Global Chat is a real Issue

I want to start off by saying I absolutely love the update, and cannot wait to keep playing Tower Unite through its versions. However, as TUs player counts have increased, so has the issues that come with any community oriented games. With the introduction of global chat, we have seen an epidemic of real time shit posting.

Players spamming keys in the menu, group singing sessions in all caps in a condo, and the roasting. Constant hate being thrown between players that gets broadcasted to everyone.

No one is using local chat, everyone is typing everything in global. Am I supposed to just block everyone who spams in chat?

While I appreciate heavily the ability to turn off chat sounds, I don’t want to have to turn off global chat. Maybe it needs to be more heavily moderated, maybe users are set to type in local by default, I am not sure. I wish I had a solution to this problem. Hopefully someone else does.

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You can always report them as well.

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there are plans to have community moderators to fix some of the current issues with global chat.

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We’ll be getting more moderators, and will be placing chat rules in a place where people can easily view it.

The best thing to help us right now, is to report people causing trouble. I personally sit with the window up in another monitor and try to do as much as I can while I’m at the computer, but I’m not only my machine 24/7.

This entire thing is going to go through some growing pains, like anything else. It’ll all eventually get resolved.

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…Can we please, not go the route of a ton of modern games, by making this a place where we ban people for being “offensive” or saying the wrong words, or making the wrong jokes. I like Tower Unite because it’s relaxed and people are free to express themselves.

Dealing with excess? That’s fine. But I fear the moment you employ a bunch of high and mighty moderators, this game will begin to feel less free as everyone becomes subdugated by heavy handed moderation and e-peened moderators.

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People are free to chat the way they want to in their condo’s local chat. If a person is going to participate in the Global Chat, they will be required to follow our rules.

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I’m not denying that, but what I am advocating for is that you don’t make those rules overly suppressive to the extent everyone is treading on egg shells. Global chat is what the game currently defaults to, even when a player is inside a condo or a game session. For that reason people will always primarily dump into the global chat.

If the global chat then becomes heavily regulated to the extent that people can’t (within reason) make jokes, be vulgar, insult one another on any level, it will kill this games vibe completely. The filter systems exist for a reason, and past that I hope that the only things you will regulate are spam, things that are blatantly illegal, and the excessive.

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Jokes and things that can be caught by the chat filter are one thing, but engaging in hate speech and harassment of others is another, and if an individual is caught engaging in those behaviors, they will be dealt with.

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This is where this turns into a grey area for me; hate speech and harassment are contextual and open to interpretation. There is no solid definition of what “hate speech” is which makes it an umbrella term that simply encompasses whatever a person wants it to contain. So if someone makes a “burn” style joke about another person in the chat, the person making the joke may understand the context as being non-malicious, the person on the receiving end might also understand the context… does a moderator?

If you are going to start heavily regulating the chat, could you make the entering of condos and game worlds default to the local tab instead?

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Hate Speech is defined legally as “speech that is intended to insult, offend, or intimidate a person because of some trait (as race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or disability)”.

As for the chat defaults in game worlds, I want to say that it already defaults to the “Local” tab. There’s no reason in the future Condos couldn’t do the same.

Thank you for the clarification on your perspective. Are the rules that you are going to display more clearly any different to the ones currently present in the subway?

I’d like those changes to the condo default chat, I think a lot of people would considering how varied (for lack of a better term) those condos and their hosts can be. It only makes sense to default them to a local chat so that they can discuss whatever they want to discuss privately without impeding on the global chat.

Don’t be afraid to use the report button. That’s what it’s there for, my dude. See any spammers? Report them. Same goes for people flinging around racial slurs.

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Dumping that into Google leads me to Merriam-Webster. IANAL but is that really a “legal definition”?

im guessing hopefully global chat will be, you can talk about most stuff: no disgusting stuff like rape, hate speech (just being mean/bullying to others about anything), fetishes or overly sexual things and such. you can be free to talk to people, swearing i’m hoping is ok, little stupid jokes like the one i saw the other day “I sucked a bird and i got gregnant” im hoping are allowed and you can talk about “furry or any other fandom” stuff for a little bit but not flooding chat with it.

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Most of that sounds okay. I imagine these things will be handled on a case by case basis. If someone sarcastically says some furry stuff in chat, nobody should care. When it goes on for long enough that it gets disgusting or becomes spammy, it’s already in violation of the other rules.

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yes gloabal chat is just a mess,

no one use local chat only global chat and when from everyserver posts there its a mess

would love to have a server chat or a real local chat (chat nearby players)

and text bubbles over the head ( easy to see what they said)

and the text box should be little bit higher and the text should last some seconds longer.

That’s what the local chat is.

Don’t like messages you see on Global Chat? Here’s what you can do:

  1. Report the user. We moderate the chat.
  2. Block the user. You’ll never see their messages again.
  3. Disable Global Chat. It’ll be just like it was before.

You cannot, however, be rude to other players because you disagree with them.

We do offer chat filter that will hide bad language.

If you want more information on exactly what type of content we find acceptable, it’s in our EULA:

By accessing, participating on, or otherwise using Official Servers of TU, you agree to the following:

  • I. You will not present any content through chat features or other features of TU that:
    • A. Contains offensive, profane, harassing, defamatory, inappropriate, racist, sexist, homophobic, threatening, infringing, obscene, or unlawful material;
    • B. Contains slanderous or libelous comments about other users, PixelTail Games employees or contractors, or other individuals;
    • C. Contains personal information about any individual;
    • D. Violates the privacy of any other individual or entity;
    • E. Contains business solicitation of any type, including advertising a product or service, offering a product or service for sale, or directing readers to a location for more information about a product or service;
    • F. Contains viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may adversely affect the operation of PixelTail Game’s systems or a third party’s computer;
    • G. Undermines the operation of a forum, chat room, or other feature; or
    • H. Infringes upon the rights of any third party.
  • II. PixelTail Games reserves the right to moderate the Official Servers at our discretion and have final say on actions taken upon your account.
  • III. You understand and agree that PixelTail Games may remove postings that contain objectionable material, spam, or otherwise violates the foregoing terms.
  • IV. You agree not to impersonate any person or entity or falsely represent your affiliation with any person or entity.
  • V. You understand that we reserve the right to disable your access temporarily or permanently to Official Servers with or without notice.
  • VI. You understand that violation of the foregoing terms concerning Official Servers will not terminate your EULA with us.

We will be adding more clear rules and how moderation is handled and what types of lengths the bans are. Generally, we start at 10 minute bans then increase length based on severity of the offense.

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hm sad bu no one use this chat?!
local chat should get more attention because i dont like it to read global

Are moderator applicantions going to be open on the forums? Also cc: @macdguy