Divinity: Original Sin is a game that definitely channels the days of older PC gaming, both in mechanics and in overall playability. Despite how dripping with goodness the game is (read our glowing review here), it seems like the game also managed to get a global chat that rivaled the days of Diablo 2 and its peers.
By this, I mean that it was absolutely terrible and filled with both loads of profanity and lots of insulting between different players. Allow Larian’s Swen Vincke to explain:
“We switched it off for now as there was just a bit too much profanity and insulting. And while we have good hopes that it may get better if people read this this, we’ll also install some proper moderation tools & processes. Once that’s done, we’ll switch it on again.”
In a response to Kotaku, we got a few more details regarding just how bad the global chat in Original Sin had become:
“The very minute that [global chat was activated in the full game]. It seemed like the floodgates of hell were opened and all we saw was insults and shouting at each other. This was a big contrast with the rather friendly chat we had been enjoying until then in which players generally tried to help each other. We looked at it for 10 minutes, saw that it was only deteriorating and decided to pull the plug. There’s a certain type of fun we’re aspiring to give people, and insult matches aren’t part of the vision.”
“[The game] doesn’t need it,” Vincke responded when asked if whether or not the game required a global chat. He continued, instead listing the benefits to having a global chat:
“It’s a big game and from time to time a helpful hint can make a big difference. During early access, we saw a lot of people seeking advice about character builds from veteran players, for instance. There are so many options to make life hard for yourself that a little bit of guidance can go a long way. Another example are puzzles – some people will do everything it takes to find the solutions themselves, others hate puzzles in RPGs and want to get to the solution asap.”
It sounded like Vincke and his team are aiming to have Original Sin be as complete of an experience as possible, having the global chat enable players to exchange advice, instead of doing so on a message board:
“Instead of having to jump out of the game and visit a forum, the global chat allowed them to just ask the question to the community. And then there’s of course the fact that you can you drop into anybodies game in D:OS, and a global chat facilitates finding people to play with.”
Lastly, Vincke did confirm that global chat would be returning to the game, although it probably won’t be for awhile:
“Once the storm of people playing D:OS simultaneously is over we’ll probably activate it again. We don’t like censorship but we also think that people who buy D:OS buy it to have fun, and not because they want to see some people offend others. It’s a real pity though – apart from a few isolated instances, we never had the same problem during Early Access and we had silent hopes that it was going to be ok. We figured it was a least worth a try.”
What do you guys think – is it better to have some control and remove things from players, or would you rather have a game’s online experience be like the wild west era of online gaming?
