I'd like to know when people are watching my games, other than when they decide to speak up. It's a little less creepy that way!
+1. I wonder why that was removed. edit: devs should have a 'spy' mode, mortals should be visible at all times.
Yeah, it's not intentional, just that we never added that feature. Should be relatively easy to log spectator arrivals and departures in chat.
I was about to open up a new suggestion, but what i have in mind is simple - Give me an option to disable notification about spectator arrivals / departures. I find the notices disruptive, to some extent, knowing about their presence irritates me as well. I dont mind only knowing about them if they choose to comment.
I hear i am not the only one who would appreciate the option for a "quiet mode" - once activated no pesky spectators, be it their repeating arrival / departure or there comments are shown.
1. the blinking window heavy disoriented me 2. when i have a duel with most ranked player - it is crazy disco 3. chat opponent with spectators - wasted my time imho - create some checkbox in options or in a main window with "disable spectators and chat" will be liked me and many other peoples (sorry my english)
I personally don't have a problem with the announcements of the goings and leavings of spectators. It's just a small flashing white bit of text. But to each their own.
In my opinion, it's important that all multiplayer matches are observeable by anyone. It makes it harder to collude for wins or to be abusive towards others -- or at least your misdeeds will soon be witnessed. It's a guard against rampant bullying. Watching others play is also a good way to learn new builds and strategies and how the different cards and items can be used. It builds a stronger sense of community as players socialise in chat and/or watch their friends or rivals play. It's plain entertaining watching others play, especially very good players, like in any sport. There are lots of good things that come from it. Being able to disable it would therefore be a bad thing. However, having an option which turns off the chat window tab flashing would be a very good thing for those who don't wish to follow the chat at all. Like you said, the flashing is distracting and annoying when one is not in the mood for chatting.
An actual private mode shutting them out would be too much, unless there is a dialogue both players have to agree on. (Player XY wishes to make this match private - yes, no, maybe) But the irritation of being watched or full blown nervousness when the number of spectators grows and grows depends on knowing, so those who are affected by stagefright or whatever you want to call it have an ease in disabling the notifications. Not to mention 50% of those notifications are the result of someone misclicking on your game in the games list.
I wonder how hard it would be to change it so you have to click on the name of a player (or battle) to spectate, instead of triggering on the whole row. Also, I remember someone asking a while ago for the option to disable chat completely so they could play at work. (Their employer had a policy that playing games was okay so long as there was no chat.) And if we wanted to be really fancy, we could have an option to block spectator chat but not opponent.
Fancy? Thats the main thing i keep asking for here, an option to fade out every spectator-related alert or irritation.
Now that i learned about the awesome /who command, i wanna mention it here as well, as cure to all headaches - Get rid of all alerts and give me a button that says "who" instead. If more is needed, let it be grey til a simgle spectator joins, once its colored (like an "on air" lamp), you know someone is there, no more notifications when more spectators join. Then you can choose to have a look.
I want to articulate my bewilderment that the relatively new "disable chat"-option does NOT affect the spectator arrival/departure notificiations. Why, why, why, why, why?