It's been 2 months since this thread was closed and somehow the attempt to improve game discussion made things worse. I was one of the people that thought that if you auto-joined game discussion it would solve the problem that no one used it, but since the change to automatically join it, the rate of discussion has dramatically gone down.
I've watched countless tournament series in the last 2 months happen with literally 0 lines in the chat. In Grand Slam finals, the first 2 games of the bo5 had 0 lines other than someone asking "was that game 1?" and someone else answering. Right now, as I'm writing this, TDNT is playing ima for OLT playoffs and there are 136 users in the game discussion room and 0 lines in the chat talking about the game even though it's an offense vs offense matchup with cool techs, between 2 hype players for the playoffs of a major tournament that ended in an insane Raging Bolt mirror. Look at this game state bro. It's unthinkable to have an empty chat under these conditions.
For a point of comparison, here's what the chat looked like during an OLT game in 2016, before the ban on lobby ghosting, in 2017 shortly after the ban and for a more recent example, a WCOP game from 2022, before the Game Discussion room was made, since i couldn't find anyone recording lobby chat for recent OLTs. shoutouts Dokkerich and maverick shooters for the footage. (the 2016 video cuts off the chat at a weird angle so you can't read most of what they were saying but the point is to see how much activity there was)
All 3 are way more active and provide a better experience than what we have right now. I was the biggest fan of the game discussion room when it was announced but at this point it's undeniable that it has failed in its objective and should be deleted. I reiterate my suggestion from the last thread to allow "lobby ghosting" with some caveats like don't speculate on obscure sets, or maybe even just no rules, 2016 style. I promise you it was fine. Ask other oldheads. But if you don't find either of those options feasible, just delete game discussion and let's have neutered conversations about "is he REDACTED?!" in lobby like we did in 2017-2024 because even that is preferable to what we have now.
I've watched countless tournament series in the last 2 months happen with literally 0 lines in the chat. In Grand Slam finals, the first 2 games of the bo5 had 0 lines other than someone asking "was that game 1?" and someone else answering. Right now, as I'm writing this, TDNT is playing ima for OLT playoffs and there are 136 users in the game discussion room and 0 lines in the chat talking about the game even though it's an offense vs offense matchup with cool techs, between 2 hype players for the playoffs of a major tournament that ended in an insane Raging Bolt mirror. Look at this game state bro. It's unthinkable to have an empty chat under these conditions.
For a point of comparison, here's what the chat looked like during an OLT game in 2016, before the ban on lobby ghosting, in 2017 shortly after the ban and for a more recent example, a WCOP game from 2022, before the Game Discussion room was made, since i couldn't find anyone recording lobby chat for recent OLTs. shoutouts Dokkerich and maverick shooters for the footage. (the 2016 video cuts off the chat at a weird angle so you can't read most of what they were saying but the point is to see how much activity there was)
All 3 are way more active and provide a better experience than what we have right now. I was the biggest fan of the game discussion room when it was announced but at this point it's undeniable that it has failed in its objective and should be deleted. I reiterate my suggestion from the last thread to allow "lobby ghosting" with some caveats like don't speculate on obscure sets, or maybe even just no rules, 2016 style. I promise you it was fine. Ask other oldheads. But if you don't find either of those options feasible, just delete game discussion and let's have neutered conversations about "is he REDACTED?!" in lobby like we did in 2017-2024 because even that is preferable to what we have now.
