What grinds my gears!

Abraxus187

Whatever happened to the community in MMO's? As i run about in ESO i'm thinking to myself, Who is this guy? am i going to see this guy again? These players i care for as much as the random useless NPC's i come across.

I've played it all from The Myth of soma, Legend of Mir, Darkfall, SWG, Rift, WoW i could go on and on, What was the actual point in making this game an MMO, Don't get me wrong the game is beautiful, smooth, full of content which we all want in an MMO. This game has gone down the same route as SW:TOR, Just a single player game with co-op capabilities.

Everything is seperate, Everything is instance. The servers are just a cluser fluck of random 'players' with random names. The days on SWG when running around and i recognise everyone, In PvP i was running around afraid to die because of my status as a fabled PvP'er on the server, It's not just about the PvP though. Guilds are easily creatable, I've been randomly invited to 20 guilds since i encountered the game, Hell i could join 5 if i like. This destroys the entire community of the MMO.

 

My point is, What is the actual point of this being an online game?

Kyleran

For MMOs to be personal, we need to play on smaller servers, not Mega servers. Back in early DAOC there were roughly 2K Players online during prime time, sometimes much less.

Was much easier to get to know both friend and foe, now not really possible.

Bigger really isn't always better, at least when it comes to social interaction.

Abraxus187

Without social interaction, what is the point of it being an MMO.

 

 

delete5230

I'm enjoying myself for now, but because this is not really an mmo, it will probably short lived.

ButeoRegalis

Originally posted by Abraxus187

(...)

My point is, What is the actual point of this being an online game?

$15/month.

Viper482

Originally posted by Abraxus187

Whatever happened to the community in MMO's? As i run about in ESO i'm thinking to myself, Who is this guy? am i going to see this guy again? These players i care for as much as the random useless NPC's i come across.

I've played it all from The Myth of soma, Legend of Mir, Darkfall, SWG, Rift, WoW i could go on and on, What was the actual point in making this game an MMO, Don't get me wrong the game is beautiful, smooth, full of content which we all want in an MMO. This game has gone down the same route as SW:TOR, Just a single player game with co-op capabilities.

Everything is seperate, Everything is instance. The servers are just a cluser fluck of random 'players' with random names. The days on SWG when running around and i recognise everyone, In PvP i was running around afraid to die because of my status as a fabled PvP'er on the server, It's not just about the PvP though. Guilds are easily creatable, I've been randomly invited to 20 guilds since i encountered the game, Hell i could join 5 if i like. This destroys the entire community of the MMO.

 

My point is, What is the actual point of this being an online game?

I agree 100%. I would rather have it be single player with the option of playing with friends, make the pvp the only open multiplayer zone. Problem is how do you justify a sub for a single player game?

It is for these reasons this game is destined for f2p.

Bossalinie

Maybe you recognized everyone because your sampling size was smaller back in the days?

Panther2103

Community is just too big in popular games now a days to get a close tight knit community. Which is the point of guilds. Join a guild and talk frequently or get on their teamspeak, you will get to know them and it will be like older games.

Octagon7711

Originally posted by Abraxus187

Whatever happened to the community in MMO's? As i run about in ESO i'm thinking to myself, Who is this guy? am i going to see this guy again? These players i care for as much as the random useless NPC's i come across.

I've played it all from The Myth of soma, Legend of Mir, Darkfall, SWG, Rift, WoW i could go on and on, What was the actual point in making this game an MMO, Don't get me wrong the game is beautiful, smooth, full of content which we all want in an MMO. This game has gone down the same route as SW:TOR, Just a single player game with co-op capabilities.

Everything is seperate, Everything is instance. The servers are just a cluser fluck of random 'players' with random names. The days on SWG when running around and i recognise everyone, In PvP i was running around afraid to die because of my status as a fabled PvP'er on the server, It's not just about the PvP though. Guilds are easily creatable, I've been randomly invited to 20 guilds since i encountered the game, Hell i could join 5 if i like. This destroys the entire community of the MMO.

 

My point is, What is the actual point of this being an online game?

Yep  in SWG you got to meet people in cantinas and doctors for healing wounds, crafters who sold good stuff.  

Character names above players would be helpful and chat bubbles and less spam from gold sellers.  There guild system is strange showing account names?!?

Bloodaxes

Originally posted by Panther2103
Community is just too big in popular games now a days to get a close tight knit community. Which is the point of guilds. Join a guild and talk frequently or get on their teamspeak, you will get to know them and it will be like older games.

That's not true in all released mmorpgs tough.

In ffxiv I got plenty of encounters with same people and at endgame I also got to meet people that we grouped up together for primal fights and dungeon runs yet not in the same guild. If you are separating people as much as swtor/eso then yes it's harder to meet with the same people unless you both go in the same pace on the storyline.

Anthur

What happened ? Developers found out that they can earn much more money by creating MMOs where an actual community is not needed.

Bluefear77

I don't think it is reasonable to know a game's community on a personal level, especially when the game implemented a mega server. I wish it hadn't used a mega sever for all the reasons why you mentioned, but there are also advantages. I would suggest trying to find a guild and hopefully a community will form around your guild. But anything else is unrealistic with this game.

I love ESO and am having a blast so far, but this game is the worst example of a MMO game yet. It really is a single player game with everyone playing in the same world. There is no multiplayer functionality: no group quests, almost no group dungeons, when grouped quests objectives do not update, when speaking with a quest giver you gave to do it separately, phasing makes it difficult to group, some instances you cannot group (like Mage and fighter guild quests), and there are so many other reasons why this game is so unfriendly for group content.

I'm loving the theme park but I hope this isn't the future of MMORPG's.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Abraxus187

Without social interaction, what is the point of it being an MMO.

 

 

Except that there is social interaction. One's mileage may vary.

Just because you require one type of social interaction doesn't mean that the next person requires the same thing or in the same way.

You are trying to "judge" today's games based upon yesterday's reality.

Kyleran had the right of it.

Loke666

Originally posted by Kyleran
For MMOs to be personal, we need to play on smaller servers, not Mega servers. Back in early DAOC there were roughly 2K Players online during prime time, sometimes much less.

Was much easier to get to know both friend and foe, now not really possible.

Bigger really isn't always better, at least when it comes to social interaction.

I don't think that is the real issue here...

Players should be more encouraged to interact with others and more importantly, they need to figure out good ways so that players stand out more. 

If people of the same class are very similar (be that in crafting or adventuring) you wont really stand out so people notice you. Some games in the past have done this well, like the crafting is SWG were some crafters were almost legendary and well known be everyone on their server.

What we need is more useful customization options. It is easier said then done of course because balancing stuff like this is a nightmare, but I think something closer to the pen and paper game "Pathfinder" would make people stand out a lot more. Besides class you also add a template there (each class got about 15 or so) making the players stand out a lot more.

Nowadays in MMOs I feel that each class can more or less only be played in one way if you want to be good and that takes away some of the points of playing in a massive online game.

If there is 1000 or 25000 players on your server seems less important if all that really matters is the class and if someone can play it or not.

But that might be just me because I am a pen and paper RPGer at heart of course.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by Kyleran
For MMOs to be personal, we need to play on smaller servers, not Mega servers. Back in early DAOC there were roughly 2K Players online during prime time, sometimes much less.

Was much easier to get to know both friend and foe, now not really possible.

Bigger really isn't always better, at least when it comes to social interaction.

I don't think that is the real issue here...

Players should be more encouraged to interact with others and more importantly, they need to figure out good ways so that players stand out more. 

If people of the same class are very similar (be that in crafting or adventuring) you wont really stand out so people notice you. Some games in the past have done this well, like the crafting is SWG were some crafters were almost legendary and well known be everyone on their server.

What we need is more useful customization options. It is easier said then done of course because balancing stuff like this is a nightmare, but I think something closer to the pen and paper game "Pathfinder" would make people stand out a lot more. Besides class you also add a template there (each class got about 15 or so) making the players stand out a lot more.

Nowadays in MMOs I feel that each class can more or less only be played in one way if you want to be good and that takes away some of the points of playing in a massive online game.

If there is 1000 or 25000 players on your server seems less important if all that really matters is the class and if someone can play it or not.

But that might be just me because I am a pen and paper RPGer at heart of course.

except in, say, lineage 2, there were far less people and you could only play your class the way NC Soft designed it.

You knew your community,knew your bad guys, good guys, good crafters, cheaters, liars, those who would help you out in a pinch, great pvp'ers which guilds were going to take  a castle (and on hindemith which guilds were probably going to be ousted) and every person in between.

But again, part of this is because the "type" of people who play these games now are diluted (to use a word) by a whole new lot of players who want to play these games.

cheyane

It is the megaserver thing everyone on one server so people have nothing to identify with. I remember when I played EQ I was so proud of coming from Bertoxxulous then Seventh Hammer when our guild migrated because Bertox got so crowded. We used to have server fights on the forums  ahhhh those were the days.

Abraxus187

Another thing i have just realised is, I'm doing a public 'dungeon' and im seeing people, i won't remember these from adam next time i see them, I would have to target them and look specifically at there name. 

I know this may sound petty and not a reason to moan but it's little things like this what makes a community, Even if the servers was 2000 people i still wouldn't get a sense of the community feel. The feeling PvP'ing and your nemesis is coming at you, the adrenaline rush in battle is what get's me into these MMO's. 

The fundamental values in a community is not anywhere close, infact SW:TOR did a better job.

I'm a clan leader and have been since 99' sometimes i played MMO's without the guild and stayed guildless the entire time but still had that community feeling along the way, I shouldn't need a guild to feel like it's an MMO.

FlyByKnight

Facebook has some pretty good social features.

Dihoru

Originally posted by FlyByKnight

Facebook has some pretty good social features.

You heard it here folks: Facebook is more of an MMO than TESO.

MsPtibiscuit

My friend, ESO is a modern MMO i.e. a MMO for people who doesn't like MMO, for people who want to play solo. The levelling of ESO is kind of solo-orientated and is harder if you play in a group.

The levelling is kind of boring, but the multiplayer content once lvl 50 is good (Veteran dungeons and RvR), so don't give up !

Edit: And I don't think a MMO will ever have the levelling difficulty of a WoW vanilla, the mass crowd doesn't want to have trouble and want to be able to do everything in solo

DrunkWolf

Originally posted by Abraxus187

Whatever happened to the community in MMO's? As i run about in ESO i'm thinking to myself, Who is this guy? am i going to see this guy again? These players i care for as much as the random useless NPC's i come across.

I've played it all from The Myth of soma, Legend of Mir, Darkfall, SWG, Rift, WoW i could go on and on, What was the actual point in making this game an MMO, Don't get me wrong the game is beautiful, smooth, full of content which we all want in an MMO. This game has gone down the same route as SW:TOR, Just a single player game with co-op capabilities.

Everything is seperate, Everything is instance. The servers are just a cluser fluck of random 'players' with random names. The days on SWG when running around and i recognise everyone, In PvP i was running around afraid to die because of my status as a fabled PvP'er on the server, It's not just about the PvP though. Guilds are easily creatable, I've been randomly invited to 20 guilds since i encountered the game, Hell i could join 5 if i like. This destroys the entire community of the MMO.

 

My point is, What is the actual point of this being an online game?

Welcome to todays themepark. 

go quest hub to quest hub soloing everything and other players are just in your way.

Knotwood

Originally posted by Abraxus187

Whatever happened to the community in MMO's? As i run about in ESO i'm thinking to myself, Who is this guy? am i going to see this guy again? These players i care for as much as the random useless NPC's i come across.

Join a 500 guild store trading guild.    They love to chat with you, and they even shout for dungeons ect.

 

I love the fact we can have 5 guilds.   Imagine this...    5 trade guilds with 500 people in each of them....

 

2500  people, (the size of a server on FFXI).    All chating with each other, helping make crafted gear for each other...  and yes, running dungeons together and making strong friendships.   

 

ESO has put an entire FFXI server on your guild bar, and its all free chat,   able to talk about anything and socialize with the entire server the size of FFXI servers.    That to me is beautiful!!!!      Brings back community,  you just have to realize that's what they did.

 

If you want to get started on a community, send me an in game tell, I have my trade guild listed on the sub forum, get started today and enjoy the benefits of large communities formed around trading.

Larz89

Originally posted by Knotwood

Originally posted by Abraxus187

Whatever happened to the community in MMO's? As i run about in ESO i'm thinking to myself, Who is this guy? am i going to see this guy again? These players i care for as much as the random useless NPC's i come across.

Join a 500 guild store trading guild.    They love to chat with you, and they even shout for dungeons ect.

 

I love the fact we can have 5 guilds.   Imagine this...    5 trade guilds with 500 people in each of them....

 

2500  people, (the size of a server on FFXI).    All chating with each other, helping make crafted gear for each other...  and yes, running dungeons together and making strong friendships.   

 

ESO has put an entire FFXI server on your guild bar, and its all free chat,   able to talk about anything and socialize with the entire server the size of FFXI servers.    That to me is beautiful!!!!      Brings back community,  you just have to realize that's what they did.

 

If you want to get started on a community, send me an in game tell, I have my trade guild listed on the sub forum, get started today and enjoy the benefits of large communities formed around trading.

This

Abraxus187

Lazy developing being forced to join a big zerg clan full of nobodies instead of a nice tight knit guild and getting the feel of the rest of the server.

ohioastro

I find people to be very helpful, both in chat and in game.  Groups spontaneously form to fight larger foes.  If I have questions, people answer them.  Yes, there is juvenile chat.  But there are also very nice people.

The "good old days" also had people who spent all of their time doing things to annoy other players.  There was also the joy of spending hours "lfg"  because you hit a brick wall if you were not doing things at the same time that everyone else was.

eriksrevenge

This game would've been good if they had made one giant seamless map, with open-world pvp.  Basically a different game.