The music scene in Lord of the Rings Online is struggling with problems. The new spam filter causes them to fall silent during their performances. A simple solution to the problem doesn’t seem to exist.
The spam filter in Lord of the Rings Online is supposed to stop gold spammers and griefers. However, the activation of the spam filter also affects members of the music scene of the MMO, even though they are doing nothing wrong. Finding a solution to the problem is not so easy.
Singers have a hard time
Singing prohibited: Lord of the Rings Online has an active music scene. Every class in the game can grab an instrument and start playing. Bands of players meet in-game and hold concerts. During these concerts, singing naturally occurs as well. This takes place through the game’s text chat. Watching players can sing along.
However, song lyrics often consist of similar or even the same word combinations. This activates the game’s automatic spam filter. As a result, the singers may be unable to write for 24 hours. The gig comes to an abrupt end.
A gamemaster can manually free individual players from the ban, but that does not protect players from finding themselves wordless at a concert in the future.
“We can’t have multiple definitions of spam”
Singing becomes spam: In the related forum thread, a developer speaks up. According to the developer, it would not be so easy to draw the fine line between spam and repetitive song lyrics. Repetitive song lyrics would, by definition, be spam. This cannot be defined in various ways.
The problem is the /say channel: The spam filter itself is not the problem. If players are prevented from spamming messages in the global channel, it aligns with the interests of many players. Musicians only use the /say channel for their performances anyway. Yet this channel is also monitored by the spam filter.
Practicing is prohibited
Practicing alone is spam: Unfortunately, there is only one global implementation for the /say channel. The system does not differentiate whether the channel is used in one’s home, a solo instance, or the busy town of Bree. This leads to the strange situation where players are banned even though they quietly practice their music pieces without disturbing other players.
Therefore, the musicians of Lord of the Rings Online demand the lifting of the ban for the /say channel. However, according to a developer, the spam filter for the channel cannot be removed because it is frequently misused by griefers.
No easy solution
Good advice is expensive: There seems to be no easy solution to the dilemma. Musicians want to use the /say channel as unrestricted as possible. Publisher Standing Stone Games, on the other hand, wants to put a stop to gold spammers and griefers.
The publisher is considering a manual system. Musicians would then be manually freed from chat restrictions. While this would solve the problem for musicians, players who want to sing along at a concert would still be subject to a chat ban.
