Regarding PC online multiplayer games, do people still use in-game/on-screen text chat on a regular basis?
I'm sure in MMOs it's probably still pretty common, but what about in directly competitive multiplayer PC games like FPS's and such? Is it still common there, or has voicechat taken them over almost completely?
I don't PC game currently but I used to quite a lot many years ago (Counter-Strike 1, Diablo 2, that era), when text chat was a very busy and popular form of in-game communication, before voicechat became a widespread thing. Eventually my interest shifted to the O.G. Xbox and then the 360 with Xbox Live, where, as we know, voicechat was the only option. As we also know, Xbox Live ended up developing a rather notorious reputation for extremely toxic multiplayer communication and harassment, which - in my view - seemed much worse and more pronounced through the medium of voicechat than it ever did via the text chat ways of old.
Due to this toxicity, for years now most console players simply ignore online voice communication altogether, and since text chat isn't even an option on consoles, well, console multiplayer sessions with strangers are a rather sad/empty/quiet/boring state of affairs in my experience. Playing with friends is another matter entirely and voicechat is fantastic for that of course, but with strangers... not so much. I know it's hard to believe but back in the day it WAS actually fun to play with strangers and make use of text chat! By no means am I saying that text chat was completely devoid of harassment, but again, it just didn't seem anywhere near as bad or pronounced when compared to voicechat.
So as I've been absent many years and I think about perhaps getting back into PC gaming at some point, I find myself wondering, is text chat still a fairly popular form of in-game communication between strangers in online multiplayer PC games these days, or is text chat a 'ghost town'? Is it even still a thing?
I'm sure in MMOs it's probably still pretty common, but what about in directly competitive multiplayer PC games like FPS's and such? Is it still common there, or has voicechat taken them over almost completely?
I don't PC game currently but I used to quite a lot many years ago (Counter-Strike 1, Diablo 2, that era), when text chat was a very busy and popular form of in-game communication, before voicechat became a widespread thing. Eventually my interest shifted to the O.G. Xbox and then the 360 with Xbox Live, where, as we know, voicechat was the only option. As we also know, Xbox Live ended up developing a rather notorious reputation for extremely toxic multiplayer communication and harassment, which - in my view - seemed much worse and more pronounced through the medium of voicechat than it ever did via the text chat ways of old.
Due to this toxicity, for years now most console players simply ignore online voice communication altogether, and since text chat isn't even an option on consoles, well, console multiplayer sessions with strangers are a rather sad/empty/quiet/boring state of affairs in my experience. Playing with friends is another matter entirely and voicechat is fantastic for that of course, but with strangers... not so much. I know it's hard to believe but back in the day it WAS actually fun to play with strangers and make use of text chat! By no means am I saying that text chat was completely devoid of harassment, but again, it just didn't seem anywhere near as bad or pronounced when compared to voicechat.
So as I've been absent many years and I think about perhaps getting back into PC gaming at some point, I find myself wondering, is text chat still a fairly popular form of in-game communication between strangers in online multiplayer PC games these days, or is text chat a 'ghost town'? Is it even still a thing?
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