Make Puzzle Chat into Global Chat Channel

Started by Tony Origami

Tony Origami Lv 1

Since puzzle chat is rarely used and global chat is often crowded, would it be more useful to make puzzle chat into global chat channel 2

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Madde Lv 1

It wouldn't be only a name change. For now the puzzle chat is divided into many sub-channels for each puzzle, even the <15 and <150 puzzles have their own channels. Due to the small number of players in there they're mostly abandoned. The only puzzle chat that is regularly used is the puzzle_levels channel (for the tutorials). So why not make this one globally available and call it Help chat?

BootsMcGraw Lv 1

I second Madde's suggestion. Lump all the puzzle chat channels into one, accessible no matter what puzzle a player is working, including the tutorials.

It would make it easier for the newbies to flag people for help, since the likelihood of one of us old timers being in a <15 or <150 puzzle is close to zero. And it would assuage the grief felt by some members over the fact that global chat is often used for more than talking about the game.

=== Trigger and HeadlessChickenVillain approve of this post. ===

auntdeen Lv 1

I agree with Madde & Boots.

By clearly labeling a channel "Help" it would encourage new people to ask questions, and that may help retain some newcomers.

That would also increase the availability of vets to answer questions for those newcomers in the tutorials, and the <15 & <150 puzzles - currently only those vets using external IRC can access those rooms.

The only downside that I can see is that during the recent publicity that brought thousands of newcomers here all at once, the <15 and the <150 rooms served a great purpose - that was where many newcomers forged acquaintances among themselves, and had the pleasure of being able to pass on their newly acquired information about the game to each other. I monitored those rooms when I had the time, and found that the rooms were actually being treated more like a group chat - many were passing along help, hints and encouragement. Some of our newest teams were born in those rooms.

It would be nice if we could retain that, but also have a channel clearly marked Help.

Seth Cooper Staff Lv 1

We will be shortly adding a "veteran" chat tab that will only appear for those who have played the game for a little while. In this way, global can still be used by new players to ask for help, and in general it should be easier for new players since there will be fewer chat tabs.

We are also considering removing the puzzle chats.