Obviously there's a lot of toxic people out there who would just hurl abuse at you, but that's where the opt-in part comes in.

You're very limited to what you can convey using the emote system, and sometimes it can seem like the other person is being an asshole when they're beating you down but really they're just playing their game. Being able to chat with them can really help to take the frustration out of losing, at least for me (assuming they aren't actually an asshole!)

Greetings Doctor bakoomerang, you can opt-in to Hearthstone chat by sending a friend request to your opponent.

At least twice a week, I get someone sending me a friend request after I beat them who hastily types shit into chat before defriending me. If you want to opt into chat, that's cool, but take a step further and let me opt out of emotes. If I'm playing a friend I don't mind them - but it gets under my skin when a player (usually with the legendary card back) emotes "Oops" after they perceive that I misplayed or "Thank you" after I set something up for them. Anything outside of "Greetings" at the start or "Well Played" at the end results in an immediate squelch if it's just a random dude.

@c0v3rt: I once saw a guy use Animal Companion, get the 4/2 boar, then use Hunter's Mark on my 3/3, then attack it with the boar. I've also seen Hunters play a first turn Timber Wolf against my Druid or Rogue.

I...I need to teach them that they should not be doing that. That isn't like, "DO HO HO, I have the Legendary card back and think I'm hot shit that knows the meta perfectly", that's "OH GOD WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING PLEASE STOP". So I say "Oops".

Those are like, Patrick-level plays.

But yes, anyone who tries to friend you after a match on Bnet is usually some idiot who just wants to shit talk you and then defriend a minute later. They're like the people on Xbox Live who send PMs to complain about how cheap you are.

Opt-in chat for non-friends sounds like a terrible idea. It's bad enough when I get a friend request after beating someone and they just use it as an opportunity to be a jerk.

Someone called me a "sneaky jew fuck", and I just had to tell them that it was exceptionally rude and didn't appear to actually make sense. They told me they didn't care, and I said for them to have a good day.

"So I see you're using a carbon copy of this generic as hell deck, allow me to counter with this other carbon copy of another generic as hell deck"

@truthtellah: But if it was opt-in then you have the choice. From your point of view nothing changes if you choose not to talk to anybody. The squelch feature could apply to the chat as well so if it turns out the person really is a dick you can just turn it off.

I realize there are a lot of awful people out there, but there are also genuine people and it'd be nice to be able to talk to them properly while playing.

@fredchuckdave: To which I would respond, "... and your point?"

@bakoomerang: I suppose it could be an option, but I also think it could lead to a relatively uneven experience for players. At the moment, everyone has a similar experience and pace to gameplay. If you're playing publicly, you have a rhythm and the games flow well. There's an expectation that is generally upheld. If you make it where some people will have chat and others don't, you're going to only off and on have two people with chat on, and in that case, you may not meet the best folks. Maybe some will be fine, but I think you'll be disappointed with the amount of jerks.

I can see this maybe being a feature down the line, but at the moment, I think they made the right decision sticking to simple emotes and only friends. I suppose they could make trying to add a friend easier so that you could optionally start it in a game. Still, they seem to have good reason to try to maintain a consistent, relatively positive experience for all players.

@c0v3rt: There would be nothing to talk about of course.

@fredchuckdave said:

Blizzard knows well that if they let people talk to opponents, theyll be complete shitcocks to each other.

Their basic emote system is perfectly fine for me, and hell, some people are able to be annoying even within the confines of that.

I dunno.. I guess I wouldn't mind it, but I actually quite enjoy the dehumanization of your opponent. It just makes it feel like a good dynamic single-player game. While there certainly has been moments where I would've liked to make a comment or two to the person I'm playing, that urge passes quickly as you move on to the next game, while having to deal with shit-talkers a good amount of the time would really negatively affect the game.

I think it was designed from the get-go to be a tablet game, so it's not too odd that it's missing some features that exist in other Blizz games. Maybe they could add it, but for me, and I'm sure a lot of other people, it's refreshing not to have it.

SC2 not having chat originally killed all of blizzard's chat based communities apart from WoW (which has been a glorified chat room for almost a year now), them adding chat eventually did not remedy the issue.

@ares42: I also enjoy the dehumanization of my opponent, which sounds downright sociopathic, but in reality I'm a very introverted person who generally hates online play for that reason. Being able to face human opponents without exchanging more than basic pleasantries is a refreshing change of pace. Any ability for opt-in chat creates a moral impetus to politely acquiesce to their request.

Same reason I don't like my cell phone. Sure, I don't have to answer, but by its mere existence I'm being a dick if I refuse that conversation.

@rorie:

I love it and 90% of the time I squelch my opponent cause I'm sick of hearing "The light shall burn you" every 3 minutes playing a priest.

Seems like all forms of public chat are going the way of the do do.

And good riddance!

@zirilius: God I want an auto-squelch so badly. Emotes aren't any better than chat, just more passive-aggressive.

Yeah I feel the same way and while it easy to ignore the option to squelch Emotes would be awesome.

This is why opt in chat is a bad idea. I wasn't going to accept the friend request because it was obvious what it was, but a friend wanted a good laugh. It's not the most creative or colorful I've gotten, but whatever.

I should start a tumblr for people to submit this to.

@c0v3rt: I would read a tumblr that is people who are salty after losing Hearthstone games.