CometChat integration

[Kylin]

This is simply to gauge interest in a new feature I was looking into that looks pretty snazzy. It's called "CometChat" and basically mimes Enjin's interface slightly, with improvements of course. It has a fully integrated chat room (with the ability to add multiple rooms), the ability to send instant private talks to online users (like Enjin), ability to integrate with Facebook/Twitter (if we ever wanted to recreate the RPCs presence with social media that is), and other stuff.

 

The problem? It costs a one time fee for the license. It starts at $50 and goes up to $500 depending on how advanced the version. You can view a demo here: http://www.phpchatsoftware.com/mybb/ (demo1 username wasn't working when I tried, so you may need to use demo2, 3, or 4 to login).

 

My question is: Yay or nay? Is it something you think will enhance the RPC or does it seem unnecessary?

[Eva]

I think this looks really cool!  I'm also fairly confident we could raise the necessary funds for it given how well we did with the annual donations for the forums.

 

That being said, I'm not sure that it would see much use in a couple of months after the game went live.  Skype has proven to be a suitable alternative for chat along with various other chat clients and forum systems.  If 1.0 was any indication, the RPC forums will probably trend towards less use after the game goes live and RPers segment off into various communities as they did in 1.0.

 

That's not to say that it's not still a great hub for sharing stories, artwork, and organizing cross-LS events.  There's plenty of value to it!  I'm just not sure the chat/IM add-in would see enough utilization to really justify the cost.  But I am curious to see what others would think.  :love:

[Vareal]

I love forums sites that have chat rooms and I think it's a really good idea to incorporate one, -always kinda wondered why the RPC didn't have one from the start- and it would be good to have it, especially for newer members/players or for those people who haven't established themselves in any kind of RP group or linkshell. And like Eva said, sharing stories or RPing or any other myriad things.

 

I also agree with Eva that it might not get so much use, especially after launch, and it might not be cost effective. I personally would like to see some sort of chat feature implemented or even a shout box maybe?

 

Either way, when the time rolls around for either this chat feature, or the annual donations, I only have one thing to say to the RPC admin and all the other staffers:

 

 

 

 

[Edricane]

I think it would be for the best to wait, the last chat didn't work well. I could go on, but simple I'd just wait for a bit after launch. I don't think it would see much use past down time.

[Yssen]

I like this plan, and I am currently messing around with the demo stuff. I suppose my question is, what bells and whistles are we getting for the money?

[Deirdre]

I think once we have ARR no one's going to use a chatroom, since we'll have pearls. IMO.

[Aysun]

I just don't think it will be used once ARR comes out, like everyone else is saying. And even now, we have Skype.

[Grott]

I'm going to hop on the bandwagon here. No point in a chatroom this close to launch. Especially one that costs money. Skype works fine and once the game is out there won't be much use for chatrooms since we'll all just be running into each other and RPing all the time in-game. It's a cool find for sure, and I'm not trying to sound harsh, but I think we could save some time and money by just skipping it, seeing as how we're getting damn close to release.