Tasan wrote:Because the place needs it.
Although I believe we are in agreement about some things here, I come to exactly the opposite conclusion about a Friends Chat Channel.
You and I seem to agree that:
* social ties are good for the mud.
* social ties are created and maintained through player interactions. While work-like tasks (xp, zoning) are of some aid in this, social interactions (which on the mud are almost exclusively conversations) are more important for social ties.
* there are different levels of social tie. One can think of acquaintances you get along with, friends, close friends.
* an FCC will help players keep in touch with close friends, help maintain strong social ties. And the more strong social ties a player has, the more likely the player is to stay on the mud.
However, it is also true that the more positive social ties of any level a player has, the more likely they are to stay on the mud. 10 friends will keep you here more than 5 friends will, 10 acquaintances you get along with will keep you here more than 5 will.
Most critically, a player with no positive social ties is unlikely to stay on the mud (with perhaps some unusually brash exceptions).
A true newbie starts with no social ties on the mud. Ignore them, leave them isolated, and they’ll leave. Chat with them, chat to a friend and let them listen in, let the newbie feel like a part of the conversation, a part of the mud, and we have a chance they’ll stay. For some newbies, including them in conversations will be even more important than rolling up a new alt and grouping with them.
You want an FCC exactly because it would be exclusive. The benefit to the mud is that it would improve interaction between close friends, and those folks would be more likely to stay.
But newbies can listen in and participate in conversations on only a few channels. And while nobody is going to chat as much on OOC or gsay as they would on an FCC, with an FCC available most people will chat less on the public channels. So the cost to the mud is that it would reduce the interaction of players with, or in the presence of, newbies. And so newbies will be more likely to leave.
Mud history gives us an example that is illustrative, that of ACC. Before ACC, there was a certain amount of chatter on OOC and gsay. After ACC went in, less OOC, less gsay. After alts were able to use ACC, there was much less public or in-group chatter. Has that hurt our ability to retain newbies? I think it has.
ACC chatter excludes newbies, and reduces the conversations they can participate in. FCC would do that even more. So where, then, are the opportunities for newbies to interact, or feel like a part of the mud? Where are their opportunities to start forming positive social ties that might help us keep them here?
I think we need all the newbies we can possibly get, so the cost of an FCC is too high.