Socially Inept: Why Aren't We More Social In MMOs Any More?
Having only started playing MMOs in 2004, my “old-school MMO gamer cred” résumé is a little light. Still, even I can remember back when people were a lot more social in MMOs. In City of Heroes, people would advertise for and form up groups to grind out mobs for XP or for Task Forces. I can even remember asking in chat for groups in the early days of The Lord of the Rings Online to help with difficult quests. I found my first kinship (guild) that way, which includes some people I still keep up with, seven years later.
Now, though, socializing in MMOs outside of your guild is almost unheard of. A few months ago, while I was leveling an alt in Guild Wars 2, someone asked in zone chat for company. I agreed, and we had a blast for an hour or so. It was a kind of nostalgic feeling that got me wondering: Why don't we do this any more? Why are we so non-social? There are probably several reasons.
Leveling is quick and easy. This was why I often grouped in CoH past level 20. It took a long time to level, and ripping through mobs and instances en masse got me more kills and extra XP just for being in a group. I don't know that I'd advocate going back to the days where it took a year-plus to get to max level, but I wonder if it shouldn't take two weeks, either.
Everything can be soloed. Similar to the last point... not only can you get to max level quickly in most MMOs, you don't even need anyone to do it. This is different, though, because in the first case, soloing was possible; it just took a long time. But in some games, you had to form a group to advance past certain parts. There are still group quests in modern MMOs, but they're rarely “progress-blocking” quests. You can typically just ignore them and do the non-group stuff if you can't find people to do it with.
Star Wars: The Old Republic, in particular, had a lot of these kind of quests. I spammed group chat to do them, just so I could do something different from the typical grind, but rarely got any response; either the zones were empty or most people realized, rightly so, that they were a waste of time when they could level more efficiently solo.
Talking isn't required. Even for group activities, like dungeons and big open-world events, after a certain point, everyone knows how to do everything and/or the challenge is trivial enough that nobody needs to talk. And when people do talk, it's more than often via voice-chat software, which has sucked a lot of the idle chatter out of in-game chat channels.
Even coordinating for the dungeons doesn't require much talking. With dungeon queues doing the work for us, there's rarely any more “4/5 need tank” going on any more. I don't know if that kind of talk really qualifies as being “social,” but it at least requires some kind of conversation between people that's more in-depth than hitting the “Ready” button on your queueing interface.
Lack of commitment. Let's face it: gamers as a whole aren't the most extroverted bunch. It usually takes a while for us to open up and really get into a game's community. With so many games available now, especially free-to-play games that we bounce between at a moment's notice, we're less likely to stick with a game for an extended period of time. As such, we're less likely to participate in that game's community and chat.
Pre-made communities. Because we have easier ways of staying in touch outside of games, such as social media and guild forums, you're less likely to dive into a game “fresh” and have to find friends/a guild. If a bunch of your gamer buddies are trying the new game, you've got a ready-made group of friends to play with and don't need to be as social in the actual game.
People are awful. Seriously. After the 100th racist/political/sexist rant in global chat or even just garden variety rudeness or idiocy, there are times when I'd be OK with never seeing chat again. And a lot of people keep their chat tab closed for that very reason. Granted, that's always been an issue, but it's probably a reason why players and developers have gradually veered toward systems that don't require in-game chat. And a lot of people are perfectly fine with that.
But here's the thing: While I'd like to go back to a (preferably non-awful) chattier MMO world, I don't know that I'm willing to give up all the advances that have precipitated its downfall. Do I want year-long grinds to level that require multiple people most of the way? Do I want to to not have social media to coordinate my gaming with my friends? Do I want to not have voice chat?
It's a little like someone pining for “the good old days” when kids played outside all the time instead of being glued to a monitor or handheld but they're not willing to give up their universal remote control, DVR, and 300 cable channels – you know, like it was back in “the good old days.” Advancements don't happen in a vacuum, and you can't just “turn back the clock” selectively.
Is there a way we can bring chat back without gutting our newer, shiny game systems? Should we even care to?
About the Author
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
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After a while, I'll try to interact with the community, having previously kept a beady eye on the various channels to see who I'm dealing with and whether there are any nice people to talk with. Then once I've chatted for a while, potentially added a few friends, I might consider either joining a guild or creating one of my own (although, this rarely happens as the games typically aren't enough to keep my interest for long and become bored, then move onto something else).
Lack of Commitment: Everyone you'll meet randomly on the chat are only doing so because they are "fresh" in the game and will only play for "3 days" and thus they'll end up being a crutch and not a helper, especially since...
People are awful, seriously: And almost everyone you'll meet are underaged and if not physically then mentally because go figure, we're playing online games, if we wanted something more "adult" and on a higher tone then we'd be playing poker and besides we're all more selective since we all have our...
Pre-Made Communities: Online gaming is a thing for... hmm around 20 years now, people have their own friends and they are the ones we want to play with not some random "dewd" on the internet, besides would your father be letting you talk to a middle aged man on the internet for long periods of time if you were a 16 year old?
But here's the thing: Times change JW... you can reminisce at the good ol'internet innocence back in the day but nowadays things are different more... "disconnected", and it got there because "reasons" it's not a good or a bad thing, it's "digital evolution".
The other problem of course is that level caps are usually pretty high now, so people are more spread out level wise, so finding people at your level is much harder. If gear became more relevant to how powerful you were, rather than your level, people could tailor their gear better, even lend powerful gear to bring a friend up to spec for particular mobs.
4 type of reason
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List
1.Disrepect
2.Griefing
3.Hacker
4.Greedy
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Comment: The Gaming Community is very negative on all online games. it best to play with (real friends) and not random people on video games who can be siting there waiting to attack someone online plus there a huge hacker Corruption going around on new games and updated games from each year. it is no longer about having fun on video games anymore nowadays. Solo alone in a game but do not talk to weird people online. (Very Dangerous)
I don't blame them for the lack of communication in an mmo I blame people who are afraid of pixels and a few "hurtful" words.
Are you really that shocked that people aren't social? Unless you're new to the internet this shouldn't be surprising.
also cuz we are in 2014 now and nothing changed for years
the genre mmo is death to me good luck whit youre crapy games lifewasters , enjoy!
Nevertheless i do respond and socialize if i feel like it.. that's enough.
I think MMOs should consider an AUTO group function that automatically puts you in parties with players in the area that are the same level and quest range. Then make the quest share-able and not so each person has to pick up 20 of something and stand around waiting.
e.g. WoW's Dungeon finder. You pick a role, dungeon and swoosh teleport there and hack away. No talk needed, normal instances have been dumbed down so much that you can just roll through them anyway. Collect fancy loots, repeat, with another set of random people matched to you in another 5 seconds.
You don't care about them, they don't care about you. Back when WoW was launched people had to actually search in the chat channels, asking for instance groups and such. Instances were harder, there wasn't any "account-bound gear" with which any new alt gets an easy-mode on many things. And it made people actually care a little more (not saying greatly, but a bit, and thats still a big difference) about who they play with.
And then the point in the article of course: too easy, grouping feels punishing in some games (shared XP => you only get a percentage that you would have gotten solo + things are too easy, so no killspeed enhancement)
Agree, that if people talk its mostly on VoIP which then often goes back to it being the TS server of the guild they are in, which just goes back to "not socializing outside of your guild"
Its amazing how much more fun even tedious grind can be if grouping up feels rewarding, if you're chatting with some others while grinding, etc.
Another article i've seen also mentioned that MMO has lost its "social aspect". Things are often so much dumbed down that most of anyone can achieve most of anything. Theres no truly hard things anymore that someone in great effort can achieve, earning them some reputation. Well there is the whole "firstkill" and "top guild" stuff where they compete in ignoring the content and most social features of MMOs in order to rush through it as quickly as possible. Don't we live in great times? ;)
Just my thoughts~
I report spam every time I see it and am not in the middle of doing something, but that doesn't seem to help at all.
But if i see some people that need help and ask in chat i most likely will help them and group up just to hlep and leave right after.
But i think mechanics like open pvp (in BlackDesert) and the mobsystem (in EQNext) can make the people more social i think, if a guy keeps killing newbs at the entrance of a city you maybe got some nice people or guilds that know what you are going through and will help. Or if the mobs that you need for your quest are running around on the whole map you have to find it and the easyest was is to be social and ask.
So i think there are multiple ways to make the players more social but if they dont want to they just wont.
reason there aren't so many players socializing togheter is because these mmo's aren't enforcing it. mabinogi still has a nice community because the game ENFORCES you to talk to others because the game is so GODDAMN HARD and it got social stuff like making campfires,marriage,playmusic,make music,tailoring,blacksmithing,weaving,carpentry,alchemy etc
also if more mmo's had rly hard PVE like mabinogi or vindictus there would be more socializing to party togheter and stuff.