I agree with above that its all about the tools and design the devs give players.
First and foremost if you want people to work together and socialize, then you need to take away any negative consequence for doing so.
For example, I remember in UO they allowed dye tubs to be locked down so others could use it at a house or common area, so people would put out rare dye tubs for others to use. Unfortunately the devs let griefers overwrite the dye tubs, so people lost their rare dyes.
The devs have to have the mindset that customers will grief others if there is an opportunity to do so. They really need to make sure things like that cant happen.
Another thing is I see alot, where groups are hard to form, the devs dont make it easy, they dont account for the downtime of waiting around trying to put random groups together. They need tools like summoning, bind stones for people to leave when they want, enough XP where going solo is not better. Instead of shared loot, they need their own loot so people are not fighting for 1 piece of gear, same with chests they find.
If solo is faster and easier they going to solo or quit.
Nobody wants to shoot themselves in the foot in order to work with others.
Another area I think is missed is something as simple as farming materials. In most MMO's if you group together while farming materials, than the person that is the best at it always loses because they share with other slower people if grouped. Or people are waiting around watching someone hack at a tree/ore node. Wasted downtime.
Instead why not everyone in the group get ore/wood equal to if they were solo regardless of who farms it. Same with chests, rare loot items found etc... This way its only positives for the group no negatives. People will create farming groups or whatever. If people are grouped like that, its natural that conversation will happen in many cases. As long as its not super twitchy where people cant even type.
I just liked making thieves blow up so make stuff that when it gets stolen it explodes and marking pvpers on the map and walking around examining chest to see who picked them last. I was young back then.
Everything is a question of game design and more specifically what tools the devs give to the players.
Devs give the possibility to kill each other, people will kill each other.
Devs give the possibility to collaborate, people will collaborate.
Devs give the possibility to steal, people will steal.
Devs give the possibility to create, people will create.
Etc.
But the problem is that you can't be certain how much they will play any gaming system you put in a game.
Using your example if players found it easier (even marginally) to steal items than it was to collaborate and grind them or create them, then what they would be doing is stealing.
That issue goes for what people find the most pleasurable too, if people like the idea of killing more and its as quick as the other methods that's what they will do.
This is why different game systems must have different rewards if game designers expect players to take up all the systems whole heartedly. That way players will not compare systems to see which is the "best" for them.
Comments
First and foremost if you want people to work together and socialize, then you need to take away any negative consequence for doing so.
For example, I remember in UO they allowed dye tubs to be locked down so others could use it at a house or common area, so people would put out rare dye tubs for others to use. Unfortunately the devs let griefers overwrite the dye tubs, so people lost their rare dyes.
The devs have to have the mindset that customers will grief others if there is an opportunity to do so. They really need to make sure things like that cant happen.
Another thing is I see alot, where groups are hard to form, the devs dont make it easy, they dont account for the downtime of waiting around trying to put random groups together. They need tools like summoning, bind stones for people to leave when they want, enough XP where going solo is not better. Instead of shared loot, they need their own loot so people are not fighting for 1 piece of gear, same with chests they find.
If solo is faster and easier they going to solo or quit.
Nobody wants to shoot themselves in the foot in order to work with others.
Instead why not everyone in the group get ore/wood equal to if they were solo regardless of who farms it. Same with chests, rare loot items found etc... This way its only positives for the group no negatives. People will create farming groups or whatever. If people are grouped like that, its natural that conversation will happen in many cases. As long as its not super twitchy where people cant even type.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
Using your example if players found it easier (even marginally) to steal items than it was to collaborate and grind them or create them, then what they would be doing is stealing.
That issue goes for what people find the most pleasurable too, if people like the idea of killing more and its as quick as the other methods that's what they will do.
This is why different game systems must have different rewards if game designers expect players to take up all the systems whole heartedly. That way players will not compare systems to see which is the "best" for them.