So what do our young players do?
Well, the natural answer would be join a Clan but young kids will inherently be locked out of contact with some of best, longest playing, most knowledgeable players in game by Ranking Clan requirements. Those guilds seeking top ranks have play requirements – one of the most common is on going, daily play (which children usually cannot meet, especially during school time/limited screen time) and with limited member space, a ranking guild cannot use a needed member space for someone who cannot help keep ranking moving forward. That leaves kids (and other players, too) with no way to connect with a huge part of the game player base.So while chatting with my Clan Leader, I made the statement it would be nice to have a Kids Clan, where all the kids could join/chat and play together – Mods and some adults could watch over it – but it would give them a place to be together and learn. I would think it should be unlimited size to allow them to be together and it could fall outside the ranking system (for those who would say unlimited size would mess up the ranks). I’m not sure exactly how it would work, it was just a random idea at this point.
I have a couple of friends on my friends list who are young and we email back and forth with info, but one is not allowed on the forums (parents decision) and as we know, a lot of players won’t go to the forums, for whatever reason, and emailing back and forth to explain things can be tedious/confusing and frustrating. (Don’t get me wrong – the Devs, Mods and Players are all working together to make the forums a more viable resource – but even doing that, the forums are like email – the back and forth nature of texting keeps is from being ideal for helping someone learn how to do things other than in tutorials).
Clans do it – and they do it using Clan Chat. Well, if they are GOOD Clans, they do.
However, unless a player joins a Clan, chat is useless. The Global Chat doesn't work because it only starts when you log on and you only know who logs on after you and can only see conversation that occurs after you log in. It might be different if it backlogged for even the past couple hours (or 24 hrs would be even better) - that way conversations could be on going instead of coming in to a blank screen, or questions asked by someone could be answered - but it doesn't, and that's why no one uses it. An example was the first Forum Event - Aramina & I, both, were spamming Global Chat the Forum info non-stop because everyone logging in couldn't see what we had said about the Halloween Event and how to access the forums as little as one or two minutes before. Being able to use the Global Chat on-going would help all the players, not just the young ones. Seriously, me to you (Devs), if you aren’t going to change it – you might as well delete it as NO ONE uses it.
A simple revolving chat file of 24 hours would allow people to talk or look back through to answer questions, etc. When the file fills, the old goes out the top and is gone forever. That file shouldn’t take up much server space or unreasonable amounts of programming and would solve a lot of issues, one of the biggest Magoia has - player sociability. We are social in our clans a lot (well, mine is and I feel ALL should be) but Clan to Clan or players outside our Clan – there’s no viable way to chat/interact with them. That leaves players with only personal emails back and forth and the forums.
Some players can’t access the forums/or won’t and emails can be a pain when trying to understand and help someone AND emails mean that messages are hidden from public view – a problem we are all aware can be an issue with bullying/trolling players.
Magoia works hard to keep the game safe and fair for players – but it happens and closed chat areas are where people may take advantage (of any player – not just children).
I think Global Chat being a viable resource would make an extreme difference in game sociability and I realize that a Kids Clan might be too involved for the Devs to want to tackle the issues of it. A working Global Chat would mean that as we wait for plants or brews – we could chat or scroll back to see conversations or see a question asked but not answered – then an answer could be emailed or put on the forums for all (even if the person were currently offline). One of the most often used statements/compliments my Clan receives from new members is how amazing and great it is that everyone is so helpful! It's a shame that only 25-27 people can have access to that at a time.
Anyway, that was my thought dump. I apologize in advance for the length. Anyone else have ideas for our young ones?
Wanting to share my love of Magoia!
Aeris64
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