Do you still see/use the chat channels in "LFX" content?

[Omedon]

Every now and then I put out feelers in casual WoW fan site discussions about this, and I think it's time to mention it again at the tail end of Legion, now that another expansion has had its turn at evolving the "community."

Do you actually utilize chat in randomly queued, automatically assembled group content? Do you expect that others are using it and can "hear" you?

I started the "chat off" experiment with battlegrounds way back in the day, then it slowly crept its way into LFR and, against all prediction (as I used to have a firm rule that 5-man dungeons were just too "intimate" to "run deaf") it has worked its way into normal and heroic dungeons, either while DPSing, or while tanking so long as I had a guildie in chat to communicate that the healer needed a pause.

In battlegrounds, the logic was simple: Once I knew how the objectives were accomplished and I was experienced enough to make judgment calls as to how I would help (almost always guarding something, but sometimes carrying things), the gods' honest truth was it really didn't matter what some armchair general thought: it was my time, not theirs, there is literally no authority in random BG groups, and kicks rarely if ever got off if I just stayed busy and contributed in my own way. I won a lot, I lost a lot, but always in blissful silence once it dawned on me that I could do so.

In PVE the logic truly and finally solidified the moment the English and Spanish servers merged: No one can guarantee a language barrier free group any more, and more importantly it had become quite apparent that queueable content was clearly scaled with this truth in mind. I just didn't say anything, and so no one really knew if I had chat off or we just didn't share a language.

Before you potentially get upset at this topic though, ask yourself a few questions:

In current PVE design, on queued difficulty, what express confirmation do you really need to make with another player? One person has threat, one of them helps manage health bars, three do the most efficient murdering. Aside from a mana break or a general assertion of pacing on the part of a healer, what constructive, functional communication can one expect? And really, is there any reason to have chat on in LFR ever when the encounter journal and/or YouTube are a thing? I do concede that you really shouldn't "run deaf" while you don't know what you're doing, but again: language barriers. One doesn't have to be and isn't necessarily open to learning from you. And in BGs, I mean... how do you know that guy who might have chat off doesn't know what he's doing, and what authority does any one voice have to dictate strategy? I can and do still broadcast to channels I can't see if I see something tactically relevant, but I can't expect that anyone can read it... I just put "incoming" out there just in case. After all, I'm not the "bossa them" either.

Obviously, if one is feeling social, masochistic or both, sure, there are "desires" to engage with the strangers in LFX, but as far as "needs," more importantly as far as expectations go, I'm curious where folks think we are.

My friends and I often joke that the other folks in particularly LFR are NPCs. Obviously this is just us laughing off the use of our "only guild and Bnet whispers" chat panes that we keep for LFX content, but I often wonder if we're the only ones cluing into the sweet sound of silence.

So how about it: Do you expect that you are being heard in randomly, automatically assembled LFX content? Do you feel you owe it to others in LFX content to hear them? Is the game pointedly expecting us to ignore each other here in today's WoW?

[Deleted]

People communicate when they have to and you dont have to anymore. Theres no point in trying to talk, even if you find a nice person who you get allong with hes from a different server and the game doesnt facilitate any coop requiring play except when doing a dungeon which is a small ammount of playtime. In other words, you wont get a chance to even go to a dungeon with said person twice... very unlikely. People should be forced to communicate by the cuircumstances of the game...

[Devilyaki]

With the 5 mans as a tank I can see how it’s is possible. Doing one of those time walking ones I got the air place what ever it’s call, after first boss it was me and one other doing the run, the rest got lost some how, didn’t notice till last boss died and they thanked me for the carry:/

[Omedon]

Same here. I try and say Hi and Thanks,

One thing I try to promote is the idea that at least attempting to set the mood in a dungeon as friendly with a "Hello" at the start is worth doing, but if things go south, I'm glad for my "chat off" pane that silences all but guild chat and Bnet whispers!

[Lazuli]

By design it's extremely anti-social, hell it's rare to get people to talk even in high M+ unless you're wiping a lot. I've kicked people cuz I thought they were afk then get rage whisper saying they were selling something or whatever. Well, fucking talk to me then. It's not hard to say "hi, one sec" but it's like everyone is trained to be silent now.

[Omedon]

B it's like everyone is trained to be silent now.

When they first put in the ability to be soft-banned automatically for bad language, I thought maybe that might push people further into silence on a sort of "anything you say can and may be used against you" vein. Maybe that's part of it, or maybe chat's just... "not needed" or expected, which is one of the reasons I brought it up.

[Isilrien]

I've only turned off chat channels when it comes to obnoxiousness in /trade or /general chat channels. In any other context, I have them on and read/respond to people in them.

[kary]

If everything is going well and people know what's up there's generally no need to communicate.
Depending on the difficulty I speak, regardless of role. Aint got no time for jokes in group finder, but higher keys everyone is generally more vocal.
I do reply if other people start conversation tho

[Lazuli]

When they first put in the ability to be soft-banned automatically for bad language, I thought maybe that might push people further into silence on a sort of "anything you say can and may be used against you" vein. Maybe that's part of it, or maybe chat's just... "not needed" or expected, which is one of the reasons I brought it up.

I've been muted like 100 times since that shit came out, I still don't care, they can't stop my trolling in /2 or /4 it's WoW ffs. I just play another game for a couple days and continue cuz it's not even worth playing unless you can troll while bored.