See a pattern? Almost all games from years ago. You know back when online communities were fun and people really had to work together to achieve many goals within the games. You would spend hours with people who would become your friends. Nowadays most communities are pretty toxic. Filled with people who consistently berate and insult at every chance they get. Grouping up is typically not even required and when it is it is usually a dungeon run of silence and content skipped over quickly just to reach the end goal. The reason I pretty much stopped playing them. I play to have fun and most of the fun is sapped out by the ignorance.
EQ & EQ2 prolly tuff to say, I still stop in from time to time but after many moons (or Luclins as the case may be) I decided to move to a desert that is black as midnight. Never know which way the Crow is going to fly so we'll see what happens and maybe take part in some of the fun.
@Hallucigenocide I played TSW for a while but the community wasn;t that helpful in the beginning I think it was just me, or perhaps the server everytime I start up I quit. I'm not sure why.
maybe i just got lucky with the server i was playing on.. there where hardly any trolls in chat and people where always happy to help newcomers with stuff.
Server selection doesn't matter, everything is "cross-server" so there's only one server technically (except pvp), and as @hallucigenocide says the community is very friendly and helpful. I think it was maybe a timezone issue, and without sanctuary?
The first area, Kingsmouth is not very populated most times (unless it's affected by one of the dailies), and since the new Group finder can "teleport" you into Polaris, the dungeon there, those group-finding traffic is missing as well. That's why there's the Sanctuary channel, a global channel with the very goal of helping newcomers (and for organise tutorial dungeon runs too ). Next time you give TSW a try, check that channel, you'll find a lot of good folks there.
Great community besides TSW, I'm a bit surprised nobody said LotRO so far... but with all the server transfers I think it will need some time while everyone settles in their new home, several very good servers (communities) went down the drain and scattered among the remaining servers.
Everquest 1 and Quake Team Fortress (but that's not an mmo) .. only reason I'm including TF is because I met a bunch of people there .. close to the same amount as EQ... other games don't even come close.
See a pattern? Almost all games from years ago. You know back when online communities were fun and people really had to work together to achieve many goals within the games. You would spend hours with people who would become your friends. Nowadays most communities are pretty toxic. Filled with people who consistently berate and insult at every chance they get. Grouping up is typically not even required and when it is it is usually a dungeon run of silence and content skipped over quickly just to reach the end goal. The reason I pretty much stopped playing them. I play to have fun and most of the fun is sapped out by the ignorance.
The evidence is pretty clear, as many older titles offered (or required) more interaction with other players, it seems players formed deeper, more longer lasting bonds with others.
Interestingly enough there are some titles infrequently mentioned such as AC1 and while I never played it, from descriptions from other posters have said it did not have a lot of forced grouping or other interaction mechanics.
Also if I remember right it was a title many players used a botting program to level, which would also explain why its not being mentioned very often.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The whole game was just made for being social. At launch, it was very group orientated and for the first few months you really couldn't progress without grouping up at various points. It also had loads of social features, strong group-interdependancy and the players themselves all seemed quite mature and easy going.
Add to that, I was raid leader and eventually guild leader plus I PvPed, meant I met loads of people and kept playing with them for years. I would PUG regularly too because the game promoted / encouraged it. Group setups were very flexible and tactics could be easily altered.
SW:TOR was probably the least social for me. Pretty much solo 1-50. Combat, whilst basic, was extremely gear orientated which made pugging very risky, so just didn't bother much. Add to that that within 6 weeks of launch, I'd capped out my main and cleared all the raids, the only reason to group was pvp or raiding, both of which were guild activities.
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"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Authored 139 missions in VendettaOnline and 6 tracks in Distance
When I was playing WoW ten years ago, it was often the case that you would meet another player somewhere in the field and stop and chat, and one made friends that way. Now it seems that everyone rushes past everyone else without a word, no matter what game it is.
I wonder how much affect this has on the "sociability in MMOs" argument.
"The last game I devoted any effort to meeting people online was in [my first major title]."
Are the games becoming more asocial, or the players?
Very few here are posting that a game created inside the last 8 years provided a good social experience.
Now either this forum as no posters who were not playing MMOS in the early days or more likely those folks have never even experienced what most are talking about here.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Mine was ffxi. There was so much downtime and that game felt so layed back that it was ez to make friends.
I guss main reasons would be because : each server was its own private community ( no cross server at all), Everone pretty much helped each other out. There was basically no pvp was all pve focused. Plus the linkshell's were pretty active, that's because back in 2003-2005 era hardly no one used voip. I literally didn't even know it existed back then.
The way it was so much team focused with your own formed groups, you naturally just got to know some people over time.
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It's pretty much unplayable without friends, and a lot of those guys have remained friends long after they stopped playing.
Nowadays most communities are pretty toxic. Filled with people who consistently berate and insult at every chance they get. Grouping up is typically not even required and when it is it is usually a dungeon run of silence and content skipped over quickly just to reach the end goal.
The reason I pretty much stopped playing them. I play to have fun and most of the fun is sapped out by the ignorance.
The first area, Kingsmouth is not very populated most times (unless it's affected by one of the dailies), and since the new Group finder can "teleport" you into Polaris, the dungeon there, those group-finding traffic is missing as well.
That's why there's the Sanctuary channel, a global channel with the very goal of helping newcomers (and for organise tutorial dungeon runs too
Great community besides TSW, I'm a bit surprised nobody said LotRO so far... but with all the server transfers I think it will need some time while everyone settles in their new home, several very good servers (communities) went down the drain and scattered among the remaining servers.
Interestingly enough there are some titles infrequently mentioned such as AC1 and while I never played it, from descriptions from other posters have said it did not have a lot of forced grouping or other interaction mechanics.
Also if I remember right it was a title many players used a botting program to level, which would also explain why its not being mentioned very often.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I wouldn't even consider MMOs since early WoW and Vanguard social games.
Herald of innovation, Vanquisher of the old! - Awake a few hours almost everyday!
"The last game I devoted any effort to meeting people online was in [my first major title]."
Are the games becoming more asocial, or the players?
The whole game was just made for being social. At launch, it was very group orientated and for the first few months you really couldn't progress without grouping up at various points. It also had loads of social features, strong group-interdependancy and the players themselves all seemed quite mature and easy going.
Add to that, I was raid leader and eventually guild leader plus I PvPed, meant I met loads of people and kept playing with them for years. I would PUG regularly too because the game promoted / encouraged it. Group setups were very flexible and tactics could be easily altered.
SW:TOR was probably the least social for me. Pretty much solo 1-50. Combat, whilst basic, was extremely gear orientated which made pugging very risky, so just didn't bother much. Add to that that within 6 weeks of launch, I'd capped out my main and cleared all the raids, the only reason to group was pvp or raiding, both of which were guild activities.
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
Now either this forum as no posters who were not playing MMOS in the early days or more likely those folks have never even experienced what most are talking about here.
The game designs changed, no doubt about it.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I guss main reasons would be because : each server was its own private community ( no cross server at all), Everone pretty much helped each other out. There was basically no pvp was all pve focused. Plus the linkshell's were pretty active, that's because back in 2003-2005 era hardly no one used voip. I literally didn't even know it existed back then.
The way it was so much team focused with your own formed groups, you naturally just got to know some people over time.