all three games share the same Terms of Use? Children under the age of digital consent have to sign up for a Niantic Kids account, and app permissions are managed through a parent portal. The chat functionality could just be disabled at the parent's discretion, and there you have it. Problem solved.
Plus, there's the fact that I've never encountered a kid playing one of these games. Maybe other people have, but not me. At any of the popular spots to play in my city, I've only seen older millennials or middle-aged folks. I'm sure there are some kids playing, but I feel like it's safe to assume adult players are in the majority by a significant margin across all three games.
All things considered, protecting children hardly seems relevant to this issue. There are very important matters involving the health and well-being of our children we should all be focused on, but whether chat should be included in HPWU isn't one of them.
Just do it. It'll be fine. If there are problems, we'll work it out. I think it would be a big victory in the effort to promote the community aspect of this game.
This is really cool, and I totally agree
If you want to make an app kid-friendly don't have calls to microtransaction every other screen, and don't require dawn and nighttime outings. Then, "no chat so the children are safe" might start to feel vaguely legitimate.
I don't remember them saying anything about there being no chat because of kids.
It is one of the potential reasons mentioned in the discussions here.
oh then you might be referring to my comment about it lol. I was just saying that it had to be a consideration in the design. It is nothing that would prevent the feature. It just would make it slightly more complicated to build. That wouldn't even delay it because kids have special accounts and they could just block access to the chat on children's accounts until they had it ready. I was mainly just saying it was a complicated feature. It is definitely one they should do and may well be what they take up after they polish off adventure sync.
Yeah, like a couple other issues, I think if we keep bumping this thread to keep it above the fold we might eventually hear some official word on it. I think all of us who've weighed in on the subject in various threads have all come to agree that while child safety is always important and must be considered, it isn't a valid argument against implementing this feature.
+1 for in-app chat...
I come from world of Ingress (started playing when it was still in beta, still playing now)... where there is a chat function, which is actually pretty nice, especially when you first come into certain area (moved around a lot and it was really handy)...
Also +1 so long g as it is an opt in selection. We could play privately or open invite other to say hi.
I would approach another play if they had a chat open and I knew they welcomed interaction with other players.
This is definitely an idea I think the devs should look into. Even though i hadnt played a game like this before, i was surprised that there was no way to message or join in a group chat about certain things.
For example, being new, you can sometimes feel you are asking a really obvious question, so you don't ask cos you don't want to seem like you don't know the basics. If you could just message the person who posted and ask for clarification im sure they'd be happy to help.
Also a huge help for arranging meetings & building up the sense of community.
I'm not sure it's really about authentication. From my perspective the "Friends" - list is the perfect place to put communications. Since the user is in complete control of who they Friend and who they remove from that list, if someone is being a nuisance, just remove them. Being able to chat with another player via DM is key to building up relationships and a community.
The other day I met a player for the first time who I had been BF with in Pokemon for close to a year already. I was thrilled. Too bad the game doesn't support any type of communication and I had to rely on blind chance to finally meet this person.
Right now HPWU is suffering because players can't connect, and you need multiple players to make Wizard Challenges better for everyone. If all the play was solo, it wouldn't be as big of a deal. I always hear the same thing from all over "I can't find people to do challenges with". We need a solution to that problem and it would help the game as well. I know in Ingress many people stay around for years because of the team spirit and communities that have been built.