Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Text bubbles and in-game communication
Lerxst
Member UncommonPosts: 648
I just tried out a fairly new MMO recently and it felt void of any life. The irony is, there were loads of players around. The problem, though, is one that seems to have reached a peak recently with a lot of MMOs - there's no "social community" with them.
People split themselves up into their own little friendship bubbles (guilds) and games that allow private/difference channels to talk on, allow the community to commit social suicide; people don't just randomly talk to one another and interact outside of their own little bubbles.
Even having chat channels, still waters down the community since you read text on one line and there's a disassociation with who actually typed it; you could be standing right next to the person who made a server-wide announcement, but not know it.
I vote in favor of bringing back the old style UO text bubbles! Only being able to read/see/hear people within direct sight of you, gave you a personalized experience with each encounter. You know exactly who said what. You know where they are. You can ONLY talk to the ones within eye-sight and/or have already had direct contact with.
I also vote to get rid of Auction Houses and return to a player-vendor layout. Make people get off their asses, get out into the game, be a part of the game, interact with each other and some sense of the actual "Massive" part of their MMO titles.
BTW - The game was Black Desert Online.
People split themselves up into their own little friendship bubbles (guilds) and games that allow private/difference channels to talk on, allow the community to commit social suicide; people don't just randomly talk to one another and interact outside of their own little bubbles.
Even having chat channels, still waters down the community since you read text on one line and there's a disassociation with who actually typed it; you could be standing right next to the person who made a server-wide announcement, but not know it.
I vote in favor of bringing back the old style UO text bubbles! Only being able to read/see/hear people within direct sight of you, gave you a personalized experience with each encounter. You know exactly who said what. You know where they are. You can ONLY talk to the ones within eye-sight and/or have already had direct contact with.
I also vote to get rid of Auction Houses and return to a player-vendor layout. Make people get off their asses, get out into the game, be a part of the game, interact with each other and some sense of the actual "Massive" part of their MMO titles.
BTW - The game was Black Desert Online.
Comments
...It was about adding chat bubbles. So they eventually did. :proud:
I really dislike the "Singleplayer MMO" that really lacks social features and does not motivate on its general gameplay, group play. For me it is essential.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I also agree with removing auction houses in favour of player-to-player trading, which both increases social interaction and makes the economy and trading in general far more interesting (paying for convenience, for example, becomes a much more frequent occurence).
I loved the chat bubbles because it made social areas look really active and, like you say, connected what was being said with the character saying it. This, though, is at the expense of seeing the world. Walking into Corolag there'd be 100s of players standing near the terminals, shouting out for solo groups, leveling groups, selling their wares, offering buffs etc. The speech bubbles would obscure the background and other people and could be seen as immersion-breaking.
So, add chat bubbles for people like us, but allow players to turn them off if they want.
The culprit is the lack of socialisation in the first place. A large chunk of communication is long distance. Think of your recent MMO experience. How often are you talking to someone actually next to you? I recall playing BDO: my friend was fishing, my second friend was harvesting on the other side of town, I was riding around my horse.
Then again, some people prefer that.