RIP General

[razmirz]

Adaptation

As far as I can see that's what it appears to be coming down to at the end of the day....

People don't like to change there habits and that's natural.

I'll admit movies are a bit of an issue but that's all part of adapting with the rate that movies are popping up I highly expect role player's will eventually become "movie blind". Movies are hard to check and don't provide enough content. They really are not designed for RP's. People who are trying to use this method are complaining its harder to find RP's and I'm not surprised.

On the other hand I hear people who are going to the RP hot spots are doing quite well. Although the chats are apparently overflowing with RP questions.

So let me make a suggestion to those who love to RP. There is a highly underused function in FH called Party. They are quick to make an disband and easier to message people rather than pm'ing 6 different people you don't have listed on your friends list you can also answer multiple people at once and don't have to be on your own answering questions.

Not saying you have to use this idea nor am I saying it will work but like I said it seems its all about how people adapt to there new environment.

For those of you who wanted a poll before I implemented this. I said in my first post be open minded. That's not go in game look at it and decide its changed I don't like it. It means go away try and live with it as best you can. Don't try and stick to old ways, find new ones, you never know you may find you like it more than you first thought. There won't be a decision made in just a couple of days people need time to stop rejecting the new ways and embrace them. Then if people are still seriously unhappy with the change we can consider undoing it.

[kiaz1st]

This is quite shocking. I have not been able to see this for myself as my mum has my laptop (note: Must improve attitude) so this comes as quite as surprise. I can see your points on the ups for this, but I see far more downs.

Lag. Its always been an issue. But with General gone, people are going to be crowding areas of the maps, causing more lag than necessary.

It will be so much harder to advertise, or make groups! Think about it, people wont be able to start groups off aswell, unless they are very experienced at it. Say you are new, and you want to start an rp, how are you going to get people to join it? You cant go round asking random people, its rude, and most of them have rps, or dont want your sort of rp. And to hang around at SB or someplace is like the above, too much lag. Say you have a different kind of group, how are you going to find the people to join it. Lets take a rabbit group for instance, not many people make rabbit characters, and usually they need an advertisement to get them interested, whats going to happen to all the unusual rps?
In my opinion, it really restricts things in the game, aswell as the creativity. Im not saying it hasnt got its ups, it does! I just see more downs

I get the whole party thing, but it doesnt change the fact it will be trickier to advertise groups, especially new or not very well known ones. And it wont change the fact there will be lag, and lots of it in 'hotspots'

[YouheiSunohara24]

...I personally don't like this idea. Once again we bring up recruiting and movie spam, and all dat stuff... and I'm also in a Warriors Rp that needs General. Why do I need General? Well... when I'm in battle, I have to use General to call my allies to help... but, without General, I can't call them. ;w; And also there will never be gatherings, unless someone's willing to go to EVERY SINGLE CLAN and announce a gathering. Derp.

But... I have a solution to this. Why don't we make a poll? Give it about a month, and the side with the most votes wins. Then we can see whether to keep General... or throw it out the window. o3o -le goes back to hiding corner-

[Nowe]

I can understand why people would be very upset as someone who has been on the game a long time since before the IT servers came back Its very weird to see general gone.

But, I also understand how many problems arise from general especially in the plains. I hate to see it go but, this is probably for the best.

[WhiteLightHeart]

I'm going to apologize in advance cause I know I'm going to sound rude.

     I'm not sad about this, I'm not happy with this, I'm not ok with this, I'm highly angered by this. You made a dumb decision. I'm not happy that this was an update FH was much better off before this. Its already very hard to find members for an rp and you don't realize how much harder its going to be. And advertising with movies? Well I'll let this picture answer that question:

VonStabby, you can fix this movie clip issue by restarting FH and not changing the width of your chatbox. You can make it taller, of course, but this will make sure the movies play.

And as for the rest of your post, I understand a change like this can be a little bit jarring, but General hasn't been gone for even a week, yet. As Raz said, give this a chance before you automatically assume it's a terrible idea and protest it all.
This puts a stopper on a lot of trolling, and of course you can use party chats and other means of advertising your roleplay. Get creative! It's not the end of the world, and do remember we're just testing the waters with this update. So relax, and it'll be okay. c: After some time (weeks or months of time) of this change, you still have some concerns over it, you can give your constructive feedback to the staff via PM.

[SpringLeaf]

Guys, it isn't a big deal. Who says you can't advertise in LOCAL? Yes, I am a bit upset, but who knows? You might find a nice group through group bios, private maps, the forums, and in Local. This is very bittersweet in my opinion, through my eyes I see, no cool advertisements in green, I won't be noticed. But I also see no more spamming, trolling, cursing, inappropriate behavior! This will create a new era in FH. A clean slate, a chance to try something new. Local may not be perfect in other people's minds, but in my eyes, white is better than green.

[LiesUnderOath]

Okay, I'm going to be outright about this: It hardly stops the trolling issue.
What was so wrong with having the option to simply turn it off? If the chat was overflowing, you either turned it off, or lived with the fact of it. For those using General, if the topic descends into madness, there were options for deleting their annoyances: Block them, or send a report for a ban. Done with.
Now, with no option to quiet the trolls (except a lengthy search-and-block thing), and with everybody lagging over to the popular advertising places, trolling will increase, I believe. And with everybody dog-piling each other in one area, it will be harder to find the one group you want, because with all the "Firestar's" at Cape, you may go with the wrong one, and thus, the rp you didn't want.
I know many people who don't come to this game to roleplay. It's even been brought up in a topic here on the forum, about those who only come to chat. Sure, Party is an option, but that involves all the locating and clicking on people that I've mentioned above. And like I said in my earlier post, General allowed for more people to get in on a conversation. Let's say someone has a group. They open a party chat for that group, to interview potential members. What are they supposed to do then, if they have a friend across the map, and wish to talk to them, or advertise to the greater FH population without hassle? Whisper everybody? Ho'boy.
I know that removing this chat solves a lot of problems that were happening (though I am wondering what the particular offense was that made you all to decide completely removing the chat was the best option). It's been about...four day, right?...since the chat was closed down. For those of us who have been in-game quite often since then, I think we've given it a long enough chance to get a basic idea about how we're going to feel about this in the long run.


And on one final note before I depart:

Behave In The Chats
The chats are a big part of FeralHeart and it's a place everyone shares TOGETHER. Any sort of spamming(chat spam, movie spam, caps spam, mod spam) is discouraged and might result in warnings/kicks and even bans if it's excessive or done repeatedly. Constant "Trolling" and encouraging others to break the rules is just as punishable as well. When it comes to "General Chat" in Feralheart you must show respect to all the other users that might be inside the very same map since it shows for everyone. English only is encouraged since we want as many as possible to understand each other, and Roleplaying in general in a public map is discouraged due to the simple fact that it's the chat everyone shares but also because the existence of Local, party, group and even whisper that could work for the same purpose. If you cause havoc or unnecessary drama within the chats, you might get warned/kicked or even banned for repetitive abuse.

Why are we here?

 

The main principle is still the same; we are here to have fun, make friends and have a taste of the good life outside reality! You could see FeralHeart as a big 3D-chat, roleplaygame or just adventure.

[Tearless]

But... I have a solution to this. Why don't we make a poll? Give it about a month, and the side with the most votes wins. Then we can see whether to keep General... or throw it out the window. o3o -le goes back to hiding corner-

That would hardly be an accurate way to determine whether Geneal should come back, Mello. As I'm sure you were aware when you suggested this, the majority (including those who were the reason they shut it down to begin with) would of course vote to have it back, because this hasn't been in effect long enough for people to adjust to and really test it (and people as a collective HATE change), but that doesn't mean it's a good idea. General was shut down because the staff felt it was necessary, not because all the people who were using it voted to.

[Lycerna]

c: This update does not upset me in any way.

It is a mere change, and if people can't adapt to a new aspect on a video game, then I'm not really sure what the world is coming to. Yes, I guess I'm that one little salmon swimming downstream, but I'm willing to accept this new facet of FeralHeart and see it as a challenge instead of an obstacle. I've been brought to fine roleplays without the assistance of General advertising and I'm positive that it's still possible.

Of course there will be problems with lag and movies. You can't necessarily expect otherwise, but look at the upsides: this might encourage players to be more social, roleplay with unfamiliar peers, and overall explore a new side of FeralHeart. So don't be too quick to judge this new addition- it hasn't even been up for a week, and I doubt that many have had time to move out of their comfort zone and accept the change.
c: Keep up the good work, FH Staff.

[Dangeryena]

I see that a lot of people in support of General being rid of are suggesting that you "get off of your butt" to go find people to roleplay or chat with, but... What's wrong with sitting on your character's pixelly behind and just talking? This is basically a 3D chatroom, and is even referred to as such on the front page. It's not fun running around in a humongous map searching for people, whispering people, or anything like that. Even making a party involves searching out people. I don't feel like being repetitive by mentioning things already mentioned before like "movies lag ragequit", so I won't.

However, I feel the need to point out that because this is basically a 3D chatroom, there will always be trolls, spammers, arguments, and inappropriate conversations. And as long as there is at least one chat that others can openly see, it will never change. I'm sure we're all aware of that and that ridding General was to bring it down a lot. But we're people, and that's really just the price you pay by talking on the internet. To solve the issues stated above to the best ability without angering a large chunk of the members could possibly just be to enforce blocking more. It is RIDICULOUS how many users on FH are against blocking! I actually think this angers me more than General being taken down, considering I don't always use it (especially in recent times). So many users claim they "counter troll" the trolls or they "feel guilty" about using the block button for its sole purpose: to save YOU from the stress of others bothering you! You don't need a good reason to block someone. If they make you mad because they're neon, block them. If they're talking about something in General that offends you, block them. It's the same concept!!!!!!!!!

Another thing could be to become just a bit more strict in kicking/banning for General chat, and make it loud and clear so no one is surprised and will hopefully realize that they can't just throw their manners and common sense in the trash when they decide to talk in that lovely foam-green chat which everyone can see. Perhaps even make it like on the forums so that unnecessary comments or faces aren't allowed as much so that the chat isn't quite as flooded, thus making advertising that much easier.

But I do agree that we (the users) should just wait a while before declaring a poll because as it is now (with it not even being a week), it's ridiculously obvious that everyone will be voting for General to come back, so that's virtually pointless. Wait a few weeks or months without it and then come to your conclusion. As human beings it's very hard to change your opinion because let's face it; everyone wants to stubbornly stick by their opinion and get their way.

Try not to be COMPLETELY negative about it because it's not changing for a while, and there isn't a darn thing you're going to do about it. So there's no point in stressing yourself about something (or protesting, which I have seen) out of your control. Try using the forums to advertise for a change, or maybe cut back a little and just talk with your friends. Experimenting with doing other things isn't completely bad. I myself have been in Ficho a lot more than I ever used to be. I often sit near the lake where many people gather. It's quite nice to talk with the other Pokemon-loving users, and it's a good place to find a filler RP to cure your boredom.