Is it possible to disable the game chat?

[Meeplelowda]

Feast For Odin against an AI? Age of Innovation? Hanabi?

Given this list King of Tokyo is probably beneath you, but in KoT at least half the fun is in the chat reactions when someone does something like rolling 5 claws at just the right time to force someone out of Tokyo who was about to win.

Ed.: It occurred to me that there may be a more general principle at play. The lighter the game, the more interacting socially with the other players is part of the experience (because your brain isn't consumed by optimizing your engine or something). I understand the desire to withdraw into your own board for multi-player solitaire. My primary objection is to the notion that the only purpose of another BGA user is to be a meat bot because an AI bot for the game is too complicated to implement, i.e., the other players are just tools for one's pleasure the way an AI bot would be.

[Jellby]

I've created a Greasemonkey script for my own use that hides the chat with a single key hit

Code: Select all

function nochat() {
  var D   = document;
  var elm = D.getElementById ('chatbar');
  if (elm.style.opacity == '') {
    elm.style.opacity = '0.02';
  } else {
    elm.style.opacity = '';
  }
}

// (press left Ctrl)
document.onkeydown = function() {
  var KeyID = event.keyCode;
  if (KeyID == 17) {
    nochat();
  }
}

As soon as someone starts commenting about the moves in Hanabi, I hit use this. My life has improved a lot.

[wannaplayagain]

One does have to actively press on the chat to see what someone has written. If you don’t like the chat function you can just not press on it to see what was written, right? I don’t have to answer my cell phone if I don’t want to deal with call center sales people.

[JoysJoy]

I'd say that's the apt way to treat randoms on the internet. Specially when most of them would use chat to just be toxic anyway. I don't think many people use BGA for the same social experience that irl board gaming provides.

I've been here for a few years and played more than 6503 games so far. Yet I can count on one hand the bad chat experiences I have had.

The few bad chats that happened, I red thumbed the player (with a note to remind myself why), and I reported them. Never had that person bug me again.

IF I had shut off all chat at all because of a handful of bad players, I would have missed out on the best part of BGA: the good friends I have made.

i have long term friends here, several I've now played while on zoom, and some I text with IRL (phones). How does one get these kinds of friends? You make positive comments to other players as you were playing. If I am playing rummy and someone else gets a great hand, I text in the chat what a wonderful hand they got! I will say to people "well played" or "congratulations" when they win, and sooner or later we remember each other's names and we become friends.

Don't let the small number of socially inept people on here ruin this for you. There are real relationships to be found, and it is so much more fun to play games with your friends. When you have a good game with someone and they don't make bad comments, ask them for a rematch. When you've played a few times and gotten along, send them a friend request.

Pretty soon you will be so busy playing with known, good people you won't be worried about the chat anymore. You will be developing close relationships you can keep for a long time.

Cut off all chat and you lose the chance of something beautiful happening for your BGA experience.

And don't forget you can always play solo games when you get tired of other humans. I think there's almost 200 possible solo games on here. If you really don't want to be playing with other humans, you don't have to.

[Archisian]

I'd say that's the apt way to treat randoms on the internet. Specially when most of them would use chat to just be toxic anyway. I don't think many people use BGA for the same social experience that irl board gaming provides.

I've been here for a few years and played more than 6503 games so far. Yet I can count on one hand the bad chat experiences I have had.

The few bad chats that happened, I red thumbed the player (with a note to remind myself why), and I reported them. Never had that person bug me again.

IF I had shut off all chat at all because of a handful of bad players, I would have missed out on the best part of BGA: the good friends I have made.

i have long term friends here, several I've now played while on zoom, and some I text with IRL (phones). How does one get these kinds of friends? You make positive comments to other players as you were playing. If I am playing rummy and someone else gets a great hand, I text in the chat what a wonderful hand they got! I will say to people "well played" or "congratulations" when they win, and sooner or later we remember each other's names and we become friends.

Don't let the small number of socially inept people on here ruin this for you. There are real relationships to be found, and it is so much more fun to play games with your friends. When you have a good game with someone and they don't make bad comments, ask them for a rematch. When you've played a few times and gotten along, send them a friend request.

Pretty soon you will be so busy playing with known, good people you won't be worried about the chat anymore. You will be developing close relationships you can keep for a long time.

Cut off all chat and you lose the chance of something beautiful happening for your BGA experience.

And don't forget you can always play solo games when you get tired of other humans. I think there's almost 200 possible solo games on here. If you really don't want to be playing with other humans, you don't have to.

Socially inept? Well if that isn’t a way to patronize introverted people and those who just want to play games without having to deal with the advantages an AI has over a human player.

Why must people be forced into an interaction that they don’t want? Are you obligated to talk to every person that walks up and talks to you on the street? Are you obligated to have conversations with every cashier at the stores you frequent? Do you think every interaction with another human is some beautiful and awe-inspiring experience? I would venture to say no, you don’t think that. So, forcing people to have an interaction they don’t want is disrespectful, don’t you think? But you would call that social ineptitude. I think that’s rather insulting to a spectrum of people with different personalities.

[Archisian]

I wish we had this for those who want the option of disabling it. Some people just want to play a game and not want to have a discussion. There is nothing wrong with that. So it’s strange to me when someone thinks that those who just want to play and not chat are in the wrong.

If you were able to turn off chat, would you at least consider using the "Are you still there" auto-translated message to check if someone has had a glitch, where it doesn't appear to be their turn but actually is, before kicking them out?

The people silently and facelessly kicking people without even attempting to check if everything is working properly are the ones that bother me. I don't mind people not wanting to chat of course.

If someone wanted to just play AI, there are platforms for that.

I don’t see the point to be honest. If I’m still in the game, I’m still obviously there. But if I’m not making moves, there is probably some reason for that. If something happened and I need to step away or if there is a glitch, I don’t need a reminder to come back into the game. If you’re someone who wants to take it on good faith, you can assume that they went afk for some reason rather than trying to yank your chain. If they don’t come back and go over time, kick them out and move on to the next game.

[JoysJoy]

I'd say that's the apt way to treat randoms on the internet. Specially when most of them would use chat to just be toxic anyway. I don't think many people use BGA for the same social experience that irl board gaming provides.

I've been here for a few years and played more than 6503 games so far. Yet I can count on one hand the bad chat experiences I have had.

The few bad chats that happened, I red thumbed the player (with a note to remind myself why), and I reported them. Never had that person bug me again.

IF I had shut off all chat at all because of a handful of bad players, I would have missed out on the best part of BGA: the good friends I have made.

i have long term friends here, several I've now played while on zoom, and some I text with IRL (phones). How does one get these kinds of friends? You make positive comments to other players as you were playing. If I am playing rummy and someone else gets a great hand, I text in the chat what a wonderful hand they got! I will say to people "well played" or "congratulations" when they win, and sooner or later we remember each other's names and we become friends.

Don't let the small number of socially inept people on here ruin this for you. There are real relationships to be found, and it is so much more fun to play games with your friends. When you have a good game with someone and they don't make bad comments, ask them for a rematch. When you've played a few times and gotten along, send them a friend request.

Pretty soon you will be so busy playing with known, good people you won't be worried about the chat anymore. You will be developing close relationships you can keep for a long time.

Cut off all chat and you lose the chance of something beautiful happening for your BGA experience.

And don't forget you can always play solo games when you get tired of other humans. I think there's almost 200 possible solo games on here. If you really don't want to be playing with other humans, you don't have to.

Socially inept? Well if that isn’t a way to patronize introverted people and those who just want to play games without having to deal with the advantages an AI has over a human player.

Why must people be forced into an interaction that they don’t want? Are you obligated to talk to every person that walks up and talks to you on the street? Are you obligated to have conversations with every cashier at the stores you frequent? Do you think every interaction with another human is some beautiful and awe-inspiring experience? I would venture to say no, you don’t think that. So, forcing people to have an interaction they don’t want is disrespectful, don’t you think? But you would call that social ineptitude. I think that’s rather insulting to a spectrum of people with different personalities.

Try reading this again and you will see I am not calling you socially inept. I am calling the people who do unpleasant things in chat socially inept.

And I don't think you can possibly compare choosing to play a game with another human being as the same as randomly running into someone on the street. If you don't wanna play with humans at all then go play solo games. As I mentioned there are about 200 possibilities where you can avoid humans entirely. Why are you here if you don't wanna play games with humans? Sometimes you need to chat with the person during a game. It's not rational to think you can come here and play and never interact with a human. What is the point?

And as I mentioned, you can red-thumb anybody that has a negative interaction with you and you never have to play them again.

And honestly, how many bad interactions could you possibly have had?

[ulkaur]

Respectfully, I think it is counterproductive to censor all interaction, even if it is tense. Society has already done a lot to infantilize the population so that our hobbies add to this problem, that is, treating adults like children. And I say adults because anyone who plays on online platforms and spends hundreds of dollars on their favorite online hobby should be an adult, at least on ethical platforms. In my case I play altered, and although I am a sarcastic and sometimes unfriendly person, that is perfectly human, and apparently BGA does not like human and genuine behavior. We are not bots. And if there are users who are children, or at least with a child's mental age, they should warn them not to interact with them as they could be offended. If altered TCG did not allow me to play on its online platform, which was part of the kickstarter campaign, I think it would be illegal, since the game is not free. Happy holidays to everyone, I love you.

[Archisian]

I've been here for a few years and played more than 6503 games so far. Yet I can count on one hand the bad chat experiences I have had.

The few bad chats that happened, I red thumbed the player (with a note to remind myself why), and I reported them. Never had that person bug me again.

IF I had shut off all chat at all because of a handful of bad players, I would have missed out on the best part of BGA: the good friends I have made.

i have long term friends here, several I've now played while on zoom, and some I text with IRL (phones). How does one get these kinds of friends? You make positive comments to other players as you were playing. If I am playing rummy and someone else gets a great hand, I text in the chat what a wonderful hand they got! I will say to people "well played" or "congratulations" when they win, and sooner or later we remember each other's names and we become friends.

Don't let the small number of socially inept people on here ruin this for you. There are real relationships to be found, and it is so much more fun to play games with your friends. When you have a good game with someone and they don't make bad comments, ask them for a rematch. When you've played a few times and gotten along, send them a friend request.

Pretty soon you will be so busy playing with known, good people you won't be worried about the chat anymore. You will be developing close relationships you can keep for a long time.

Cut off all chat and you lose the chance of something beautiful happening for your BGA experience.

And don't forget you can always play solo games when you get tired of other humans. I think there's almost 200 possible solo games on here. If you really don't want to be playing with other humans, you don't have to.

Socially inept? Well if that isn’t a way to patronize introverted people and those who just want to play games without having to deal with the advantages an AI has over a human player.

Why must people be forced into an interaction that they don’t want? Are you obligated to talk to every person that walks up and talks to you on the street? Are you obligated to have conversations with every cashier at the stores you frequent? Do you think every interaction with another human is some beautiful and awe-inspiring experience? I would venture to say no, you don’t think that. So, forcing people to have an interaction they don’t want is disrespectful, don’t you think? But you would call that social ineptitude. I think that’s rather insulting to a spectrum of people with different personalities.

Try reading this again and you will see I am not calling you socially inept. I am calling the people who do unpleasant things in chat socially inept.

And I don't think you can possibly compare choosing to play a game with another human being as the same as randomly running into someone on the street. If you don't wanna play with humans at all then go play solo games. As I mentioned there are about 200 possibilities where you can avoid humans entirely. Why are you here if you don't wanna play games with humans? Sometimes you need to chat with the person during a game. It's not rational to think you can come here and play and never interact with a human. What is the point?

And as I mentioned, you can red-thumb anybody that has a negative interaction with you and you never have to play them again.

And honestly, how many bad interactions could you possibly have had?

I normally play board games online during my downtimes Otherwise, I completely play solo games on platforms like Steam. However, when I play board games, I don’t play the AI on games I do like such as Wingspan. That’s because the AI has such a huge advantage that it’s nearly impossible to win. Like chess, you can *technically* beat the AI. But it’s extremely rare. So I choose human players because humans are prone to error, making it more fair.

A good interaction for me when it comes to playing games online is none at all. I’m not here to make friends. I have my friends in real life. I’m here to kill some time and my boredom. I’m also a competitive person, so interactions don’t make my online gaming experiences enjoyable. For some people to see asking for a simple option of clicking to turn off the chat as some affront to human nature is so strange to me. In circumstances is it necessary a person interact with someone in the chat?

[ulkaur]

Well, i can say a good interaction in real life is none in all. But in cant control that. In online games, chat can be used to bluff, deconcentrate, provoking, or to be gentle. Its up to you if you want to read the chat. Its up to me if i dont want to talk to people in real life. I dont need laws to enforce it. If you want to remove the human factor, in a online game platform, maybe is better to play with bots. Is like play football, and to expect players keep quiet and respect all the rules.