unseen players in public games

[Hjuki]

several times now upon joining a public game i have observed another player carrying on a one sided conversation.
speaking at length to someone whom i could not see and read no chat text authored by, there in game. today i joined a game with one other visible player and
two town portals already cast in town.

is there a known issue where another player in a game would remain invisible and unheard by me?
if so, would this fall in the 'bug' category or is this a deliberate action and a hack?

[Malakar]

It is possible that they are using a voice chat program such as TeamSpeak, and one player doesn't have a headset and chooses to type rather than echo with normal speakers/mic.

[Urza-DSF]

Actually I had this exact same problem for a little while. If I may ask: are you using any type of router? If so then I would recomend updating the firmware, using whatever methods set down by the manufacturer. Untill I did this, I would only see 1 other person in a game, even if it was full.

[Moldran]

It's a known issue with many routers, yep. Long long ago, there also was a hack that allowed you to play as a 'ghost', but I think that one stopped working really long ago.
It may also be a bug that can just happen from time to time.

[Sabra]

Couldn't one player just be muting as well?

[LemmingofGlory]

several times now upon joining a public game i have observed another player carrying on a one sided conversation. speaking at length to someone whom i could not see and read no chat text authored by, there in game. today i joined a game with one other visible player and two town portals already cast in town.

"Invisible" players are often caused by bad connections. Typically, when you can't see a particular player, you also don't see their chat. Likewise, the player invisible to you cannot see you and cannot see your chat. These games very often get hourglasses every few seconds. You can often fix the problem by rejoining.

I'm told there also exists a hack which can "invisible" players. You may be able to foil it by simply rejoining the game.

-Lemmy