Have the developer clearly state who their target audience os, & how much their gameworld costs to play.
That way, you have like-minded people all in the same forum, supporting their game. That way, you dont constantly have a 19yr old with no income, arguing with a 29 who wants a $400/year game..
Problem is, every mmo coming out wants to claim they are an "A" rated game.. instead of claiming they are a "C" rated game with a $150/year cost, etc.
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
Originally posted by Phelcher Have the developer clearly state who their target audience os, & how much their gameworld costs to play.
That way, you have like-minded people all in the same forum, supporting their game. That way, you dont constantly have a 19yr old with no income, arguing with a 29 who wants a $400/year game..
Problem is, every mmo coming out wants to claim they are an "A" rated game.. instead of claiming they are a "C" rated game with a $150/year cost, etc.
so what? because im 26 i cannot get along with younger people?
your so wrong there m8. I have been playing games since i was little and actually have been in a guild for older gamers twice. (i was 16 the youngest of them was i believe 42) age and audience have squat to do with community.
All these new mmo's are solo friendly, you don't need a community hence there not being one.
Originally posted by Phelcher Have the developer clearly state who their target audience os, & how much their gameworld costs to play.
That way, you have like-minded people all in the same forum, supporting their game. That way, you dont constantly have a 19yr old with no income, arguing with a 29 who wants a $400/year game..
Problem is, every mmo coming out wants to claim they are an "A" rated game.. instead of claiming they are a "C" rated game with a $150/year cost, etc.
so what? because im 26 i cannot get along with younger people?
your so wrong there m8. I have been playing games since i was little and actually have been in a guild for older gamers twice. (i was 16 the youngest of them was i believe 42) age and audience have squat to do with community.
All these new mmo's are solo friendly, you don't need a community hence there not being one.
What..?
Who said anything about "getting along^ ".... ?
It has everything to do about income level & ... level of demand.
So, if u are 26 and playing a kiddie game (@ a free-to-play cost to you). Then understand, that those forums (ie: community) will be proliferated, with "me too" kiddies, aswell..!!
Back on my point:
These developers must first & always, frame their game around a specific community... (or niche.)
Therefore, you must first have an established community purpose, before you can have a non-polarized community. The question the OP is asking is imbiquitous, it doesn't pertain to this website.
And understand, the question is a generalized one. So, for each "specific scenario" anyone will ever talk about in this thread... will include asegment of something, thus.. fracturing off and compartmentalizing a polarizing community... around a said conciousness/persistant world/, etc. Those groups and communities are all demographics.
But the easiest & tell-tale sign of spliting 12 million people into mmo communities, is money.
SO..
*A $4.99 weekend digital download + item mall community is going to draw a massively different crowd, & income levels, than other game's that cost $300/year subs. There is a massive dichotomy in income levs in the nearly 14 millions Americans who play online games, let alone MMORPGs. And it is asinine to think, these F2P peeps are not trying out other free games.
These Peeps are not supplanted in just one game, but mearly passing threw and "checking it out.. for a few months", etc.. They might even find a new group of hommies and drops some cashop buks to impress teh homeboiz, etc... at $6.75..etc.. what do they care... The game is FREE... (ie: in their mind... no obligations) So psycologically the $4.99 they've spent (@ a moment of insecurity) for their online avatar/ego is justified...
*Polarized to that..^ would be quite a different demographic & community.. than someone whom is perhaps considering/waivering over what is the better over-all deal..? the $300 / year vs $500 / 2 years..?
Those people are not looking to trying other games, or are concerned about cash shops, or buying their avitar something.
All those people want is a Forest.. seeing they are simply after an untold adventure..
Money will breakdown each game into it's communities. Once all there in their respected sub-communities will be breeding grounds for enlightening their game.
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
The main policing is done by players, ostracisizing antisocial people.
Exactly the people to whom control should be denied at any cost.
"We have to keep [those people] out of our Country Club, Thurston."
It's odd that veto power (i.e. exclusion) is the most common stated "Community" goal, rather than inclusion. Yet, building a good community could not begin from a worse starting position, (right Adolf? "Recht!")
Yet, I fell prey to the same temptation earlier this evening, after another tedious encounter lead me to briefly conclude that forum readers must be just plain despicable human beings. Mea Culpa, at times forums overwhelm me with cynicism.
And exactly why "ostracise" power needs to be kept out of the hands of the RPPolice, or the MMOCorrectness Patrol, or anybody else who wants it.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Originally posted by Phelcher Have the developer clearly state who their target audience os, & how much their gameworld costs to play.
That way, you have like-minded people all in the same forum, supporting their game. That way, you dont constantly have a 19yr old with no income, arguing with a 29 who wants a $400/year game..
Problem is, every mmo coming out wants to claim they are an "A" rated game.. instead of claiming they are a "C" rated game with a $150/year cost, etc.
so what? because im 26 i cannot get along with younger people?
your so wrong there m8. I have been playing games since i was little and actually have been in a guild for older gamers twice. (i was 16 the youngest of them was i believe 42) age and audience have squat to do with community.
All these new mmo's are solo friendly, you don't need a community hence there not being one.
What..?
Who said anything about "getting along^ ".... ?
It has everything to do about income level & ... level of demand.
So, if u are 26 and playing a kiddie game (@ a free-to-play cost to you). Then understand, that those forums (ie: community) will be proliferated, with "me too" kiddies, aswell..!!
Back on my point:
These developers must first & always, frame their game around a specific community... (or niche.)
Therefore, you must first have an established community purpose, before you can have a non-polarized community. The question the OP is asking is imbiquitous, it doesn't pertain to this website.
And understand, the question is a generalized one. So, for each "specific scenario" anyone will ever talk about in this thread... will include asegment of something, thus.. fracturing off and compartmentalizing a polarizing community... around a said conciousness/persistant world/, etc. Those groups and communities are all demographics.
But the easiest & tell-tale sign of spliting 12 million people into mmo communities, is money.
SO..
*A $4.99 weekend digital download + item mall community is going to draw a massively different crowd, & income levels, than other game's that cost $300/year subs. There is a massive dichotomy in income levs in the nearly 14 millions Americans who play online games, let alone MMORPGs. And it is asinine to think, these F2P peeps are not trying out other free games.
These Peeps are not supplanted in just one game, but mearly passing threw and "checking it out.. for a few months", etc.. They might even find a new group of hommies and drops some cashop buks to impress teh homeboiz, etc... at $6.75..etc.. what do they care... The game is FREE... (ie: in their mind... no obligations) So psycologically the $4.99 they've spent (@ a moment of insecurity) for their online avatar/ego is justified...
*Polarized to that..^ would be quite a different demographic & community.. than someone whom is perhaps considering/waivering over what is the better over-all deal..? the $300 / year vs $500 / 2 years..?
Those people are not looking to trying other games, or are concerned about cash shops, or buying their avitar something.
All those people want is a Forest.. seeing they are simply after an untold adventure..
Money will breakdown each game into it's communities. Once all there in their respected sub-communities will be breeding grounds for enlightening their game.
WoW i could not agree less. income level..? please..
So oke i decide to spend 300 euro's a year on a online game. know what that brings me? a community of asshole bussinessmen.
if i go play a F2P game all sort of people are there and a majority off asshole teenagers.
conclusion People are just asshole's, certainly when we don't need eachother. A community is something wich is build by having a share goal. Lets say there would be a survival MMO apocolypse thingie think walking dead. you will meet people and community's will be formed because you need eachother you depend on eachother because you cannot do it alone.
Of course there will always be some rotten apples but those people have names. Those people will eventually be shunned by the others and will get nowhere in the game.
Our MMo's of today need no community at all because you can qeue up for evrything you can solo evrything you don't need those other people hence people will pretty much communicate in a good way with their guild only and communication outside of it will happen rarely. Exept for al the anal jokes on general chat.
i honestly do not get what income has to do with general behaviour. I'm not sure where you point is comming from...
Originally posted by MMOExposed What can developers do to improve the community?
they can only hope.....
community trolls will invade every single mmo as long as they can publicly communicate and interact with everyone.
Whatever the devs could do to reduce trolls can do more harm than good to the social aspect of gaming in my opinion, unless everyone agrees that both pvp and chatbox should not exist and everything pve related is shared so nobody steals stuff, etc. And that doesnt sound fun.....(only the pve sharing sounds fun, nothing else)
I think the bigger problem is people who are too uptight. If everyone just live and let live, then there wouldnt be so much conflict. Some people just need to chillax.
I think all depends on age of players and also of show-off matter. If you don't need to prove "how great you are", you don't need to spam chat about your wins or even call others "noobs" and "losers".
WoW community was pretty nice to me all long my growing life in 2 realms (may be I had chance 2x), it became more rude at hard core end, as I guess, I was "too fresh" player and ignored some hard core features. Here instate to teach me, most (not all) of my game mate, started to insult me. For WoW only: as game is old and keep having new and lost in content, players, may be tutorial is needed for like anything outside casual (how to run dungeons, how to raid etc), seems they added boss descriptions and tactics, but I suggests some sort of NPC only simulation, so new player can be trained not on silly dummy but with real situation.
Best community I found in LotRO, Atlantica, GW1 (long ago) and Forsaken World, bit less, but still helpful, was early RoM community.
Guys never tried to show-off but offered real help to newbs or even random game-mates. Good guild can be a great help, all depends if elite players are busy with end game content or bored enough to help newbs. =D
in generally you need to be ready to find negative minds in any virtual space, so be sure to put them to ignore list. Alone they will loose interest and "die".
try before buy, even if it's a game to avoid bad surprises. Worst surprises for me: Aion, GW2
No more questing to level up as it promotes solo play. Make the game revolve around grouping/raiding/other players in general.
If the game requires you to interact and work with other players, the players who give the community a bad name will not make it anywhere as their lack of skill and lack of concern for players will cause them to be unable to succeed in the game, therefore preventing them from enjoying content unless they start over and create a character and give themselves a good reputation.
Eliminate the ability to play all roles. No single class should be able to be the best tank, the best healer nor the best dps by simply switching roles.
Classes need to be well defined with difference revolving around choice of weapons/gear or abilities they use. You should not have for example a paladin in WoW that can be a holy paladin that can heal and also do fairly good dps. Retribution and deal great dps. Or switch to whatever the tank role is called and be a great tank. Players need to know this players is a tank, this is a healer, this is dps, this is CC. Crowd control should not be given to all players. Classes can have multiple roles, but having multiple roles should prevent them from being the best at one specific role.
I disagree with you on one major point.
"No more questing to level up as it promotes solo play. Make the game revolve around grouping/raiding/other players in general. "
Grouping and raiding encourage the formation of 'cliques' this is not conducive to forming a community. Grouping and Raiding can also inhibit community formation if there is a LFG tool particularly a cross server LFG tool as these encourage anonymity.
"Other players in general" works for me though.
I guess it depends. I see it from a non-quest to level up stand point... knowing that requiring a group builds a stronger more mature community.
When I played EQ, in the days where I was a nobody, I would join groups... you find people who work well together you try to group with them often. Just knowing the right people from having a good experience with them in a group can lead to you being able to raid higher end.
When I was top of the line, me and a few friends would run old raids to help new players have a decent set of gear allowing them to level more easily and do tougher content. In doing this many of these players that were many expansions behind... never raided before besides these open raids, were easily able to pick up with guilds such as the one I was in or other high end guilds just because of this.
I know for me I ran into somebody I ended up playing the game with until we quit, who was higher end than me. He helped me, and eventually we were #1 stat wise for our class on server. I also met people I liked and took them under my wing getting them in raids and guilds they otherwise would not be able to have got in alone.
Raiding does not form cliques it just separates players for a period of time.
The problem with lack of or poor community in MMO games is a fundamental design flaw. Darkfall is the ultimate example of this. If there was ever a game that had a worse cesspool of degenerate, angry, depressed rage-filled people, I would be surprised. Not all Darkfall players are like this, but this game has the highest concentration of angry players that I have seen.The kind of game you build dictates the kinds of people you are going to attract into the community. If your game is a full loot open world PvP only, where the main focus is just on killing and taking things from people, then your game will attract those kinds of people and repel the kinds of people who are more likely to be friendly, cooperative and interested in community. By the way, that's perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with wanting to design a game like Darkfall and attracting those people to it. However, if you were wondering why that community is generally abrasive, then look no further than the game's design.Your average themepark these days caters to casual players who just want to run the treadmill of leveling and get to end game in the fastest time possible. Most of these players look at community and social features as an obstacle to accomplishing their goal. Most of them don't understand why anyone would *want* to craft, or hold a social event, or even explore the map. They don't care about or understand anyone who might want to run a virtual shop, entertain other players, play a scientist, get involved in politics, or anything else that doesn't focus on PvE / PvP combat for the sake of leveling. Those are the types of people today's themeparks attract, generally speaking. And that's ok too if you find this fun.Even though most sandboxes in recent years have been low-budget indie games that have largely failed, all you have to do is spend a little time in one to see how massively different the community in these games is. Building a community is often the first thing sandbox players begin to do upon joining the game. From the time they log in, they are starting to make relationships with other players, finding a place to make a home, figuring out what they can do to help build their guild camp or town, etc. They are often much more focused on cooperation with others than their own goals.As crappy and problematic as Xsyon was back when I tried it, as soon as I started playing it I started getting some of that old Star Wars Galaxies vibe back. People were gathering, helping each other, trading, going off on adventures, making plans for long term goals and player driven gameplay. Automatically you see many more creative players, politicians, ambitious people who want to build businesses, social players, explorers, support players and all kinds of different of people. This creates a completely different game and a different community than you will ever see in a themepark game no matter how hard you try to make it different. The community is a reflection of the types of people your game attracts.The short answer, in my opinion, is that you can't fix the community in most of these games by just setting up more rules. You change the community by *including* more types of MMO players whether you enjoy their style of gameplay or not.
This guy hits the nail on the head. If the game encourages debauchery, then thats what the community is going to embrace.
The problem with lack of or poor community in MMO games is a fundamental design flaw. Darkfall is the ultimate example of this. If there was ever a game that had a worse cesspool of degenerate, angry, depressed rage-filled people, I would be surprised. Not all Darkfall players are like this, but this game has the highest concentration of angry players that I have seen.
The kind of game you build dictates the kinds of people you are going to attract into the community. If your game is a full loot open world PvP only, where the main focus is just on killing and taking things from people, then your game will attract those kinds of people and repel the kinds of people who are more likely to be friendly, cooperative and interested in community. By the way, that's perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with wanting to design a game like Darkfall and attracting those people to it. However, if you were wondering why that community is generally abrasive, then look no further than the game's design.
Your average themepark these days caters to casual players who just want to run the treadmill of leveling and get to end game in the fastest time possible. Most of these players look at community and social features as an obstacle to accomplishing their goal. Most of them don't understand why anyone would *want* to craft, or hold a social event, or even explore the map. They don't care about or understand anyone who might want to run a virtual shop, entertain other players, play a scientist, get involved in politics, or anything else that doesn't focus on PvE / PvP combat for the sake of leveling. Those are the types of people today's themeparks attract, generally speaking. And that's ok too if you find this fun.
Even though most sandboxes in recent years have been low-budget indie games that have largely failed, all you have to do is spend a little time in one to see how massively different the community in these games is. Building a community is often the first thing sandbox players begin to do upon joining the game. From the time they log in, they are starting to make relationships with other players, finding a place to make a home, figuring out what they can do to help build their guild camp or town, etc. They are often much more focused on cooperation with others than their own goals.
As crappy and problematic as Xsyon was back when I tried it, as soon as I started playing it I started getting some of that old Star Wars Galaxies vibe back. People were gathering, helping each other, trading, going off on adventures, making plans for long term goals and player driven gameplay. Automatically you see many more creative players, politicians, ambitious people who want to build businesses, social players, explorers, support players and all kinds of different of people. This creates a completely different game and a different community than you will ever see in a themepark game no matter how hard you try to make it different. The community is a reflection of the types of people your game attracts.
The short answer, in my opinion, is that you can't fix the community in most of these games by just setting up more rules. You change the community by *including* more types of MMO players whether you enjoy their style of gameplay or not.
This guy hits the nail on the head. If the game encourages debauchery, then thats what the community is going to embrace.
I think the debauchery part can be deleted. He said that he has played in a lot of nice communities, would like to be part of one tbh.
Reliance on others can certainly help the jerk factor but for it to work there would need to be detriment soloing. Not sure that's the best route.
In the end the company can't be afraid to lose short money banning jerks. The problem there is where you draw the line. General chat nonsense, unless directed at a player, would have to have clear guidelines IMO. I hate the kiddish chat as well but it can equate to a free speech deal.
As far as private chats it again comes down to the willingness to put the smack down. Honestly I have only come across one jerk in the few months I've been back playing WoW. I think LoL still take the crown for jerkiness. Unless of course their 30 or so psych analysis unit has made progresses. Hopefully so.
Originally posted by birdycephon Originally posted by MindTrigger The problem with lack of or poor community in MMO games is a fundamental design flaw. Darkfall is the ultimate example of this. If there was ever a game that had a worse cesspool of degenerate, angry, depressed rage-filled people, I would be surprised. Not all Darkfall players are like this, but this game has the highest concentration of angry players that I have seen.The kind of game you build dictates the kinds of people you are going to attract into the community. If your game is a full loot open world PvP only, where the main focus is just on killing and taking things from people, then your game will attract those kinds of people and repel the kinds of people who are more likely to be friendly, cooperative and interested in community. By the way, that's perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with wanting to design a game like Darkfall and attracting those people to it. However, if you were wondering why that community is generally abrasive, then look no further than the game's design.Your average themepark these days caters to casual players who just want to run the treadmill of leveling and get to end game in the fastest time possible. Most of these players look at community and social features as an obstacle to accomplishing their goal. Most of them don't understand why anyone would *want* to craft, or hold a social event, or even explore the map. They don't care about or understand anyone who might want to run a virtual shop, entertain other players, play a scientist, get involved in politics, or anything else that doesn't focus on PvE / PvP combat for the sake of leveling. Those are the types of people today's themeparks attract, generally speaking. And that's ok too if you find this fun.Even though most sandboxes in recent years have been low-budget indie games that have largely failed, all you have to do is spend a little time in one to see how massively different the community in these games is. Building a community is often the first thing sandbox players begin to do upon joining the game. From the time they log in, they are starting to make relationships with other players, finding a place to make a home, figuring out what they can do to help build their guild camp or town, etc. They are often much more focused on cooperation with others than their own goals.As crappy and problematic as Xsyon was back when I tried it, as soon as I started playing it I started getting some of that old Star Wars Galaxies vibe back. People were gathering, helping each other, trading, going off on adventures, making plans for long term goals and player driven gameplay. Automatically you see many more creative players, politicians, ambitious people who want to build businesses, social players, explorers, support players and all kinds of different of people. This creates a completely different game and a different community than you will ever see in a themepark game no matter how hard you try to make it different. The community is a reflection of the types of people your game attracts.The short answer, in my opinion, is that you can't fix the community in most of these games by just setting up more rules. You change the community by *including* more types of MMO players whether you enjoy their style of gameplay or not.
This guy hits the nail on the head. If the game encourages debauchery, then thats what the community is going to embrace.
I think the debauchery part can be deleted. He said that he has played in a lot of nice communities, would like to be part of one tbh.
Most of the suggestions for improving community in this thread would create games I wouldn't be interested in playing. It's hard not to take that a little personally.
Originally posted by maplestone Most of the suggestions for improving community in this thread would create games I wouldn't be interested in playing. It's hard not to take that a little personally.
haha , I think a lot of people are pve orientated, if you like pvp that is not bad or wrong, just enjoy it.
Look at FFXI and some of the older games that are known for their really great communities. Analyze them. Don't casualize the game. Makeing it so accessible fosters the troll/douche behavior for some reason.
"In the immediate future, we have this one, and then weve got another one that is actually going to be so were going to have, what we want to do, is in January, what were targeting to do, this may or may not happen, so you cant hold me to it. But what were targeting to do, is have a fun anniversary to the Ilum shenanigans that happened. An alien race might invade, and they might crash into Ilum and there might be some new activities that happen on the planet." ~Gabe Amatangelo
The problem with most MMO's is that you can play every aspect of the game without ever having to be sociable.
Take the most popular mmo to date as an example (WoW). Want a group... click a button and wait.
want to raid, click a button.
want a five man click a button.
want a guild invite... click a damn button (probably not the best guilds wouldn't require some sort of previous interaction but it happens.)
want to play in a battleground/pvp hit a button
Almost every bit of group content in the game is taken care of for you in an automated fashion, which means you need no social skills and you don't have to talk.
This conveience isn't a horrible thing but it does enable a player to be a complete dick and still be able to play the game to nearly its full potential.
Want a good community, make reputation matter and im not talking about NPCS. Good communitys self regulate because there is a reason to do so. Grouping should require communication and some amount of socialization and outreaching in a non automated way. The more popular games like WoW become the more other games emulate them and some elements of that game are killing the ability to have a significant and important community. When the community isn't important you can troll, bash, and grief with little to no consequences.
What comes to mind instantly? Stop with the gated content. Seriously, we've seen every game out there now do the whole "we do have 4-5-6 mans and you run these dungeons to see lore and you get gear from them bla bla bla" even with the games that weren't originally supposed to be about dungeons they suddenly turned into that. (cough GW2)
When will these people realize that:
a) they aren't going to get the numbers WoW has by catering to this type of player
b) it's well known that these types of players won't stay with a game long enough for any meaningful profits so why do it at all
c) this type of player, specifically the dungeoneers/raiders are only interested in 1 thing and that's to burn thru your content as fast as they can so stop attracting them.
d) the players who demand a LFG tool, gear check, dps meters are usually the first ones to troll, gank, pk, and have the flea's equivalent of and attention span and usually are the people who cause the biggest problems in the community or are reported as being the worst of the worst when new players are trying to get help usually in chat channels.
There's little doubt that the death of the community started once players could do everything solo (cough WoW)...... Make your game where players have to depend on other players for things and you will ahve a better community, but that won't happen until these companies quit copying WoW.
Comments
That way, you have like-minded people all in the same forum, supporting their game. That way, you dont constantly have a 19yr old with no income, arguing with a 29 who wants a $400/year game..
Problem is, every mmo coming out wants to claim they are an "A" rated game.. instead of claiming they are a "C" rated game with a $150/year cost, etc.
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
-Nariusseldon
so what? because im 26 i cannot get along with younger people?
your so wrong there m8. I have been playing games since i was little and actually have been in a guild for older gamers twice. (i was 16 the youngest of them was i believe 42) age and audience have squat to do with community.
All these new mmo's are solo friendly, you don't need a community hence there not being one.
mmos used to be a lot smaller, it's much harder to police these days.
The main policing is done by players, ostracisizing antisocial people.
Alas many mmos these days don't have the power in the player's hands.
<Welcome to my world>
If you look like a duck and sound like a duck you can expect to get shot like a duck.
BTW I can still hear the sound of quacking.
1. Make it group dependant
2. Make it appeal to a mature community.
What..?
Who said anything about "getting along^ ".... ?
It has everything to do about income level & ... level of demand.
So, if u are 26 and playing a kiddie game (@ a free-to-play cost to you). Then understand, that those forums (ie: community) will be proliferated, with "me too" kiddies, aswell..!!
Back on my point:
These developers must first & always, frame their game around a specific community... (or niche.)
Therefore, you must first have an established community purpose, before you can have a non-polarized community. The question the OP is asking is imbiquitous, it doesn't pertain to this website.
And understand, the question is a generalized one. So, for each "specific scenario" anyone will ever talk about in this thread... will include a segment of something, thus.. fracturing off and compartmentalizing a polarizing community... around a said conciousness/persistant world/, etc. Those groups and communities are all demographics.
But the easiest & tell-tale sign of spliting 12 million people into mmo communities, is money.
SO..
*A $4.99 weekend digital download + item mall community is going to draw a massively different crowd, & income levels, than other game's that cost $300/year subs. There is a massive dichotomy in income levs in the nearly 14 millions Americans who play online games, let alone MMORPGs. And it is asinine to think, these F2P peeps are not trying out other free games.
These Peeps are not supplanted in just one game, but mearly passing threw and "checking it out.. for a few months", etc.. They might even find a new group of hommies and drops some cashop buks to impress teh homeboiz, etc... at $6.75..etc.. what do they care... The game is FREE... (ie: in their mind... no obligations) So psycologically the $4.99 they've spent (@ a moment of insecurity) for their online avatar/ego is justified...
*Polarized to that..^ would be quite a different demographic & community.. than someone whom is perhaps considering/waivering over what is the better over-all deal..? the $300 / year vs $500 / 2 years..?
Those people are not looking to trying other games, or are concerned about cash shops, or buying their avitar something.
All those people want is a Forest.. seeing they are simply after an untold adventure..
Money will breakdown each game into it's communities. Once all there in their respected sub-communities will be breeding grounds for enlightening their game.
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
-Nariusseldon
Exactly the people to whom control should be denied at any cost.
"We have to keep [those people] out of our Country Club, Thurston."
It's odd that veto power (i.e. exclusion) is the most common stated "Community" goal, rather than inclusion. Yet, building a good community could not begin from a worse starting position, (right Adolf? "Recht!")
Yet, I fell prey to the same temptation earlier this evening, after another tedious encounter lead me to briefly conclude that forum readers must be just plain despicable human beings. Mea Culpa, at times forums overwhelm me with cynicism.
And exactly why "ostracise" power needs to be kept out of the hands of the RPPolice, or the MMOCorrectness Patrol, or anybody else who wants it.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
WoW i could not agree less. income level..? please..
So oke i decide to spend 300 euro's a year on a online game. know what that brings me? a community of asshole bussinessmen.
if i go play a F2P game all sort of people are there and a majority off asshole teenagers.
conclusion People are just asshole's, certainly when we don't need eachother. A community is something wich is build by having a share goal. Lets say there would be a survival MMO apocolypse thingie think walking dead. you will meet people and community's will be formed because you need eachother you depend on eachother because you cannot do it alone.
Of course there will always be some rotten apples but those people have names. Those people will eventually be shunned by the others and will get nowhere in the game.
Our MMo's of today need no community at all because you can qeue up for evrything you can solo evrything you don't need those other people hence people will pretty much communicate in a good way with their guild only and communication outside of it will happen rarely. Exept for al the anal jokes on general chat.
i honestly do not get what income has to do with general behaviour. I'm not sure where you point is comming from...
they can only hope.....
community trolls will invade every single mmo as long as they can publicly communicate and interact with everyone.
Whatever the devs could do to reduce trolls can do more harm than good to the social aspect of gaming in my opinion, unless everyone agrees that both pvp and chatbox should not exist and everything pve related is shared so nobody steals stuff, etc. And that doesnt sound fun.....(only the pve sharing sounds fun, nothing else)
how will they know the maturity level of the people? ive seen a lot of old dudes that are beyond immature.
Some people just need to chillax.
I think all depends on age of players and also of show-off matter.
If you don't need to prove "how great you are", you don't need to spam chat about your wins or even call others "noobs" and "losers".
WoW community was pretty nice to me all long my growing life in 2 realms (may be I had chance 2x), it became more rude at hard core end, as I guess, I was "too fresh" player and ignored some hard core features. Here instate to teach me, most (not all) of my game mate, started to insult me.
For WoW only: as game is old and keep having new and lost in content, players, may be tutorial is needed for like anything outside casual (how to run dungeons, how to raid etc), seems they added boss descriptions and tactics, but I suggests some sort of NPC only simulation, so new player can be trained not on silly dummy but with real situation.
Best community I found in LotRO, Atlantica, GW1 (long ago) and Forsaken World, bit less, but still helpful, was early RoM community.
Guys never tried to show-off but offered real help to newbs or even random game-mates. Good guild can be a great help, all depends if elite players are busy with end game content or bored enough to help newbs. =D
in generally you need to be ready to find negative minds in any virtual space, so be sure to put them to ignore list. Alone they will loose interest and "die".
try before buy, even if it's a game to avoid bad surprises.
Worst surprises for me: Aion, GW2
I guess it depends. I see it from a non-quest to level up stand point... knowing that requiring a group builds a stronger more mature community.
When I played EQ, in the days where I was a nobody, I would join groups... you find people who work well together you try to group with them often. Just knowing the right people from having a good experience with them in a group can lead to you being able to raid higher end.
When I was top of the line, me and a few friends would run old raids to help new players have a decent set of gear allowing them to level more easily and do tougher content. In doing this many of these players that were many expansions behind... never raided before besides these open raids, were easily able to pick up with guilds such as the one I was in or other high end guilds just because of this.
I know for me I ran into somebody I ended up playing the game with until we quit, who was higher end than me. He helped me, and eventually we were #1 stat wise for our class on server. I also met people I liked and took them under my wing getting them in raids and guilds they otherwise would not be able to have got in alone.
Raiding does not form cliques it just separates players for a period of time.
This guy hits the nail on the head. If the game encourages debauchery, then thats what the community is going to embrace.
I think the debauchery part can be deleted. He said that he has played in a lot of nice communities, would like to be part of one tbh.
In the end the company can't be afraid to lose short money banning jerks. The problem there is where you draw the line. General chat nonsense, unless directed at a player, would have to have clear guidelines IMO. I hate the kiddish chat as well but it can equate to a free speech deal.
As far as private chats it again comes down to the willingness to put the smack down. Honestly I have only come across one jerk in the few months I've been back playing WoW. I think LoL still take the crown for jerkiness. Unless of course their 30 or so psych analysis unit has made progresses. Hopefully so.
This guy hits the nail on the head. If the game encourages debauchery, then thats what the community is going to embrace.
I think the debauchery part can be deleted. He said that he has played in a lot of nice communities, would like to be part of one tbh.
Of course, I'm just giving an example.
TERA seems to have an ok community at the moment. Let's analyze it to death! In no particular order:
1. it has tons of group play through BAM's,
2. has the trinity
3. has a rigid questing lvling system
4. has very cliche classes.
5. It also has a very korean look to it.
6. It has rabbit girls!
7. Extremely fast paced and semi unique battle system (only semi unique because other games have had it before...)
8. graphics are so l333tsauce
9. Rabbit girls!
10. Boobies!!
Maybe one or two of the above is the reason, i dont know.
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
haha , I think a lot of people are pve orientated, if you like pvp that is not bad or wrong, just enjoy it.
Oh I don't know. Stop designing MMORPGs as single player games with a chatroom might be a step in the right direction though.
If you dont do stupid things while youre young, youll have nothing to smile about when youre old.
"In the immediate future, we have this one, and then weve got another one that is actually going to be so were going to have, what we want to do, is in January, what were targeting to do, this may or may not happen, so you cant hold me to it. But what were targeting to do, is have a fun anniversary to the Ilum shenanigans that happened. An alien race might invade, and they might crash into Ilum and there might be some new activities that happen on the planet." ~Gabe Amatangelo
Make player interaction actually matter.
The problem with most MMO's is that you can play every aspect of the game without ever having to be sociable.
Take the most popular mmo to date as an example (WoW). Want a group... click a button and wait.
want to raid, click a button.
want a five man click a button.
want a guild invite... click a damn button (probably not the best guilds wouldn't require some sort of previous interaction but it happens.)
want to play in a battleground/pvp hit a button
Almost every bit of group content in the game is taken care of for you in an automated fashion, which means you need no social skills and you don't have to talk.
This conveience isn't a horrible thing but it does enable a player to be a complete dick and still be able to play the game to nearly its full potential.
Want a good community, make reputation matter and im not talking about NPCS. Good communitys self regulate because there is a reason to do so. Grouping should require communication and some amount of socialization and outreaching in a non automated way. The more popular games like WoW become the more other games emulate them and some elements of that game are killing the ability to have a significant and important community. When the community isn't important you can troll, bash, and grief with little to no consequences.
What comes to mind instantly? Stop with the gated content. Seriously, we've seen every game out there now do the whole "we do have 4-5-6 mans and you run these dungeons to see lore and you get gear from them bla bla bla" even with the games that weren't originally supposed to be about dungeons they suddenly turned into that. (cough GW2)
When will these people realize that:
a) they aren't going to get the numbers WoW has by catering to this type of player
b) it's well known that these types of players won't stay with a game long enough for any meaningful profits so why do it at all
c) this type of player, specifically the dungeoneers/raiders are only interested in 1 thing and that's to burn thru your content as fast as they can so stop attracting them.
d) the players who demand a LFG tool, gear check, dps meters are usually the first ones to troll, gank, pk, and have the flea's equivalent of and attention span and usually are the people who cause the biggest problems in the community or are reported as being the worst of the worst when new players are trying to get help usually in chat channels.
I think that about covers it.