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Any decent "social" MMOs?
MightyUnclean
Member EpicPosts: 3,531
Are there any enjoyable and well-made MMOs where the main focus is socialization rather than combat? I guess there's Second Life, but that's considered pretty poor, right?
Thanks for any info!
Thanks for any info!
Comments
If you want pointers or whatev let me know...there are a ton of SL communities...
Depending on what you are into, I can def recommend some activities to try. I'm a bit of an oddball so one of my favorite things is to drive semi trucks using the GTFO system. :P But there are a ton of clubs for live music, etc.
"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 remember my last day in Eve when I knew I wasnt going to play anymore...i told everyone in chat where I was and to go ahead and kill me and take what little I had....Whats funny is every single one of them thought it was a trap and not one person came after me even though I just sat there in my little noob ship waiting to die.
Just to explain that, there is no pre-established entertainment in Second Life. You know when you go into a game like DDO. You can go do a dungeon, where you can be entertained by the mindless slaughter and quest for loot and money.
This does not exist in Second Life.
It is more akin to playing something like Minecraft, with non-voxel graphics, where you can build and design stuff, and peacefully interact with other players.
But that is pretty much all you can do.
You log in, chat, interact, build, buy, sell, and that's about it.
Some people love that.. I am too much a gamer, when I log-in, I wanna play something, so, to me, it feels boring.
But at the same time, if, say I swapped all the time I spent on these forums, or face book, with playing secondlife, it would be the same thing, just doing online social stuff, in a 3d format.
The hard part in SL is knowing what you want to do and then finding that community. And of course the biggest engagement is gonna be finding others like you that makes you want to continue logging in. Without the engagement of course you will be bored and look for something else to do.
Most of SL is garbage. The overall presentation is poor. Their website screenshots look like a virtual LL Bean catalog, and about as exciting.
You log in and the UI is basic, not very well designed but serviceable. The same can be said for the graphics in the starter areas. Nothing exciting or impressive. No music. Almost no sound effects at all. The developers do not go out of their way to sell you on sticking around. You'll probably want to ditch the official SL "viewer" as soon as possible. A community developed viewer named "Firestorm" is the popular alternative. It is better, but still leaves a lot to be desired.
Once you get past the new user welcome areas and out into the wild, most of SL won't look any better than this:
That is to say, most of it will look much, much worse. The important thing to remember is that nearly everything in SL is made or at least uploaded by the userbase. You can create whatever you like, whether it's your avatar or the world around you, and you're only limited by your imagination, skill, and (in terms of creating environments) your wallet.
Unfortunately this means most of SL is both ugly, and so unoptimized that it runs poorly even on top of the line hardware. It's common to see individual avatars in Second Life using half a gig or more of your VRAM, and the environments aren't any better.
That said, in the hands of skilled people with game design experience, you can get some pretty cool stuff in Second Life. It's still not going to compete with modern AAA games but it's neat to see what people can do in SL.
The biggest drawback by far, however, is like others have already pointed out, there's not really anything interesting to go out and do, like a game. Sure, there's combat, role-playing sims, even vehicles you can drive around, but it's all very clunky and basic. None of it holds a candle to a dedicated videogame. You have to be willing to forgive a lot to enjoy it.
What you can do is socialize, dress up your avatar, explore, and create. Much of SecondLife is fairly dead in recent years. I've seen some amazing places in SL that go empty most of the time, so it can be difficult to socialize unless you stumble on an active location during it's busy hours.
Also, be prepared for a LOT of adult content. People in SL typically have no sense of shame and SL itself has very few limits on what's permissible in the adult rated areas.
I have a difficult time recommending SL to anyone but content creators. If you enjoy texture mapping, 3D modelling, and designing environments then SL can be a lot of fun, as long as you can look past its shortcomings.
Some locations of interest I'd recommend to anyone checking out SecondLife:
- Doomed Ship
- Lekku Alley
- AMH (A mall, but a good location if you want to see about making an anime themed avatar.)
If you're looking to socialize, join groups. SL has its own search engine, use that to find locations and communities that might interest you.If you are objective driven (raids, first clears, competition) then of course a social mmo/game/experience isn't gonna be your jam. I wouldn't try to replicate WOW in SL and nor would I be looking for a SL experience in WOW. As gamers it is wonderful we can play more than one game!
My "Knowing what you want to do" comment is more oriented to within SL. Do you want to hang in a bar? Do you want to try flying or sailing? Is sex the social aspect you are hard up for? Once you know what you are looking for then you can find the community for that activity. If you need a win condition or clear metrics for success...then social isn't your priority, yeah?
This to me this is the other half of what MMORPG's could be, but neither MMORPG's or "online life" games lived up to their promise. Some of us have as players done the best we can for ages now, for me that's means guilds which make up for some of what MMORPGs are missing. For now I think SL is the best their is for the social side though it is years since I was on it...the same can be said for being in a good MMORPG.
Thank you!
And yeah, I kinda mentioned search as an after thought but it's very important to use it if you want to find anyone or anything to do.
You can filter results by Places, Groups, People and Events. To meet people and find fun places you'll want to focus on "Places" and "Groups". ("People" is only really good for tracking down individuals and no one likes getting random IMs from strangers. "Events" has been gamed to the point of uselessness.)
If you find a place that looks interesting but there doesn't seem to be a lot of active people, see if that place has a group you can join. Most places will have a group tossed at you by an automated greeter when you arrive, or have a foyer with signs you can click, so watch for those.
Group Chat is the single best way to meet new people outside of running into them somewhere in-game. Say hello in group chat and everyone online in that group will get the message.
Quickly finding some friends to help you figure SL out can make or break SL for most people. When I originally joined I rage quit within a few weeks. I only came back when I learned an old roommate of mine was into it and they showed me the ropes. A lot of SL is extremely unintuitive so it helps to have someone answering your questions and pointing you in the right direction.
Basically clicking away text windows ruins every MMO, try to have fun instead of rushing things. Without story and lore all there is left is a bunch of mechanics.
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