At the fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, players are currently mainly troubled that there will be no text chat in the console version for Xbox One and Playstation 4.
One expects a text chat from MMORPGs. TESO has one on PC. Even for consoles, it was originally planned: as recently as April, developers stated that they wanted to offer a QWERTY keyboard chat alongside the voice chat. But that changed: It was later said that the keyboard did not work with the console version; keyboard and couch do not go together. The Elder Scrolls Online on consoles will not support text chat. And this is currently the biggest criticism from future Playstation 4 and Xbox One players.
The players’ problem is especially evident on the battlefield Cyrodiil: “How are we supposed to call for help when a fortress is under attack?” Because if TESO operates via voice on consoles, it is certainly useful in smaller groups and nearby, strategic instructions or calls for help across the entire map are unlikely to be possible. In every other area of TESO, like instances or quests, only players within direct call range are really interesting. Not in Cyrodiil.
Emotes probably not a solution, but maybe a quick chat system?
In the last ESO Live, an emote system was introduced, allowing players to pull some universally understood emotional expressions onto the quick bar. With these emotes, players who do not want to use voice chat, whether they do not want to talk or cannot talk, should be able to manage. For Cyrodiil, this is probably not a solution, as such emotes are also only limitedly visible.
Now, Game Director Matt Firor stated to Eurogamer.net that while they mainly focus on voice chat, they are also currently looking into the possibility of implementing a “quick chat” system. Perhaps this could be a viable solution for The Elder Scrolls Online, depending on how the system turns out.
