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Im actually hoping for a glorified chat room
jiveturkey12
Member CommonPosts: 1,262
Alot of people when they want to talk down an MMO say something ridiculous along the lines of "O im basically using it for a glorified chat room."
I wish!
DCU, RIFT, etc. I wish the new games that came out would just let you chill ya know?
I mean why do I have this epic fantasy world, and yet im forced to constantly be on the move, never staying put in one place for more than a minute.
See this is what happens when you make "Everyone the Hero". The "Story" becomes more important than the players making their own story and they want to see the end of it so bad that they rush through everything.
No one ever chills!
So why dont they just make something like Pre-NGE galaxies where everyone could just sit around a cantina and watch dancers and talk amoungst themselves.
Why is it we associate being around or grouping with other people more work? Its really not more work to group its just a different kind of work. And to me at least if people are forced to be around each other they will talk to each other.
When was the last time you were walking around in DCU or RIFT and saw two people randomly strike up a conversation with each other?
You dont, cause it never happens, instead people just sccury past each other looking down at their feet trying not to make eye contact with the elf across the trade shop.
Is there anyone else out there who actually wants a glorified chat room, where you can actually talk to people and be social?
Comments
See all the other threads about Sandboxes. This is one of the key factors people are looking for in a sandbox, whether they specifically say so or not.
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Because people like you and me, who want that kind of game world to experience instead of a liner line of quests leading to some shallow equipment raiding, just don't exist anymore. Attention spans cannot be measured without electron microscopes anymore. People are dumb.
I'm really hoping that an MMO would come out like that, but the companies are all going for the quick buck or facebook moron gaming and the audience has no appreciation for that kind of game anymore.
It's a shame really. Oh well.
But this shouldnt be just a sandbox feature. I dont see why you cant have a linear theme park style game that also has community building elements.
If anything MMO's have gone the way of politics, its all just black and white. I feel as though theres this overal negative connotation thats associated with grouping and talking with people. Old everquest wasnt by any means a sandbox but it still encouraged grouping?
DCU's best quality in my opinion is that you are put into a huge seemless world where you can adventure in. But thats where the sandbox elements end, I just dont understand why people cant simply praise the game for its positive elemtns and its negative ones.
And for that matter, why dont MMO's just start doing "Group based servers"?
Can it really be that hard to just throw all the enemies into Hard mode and make it so you need more than one person to fight a mob?
jesus go back to facebook or whatever other social crap you do if you wanna chat. I'm in a MMO to play a game.
I am starting to think that the next generation of MMOG's would need some type of social engineering or social innovation.
Most of the time this reduction in socializing is a result of some great innovation or design improvement.
Think about the time when ATM's were becoming popular. It reduced the social interaction between the teller and the client. It was progress and innovation, but had a negative side effect. Automobiles are faster than horses, but they also isolate us in little glass cages. Television and radio replaced sitting on the porch chatting with neighbors.
You can't take these things back. They were all related to progress despite the isolating side effects.
The same things happened in MMOG's. You can't create a game with 25% downtime and expect it to succeed. Even the people asking for it would quit within hours of loading it up. You won't find the same social balance of UO because the socializers, acheivers, and explorers won't tolerate FFA PvP anymore. There are newer games that better suit their needs. These things can't be reversed.
The only way forward is to provide incentives for socializing and working together. I'm not exactly sure how which means that its ripe for innovation. The trophy is there for the taking. The only thing I am certain of is that you get there by repeating the past.
Isn't that what this forum is for? I come to this site because it is a 'glorified chat room' about MMORPGs.
I am a member of a number of sites where I can participate in more meaningfull discussions than I cold ever in a video game.
If you are in the mood to chat, try roleplaying with the NPCs a little as you go. Trash-talk the goblins a little, "haggle" with the merchant, scream when you flee the dragon, shout "Go for the eyes, Boo!" when you charge a mob. It's a nice little signal to the people around that you're feeling socialable without intruding on peoples' personal space and can also provide passers-by with a little random entertainment.
I think that even appies to the old-school themeparks where community and social-interaction were more than buzzwords hyping a nearly single-player online game.
In my opinion that doesnt mean that there shouldnt be at least one MMO with some constructive social features in the game. Just because you might have more meanigful conversation here on a forum doesnt mean you couldnt have an equally greater one in an MMO. If there was a game developed to entice players to interact and chat you probably would have that chance, but nothing like that exsists at the moment.
And yes ive also heard the arguements of "Thats your own fault, you should be able to make up a Roleplaying event without the devs putting it in the game, etc. etc.".
The flaw in that arguement is that your assuming theres people out there, waiting to be found in each game that want to roleplay and communicate but just havent had anyone physically come up and talk to them. The types of games that come out in the MMO genre right now do not attract social gamers, and in turn you arent going to be finding them waiting for a month in a game they dont enjoy playing for some extrovert roleplayer to come find them and take them away on a grand adventure.
If I don't "chill" in voice chat while in the midst of some brainless, PvE hack 'n' slash, I do it outside the game. I don't care for forced downtime, forced grouping or forced anything - so I'm glad I'm not forced to pay for those games.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
That really depends on what you consider a 'constructive social feature'.
Some people like to refer to SWG's cantinas as a great social feature but to me there was nothing especially social to them. You went in to get a buff or cure a debuff and stood around for a bit. Any meaningfull conversation was just as likely to occur while you were inside as if you were outside.
My idea of a good social feature are long term group projects where you get to exchange ideas and thus develop social bonds with people. It's what a guild is and they tend to be the strongest social constructs in MMORPGs.
Wow so there are more people feeling like this. These days one of the few ways to get socialised within games is finding a nice guild which uses voice chat. Gawd mmo’s used to have endless entertaining, funny, serious, sad, mad or downright informative chats going on, in different channels and stuff. Mmo’s got bigger and more widely used and never have been so silent. Except for trade chat. That never seems to change.
LOL, great thread, I feel the same way myself.
Now days most games are designed to keep the player "busy, busy, busy", with no allowances for downtime to socialize. Seems that this is what the majority favors, and we who are looking for something different frequently are on the outside looking in.
I think we're looking for virtural worlds to socialize in while other people are in MMORPG's just to "play the game".
Nothing right or wrong with either preference, but it sure seems like lately folks who enjoy socialization aren't really being addressed by the major houses.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
OP you are totally confused about the term "glorified chat room"
that has nothing to do with what you are talking about.
"glorified chat room" is simply a term used to describe a CORPG, which lacks a public world. Aka, the only area of contact is a hub town, similar to a Chat room on a internet site.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Rushing through mmorpgs i dont like eather but glorified chat boxes i dont like eather. What do i like i think i forgot what i like in mmo's after all these years i dont know anymore hahaha.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Oh yeah, read the comment under my name. Amen brother. Amen.
I'm not much of a talker or grouper in MMOs, and the social aspect is really just a garnish on the dish for me. With that being said, I log into a game to have fun. Fun for me doesn't solely come from killing mindless mobs or even intelligent players (sure, I enjoy them both immensely). I love a good emote, crafting session, or just a break from the spamming of abilities keys.
I agree with the OP about SWG having that special mechanic, and that it's perfectly feasible to implement into a theme park for those who seek it. It would just be hard to think of ways to embed it into a live game (for me, anyhow).
As I recall, SWG's 'Battle Fatigue' forced players to head into the local cantinas to have stats restored/buffs performed after lengthy killing sessions. This in turn gave the non-combat classes like Musicians and Dancers patronage and experience.
When the Bounty Hunter/Whoever sped out of town on their landspeeder for more killing, they passed by a players store and could browse the prices and wares of an individual crafting-class player.
It really seemed like there was something for everyone with this system, but I think MMOs nowadays have the majority of players thinking that killing shit and gearing up is all there is and all there can be. Had I not played things before the modern MMO, I'd be inclined to agree with those players.
The concept of 'downtime' is laughable to me, as every second I am playing a game is 'downtime.' But for those that can't see past progressing their character as the only viable way to spend time in an MMO, forcing these social aspects down their throats isn't the right answer either.
We need a happy medium, where both the time spent in and out of combat and dungeons rewards the player in suitable fashion.
Perhaps dungeons shouldn't drop gear, but rare materials for a combat player to come back into town and sell to a crafter so they can create better stuff. But then we have only crafting and combat.. Hmmmm
Last I checked, 99% of MMORPGs have chat, public chat, guild chat, ventrilo conversations, and lots of people just chilling in town.
Seems like everything you want exists, if you're willing to engage in those features. And especially if you dig into the forums to find a really like-minded guild (if you don't create one yourself in the first place.)
In RIFT if you keep moving forward at all times, that was a choice. You could've chilled in town or you could've quest/rift/dungeon'd, and you chose the latter. There's a lot of people chilling in that town.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Not easy to get other people to engage in those features. It comes down to this. Game mechanics of most games make players choose between chatting or playing the game. Its pretty much zero sum, while youi're out adventuring there's little time for conversation hence little conversation actually takes place.
Last night I was out and came across a Rift. I started to solo it and eventually 2 people came along and helped me close it. Instead of immediately dropping party they started to kill nearby quest npcs which I also needed so I joined in. During our adventures we ran into an annoying quest where everyone was waiting out the spawn timer. I tried to start up some conversation but only one person responded in any way. (one sentence)
We did pretty well, knocked off 5 or so quests (one member did send ask me in party if I had gotten credit for a particular kill since I died along the way and then the other folks dropped party.
As I'm riding up to the next town I get a private tell from one of the other people thanking me for grouping with them. I was shocked, what used to be a common place occurance now happens so infrequently it took me by surprise. It reminded me of what used to be a staple of these games, random strangers grouping up and having fun together, occasionally forging bonds that lasted longer. Seldom happens anymore, most interaction is through willfull joining of a team (guilds) and seldom from random encounters.
I'm assuming from your many posts that you never experienced this, (or didn't enjoy it), but for some of us we'd prefer a little more time to interact which we're willing to do, unfortunately our fellow gamers are too busy most times.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The counter argument is you don't need downtime in a game, you can just stop and chill anytime you want to.
But we all know that's not how MMORPGs are played.
Players will take the most efficient that exists to level their characters.
If that's constant action, they will do that.
If it means going to the Cantina in Star Wars Galaxies and watching someone dance, they'll do that.
"Players will take the most efficient path that exists to level their characters"
That is exactly what has killed MMORPGs and turned them all into "that" game.
I like to take the most efficient route to do things but I still will stop playing so I can socialize with people. Heck, most f the time I am able to chat with people and still have my character complete quests and gain XP.
I find it pretentious to try and force people into talking to each other when they don't really want to. If someone wants to play their character instead of chatting, I am not gonna force or trick them into it. As I learned in highschool, if someone does not want to hang out with you, trying to make them do so will only end badly.
Cantina's in SWG were a great time to take a bathroom break or alt-tab to surf the web.
My problem lies in the lack of tools modern MMO's provide to enable the players to socialise
Back in the days on UO and EQ it was a bit of a novelty to most people to be able to play a game and type and chat to people from around the world at the same time, but nowadays it's a foregone comclusion that an MMO will have this in-built. Where most, if not all modern MMO's fal short is not fully utilising modern advancements in online socialising - we have twitter, facebook, video chat, voice chat - the list goes on, and hardly any MMO's offer these tools to their players, but rather add some half baked text based system, or make voice chat optional rather than fully integrated into the game itself
I mean just imagine a decent MMO with voice chat where you can talk and hear others talk as you walk along the road and as distance increases the voices fade, if you get close and whisper it becomes a private (relatively) chat..wouldn't that be fantastic? The technology is there, just not the implementation
In reality the best socialising cross with gaming nowadays comes through either a dedicated clan based online chat system in an MMO, or some of the newer FPS with built in voice chat options
Isn't that just human nature though?
We are conditioned our entire lives to take the most efficient path. I never take the scenic route just for the sake of it. The only time I 'smell the flowers' is when I am planting them. When writing programs at work I cut'n'paste every bit of old code I can.
You know what else is human nature? Pointing your finger and (mis)placing blame.
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A couple years ago I had the idea that our characters should have multiple paths of progression. Seperate paths for Combat, Social, Exploring, and PvP. Sorta like the jobs in Free Realms.
Each category gains advantages and perks as you gain experience. You would gain experience in each category by doing things associated with that category.
If you explore a lot then you gain movement bonuses, mapping skills that show additional details, new mounts, etc.
The social category is the most challenging to quantize. Increasing your friends list, joining and recruiting to a guild, spending time in a group, spending time in taverns. The perks could be guild bonuses, group buffs, emotes, vanity items, etc. The real challenge is creating this category in a way that can't be completed without actually interacting with other players.
The combat and PvP categories are what we are most familiar with so no need to go into details on those.
You'd probably see a lot of people that are high level in combat, medium level in PvP, and low level in exploring and socializing, but having those categories would provide incentives to spend time on it at least.
I think that's actually quite a decent idea
The socialising levelling could be directly related to feedback from other players, sort of a positive feedback providing socialising xp - the more you socialise, the more socialising xp you gain. If you dangled some enticing rewards high up in the socialising tree that benefit other areas - for example pvp rewards from a ton of socialising would encourage even the diehard closet dwellers to stop and have a chat ocasionally if implemented properly