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Is WoW less social than other MMOs?

zipitzipit Member Posts: 487
in World of Warcraft

Someone once said that the social aspect of playing WoW was like being "Alone Together". This basically means that WoW differs from other online games by not having heavy social interaction and that players only use other players to further their own goals instead of making a spur-of-the-moment group and go off and have fun. Is this true? Is WoW less "social" than other MMOs out there such as early SWG or EQ I and II? Does WoW only provide a "background" of other players or is there more to the social interaction? Discuss...

Comments

  • RuthgarRuthgar Member Posts: 730
    I find raiding with 39 other idiots too social.




  • panachepanache Member UncommonPosts: 397

    I have pondered that very question for years since i quit dark ages of camelot. Daoc was a mmorpg that forced grouping onto people. This way many friendships were formed, and i could quite easily say i could get into any guild i chose to, not for being a expert crafter etc, just by being a friendly chap.

    Since Daoc i have played SWG. I found that very unsocial. With all the solo grping that prevailed in the SWG universe. Taking the time to find and make friends was hard for me...odd.

    Now i play WoW. Guilds seem to be made up of large numbers of people with no interest in who these people are....as long as they can field 40 people at any one time. How many times do your hear some person asking for a level 60 to take them through deadmines instead of finding a group and making friends that way?

    In Daoc i would spend an age grping with people with no other purpose of having a laugh with people who's company i enjoyed. In Wow i have almost given up due to too many quitting a raid grp when their set item doesn't drop from the boss they came for, spending an hour getting a ubrs set up and having to rebuild grp constantly when people quit.

    Pan

  • nomadiannomadian Member Posts: 3,490
    I wouldn't say it was social really either, I mean its a game that doesn't encourage grouping until level 60 and that irritates me. There is no world pvp, so no social aspect there. The bgs are cross-server so that reduces socialness as well. So yeah I'd say its less social than some of the older mmos, in a way it could be a good thing I guess having to group with some kinds of people in WoW.. The more 'socially-inclined' maybe more likely to group so perhaps it is a blessing.

  • NasherUKNasherUK Member UncommonPosts: 480
    With WoW you need to be in a good raiding guild/community once you get a level 60 character or you will run into a brick wall.  The best ones requiring you to apply through a website and people who are already in vouching for you.

    The side effect of this is, since people who are in communitys only raid/pvp/group etc with other people in their community (even with alts) it leaves all the newer players to deal with the retards that all the raid guilds/communitys rejected.


  • Unknown
    In a general informal sense I would say no.  But in a larger sense of guilds interacting; yes definitely.  The social interaction of corporations of a game like Eve is a millions times more rich.  This essentially doesn't exist except as races to world first or the occasional raiding alliance in WoW.  But those pale in comparison to the complex politics of a game like Eve.

    So yes and no.  It depends on what level of interaction you are talking about.  There is plenty of chatter and interaction between individuals,  in groups and alone, in WoW.  But the next step up of group to group interaction is pretty much non-existant.  A corporation alliance in Eve can be similar to its own nation in almost all respects(control and defend, territory, meaningful alliances, wars and treachery.  The whole gamut.).  A guild in WoW is just some people who get together do some stuff.
  • LostarLostar Member UncommonPosts: 891
    5 million subscribers. It's not less social...just filled with too many people you would rather not be social with.

    If you are looking for a good social community look towards Anarchy Online...otherwise look hard and long and you might be able to find that small, decent group of people on WoW that does not make your skin crawl whenever their fingers touch the keyboard.


  • VaahVaah Member UncommonPosts: 49

    Originally posted by Ruthgar
    I find raiding with 39 other idiots too social.



    Only thing I see from that is 39 f'ing lemmings.
  • tachgbtachgb Member UncommonPosts: 791
    Some of these comments about raiding with 39 idiots, which I see alot
    elsewhere also, is what you call arrogant superiority. WoW has alot of
    these, but just remember, they are players like yourself.

    Pick up groups is pretty much an all alone together situation, guilds are
    WoW's only true social aspect, naturally in any MMO. I often come across people doing the same quest as me, I either hang around to help, or have them help me, but it's never more than a hello, need help, thanks for the help and goodbye. Also, I've played over two dozen MMO's, and the social interaction is more or less the same as WoW, players are just busy grinding quests and getting to their max level, or grinding items, afterall, time is money. I rarely see people just grouping together just for fun, perhaps out of sheer boredom this could happen within guilds.

    MMO's really don't revolve around social interaction, but I wish they would, but it's like developers struggle with these ideas. SWG was the only thing I played that dabbled with social aspects, your character would get weary of battle, and you'd need a dancer or a medic to fix you up, which was a nice novelty, but wasn't explored enough as a gameplay feature.

    I'm still new to WoW, but it lacks group searching funcionality I believe, so grouping with random people and sharing same quests can be a little awkward, which is a shame. Well, you can group up together, meet at the local tavern, sit down and drink ale, and get a little drunk. ;)

    Oh, ofcourse, thinking about it, Eve Online I think has the best social interaction, you depend on others, they depend on you. And you're not just a member of the guild (corporation), a simple number in the guild info page, but you're actually a part of what keeps the guild in cycle. This also lacks in most MMO's.

    WoW is no worser than any other by my experience.


  • nomadiannomadian Member Posts: 3,490



    MMO's really don't revolve around social interaction, but I wish they would, but it's like developers struggle with these ideas. SWG was the only thing I played that dabbled with social aspects, your character would get weary of battle, and you'd need a dancer or a medic to fix you up, which was a nice novelty, but wasn't explored enough as a gameplay feature.


    This was similar to Everquest, pre Luclin there was a large amount of interdependence to the game. That made it a little more social. But I would suggest that the way EQ was group-focused made it a lot more 'social' than WoW. As evidence of this, groups were a lot more talkative in EQ and the community boards were very active compared to WoW. So I'm going to disagree, I'd definitely say WoW was worse from my experience.

    As to somethings which could make mmorpgs more social, I think I'd like to see emotes/profiles and a different system than a level-based one where anyone can group together.

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