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All hope lost in MMORPG gaming (please help)
I've been a die-hard MMORPG fan for around a decade now and during the past couple of years Ive never really noticed why I couldn't enjoy them as much. At first I thought it was because growing up means gaming just gets boring. One night while reminescing, I looked at some old Vanilla WoW videos to pass the time. It hit me; what made MMORPG gaming so amazing was how social everyone was. It didnt matter whether you were in the heart of Iron Forge or the outskirts of Thunderbluff. There was always someone to talk to. (someone who would respond and actually engage in a decent conversation.) That small aspect led to so many amazing adventures with all my friends. Now, it seems everyone and their mother plays MMORPGs and it's nearly impossible to find crowds with old fashion attitudes. It's just not the same as it used to be, you might as well just play Skyrim. After I came to that realization, I asked myself what caused this? How did MMORPG gaming go from being one of the most magical common interests in existence to a introverted platform of blind entertainment? I personally believe the difficulty change has a lot to do with it. Back in the good old days of Vanilla WoW, it was live together or die alone. Your social abilities were your life line, no matter your play style. You had to make friends, communicate, and make yourself a part of something to succeed in that game, as well as plenty others from that time. Not only did it generate a brighter experience, but it helped so many people who didn't know how to socialize become the life of the party. Now they're just an escape from reality, no real people play them. Just mindless drones (Or so it seems) If you don't agree, then I'm glad. In fact I'm fucking ecstatic. I'm begging to be proven wrong here. Show me there's still some life in MMORPG gaming, not unique classes, cool mounts, or innovative combat systems; Show me the most beautiful genre in gaming history hasn't completely fallen off the deep end, because right now I'm doubting 75% of you will even read this.
Comments
totally agree op and i often think back to the good old days,not just wow but everquest 1+2,the chat was always busy
with pepole asking stuff and selling/trading/arguing.these new mmo,s now you never see any chat going on,everyone just gets on with there own thing,its sad really.not sure what the solution is tho.
I would love to offer a contrary opinion:
I consider this perhaps the best time to be playing MMOs. There are many games around and many games in development that promise even better and bigger worlds. You can even still play some of those older games. My problem is really a surfeit of riches. I don't have enough time to play all the games I want.
I make my own connections in game; the game doesnt affect whether I do this or not. Currently I spend most of my time in GW2 and some days I spend so much time chatting, I lose track of time. There is always something going on. I still play LOTRO and after an extended absence i found myself confused with the new update and after asking for direciton, I had numerous people grouping with me and increased my friend's list.
I just don't understand this "I can't play with anyone" in modern MMOs business. Just say "Hi" to a complete stranger. Now I admit you can't expect everyone to respond to open arms and embrace you as a friend if you do this, but I have made friends just doing this. Funny but true story.. I was playing LOTRO when it went f2p and figured I would hang out at spawn locations and welcome new players. First person I met and sent a welcome message responded with " F-off " Of course, I could have been pissed off and just given up but I just found it funny.
I just find these games are what you make out of them.
I hope you can find fun in some game you like because I understand the desire to game. We are gamers and must game!
Lifer on Landroval. I can concur it is a very friendly and helpful server.
Download and try out Wurm Online.
Hope you can always find, like ever to be honest, in the indie sector with a few potentially very good projects currently rolling ( Gloria Victis, The Repopulation, Everember, Embers of Caerus, Trials of Ascension, etc,etc, and the latter 3 of those are either definitely on their way or nearly here even, Repop will hit beta sometime this year most likely, Everember is available to try and while Gloria Victis is sorta pay to access alpha it is actually an alpha they have vastly improved the game in the 2 months I've had access to it so if you want to see gameplay evolution and maybe influence it a little that's one way).
As for gamers... well I am from the 2001-2002 era onwards as I did not have internet before then so I've been around for over a decade now and yes EVE-Online is the only old guard MMO (WoW, EQ 1 - EQ2, EVE-Online, SWG and a few others from that time) which hasn't been butchered or require a unofficial means of playing it to even have the game but be warned EVE is a cruel mistress but she has kept me around for 9 + years (on and off, currently off waiting for the exploration expansions to hit) and you can make real good friends if you're lucky (trust is a premium though).
My advice to you: Do not lose hope but do not take gaming as seriously as you once did and just use it as a complementary element in your life such that it cannot be negative once you do find an MMO you love again in the future ( I bet Repop or EVE will scratch that particular itch ).
If you played on a sports team for 10 years and had no friends..that would be weird.
If you went to the same bar for 10 years and knew no one there....that would be weird.
If you went anywhere for 10 years and had no friends there...that would be kind of weird
Playing games on the internet for a decade and no one to talk to.....totally normal apparently.
Could be for any number of reasons like he made friends that stopped playing, he lost touch with them over time, etc,etc. I mean I had a bunch of friends from my first online game ( wasn't an mmo mind you, it was Gunbound online back before it went retard levels of P2W ) whom all were also, for the most part, also from the same country as me and I lost contact with them all over the years (the last one was in the summer of 2011 when she finished her Computer Sciences bachelor at my University and dropped off the grid for her boyfriend at the time). Do not be quick to judge really because my current group of online friends (old EVE-Online comrades) required commitment on both sides of the equation to keep in touch even after I went on my EVE hiatus.
Pretty much- Wildstar looks even worse to me.
I think the industry is fucked. MMORPGs are dead, we have more mmo/action/platformer single player games. There should be room for both.
I suppose it will eventually come back around but I also thought at one point eso was going to beawesome.
Hows Pathfinder looking? I love the Tabletop and am curious to see what they will do (if they ever finish) with their mmorpg.
Unfortunately you are right. One reason is the bar has been lowered to all time low so that everyone can get in, so it's also piss easy. The biggest culprit in my opinion is the cross realm shit and group finders, no social contact is required anymore to get a group going and get dungeon done, you dont need a word, not one word.
Even if you wasted one word, it would be for nothing since these people are playing on different server than you and you wont see them again. Same with PvP, I actually made friends killing alliance as horde, after seeing enough times the same names, now it's all cross realm battlegrounds and cross realm zones, which means exactly like you said that unknown nameless drones everywhere.
Though, I think there's also the fact that when WoW kicked on 10 years ago, a ton of MMORPG first timers joined the fun, the whole gaming setting was unknown and it was fun to explore together this vast open world, hang around and slowly learning how the world works. Now the formula is simple and well known, there's nothing unknown that makes you want to go explore even in new games, other than the setting and graphics. Open world is pointless, get to max level, grind gear <- it was nothing like that for a couple of years after I first time installed WoW (or Anarchy Online before it).
I been running a guild now for 15 years, and seen this as well, people have changed, I also went into the gaming industry and blog a lot, its the attitude and how less social games are due to players not caring to get into the social aspect. I for one always loved it, and see people less and less wanting to go to a forum, or go to TeamSpeak, or even group up. They complain later, but I do see this a lot.
If your looking for a group that has this attitude of older gamers look up my community, we play other games, from ESO, to WOW, and in the future Wild Star and EQ Next.
Divided-Allegiance.com
Embers of Cearus is no more, there forum is even gone.
^The highlighted part. I think our only hope for quality MMOs now lies with these indie companies on Kickstarter and the likes.
I'm putting all my eggs in the Camelot Unchained basket while keeping an eye on Star Citizen. But like any fan of MMOs that got their start on UO/Everquest/DAOC/SWG and have suffered MMOs or the big companies that take over said games over the last 10 years... i've learned to not get my hopes up for ANYTHING. I'll probably be let down by CU and Star Citizen as well.
I'm not convinced a game, any game can change this antisocial behavior. A game might force people to group up but that doesn't mean they will talk to each other. Dungeon Finders I think are a prime example of this in action.
My opinion is the MMO market has moved on from primary group social experiences to primary solo experiences with a social element and I don't think there is any going back. This is why all these so called "old school" MMO's I think are doomed from the start. They are trying to market a game to a audience that has been diluted over time so much to the point where short of a interview of players before letting them in your game I'm not sure how anyone could recreate that environment.
The F2P mentality sure doesn't help either.