Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Best current MMORPG in-game community you are or have been a part of?
Pratt2112
Member UncommonPosts: 1,636
So, I was discussing with a friend about MMO communities, and how it's so seldom that you see people in MMORPGs anymore who are open and helpful to other players - not just their friends or guild-mates, but people in general. So many keep to themselves, only care about themselves, or will outright try to screw over and take advantage of others, creating a cold or even hostile environment, it's difficult to know where these friendlier, more outgoing communities are.
For example, helping people through notoriously difficult content and not asking for anything in payment/return. Rather, helping because they can, and asking only that the recipient pay it forward by helping others similarly when they need it. I mean true interaction, people doing things for others for the sake of helping a fellow player enjoy the game "that much more", making the community that much better by doing so.
I'm curious what MMORPGs people here play, or have played, where they felt the in-game community was the friendliest, most helpful, etc. Again, not just people in your own guilds, personal friends, etc. I mean people in general.
If you could give an example of such interactions, that would be even better. It could be something done for or by you, or something you witnessed being done for someone else.
Thanks 
Comments
It seems the best communities are in games that have less people. Vanguard community was by far the best community I have seen since EQ1's release community. Everyone in Vanguard knew each other and reputation truly mattered. With a few exceptions there were some really great guilds with great leadership. People helped each other and there was a great deal of interaction outside guilds. Guilds shared information about bad and immature players and helped keep the community so good. EQ1 was by far the best community I have seen. Reputation truly mattered. Good players got groups. Rude players got blackballed from good groups and had to reroll. Horizons had one of the best communities I have seen which makes sense as it was mainly a crafting game. For modern games Rift had a great community before it went F2P then immediately it turned on its head with many if not most guilds and veteran players leaving.
Worst community GW2, AoC, SWTOR. Take your pick the populat games with simplistic gameplay or PvP attracy the worst kind of people.
Sadly MMOs are so easy now that players can act as badly as they want. There is such little interdependence there is not reason or encouragement for good behavior and good communities. My thought is niche games that appeal to veteran players are the only place we will see actual communities again in a MMO that or failed games with very small populations where the kiddies have left.
Best community = WoW, Path of Exile, RPG MO (to an extent, though the rules are so strict there it's kind of forced, and you can tell lol), I also really enjoyed playing C9 during launch, I ran a guild that was full of awesome people, I miss those guys.
Worst community = Endless Online is the worst I've ever seen, ArcheAge (the forum posters anyways).
I think that's about it.
I can get into specifics but it's pretty self explanatory, a large part of my friends that I talk to when I'm not in-game are either from WoW, or Path of Exile, RPG MO has a good playerbase but a lot of what you see is forced and generally BS once you start getting into the community.
I have a few friends from Endless Online that I still talk to, mostly people from private servers, the official server is full of hackers, scammers, bots and spammers who spend their time scamming people they hate over PayPal while getting scammed themselves.
I don't really have specific examples of ArcheAge, I think the fact that it's new is why I'm kind of turned off by their community, when you have a lot of hype around a game you always have the bad apples, if this was asked during Tera beta/launch that would be on the list instead lol.
I'm pretty sure most will say their first mmorpg had the best community. Something about that first kiss.
For now, I find Final Fantasy ARR and Firefall have pretty great communities.
Best bet, if attitude is important to you, chose an indie game. Something good but not mega popular. There is something about not playing with those that mmo hop from release to release and never being happy and trying to poison the community out of boredom/spite.
Also, you have to play a game to measure the community. Reading forums are almost never a true picture of the game or it's community. Forums are negative place that is just for complaints these days, not constructive game discussion.
But don't take my advice. I, like many who post here, may be a a$$hat. Another good reason to not listen to forum posters advice about anything.
EQ2, and, no, it wasn't my first MMORPG.
Just to dismiss that 'first kiss' cliche.
LOTRO-Landroval server.
/endthread.
Agree.
I don't believe I ever tried Tibia. That's an older, 2D one, right?
'course, I could just go find out for myself
I know people always talked down WAR but I loved it...every bit of it
And also Matrix Online. I miss that too. 
Out of the two though, I'd pay an arm and a leg to get Matrix Online rebooted.
Have the Will to change the world. We are The Dragon. #d13
not current, but EQ1, EQ2 and Vanguard. Its funny how the group oriented games seem to promote friendly communities. City of Heroes also deserves a mention here.. had a very friendly community.
Most games are so solo oriented these days. People are out for themselves. Half the time it feels like your running around with bots. Even in groups. I have dubbed groups these days as hit and run groups. They don't say hi, they don't say bye. They just group kill a few things they need and move on by hitting disband.
I'm guilty lol. I don't want to know the story behind the character...I want your character to HULK SMASH stuffs.
Have the Will to change the world. We are The Dragon. #d13
What can men do against such reckless hate?
Second
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Top community I was ever part of, and largely because the community defined how the game was played, was Ultima Online. Easily. I've been playing MMOs since MUDs on AOL and UO had the best overall social world of any game. You had PKers, crafters, socalites, PvE focused people, collectors/traders, tamers, house enthusiasts,.. there was a niche for everyone. The open world PvP and no-holds barred atmosphere helped shape good vs. bad, and yes, while there were plenty of griefers, that is what ultimately made up the game. You knew where everyone stood and it wasn't about levels or classes - it was simply about being part of a social world. Plus it had a fantastic housing system that I have yet to see topped. Only game where I sometimes got on just to talk to people. Different atmosphere in a different era - first, and only of it's kind - what MMOs were supposed to be (IMO): a true social experience.
Second best community is Champions Online. Great player base with people that enjoy having fun. Lot of friendly and casual RPing mixed with an amazing character creation system. It led to endless fun.
I don't play games for the community.
But when i was doing D3 rifts, there was the occasional nice person who would give you a legendary/set item if they have no use for it.
Third.
Laurelin server though.
I self identify as a monkey.
For new and current mmos I have played I can easily say ESO on EP and AD side. I had bad experiences DC side as that is where the kiddies seem to have went. Lotro was always decent minus the f2p transition where it got rough for a while.
I am back with Swtor atm though for the 12x xp class stories. I turn off gen chat on fleet as usual. It isn't so much that it is always bad but it becomes a spam session for a very few who dominate gen chat while they wait for queue pops. These are the mmo lifers who feel their chat (that should be in private) should be spouted to everyone on fleet. Tell them to go private and they go full retard ballistic on you then continue spamming the usual mmo jokes about bacon, pie, cake, bunny hugs, etc with the random virulent insult at anyone interupting "their" conversation.
It also goes without saying that any classic mmo of 10+ years ago had vastly superior communities than mmos have today. It was a different time with smaller communities and those games had far fewer solo friendly tools. You pissed off the community and you were often forced off that server. I've seen it happen many times with players. Today mmos go out of their way to protect the assholes and punish those trying to protect their community.
Rhoklaw gave individual points but the basic principal is something I have already posted about: The moment mmos started splitting the community up trying to cater to every style of player is when conflict and community destruction began. When developer starts inventing different leveling paths, gear grinds and adding systems trying to attract players of different genres that mmo no longer supports community building. It is an apartment building full of pissed off people annoyed that others make too much noise. It is not a social group.
You stay sassy!
EQ1 i made the most real life friends from
EQ2 has my favorite community
EQ2 fan sites
I agree with Rhoklaw's key points. But I might add one more bullet point.
5. Whether the game is build to pit players against each other, or whether the game promotes cooperation between players (This is not the same as PvP). As a good example for this I'm pointing to A Tale in the Desert, that has good ways to let players cooperate together.
That is right and still going pretty strong.
Although I had to take a break after 8 months constantly streaming the game.. I didnt find a soul to play with for real and people suck at English in the game and always has pretty much.
Cipsoft have done a few pretty bad patches lately as well. Not improving stuff.
Guild focused games with consequences, territory control and politics usually have one of the best communities.
I would say EVE Online (best), Darkfall Online. Lineage2 also had good community when I played it back in 2005.