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Demise of the MMO Communities

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  • aesperusaesperus Member UncommonPosts: 5,135
    Originally posted by emistz

    Is it just me or has there been a consistent decline in the community feel in MMOs since about 10 years ago?

    Every time I log into pretty much any MMO I can see less and less community work and more and more individual people doing their own thing.  Basically people soloing the game, along with a thousand other people who are also soloing the game in the same server. 

    I am not really sure what benefit you get from an MMO without group play, except of course I guess if it was a single player game you couldn't brag to others about your latest piece of epeen gear.

    I remember the days when people would group just for the fun of doing things together.  These days unless there is a specific incentive to do so most people keep to themselves.

    What do you think has brought this about?  A change in game culture? A change in culture as a whole where we have become more and more antisocial as a society? Or something else?

    Thank the (not-so) new generation of instant-gratification gamers.

    In older games, communities were smaller, and games often required grouping to achieve personal game. This forced people to work together for a common goal, or get pushed out by the community.

    Now? Most games don't force co-dependancy, and most gamers (regardless of what they say online) don't actually seem to want it. Essentially people seem to be chasing this idea of 'games should give me community'; instead of realizing that in reality, the gamers make the community for themselves. Everyone now complains about there being no communities. And ironically, there are no communities because people are more busy complaining about it than building them.

    There are a few examples of games that have pretty good communities (Eve and GW2 being a couple more recent examples). There are definitely others, but they are not in the majority.

  • tommygunzIItommygunzII Member Posts: 321

    I wouldn't blame the players as much as I would blame the games. 

    When you have what seems like hundreds of meaningless quests that require you to kill 6 of these or fetch this or run here. Then you have to make sure to grab all 5+ quests for that little area or you will be killing the same monsters you did 10 min ago. With all of this back and forth, do this do that kind of stuff it's almost a pain in the ass to get coordinated or in sync with someone, and this is common in the beginning of most MMO's.  

    My first MMO was FFXI which had a great community at the time and was nothing like the above. It was rude to send someone a party or linkshell invite without asking first, much more rude to drop from a party without saying goodbye, and leaving without finding a replacement was frowned upon. Imagine my surprise when I try WoW for the first time in 2005. Ever since then almost every MMO has repeated the formula and people aren't forced to work together.  Now you see someone killing the same trash mobs as you, you invite em, kill mobs then leave party. To bad FFXI didn't rule the MMO world :)

     

     

  • ShadanwolfShadanwolf Member UncommonPosts: 2,392

    I think its a trend in many societies to socialize less....face to face.Most of us could not name  many people who live in our neighborhood...or the last time we actually spoke with them.

    I think that carries over to how we generally interact in mmog's.

  • emistzemistz Member Posts: 54
    Originally posted by jesad
    Originally posted by emistz

    Is it just me or has there been a consistent decline in the community feel in MMOs since about 10 years ago?

    Every time I log into pretty much any MMO I can see less and less community work and more and more individual people doing their own thing.  Basically people soloing the game, along with a thousand other people who are also soloing the game in the same server. 

    I am not really sure what benefit you get from an MMO without group play, except of course I guess if it was a single player game you couldn't brag to others about your latest piece of epeen gear.

    I remember the days when people would group just for the fun of doing things together.  These days unless there is a specific incentive to do so most people keep to themselves.

    What do you think has brought this about?  A change in game culture? A change in culture as a whole where we have become more and more antisocial as a society? Or something else?

    Wow, what a question.  You know I live to answer this kind of stuff.

    So let's see, 10 years ago, that puts us at about 2003.  A year before City of Heroes.  I'd have to say then that it's probably you, because the community in that game was about as insanely social as one could ask for.

    But let's say you weren't into the Super Hero thing, well that counts as point number 1. in our list of (5).

    1. The number of genre specific MMO's increased to a number that the community could no longer support.  This splintered off the number of socially active people, who's numbers were fewer than the socially inept from the start, to the point where they could no longer find each other.

    2. Gamer greed/mistrust or the "I gotta be the boss" syndrome.  Nothing killed the social community of the MMO more than the natural progression of the average player from follower to wanna be leader.  Game designs that supported the "guild a day" theory helped these people to form their own "green" or "tea" parties (metaphorically speaking) which were never large enough to really get anything done, but were just large enough to sap the socially active energy out of the bigger and more capable guilds.  This symptom later led to # 3.

    3.  The "army of one" theory is where all of the players who used to be in the green or tea parties have now decided that they can do it better also.  In fact, they had learned so much about how these game worked now (which again is the fault of game design) that they could do 90% of it alone.  And for that other 10% that they couldn't, they'd either sell out for a short while by joining someone else's guild, or simply quit playing.  Around this time the only socializing going on was cyber and furry LOL.

    4. Developer greed/desperation.  Game companies began to design games that, instead of teaching the player how to socialize, supported them in not socializing.  The reason for this was very simple.  If a player couldn't find a group to help them accomplish what they needed to accomplish they would just quit playing whatever game that was and go and play whatever game that they knew everyone else was playing.  I believe that this impulse was actually stronger than any genre, any depth of play, and any graphics because I have seen some pretty cheesy games (will not mention names) not only survive but flourish simply because of word of mouth advertising and ease of play.  With that kind of tone set, many other companies moved in the same direction in an attempt to meet their semi-annual, or annual operating budgets.

    5. Voice operation programs.  I know I will catch some flack about being old for this one, but the honest truth of the matter is that no one really wants to sit and listen to you be drunk, be a racists, be a republican or a democrat, be an attention whore, or whatever other annoying thing you can think of all day long right there in their ear.  Typing was way cooler, and I am honestly happy to see a lot of people return to this way of playing.  To sum up why I believe typing was one of the keys to the more social aspects MMO play I offer this.

    a. Typing makes you stop moving.  Not fighting something, jumping up to or down from something, or in general running around in circles like an idiot allows time for thought.  Thought allows time for all kinds of good stuff like tactics, teamwork, and even a little role-play.

    b. Typing allows one to carry on multiple conversations simultaneously.  At best VOIP, when it is actually being used for something to do with the game and not to explain to a bunch of 13 year old's what a donkey punch is, is usually just one guy, or a few guys taking control of a situation (for better or worse) while everyone else touches the puppet head at their command.  This doesn't require social interaction, it requires being able to hit the right color button in order to get the treat.

    c. Finally typing provides an anonymity that I really do believe is necessary in order to provide a comfortable place for a player to truly let loose.  The first moment I ever pop into someone's voice chat the very first feeling I get is that I'm going to have to be civil to this person no matter what kind of idiot or jerk they actually are.  Typing let's you let it all hang out because, yes, you are some anonymous name behind a keyboard, and no, in the overall scheme of things, you really don't matter. But for that few minutes to few days of time that you interact with that one idiot that you really hated, you provided that person, and they provided you with a whole story to tell, and having stories to tell plays a large role in the social interaction of an MMO.

    It's a big picture kind of thing really.  One where you really can't rationally focus the blame in any one direction.  Of course game companies are going to try and do the thing that keeps them making money, and of course people are going to clamor for, and run towards that which is instantly gratifying and thus more pleasing.  The problem with all of that though is that we all know that accomplishing an easy task is not as nearly as satisfying as accomplishing a hard one, and yet we still go for easy.

    The solution for this, in my opinion, was to go for the F2P model using the forced grouping model of the first games.  Instead the developers went for the "let em solo to the end" model while the pay to play model was still in effect, and now they are finding it difficult to reinforce the forced grouping model in their F2P games.

    They'll get it together eventually.  Just gotta move the pieces around.

    I don't agree with everything you wrote, but that is a hell of an elaborate and thoughtful answer. 

    Do you see this trend turning the corner any time soon as far as communities go?

    image

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by jesad

    The solution for this, in my opinion, was to go for the F2P model using the forced grouping model of the first games.  Instead the developers went for the "let em solo to the end" model while the pay to play model was still in effect, and now they are finding it difficult to reinforce the forced grouping model in their F2P games.

    They'll get it together eventually.  Just gotta move the pieces around.

    Of course they can't. It is a free market. If players don't like forced grouping games, they will jump ship for the alternative. A dev has little choice (unless he wants a small niche) to give what players want.

    You don't think WOW is so solo-friend just because? Blizz saw EQ, and the complaints about forced grouping .. and decided to innovate.

    What happened? Huge success. Because they created a play style many likes. As simple as that.

    If the mainstream wants to solo and display the epleen in a city .. there is really nothing you can do to change that.

  • SomeHumanSomeHuman Member UncommonPosts: 560

    My two cents: I say yes, Emistz.

    I almost posted the same question last night.  I logged into several mmo's (at least 5) asked around about guilds and grouping (new in most of the games i'm trying).  No interest.  I even helped a few people out with a run or something they were confused about, but after that it was: thanks, now I'm on my way.

    I ultimately returned to an old game I'm bored with and chatted with some buddies, doing nothing in game.

    Gaming since 1985; Online gaming since 1995; No End in Sight! My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8POVoJ8fdOseuJ4U1ZX-oA

  • emistzemistz Member Posts: 54
    Originally posted by nariusseldon
    Originally posted by jesad

    The solution for this, in my opinion, was to go for the F2P model using the forced grouping model of the first games.  Instead the developers went for the "let em solo to the end" model while the pay to play model was still in effect, and now they are finding it difficult to reinforce the forced grouping model in their F2P games.

    They'll get it together eventually.  Just gotta move the pieces around.

    Of course they can't. It is a free market. If players don't like forced grouping games, they will jump ship for the alternative. A dev has little choice (unless he wants a small niche) to give what players want.

    You don't think WOW is so solo-friend just because? Blizz saw EQ, and the complaints about forced grouping .. and decided to innovate.

    What happened? Huge success. Because they created a play style many likes. As simple as that.

    If the mainstream wants to solo and display the epleen in a city .. there is really nothing you can do to change that.

    That gets us back to the initial question: Why do the mainstream want to solo on a mmorpg game and just interact with players to show their epeen/do stuff they're forced to do together?

    It would seem to me that if you want a multiplayer experience it is because you want to interact with others.  Is it maybe the case that we have a lot of solo minded players playing mmos simply because there is not a single player version of the particular content that they like?

    image

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by emistz
     

    That gets us back to the initial question: Why do the mainstream want to solo on a mmorpg game and just interact with players to show their epeen/do stuff they're forced to do together?

    It would seem to me that if you want a multiplayer experience it is because you want to interact with others.  Is it maybe the case that we have a lot of solo minded players playing mmos simply because there is not a single player version of the particular content that they like?

    Why not? You are not them. How do you know solo then show-off and do some AH is not fun for them?

    Who says a multiplayer experience has to interact in a group? Showing off is interaction. Trading in a AH in interaction. May not be interactions that you like, but these are interactions nevertheless.

    And lastly, yes, i think you are right that some MMOs have content good as SP games (for some players). For example, i play STO like a SP game. Why? I like star trek and there is no star trek RPG with both ship & ground missions.

  • MuffinStumpMuffinStump Member UncommonPosts: 474


    Originally posted by emistz
    Originally posted by nariusseldon Originally posted by jesad The solution for this, in my opinion, was to go for the F2P model using the forced grouping model of the first games.  Instead the developers went for the "let em solo to the end" model while the pay to play model was still in effect, and now they are finding it difficult to reinforce the forced grouping model in their F2P games. They'll get it together eventually.  Just gotta move the pieces around.
    Of course they can't. It is a free market. If players don't like forced grouping games, they will jump ship for the alternative. A dev has little choice (unless he wants a small niche) to give what players want. You don't think WOW is so solo-friend just because? Blizz saw EQ, and the complaints about forced grouping .. and decided to innovate. What happened? Huge success. Because they created a play style many likes. As simple as that. If the mainstream wants to solo and display the epleen in a city .. there is really nothing you can do to change that.
    That gets us back to the initial question: Why do the mainstream want to solo on a mmorpg game and just interact with players to show their epeen/do stuff they're forced to do together?

    It would seem to me that if you want a multiplayer experience it is because you want to interact with others.  Is it maybe the case that we have a lot of solo minded players playing mmos simply because there is not a single player version of the particular content that they like?



    ..and there it is. The not-so-hidden solo vs. grouping debate skulking along with the 'whatever happened to community?' camouflage :P


  • emistzemistz Member Posts: 54
    Originally posted by MuffinStump

     


    Originally posted by emistz

    Originally posted by nariusseldon

    Originally posted by jesad The solution for this, in my opinion, was to go for the F2P model using the forced grouping model of the first games.  Instead the developers went for the "let em solo to the end" model while the pay to play model was still in effect, and now they are finding it difficult to reinforce the forced grouping model in their F2P games. They'll get it together eventually.  Just gotta move the pieces around.
    Of course they can't. It is a free market. If players don't like forced grouping games, they will jump ship for the alternative. A dev has little choice (unless he wants a small niche) to give what players want. You don't think WOW is so solo-friend just because? Blizz saw EQ, and the complaints about forced grouping .. and decided to innovate. What happened? Huge success. Because they created a play style many likes. As simple as that. If the mainstream wants to solo and display the epleen in a city .. there is really nothing you can do to change that.
    That gets us back to the initial question: Why do the mainstream want to solo on a mmorpg game and just interact with players to show their epeen/do stuff they're forced to do together?

     

    It would seem to me that if you want a multiplayer experience it is because you want to interact with others.  Is it maybe the case that we have a lot of solo minded players playing mmos simply because there is not a single player version of the particular content that they like?


     


    ..and there it is. The not-so-hidden solo vs. grouping debate skulking along with the 'whatever happened to community?' camouflage :P

     

    Not so much as a debate on the benefits of solo v. group play, but rather a discussion on why solo gameplay seems to predominate these days as opposed to group gameplay on mmorpgs which appeared to be the norm years ago.

    I think you might be confused by the word community which has a couple of different meanings.

    image

  • Cephus404Cephus404 Member CommonPosts: 3,675
    Originally posted by emistz

    Not so much as a debate on the benefits of solo v. group play, but rather a discussion on why solo gameplay seems to predominate these days as opposed to group gameplay on mmorpgs which appeared to be the norm years ago.

    I think you might be confused by the word community which has a couple of different meanings.

    Because years ago, when it was only the nerds that had access to the powerful computers and broadband connections, everyone had things in common outside of the game.  You could always be sure that any group you joined, everyone would have something to talk about.  Now, those days are gone, MMOs and all games are mainstream and people don't want to be stuck in a group with nothing to talk about.  Therefore, they either solo or, if forced to be in a group, don't say a word.  Soloing became prevalent because the games went mainstream and there's no way to ever put the genie back in the bottle.

    Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
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  • TorgrimTorgrim Member CommonPosts: 2,088
    Originally posted by jesad
    Originally posted by emistz

    Is it just me or has there been a consistent decline in the community feel in MMOs since about 10 years ago?

    Every time I log into pretty much any MMO I can see less and less community work and more and more individual people doing their own thing.  Basically people soloing the game, along with a thousand other people who are also soloing the game in the same server. 

    I am not really sure what benefit you get from an MMO without group play, except of course I guess if it was a single player game you couldn't brag to others about your latest piece of epeen gear.

    I remember the days when people would group just for the fun of doing things together.  These days unless there is a specific incentive to do so most people keep to themselves.

    What do you think has brought this about?  A change in game culture? A change in culture as a whole where we have become more and more antisocial as a society? Or something else?

    Wow, what a question.  You know I live to answer this kind of stuff.

    So let's see, 10 years ago, that puts us at about 2003.  A year before City of Heroes.  I'd have to say then that it's probably you, because the community in that game was about as insanely social as one could ask for.

    But let's say you weren't into the Super Hero thing, well that counts as point number 1. in our list of (5).

    1. The number of genre specific MMO's increased to a number that the community could no longer support.  This splintered off the number of socially active people, who's numbers were fewer than the socially inept from the start, to the point where they could no longer find each other.

    2. Gamer greed/mistrust or the "I gotta be the boss" syndrome.  Nothing killed the social community of the MMO more than the natural progression of the average player from follower to wanna be leader.  Game designs that supported the "guild a day" theory helped these people to form their own "green" or "tea" parties (metaphorically speaking) which were never large enough to really get anything done, but were just large enough to sap the socially active energy out of the bigger and more capable guilds.  This symptom later led to # 3.

    3.  The "army of one" theory is where all of the players who used to be in the green or tea parties have now decided that they can do it better also.  In fact, they had learned so much about how these game worked now (which again is the fault of game design) that they could do 90% of it alone.  And for that other 10% that they couldn't, they'd either sell out for a short while by joining someone else's guild, or simply quit playing.  Around this time the only socializing going on was cyber and furry LOL.

    4. Developer greed/desperation.  Game companies began to design games that, instead of teaching the player how to socialize, supported them in not socializing.  The reason for this was very simple.  If a player couldn't find a group to help them accomplish what they needed to accomplish they would just quit playing whatever game that was and go and play whatever game that they knew everyone else was playing.  I believe that this impulse was actually stronger than any genre, any depth of play, and any graphics because I have seen some pretty cheesy games (will not mention names) not only survive but flourish simply because of word of mouth advertising and ease of play.  With that kind of tone set, many other companies moved in the same direction in an attempt to meet their semi-annual, or annual operating budgets.

    5. Voice operation programs.  I know I will catch some flack about being old for this one, but the honest truth of the matter is that no one really wants to sit and listen to you be drunk, be a racists, be a republican or a democrat, be an attention whore, or whatever other annoying thing you can think of all day long right there in their ear.  Typing was way cooler, and I am honestly happy to see a lot of people return to this way of playing.  To sum up why I believe typing was one of the keys to the more social aspects MMO play I offer this.

    a. Typing makes you stop moving.  Not fighting something, jumping up to or down from something, or in general running around in circles like an idiot allows time for thought.  Thought allows time for all kinds of good stuff like tactics, teamwork, and even a little role-play.

    b. Typing allows one to carry on multiple conversations simultaneously.  At best VOIP, when it is actually being used for something to do with the game and not to explain to a bunch of 13 year old's what a donkey punch is, is usually just one guy, or a few guys taking control of a situation (for better or worse) while everyone else touches the puppet head at their command.  This doesn't require social interaction, it requires being able to hit the right color button in order to get the treat.

    c. Finally typing provides an anonymity that I really do believe is necessary in order to provide a comfortable place for a player to truly let loose.  The first moment I ever pop into someone's voice chat the very first feeling I get is that I'm going to have to be civil to this person no matter what kind of idiot or jerk they actually are.  Typing let's you let it all hang out because, yes, you are some anonymous name behind a keyboard, and no, in the overall scheme of things, you really don't matter. But for that few minutes to few days of time that you interact with that one idiot that you really hated, you provided that person, and they provided you with a whole story to tell, and having stories to tell plays a large role in the social interaction of an MMO.

    It's a big picture kind of thing really.  One where you really can't rationally focus the blame in any one direction.  Of course game companies are going to try and do the thing that keeps them making money, and of course people are going to clamor for, and run towards that which is instantly gratifying and thus more pleasing.  The problem with all of that though is that we all know that accomplishing an easy task is not as nearly as satisfying as accomplishing a hard one, and yet we still go for easy.

    The solution for this, in my opinion, was to go for the F2P model using the forced grouping model of the first games.  Instead the developers went for the "let em solo to the end" model while the pay to play model was still in effect, and now they are finding it difficult to reinforce the forced grouping model in their F2P games.

    They'll get it together eventually.  Just gotta move the pieces around.

     

    This was a really interesting read, I salute youimage

    If it's not broken, you are not innovating.

  • LoktofeitLoktofeit Member RarePosts: 14,247
    Originally posted by emistz

    That gets us back to the initial question: Why do the mainstream want to solo on a mmorpg game and just interact with players to show their epeen/do stuff they're forced to do together?

    It would seem to me that if you want a multiplayer experience it is because you want to interact with others.  

    It would seem to me that if you cared about the multiplayer experience in MMOs you wouldn't write client hacks and bot programs for them. vOv

     

    There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
    "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre

  • MuffinStumpMuffinStump Member UncommonPosts: 474

    No I understand the meaning of community both in terms of historical properties and the state of the game today.

    You said your initial question (I take that to mean the crux of your debate) was, "Why do the mainstream want to solo on a mmorpg game and just interact with players to show their epeen/do stuff they're forced to do together?"

    By saying this you marginalize the solo experience, which is rarely as 'solo' in normal gameplay as many might think, by defining the debate with 'epeen' and 'forced'. It is the same beginning as all the solo vs. grouping debates at mmorpg.com

    "It says MASSIVELY. Why play a multiplayer game solo? Why not just play an FPS or a solo RPG?" etc.

    My response was perhaps more tongue-in-cheek than it was taken. At any rate, there seems to be a community consensus here about the state of the MMO community that revolves around the increased number of players, the separation of servers for guilds, the state of the MMO market in terms of solo viability and even the expected social commentary on the state of 'people these days'.

  • emistzemistz Member Posts: 54
    Originally posted by Loktofeit
    Originally posted by emistz

    That gets us back to the initial question: Why do the mainstream want to solo on a mmorpg game and just interact with players to show their epeen/do stuff they're forced to do together?

    It would seem to me that if you want a multiplayer experience it is because you want to interact with others.  

    It would seem to me that if you cared about the multiplayer experience in MMOs you wouldn't write client hacks and bot programs for them. vOv

     

    I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, I code for fun, not to have any particular impact on the game's community.

    Besides, with the current state of affairs bots have a significantly lower impact than they would have had 10 years ago.   There's not much difference between a bot running around and not interacting with the other players and players running around not interacting with other players.

    image

  • KhebelnKhebeln Member UncommonPosts: 794
    Originally posted by emistz

    Is it just me or has there been a consistent decline in the community feel in MMOs since about 10 years ago?

    Every time I log into pretty much any MMO I can see less and less community work and more and more individual people doing their own thing.  Basically people soloing the game, along with a thousand other people who are also soloing the game in the same server. 

    I am not really sure what benefit you get from an MMO without group play, except of course I guess if it was a single player game you couldn't brag to others about your latest piece of epeen gear.

    I remember the days when people would group just for the fun of doing things together.  These days unless there is a specific incentive to do so most people keep to themselves.

    What do you think has brought this about?  A change in game culture? A change in culture as a whole where we have become more and more antisocial as a society? Or something else?

    The biggest issue is with all those shallow games being released that dont encourage any community interactions. Just look at most of the titles in the last 2 years with Gw2 on top of it. 

    Its a little bit better now that they added guild missions but still no where near the level of community interactions in the past.

    Things are being simplified and more convenient to use, w/o offsetting it with specific mechanics that would instigate player interaction. 

    image
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  • PNM_JenningsPNM_Jennings Member UncommonPosts: 1,093
    it's like playing d+d with your friends vs a random pick up group from a shop. in one, you've got a small group of people who know each, play well together, and are really passionate about what's going on (or at least humoring the dm). in the other you've got a bunch of random people who have no personal connection to what's going on, and some of who might just be a**hats. price of mainstream attraction is all. nothing to be done about it, and there's no use whinging about it (not saying you are, op, but there are many who do).
  • jesadjesad Member UncommonPosts: 882
    Originally posted by emistz
    Originally posted by jesad
    Originally posted by emistz

    Is it just me or has there been a consistent decline in the community feel in MMOs since about 10 years ago?

    Truncated....

    Wow, what a question.  You know I live to answer this kind of stuff.

    So let's see,

    Truncated...

    I don't agree with everything you wrote, but that is a hell of an elaborate and thoughtful answer. 

    Do you see this trend turning the corner any time soon as far as communities go?

    To be honest, I don't know.  Like I said, it's a big picture thing.  As others have already stated, the two things that breed social interaction are challenge and imagination.  The problem with challenge and imagination though is that they are very strong spices, and too much of either can ruin the dish. 

    I wrote out way more of this but decided to delete it.  I am focusing on trying to be succinct LOL.

    I will add this though.  Developing a good MMO community is like raising siblings, you have to be a little mean to them just so they can learn to rely on each other, on the other hand you don't want to get social services involved, and you don't want them to run away either :P

     

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  • ArzacaneArzacane Member UncommonPosts: 24
    I've noticed it but usually can circumvent it by finding a community type guild. I've had good experiences with them. They tend to go for more of the communal aspect as far as grouping as they level, helping the lowbies get some levels, all that good stuff that seems to be missing alot. Usually they can be cross gaming, meaning they play more than one MMO.
  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by emistz

     

    Not so much as a debate on the benefits of solo v. group play, but rather a discussion on why solo gameplay seems to predominate these days as opposed to group gameplay on mmorpgs which appeared to be the norm years ago.

     

    That .. i think is pretty simple.

    1) People don't want to depend on others for their fun.

    2) Solo-ing is fun enough, and groups don't add much.

    3) PUG grouping risks getting someone you don't like.

     

  • emistzemistz Member Posts: 54
    Originally posted by nariusseldon
    Originally posted by emistz

     

    Not so much as a debate on the benefits of solo v. group play, but rather a discussion on why solo gameplay seems to predominate these days as opposed to group gameplay on mmorpgs which appeared to be the norm years ago.

     

    That .. i think is pretty simple.

    1) People don't want to depend on others for their fun.

    2) Solo-ing is fun enough, and groups don't add much.

     

    That's what I find most intriguing.  Isn't the reason to join a M-Multiplayer-MO to have interact with other people?

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  • ArclanArclan Member UncommonPosts: 1,550


    Originally posted by emistz

    Originally posted by nariusseldon

    Originally posted by emistz

    Not so much as a debate on the benefits of solo v. group play, but rather a discussion on why solo gameplay seems to predominate these days as opposed to group gameplay on mmorpgs which appeared to be the norm years ago.


    That .. i think is pretty simple.

    1) People don't want to depend on others for their fun.
    2) Solo-ing is fun enough, and groups don't add much.


    That's what I find most intriguing. Isn't the reason to join a M-Multiplayer-MO to have interact with other people?



    Not everyone plays well with others.

    Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
    In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit

  • maplestonemaplestone Member UncommonPosts: 3,099
    Originally posted by emistz

    That's what I find most intriguing.  Isn't the reason to join a M-Multiplayer-MO to have interact with other people?

    If you don't know the answer to that, you could start by reading the sticky thread at the top of this forum that has 97 pages on the topic.

  • emistzemistz Member Posts: 54
    Originally posted by maplestone
    Originally posted by emistz

    That's what I find most intriguing.  Isn't the reason to join a M-Multiplayer-MO to have interact with other people?

    If you don't know the answer to that, you could start by reading the sticky thread at the top of this forum that has 97 pages on the topic.

    Good point, I think we're going off-topic here.

    Lets take it back to the original discussion:

    Why are people (or at least seem to be) less likely to interact with others in MMOs as opposed to say 10 years ago when you couldn't run past someone without having some sort of interaction.  In today's world it is as if there is an army of bots running around as opposed to live human beings.

    image

  • ArclanArclan Member UncommonPosts: 1,550

    Best way I could say it is that, by and large, the people who care don't see any MMOs worth playing atm.

    Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
    In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit

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