Author Topic: Is IRC good or bad?  (Read 2646 times)

MyeRs

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Is IRC good or bad?
« on: October 10, 2012, 09:42:18 AM »
Pretty much as the title says. I've always liked IRC, and tried to get new players on it, but I'm trying to spot 'easy fix' type differences between DP2 and other 'popular games' that will make a huge impact - and the majority of people did not agree with mine and Rick's last idea about the maps, so how about this:

I know friendlist and whatnot have been brought up in the past, but wouldn't friendslist/ingame chat/other alternative etc.etc. be much more beneficial?

New players struggle to connect to mIRC, never stay on it, lagout of it constantly etc.etc.. *And I know people used the arguments "WE DID IT! SO CAN THEY!" - Yeah, but WE is a very small number, so want that to grow, than something has to change.

What other game uses IRC as their main source of communication? Some games have IRC, but most games rely on in game chat, in game friends list, in game match making, or clients like steam.

So, without IRC (Which wont ever get completely removed from this game) these are the possible benefits:

- Less community relationships (Meaning, people wont know EVERYONE as well, since you wont be on IRC talking to them all day. Could lead to less drama + less teams avoiding eachother)

- Easier for new players to communicate/integrate

- Hopefully make people pub/play more when they're online. (People sit on IRC talking for hours but never "have time to play" - if they open their game to talk, it'll probably increase the chances they jump in a pub.

- Easier to help new players (It's much easier to say: "add me as a friend" - or explain how to join the ingame chat - as oppose to "connect to IRC and msg me if you want help")

And other excrement that I can't think of right now. This idea has come up soo many times since I started playing, don't understand why it hasn't gone anywhere.

TL;DR IRC is outdated and should be replaced by some other means.

T3RR0R15T

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2012, 10:25:28 AM »
I don't know if i like irc or not, but i hate the mIRC client. I use trillian or the webchat for it and both is ok, but i don't think i would miss it if it goes down.

The ingame things are nice, but it is nothing to idle the whole day.

jitspoe

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2012, 10:28:31 AM »
It would actually be kind of cool to integrate IRC into the game, but I'm afraid virus scanners would freak out because "ZOMG! IRC CLIENT = WORM TRYING TO CONTROL YOUR COMPUTAR!!!"

An in-game friends/communication system would be pretty nice, but I'm not sure if the benefits would outweigh the amount of work it would take to implement.  The disadvantage being that you have to be in the game to communicate, and if you're in the game, you're probably already actively playing.  If you're not in the game, you're not, so... I guess it's not really much different from jumping on a pub and saying, "Hey ____, let's match!"

capo

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2012, 11:19:42 AM »
Wasn't there something about using Steam? This game that I'm playing, which is a mod... Is in the process of being moved to steam or something. Not sure about all the details.

I personally like the in-game friends list though.

TiMe2ChilL

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2012, 03:32:37 PM »
I don't like mIRC. When I was new to this game everbody told me to join #etg because IRC was the place to be, and so did I.
Still, I never really understood the obsession about it. IRC is a good way to connect a community, but not the way we use it.
Most players above a certain skill lvl advise newer players to idle in IRC, we even got a guide on the forums. Even though there were times of greater activity (on etg and first year of gg-center), most of the time it's dead still there. People do not talk on IRC and when they do it's  either flaming or a strange conversation you can't really enter, especially if you're new and not respected. So why should we idle there?
 I don't do it anymore, it's a waste of time to constantly check if something's happening. Usually nothing ever happens, so it's not a big loss. It doesn't improve your skill lvl, actually, it can even have a negative impact on it, since most people on IRC tend to be like "I only match, because I'm too good for anything else and only winning a XvsX satisfies my megalomania".
Ideally, IRC should be used as a place to talk and learn more about the game, whatever aspect it may be. Small talk's fine aswell, as long as everbody is allowed to participate. I often noticed player being ignored there (wether they were new or not). That's not the way it should go. If you want to talk in private, you can always PM somebody, so don't be inpolite.
It could also help in finding games to play. If you want to pub and no standart serv is populated? Go on irc and find some people, no need for a match-like PUG.

It's not about the programme itself, it's the attitude of the players. In other games, good (or "pro") players practice few hours everyday. In Pb everybody trys to avoid matches (pub included) since their sheer presence in IRC makes them better than 90% of the community (there are exceptions).
This game could be more fun when we stop idling 24/7 (yeah, you see, IDLING) and start playing it instead

RoBiNandL!nk

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2012, 03:45:56 PM »
Great idea, Will be easier to talk to people. Integrating newbies into the community would be at least over 9000 times better. yes over 9000. Just saiyan.

ViciouZ

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2012, 03:56:32 PM »
Not entirely sure what you intend to actually change here - just stop telling new players to go on IRC? I mean, right now, it is totally voluntary, it's just how the community has organised itself. Or are you proposing an in-game alternative?

gonass

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #7 on: October 10, 2012, 10:57:53 PM »
I've always said that dp needed an in game chat lobby system.  There was a point in time when practically every online game had it.  Deranged has already written a match making and chat system for one of the games we were making.  If you ask nicely, maybe he'd lend some code for it.

jitspoe

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2012, 10:18:22 AM »
Would there be any advantage to having a completely separate chat lobby system over just having a chat lobby in-game that connects to IRC?  Using an existing architecture would be easier, I think.  The global-gamers guys would probably be wiling to help out as well, if there were any extra features necessary.  The downside is the overprotective virus scanners that might flag Paintball2 as a virus because it has IRC code, or block it from connecting to IRC servers.

RoBiNandL!nk

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2012, 10:31:21 AM »
I think connecting to IRC in game would be better. Especially if you could talk to those not in game but using IRC on a separate laptop or mobile devices. Or even if someone wants to tell you to get online, etc. Maybe have a connected to PBALL and conected to IRC as two different online displays.

MyeRs

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2012, 11:40:26 AM »
Would there be any advantage to having a completely separate chat lobby system over just having a chat lobby in-game that connects to IRC?  Using an existing architecture would be easier, I think.  The global-gamers guys would probably be wiling to help out as well, if there were any extra features necessary.  The downside is the overprotective virus scanners that might flag Paintball2 as a virus because it has IRC code, or block it from connecting to IRC servers.

Integrating GG IRC into DP is probably the better system, mainly for the reason you stated in your first post. You wouldn't need to keep your game open in order to be notified of something via IRC. So, new players can still connect and whatnot easily through the game, but players can also just have mIRC or another client that they leave idle. Doesn't bug any current players since they don't need to change anything, and helps new players since the chats part of the game.

jitspoe

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Justinph5

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2012, 03:24:05 PM »
After 4 years I think it's okay to reset that feature vote... None of those people even play anymore to know whats needed now.

SuperMAn

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Re: Is IRC good or bad?
« Reply #13 on: October 12, 2012, 09:17:00 AM »
I don't mind the idea of integrating IRC into DP.  I think it would be best to have an overlay type thing, sort of like what steam has (Shift+Tab).  
I imagine it would feel very "clunky" if you had to navigate through the main menus to get to the IRC screen when you want to chat.  

Or maybe it could be right on the main menu screen, so you would just have to hit escape.