Alternative Communication in Games — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:02] communication in video games. It's not a WoW specific video, but it talks about it. It does have WoW in here talking about how gamers online communicate in unique and alternative ways. I thought this topic was really interesting. I

[00:19] don't even know who this is from. It's a YouTuber called Asim Sauce. Oh, Awesome YouTuber called Asim Sauce. Oh, Awesome Sauce. Okay, that's um There we go. But yeah, let's check this out. I I find I find like topics like

[00:33] this quite interesting because like we have conversations on stream from time have conversations on stream from time to time of like what is bad manner to do in a video game? What goes against the social norms? What can

[00:45] you say or can't you say? Like we've talked about in the past what GG means talked about in the past what GG means in certain contexts or like when you're someone a compliment, it can come off as an insult, right? It's really

[00:58] know if that's what this video is talking about. Maybe, but let's take a look. >> You are Falco L. >> You're in the brief purgatory between games, checking yourself out, making

[01:12] games, checking yourself out, making sure everything is still intact. And then you see it. A Dark Souls message. I one. >> What the hell is going on? An inscrable

[01:25] door opens before you. You begin to understand >> versus ready.

[01:39] I was a kid. >> Internet dominated gaming landscape. Playerto-player communication is in many games a necessity. The most obvious, games a necessity. The most obvious, >> bro. If someone says this to you like oh

[01:52] you're like tryh hard you're like in there and someone like owns you and says la like >> playerto player communication is in many games a necessity. The most obvious and

[02:06] common implementations of this are simple text or voice chats. Two of the most basic and unambiguous methods of communication available but for our purposes also the least interesting. You've heard the adage, limitation

[02:19] breeds creativity, and this too is true of gaming interactions. Regardless of the range of expression allowed to players in each other's company, clever users will inevitably find ways to communicate seemingly incommunicable

[02:32] concepts within a systems limitations. If you make a severe misplay, a chatband say, >> "What the [ __ ] are you doing? You are ass." But they can express the same general sentiment through spamming pings

[02:46] >> Oh, not the question mark. >> The more niche examples, however, let's communication. Everyone, >> bro, I hate the question. The question mark is the worst cuz then it's it's it's just like it's not even toxic. It's

[03:03] like it's like next level toxic cuz it's just like bro, what are you what are you doing? Qu like what were you trying to do there? What was that? Like it's just like oh it's awful. It feels awful. Van >> is familiar with the emote.

[03:29] language are inescapable aspects of face to face human interaction if I remember correctly. And the video game extension to this is the emote. And hell, we'll even count things like this. If you have a close fight with another

[03:42] player, sometimes it's not enough to just let it be and continue on. late dab on them or shoot their already dead body. And when they really deserve it, a nice teaag can drive the message

[03:54] home. This is what I imagine most people think of emotes, or at least popular enough usage to justify the concept of getting emoted on. In some games, however, emotes go beyond playful boasting and can instead represent

[04:08] intense disapproval at the actions or even morals of others. Such was the case in 2021 when Blizzard was forced to remove the slash spit emote from World but I didn't cuz I was like, he's probably going to bring this up. So,

[04:24] yeah. I mean, I'll just let him explain the slash spit, man. Unbelievable. >> Due to players pelting others with lugies. Here's what that looked like.

[04:39] emotes in the game, such as slashwave slash chicken and the always awesome slash dance, slash spit exists as an emote solely in text form for better or

[04:51] for worse. Now, the emote had relatively quietly existed since the game's release quietly existed since the game's release in 2004, but nearly two decades later when Ornnery players began both manually and automatedly, yes, seriously, using

[05:04] it on people riding the reawakened phase hunter and >> Oh, I forgot it was from this. So, people made a weak aura that started going around. So like you could buy this mount with real life money and then

[05:18] people made a weak aura that automatically spit on people that spent real life money on the mount because it was like supporting Blizzard doing something like like a like an in-game shop which people were very against and

[05:30] everyone was just spitting on everyone. So then Blizzard reacted with this. I >> exclusively microtransactional mount in the Burning Crusade classic. the ability to spit on others using the text command was removed.

[05:45] To be fair, the mountain >> So, um, one sec. >> Text command was removed. >> My camera's covering it. So, it literally just says when you do slash spit on someone, it just says spits on

[05:58] the ground. So, like the like you couldn't actually spit on someone anymore like cuz cuz it was getting like really out of hand. Crazy. To be fair, the mount in some ways did represent a real, albeit small, advantage to those

[06:12] who dished out the $70 for the Burning Crusade Classic Deluxe Edition. Normally in the Burning Crusade, you have to buy your 60% bonus speed mount at level 30 for 10 gold. With this real money

[06:25] purchase, however, that's essentially 10 gold saved. And the gap widens at level 60 when instead of buying a faster 100% bonus speed mount for 100 gold, you can just keep using the store obtained mount and only worry about their respective

[06:40] and only worry about their respective riding skill costs. Now, 110 gold in the Burning Crusade isn't nothing, but it is frankly a drop in the bucket. If you're short on gold and have to get your regular or epic mount a few levels late,

[06:53] the time saved in a game taking hundreds of hours to reach max level is negligible. And the gold saved is not that much either. Instead, I think >> I was going to say that like in TBC like 10G or whatever, but yeah, I'm glad he

[07:06] >> Behavior points to misdirected eye for Blizzard. Classic was mismanaged. around the clock farming gold and precious materials, which meant elicit

[07:18] real money trading was everywhere, which meant GDK's gold dragon kill points or raid groups where people bid that real money traded gold for gear were funded money traded gold for gear were funded by players funded by bots. This massive

[07:32] influx of farmed materials brought in by the automated farmers tanked the gold hampering the average players's means of gold acquisition. Meanwhile, endgame materials, gear, and consumables on top of things like flying mounts were made

[07:46] almost prohibitively expensive to players not taking part in gold buying because gold buyers can and are willing to buy them at absurd prices. All of which represented a much bigger pay to- win avenue than saving 110 gold on

[07:59] amount. However, bots don't care if you spit on them. And these players aren't visible. There's no way to tell gear acquired through fraudulently obtained gold apart from gear just rolled on or loot counsledled. So more visible,

[08:14] easily targetable players became the recipients of the honest players frustration, which isn't to say there weren't gold buyers with a superiority complex also taking part in spitting. I'm sure there were.

[08:26] mind control them and put them in very fun places. This is something people did with bots in Maraden as well, where they mind controlled them off the edge and basically just stood >> doing Blizzard's job for him. Let's go

[08:40] over and over again. Despite this behavior being an almost exclusively classic phenomenon, the removal of Slash Spit extended beyond the 2021 re-release of The Burning Crusade globally to even the live servers where new content is

[08:55] still regularly made and even future re-releases of The Burning Crusade and beyond. This represents real change forced by the brave rebels perpetrating the mass/ spitting, not in the form of Blizzard

[09:09] changing their monetization practices, but by some guy having to take a couple hours to change the behavior of a single emote. To drive home the absurdity of this whole debacle, even after the ability to spit on others with the slash

[09:23] emote was removed, real haters could instead type slash E to initiate a manually typed no animation emote and complete the rest of the text even left. >> True that.

[09:36] >> You're going to do this. Just go all the way and slash e something truly heinous way and slash e something truly heinous to someone with the mountain the right decision if someone truly cared to push for change?

[09:51] Evidently, no. It was an effort easily curbed, and the most effective solution was to simply stop funding Blizzard. And >> true. >> For the most part, though, WoW's emotes aren't adversarial at all. In the heyday

[10:03] of WoW Classics official core servers, where players attempt to reach level 60 without dying a single time, a task that takes upwards of 100 active play hours, opposing factions to help each other in tackling difficult quests. Attempting to

[10:18] communicate via text with players not on your faction results in indecipherable foe language, but emotive communication is still possible. Sug

[10:30] >> slash point at the dangerous elite mob who trying to take on solo will almost the other player in >> can't believe someone would try to solo King Bangalash. Definitely get a group for that guys. Do not do not solo that

[10:44] guy at all. >> Plead. Then if they decide to slashnod in response, the two of you can share a beautiful moment where no direct words were exchanged but a mutually beneficial interaction transpired.

[11:01] other player to get the credit next, because I was going to say if you're like only one person's going to get the credit, I I'm thinking that orc is going to dip out. Like I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty sure this guy is is

[11:14] is is going to like take his loot and bounce and then the ma like the mage or whatever is just going to like sit here and be like, "Dang, I got got." You know, part of these interactions being so amicable is in

[11:27] part due to PvP being disabled on hardcore servers, but it's nice nonetheless. On PvP realms, these emotes are used for crossfaction communication in the ways you'd expect, dancing above, laughing at, and farting on corpses. On

[11:41] PvE realms, however, these emotes provide a unique opportunity to show graciousness between otherwise opposing forces. If you help an alliance player is >> fun fact, the reason I first rolled a

[11:54] >> fun fact, the reason I first rolled a mage in vanilla WoW was I was a paladin mage in vanilla WoW was I was a paladin and uh I played rat and I I liked PvP and there was a mage that I saw in Southshore

[12:08] when I was leveling and I don't remember if he did it to me or one of my party party members. So I think we're running to like SM or something and he sheeps to like SM or something and he sheeps him and the mage casts a pyro blasts a

[12:21] pyro blast and then pom pyro. So he does pyro pom pyro like an OG classic combo and one shots him 100 to O and I'm like 12 years old or whatever like 13 and I it. Like a complete one-shot was the first oneot I ever saw and I was like

[12:38] kidding me? This guy just one shot him. What the heck is that about? And then I hit level 60. I still played Paladin, you know, I stuck with it. Um, and then like I started queuing like Altered Valley and stuff. And then I I it

[12:52] happened to me where like people would cheat me, hard cast a pyro pawn pyro and I would die 100 o. And I'm like this is bull crap. I'm just dying instantly. And play mage really. And then TBC came out and I I rerolled. I rerolled mage and

[13:07] never looked back and never looked back because it's just like still still kind >> Or you might be the recipient of an acknowledging slashwave or if you go to a low-level alliance zone as a hordy to farm clips for your video, be thanked by

[13:22] farm clips for your video, be thanked by a dwarf and his human buddy. In more rare cases, players can make use of the game's deterministic crossfaction language filters to create actual messages between factions.

[13:38] There are only so many fragments of common and orcish available to create something comprehensible. But if you save someone from the other faction from certain doom, you can sometimes even receive messages like this.

[13:57] >> Souls games are rather known for their >> So, people are typing kek in the chat. Okay, I have a really d like this. This is going to be a dumb question. So, Kek is going to be a dumb question. So, Kek is like hoorde laughing, right?

[14:10] is like hoorde laughing, right? It means lol for hoorde. Laughing. Yeah, that's what I thought. So, on Twitch there's like an emote called Kekw. Is there any relation to the laughing kek emote with the horde kek? Are they

[14:26] the same thing? Is it from WoW? Yes. Okay. I That's what I thought. I just didn't know if it was cuz it's a Twitchwide emote. For for those of you on YouTube, this is what it looks like. It's a Twitchwide

[14:38] WoW or not. As a WoW player, I assumed it was, but I didn't know if I was like in my own like box. catch has reached cultural zeitgeist. That's awesome. That's what I That's

[14:51] what I assumed. That's really cool. >> Emotes as well. From getting reactions out of inanimate objects turned animate to obscure secrets layered beneath obscure secrets revealed through doing an emote for 30 seconds straight.

[15:07] handy are when players physically interact through either PvP or cooperative PvE. Even beyond the novelty of communicating to each other through gesturing and motions rather than direct textual

[15:20] exchanges, these interactions feel special and can even be more memorable to players. They can feel more intense, more fulfilling, more humanizing to see a real figure with actual movement represent an actual emotion. Text can

[15:35] sometimes be ambiguous, but when you trudge through a particularly lengthy area in a Souls game and meet an untimely demise, then see your co-op stranger buddy dropped to their knees in despair, it's not only humorous, but it

[15:47] feels worse in a good way than if someone had simply said, "Ah, damn. GG's." Conversely, if you're playing something competitive and you queue into someone much better than you, it feels worse watching them taunt as you try to

[15:59] narrow their massive lead on you than if they had just said too good after the match. It's almost more personal to see actual sentiment visualized through motion than text. That being said, let's examine cool text communication. Let's

[16:15] examine one of the most popular and indeed a personal favorite method of restricted chat. The Souls games and the other ones message system.

[16:29] Ring. I've been watching Joker, too. It's like game is so darn fun, man. >> Template messages are pretty intuitive. Simply plop in your Miyazaki approved. playing Elder Ring, I I thought these were all like legit, too. Like I would

[16:43] read them and I'm like, "Wow, what a nice guy." Like ledge below or something death and like my whole chap. But sometimes they are helpful. A lot of the they're just like complete trolls and it's like

[17:01] boom, your message is available for others to see all over the world. It's an extremely cool system for adding indirect human interaction to a series indirect human interaction to a series that can be and for many often is played

[17:13] entirely alone. Comforting reminders that even when you're struggling, you're not the only one. They're transient. Instantaneous asynchronous communication, quick to parse, and most interestingly, entirely anonymous.

[17:27] Messages you're intended to get then for the most part. Obvious utilizations of the system are to warn players of ambushes, traps, or tough areas to give players a heads up. >> Be wary of trap.

[17:41] >> The information that soul style messages can convey are limited and due to their limitations may occasionally require some deciphering, but often their advice is invaluable, especially on first playthroughs. Oh, for example, to access

[17:55] one of the series most well-hidden and coolest secrets, the player first has to trudge deep within Dark Souls poison swamp area, Light Town, an area many players are more than happy to be in and out of. Then climb up an exposed route

[18:09] out of. Then climb up an exposed route leading to a dead dude holding a shield. the left of the deceased gentleman to reveal a hidden path with a chest. The

[18:22] the thing is like how do players figure this out? Like like I guess it's I guess they they play Dark Souls like all the time. They've already done like 15 of like running around like hitting walls to see what breaks. You just kind

[18:37] brute force it. Hit every wall. Roll into every wall. Cuz like when I was we we figured some stuff out through like messages or like chat, but I'm like alone unless I'm just Yeah. like hundreds of hours just hitting

[18:52] everything. >> Nice. Oh, and behind the chest is another wall you can smack to reveal a path to two you can smack to reveal a path to two otherwise entirely inaccessible areas.

[19:05] >> Right. Wow. Crazy. >> The first is the Great Hollow, a towering ancient tree with cute little mushroom families. And the second is perhaps the game's most breathtaking area,

[19:19] Ash Lake, whose atmosphere is still the most unique in the series 15 years later. >> Spoilers, I guess. I haven't played, so >> Spoilers, I guess. I haven't played, so here we go.

[19:39] player looks up to admire the sheer scale of the place. But you can keep resetting the track by looking up and down.

[19:58] toward this area. No hint and a collectible note you can pick up that tells you to hit two consecutive random walls to reach these areas. In fact, you, the player, aren't supposed to find these areas on your own at all. What's

[20:11] supposed to go down is you happen upon this corpse holding an item, see a message directing you to hit the wall, hit the wall, then see another message directing you to hit the wall, and finally bask in the glory of a feature

[20:25] that keeps the feeling of individual discovery alive through teamwork. Nonetheless, >> it's kind of like the if you guys played WoW during like the Hivemind event where um Blizzard basically put in a a massive

[20:39] out and the community had to come together like via a Discord server and piece it together and figure out how to unlock this thing and you unlock it like I mean it's a small scale version of it but it it's pretty cool, you know? It's

[20:54] when Sod came out day one, fair enough. you're like, "Where are these things? We have to find them." What a cool thing. >> These messages are able to be rated, a neat addition in its own right. However,

[21:08] with the exception of the original Dark Souls for some reason, players are also given overt incentive to write useful messages, being rewarded through an immediate heal, ranging from one chug of their flasks worth to full health bar

[21:21] replenishment, which can really clench victory in tough encounters. It's like a virtual high five that gives you a little pickme up. just place a message. >> Wait, did I hear that right? You get

[21:33] >> Wait, did I hear that right? You get healed if you give it a thumbs up. Wait, did is that right? I never knew that. I never did that.

[21:45] Oh, if your message gets a thumbs up, you get healed. Oh, okay. I don't know if I ever left messages. >> complimenting the giant lady's huge boobies to farm ratings or the dying

[21:59] boobies to farm ratings or the dying spider ladies or the boss spider ladies. >> Okay. Yeah, we we get it. >> Or oh wait, the intended usage of the >> Or oh wait, the intended usage of the message.

[22:14] that would Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Ow. >> Outright deception is an interesting byproduct of this system. It's well understood that the bastards of From cheap damage and kills on you. But while you do eventually learn to be cautious

[22:28] and present when exploring new areas, part of From's philosophy in their liberally added traps is knowing that many, if not most, of these traps will system or blood stains presenting a fellow chosen undead's final moments.

[22:42] However, as recognized by even the item allowing messages in the first place, some people are mild gaming psychos. And even if they're not there to see the results of their devious trick, just the thought that someone could fall through

[22:56] >> Jumping and then item. This is what happened to me. >> Sometimes the substance of these >> That's literally what happened to me some places in Elden Ring where you jump and you actually make it to the bottom.

[23:11] Elder Ring where you jump off like this massive waterfall, but it's not a troll. You actually like fall all the way into some water, whatever. You live and then you then you fight. It's like the starry dude. I'm trying to remember his name.

[23:25] Um, >> messages aren't even really the point, and they instead serve as visual guidance between players. There's a the Crystal Cave where players traverse invisible paths to reach one of the

[23:38] games. Make a wrong step and you're almost certainly dead. And it's a pretty long run back. >> You can, of course, use the intended not online method and slowly progress by squinting and watching particles land to

[23:53] reveal the path or drop some prism stones. Two more than adequate ways to navigate, man. But you can also just let your fellow players reveal the path for your fellow players reveal the path for you.

[24:08] humorous in nature. Amazing chest ahead type messages that are neither helpful nor deceitful, but nonetheless add to the experience. Silent character adorned in skeleton armor leaning against a wall. Edge lord, a soul long expired.

[24:23] wall. Edge lord, a soul long expired. Don't give up, skeleton. Fortnite >> Okay, >> these messages are undoubtedly the most memorable for players. A warning is useful, but a funny joke shared

[24:37] indirectly with others warms the soul. Because of the true anonymity of these messages, there's no way to tell who is responsible for any given one. These may reflective video game methods of communication there are. the types of

[24:51] messages you leave, where you leave them, and which ones you rate. Whether write a message down in a sea of millions and millions of similar ones, disconnected from any form of authorship or responsibility, these Souls game

[25:05] messages can reveal a lot about the player to themselves to assist in return player to themselves to assist in return for potential reward and to help or humor others. Universal human affinities laid bare in one of the

[25:18] human affinities laid bare in one of the greatest game series ever. Truly sick. Sometimes the contents of these template messages can even be unexpectedly touching. You must accept yourself and treat yourself with care.

[25:32] Now, check this [ __ ] out. Canned messages or quick chats can be solutions to a couple issues faced by developers. For example, if you don't want players to be mean to each other, you can limit the available messages to

[25:46] the video? >> Yeah. Yeah. Then you then you get pings question mark and it's like all right. >> When I said clever players will find a >> Yeah. Always. >> What a save. What a save.

[25:59] >> What a save. Yep. It's bound to happen. It's bound to happen, bro. Oh my gosh. >> He's going to bring this [ __ ] back. >> He's going to bring this [ __ ] back. Smiley

[26:17] Smiley face [ __ ] like this. Like when I got circle camped for several minutes a long time ago, then at the end of the game got hit with the >> hat. >> I love the contextuality of it. The way

[26:32] message and emote the developers probably intended to be used for when a player says, "Give me one second," >> then is gone for 10 minutes, then morph it into this beautifully BM self-referential taunt.

[26:45] >> don't forget to have fun >> message, a message I'm assuming is meant to be a friendly presession greeting to express frustration and [ __ ] talk, a play style they might find overly sweaty. It's amazing. Beyond these

[27:02] messages whose meanings are malleable, some games like Rivals 2 overtly relish can be >> I can't imagine if you're playing WoW arenas and you beat someone and you send them a message saying don't forget to

[27:15] them a message saying don't forget to have fun. mean with >> you got smoked. I mean, there are a lot

[27:28] of those kind of messages in this game. A lot. The Slippy developers seem to mostly stray from adversarial messages. Though, believe me, Melee players will never hesitate to use any number of messages

[27:42] Mostly though, chat systems like this seem to be to allow controller players to communicate without the clunkiness of an on-screen keyboard. What what do you guys think is like the most frustrating thing that you don't want to get hit

[27:55] with after a loss? Like say you take a a rough loss? Like there's l question mark GG. I I feel like L I feel like question mark is pretty rough. You guys don't mark is pretty rough. You guys don't like GG. Nice try. Ooh, nice try. That's

[28:10] brutal. Mid diff. Jungle diff. Well played. Yeah, nice try is like that. A played. Yeah, nice try is like that. A nice try is rough. Nice, nice try. Yeah, if you're losing, that is not what you want to hear. Close one. Sorry, GG.

[28:26] want to hear. Close one. Sorry, GG. Easy. Limit tested. You did really well. out of all these that you guys are saying cuz then it's just like it's just like what a what a way to just to put them down, you know? ah players of

[28:40] fast-paced quick games to communicate on a dime and to stop people from slinging slurs while altogether filtering the communication possible to protect players from themselves. >> True.

[28:55] >> Big thank you to Adi R Al Alpine Bethan Fizzy Game Player 1500. This was an awesome video. >> Smash Herald Na the Mage James. >> Wait, someone in the chat said uh in in Runescape they say sit. And I I find it

[29:10] subculture there's actually like a different way to like BM other players or things that are acceptable to say versus not. Um, for example, when I played Starcraft, um, back in the day, Starcraft 2, it was

[29:28] very normal to say GG after a match. Like, very normal. GG. Well played. Like, very normal. GG. Well played. GGWP, GG. Like, winner, loser. You guys both say it and you queue up again. Very normal. Okay. In World of Warcraft, if

[29:43] you ask the OG players, like go ask like Ziko or Hydra or Venooi or like like some of these like OGs. Um, it is not okay to say GG after after

[29:56] losing or sorry, after winning to the loser. You say GG to someone that lost. It's basically saying like it's basically just like it, you know what I'm saying? Like you don't

[30:09] say it's a taunt. Yeah. It's like not good. But it's interesting that in the some things are okay versus not. Like in Runescape, yeah, it's hilarious. When I was learning the to do some uh what do they call it in Runescape? PKing. You

[30:23] like or LMS. I guess in LMS you kill someone and then you say sit dog. That I guess that's the like you don't that's like the most infuriating thing that's like the most infuriating thing you can say to someone is sit dog.

[30:41] fascinating. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Even in Starcraft, the loser is supposed to say GG first before the winner does, right? Okay. So, if the winner says GG first, it's considered

[30:55] bad mannered. You have to let the loser say GG first, then the winner, right? That you're right. That's like the appropriate context. But that is different to in today's gaming culture than it was 15, 20 years ago. It changed

[31:08] over time, too. Anyway, fascinating video. I would almost do like I would almost want to learn more about this topic, but uh one of you guys emailed me this and a little different react today, but that was fun. That was from Awesome