loftar wrote:To be sure, the issue of the realm chat is somewhat of a topic. I'd like to say that the realm chat is an optional service; that if you feel that it's mismanaged, you're no worse off than you were before realm chats were added to begin with, and that it's entirely up to the realm that owns it to manage it how they wish. However, many people (perhaps especially new players) don't seem to perceive it that way. They seem to consider the realm chat to be more a right than a privilege, and that if it doesn't work exactly like they think it should, it's a problem with the game rather than the realm they're in.
I'm not sure how to feel about that. I'm not going to add a global chat (for the same reasons that I've always stated against it), so if player perceptions about the realm chat can't be changed, perhaps we should just remove it altogether? I'd like to see how it plays out in the next world to begin with, but that's kind of where I'm at with it.
The perception of realms could probably be improved overall. As is, most new players and even some more experienced hermits only perceive realms as some arbitrary geographic buff, not taking into account that there's actual players running it behind the scenes. Once realms get going, new players just happen to sometimes spawn in a realm and all they see is "Now entering ..." pop up every now and then. To them, realm chat seems like a game-sanctioned global chat.
This isn't C&L, so I don't want to derail, but perhaps some sort of UI that gives visitors details about the realm that makes it obvious that it's player-run like a guild and a "privilege". Or even give a new player the choice to spawn in a realm or not. Bash it into their skulls somehow that there's pros and cons to being in a realm.
I think it was World 4: my village started a "realm" before they were a thing ( we called it a kingdom ). Basically, we gave hermits and small villages "permission" to settle nearby in return for mutual protection and a local trading partners. There was a lot more interaction between our "realm" and its subjects with our little experiment. I think that's what the current iteration is missing.