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Whats needed to bring back community
delete5230
Member EpicPosts: 7,081
1) Much LARGER Zones that cover a wider range of levels.
When you first enter a zone, you should be able to take ALL the quest. That way when you see someone doing something you can play with them ( no two quest hubs ).
2) Slow leveling.
More people in your level range to make friends with. Gaining levels every hour causes friends to out level each other. This would greatly help Guilds to play together too.
3) Do away with dynamic events.
This is like poison to mmos....No one talks !
4) Make the game harder with some easy content for when you feel like soloing.
5) No Looking for Dungeon or cross realm finders.
Yes, encourage players to use social panels, give a good tutorial about this subject. and developer focuse on making it work.
6) No story lines and videos.
Were talking about mmos not single player games, if you like 10 min videos then play off line games.
7) Seamless worlds.
This helps.
As it stands, every mmo for the past 5 years are made for no community....yet they tell you to play togeather. well that's nice when developers are all sitting next to each other in the SAME ROOM !....THEY HAVE THERE HEAD UP THERE BUTT 
Comments
I'm with you OP.. I know this topic keeps getting rehashed, but hopefully one day a team of devs will look into putting more open world role playing back into the genre, then our current arcade whack a mole linear storypark (half themepark, half storyline).. lol Everything seems to focus on soloing, with little content for group content outside of "instancing" which I consider a cancer to MMORPG..
The only thing I would like to see kept tho, are good well designed zone events (dynamic events if you want to call them).. I like the idea of invasions to a degree similar to Rift.. or some escort DE's similar to GW2.. However, I want a bulk of the content to be open world interaction with both static and roaming mobs.. I miss the days that "tracking" actually meant something.. I also miss meaningful static camps tailored for groups..
And for the sake of all that is holy.. Get rid of all "story" features.. I have no issue with lore, but reliving someones pre-written story is just wrong.. But TY for the good post..
I agree. Even in SWToR there's plenty of socializing going on and generally a good community.
From my experience of late.. I prefer the way GW2 does it.. If you are level 80 and poof down to a level 30 location to play with a friends toon.. BOOM.. > auto level nerf = everyone is equal now.. Problem solved..
You forgot:
0) - People who actually want any of that listed.
Games are designed to fit the players, not the other way round.
And as desperately as the people on this board would like to spin it as if the players are dumb or otherwise have "inferior" opinions, the truth of the matter is the games are designed the way they are for sensible reasons related to game design that completely escapes the minds of those that do not actually know anything about game design but think they do.
And as the result, we get threads like this.
The developers didn't get rid of community... the players did.
And unless you live under a rock, you will realize that people in general are less social as a whole. Do you know everyone on your street? Do you actually converse with your neighbors? Do you talk with your co-workers other than to conduct business? Chat with the people who work at the stores you shop in? Have real tangible friends and not just a list of names on some friends list?
If you don't care to interact with the people who are around you in real life... why would you care to do so online?
Community is dead because the players don't care to have one...
Just think about it... people clamor about having player housing because they want to insulate themselves from the rest of the world and other players. They like the idea of isolation, in real life and in their virtual one. Until the players decide they want to interact with others, no amount of game design is going to change that.
Lack of so-called "community" is not the fault of the game, it's the fault of the players.
Players who want to engage in social activities in an MMO will do so regardless of the game design. Social activity and interaction is not a game feature, it's a human characteristic. Some need it more than others. Making it "easier to do" in a game will not persuade those who have no interest in indulging in it.
Having a community within a specific MMO also has implications of persistence. Can you be "an active member of the community" if you're only playing the game for 4 weeks and then going somewhere else for a few months ? The average MMO'er doesn't stick to one game for years nowadays.
The concept of "community" has moved out of individual games into the large multi-game clans/groups/societies that exist independantly of any single game.
I lolled at the no story line or videos suggestion.
If you really want no roleplaying, then why play an rpg. Go play CoD multiplayer, that has no storyline or videos.
Please not this fail train of thought again...
People are more social than ever. What has changed tho is How they communicate.
All the communication is way faster and broader due technological advancement. You get phones, twitters, skypes, e-shops, emails, w/e. You socialize with way more people every day than people 100 years ago could ever imagine.
Talking to someone in person is not less socializing than talking via phone, email, chat or running a dungeon in a video game.
You are looking at contemporary times with a prism of past.
For as long as mmorpg's cater to single player content as the major form of its construct. A good community will no longer exist. The almost nostalgic great communities of the past. Only group oriented content can bring back those "Great Communities".
Why we have online gaming communities like http://nightsongentertainment.com/
These communities cover a large variety of games and are more closed. From general communty to online gaming communities. The difference.
QFT. This was the answer in my head when I read the OP's question. As much as I like that people can play at their own pace, if people don't have to work with others to get everything they need, why would they? In respect to people who just don't like to work with others I think that play should be available, just not with the same rewards. The best rewards in an MMO should come from working with others. That or if solo it should take much longer to obtain.
Totally different kind of communication... and you know it. Texting et al is impersonal... it says I'd like to talk to you but only if I don't have to actually do so in person. It's a mirror on why communities in games have gone the way of the do-do. People just don't care to make the effort to socialize unless it's automated in some form for them.
Imagine if every time you picked up the phone to call someone you actually went to their place instead? Instead of leaving some comment on some web board, you actually said it to their face in person? Used to be that person standing next to you was far more important than the person calling you on the phone... because they made the effort to be there and the person on the phone didn't.
And yes, contemporary times is what killed communities... technology may have brought people together, but it did so in a very anti-social way. Given a choice, I'd rather sit around a table with friends than have all my friends only exist when it is convenient for them.
Yeah, modern socialising is so much more efficient.
I have 100's of friends nowadays, whereas 10 years ago I couldn't manage more than 20 or so. I don't even have to leave my apartment to socialise, in fact I rarely do. I don't have the time to physically meet just one or 2 people, that's just a waste of time. I rarely see and never touch a "real" human being, that's just so '90's...
And so much easier to get rid of friends as well, just block 'em ! No more awkwardness when you end up in the same physical location, because chances are you have no idea what that friend actually looks like in RL or who they are.
So much fun to be had. Sitting in a plane wondering how many of the people around me are actually friends of mine ? Sadly, not all my friends follow my Twitter feed 24/7, some of them are quite unsociable...
No, the communication remains same, different is the method.
Talking to someone in person is no more or less of comunication than getting in touch with someone over phone or email. Only method is different.
You percieve in person comunication as something "more" but who is more socializing? The person that comes over friend's place and chat for 1 hour, all procedure taking 2 hours with the need of transporation or someone who makes 5 phones calls, write 3 emails and post 4 tweets in same amount of time?
Technology does bring people together. 500 years ago, if you wanted to talk to someone 100km away, it was a week trip. Today, you can talk to person at the same distance within seconds.
People are still hanging out with friends, partying, pubs are full, etc., old fashioned methods of socializing and communication aren't "dead", there is just a bunch of new ways how to communicate and socialize on top, making people socialize even more as they can get in contact much faster with more people.
In any good roleplay, no one would want a story that is made by a third party and experienced the same way by everyone playing the game. Roleplaying =/= Listening to a story
Inter dependent crafting with lots of professions
player made factions and alliances
World pvp
Territory control
Massive zones, slow travel, slow leveling, a dangerous world and class interdependence with forced grouping creates communities.
When you're dumped into a dangerous forest full of dangerous animals in real life, and all you have is 2 other people, you're going to become friends no matter what.
No, that meant people left the game since there aren't many people having 4 hours spare time for a run.
You can't force people to play the way you want.
People left EQ after PoP introduced faster travel, EQ grew the most during Kunark when travel was the slowest.
The exact opposite of what you claim.
You mistake cause for consequence.
Also, supposed subscriber peak occured about 1-2 years after the PoP expansion.
Everything you say is correct. But keep in mind that it is correct only for social people. For the antisocial crowd The new methods of communication have greatly increased our social interaction. Several thousand percent in some cases
To being back the kind of community the OP is looking for one thing is needed.
FEAR.
Pure and simple. You need to be afraid... Afraid to be left behind, afraid to be showed aside, afraid to be put to shame and afraid to miss out on parts of the game.
Fear drives us together... After all how often have you not heard "back in thedays you had to behave in a ceartin way or you would be shunned" now most of the time it was good. but it is still fear that drives it.
This have been a good conversation