I come from a long history of gaming. I started playing pen and paper role-playing games back in 1975. My friends and I played at least once a week. It was a social gathering more than an exercise in gaining experience, levels and items for whatever character we were playing at the time.
In the 80's I started my interest in computers and shortly after that moved into gaming on computers. I have played a lot of computer games, the original Bard's Tale, Ultima, Zork and many many others through the years. In the late 80's I got my first modem and started frequenting BBS sites via dial up. That was my first experience in “on-line” games. The first being Trade Wars 2000. An ANSI graphics, turn based, space trading game. I would log in daily to make my allowed amount of turns, trades, moves and attacks. Because this was turn based, I spent a lot of time in forums and on IRC discussing strategies and moves that had been made. Shortly after this I started frequenting a Multi-User Dungeon or MUD. A MUD is basically a linked chat room with a running theme or adventure where multiple people could communicate in the same room. It was the early predecessor of today's MMORPG. Again, these entertainments were fun because of the socialization and friendships created while playing.
Over the last five or so years I have been playing MMORPG games. I started with Asheron's Call, moved to Anarchy Online, played Lineage II, EVE, Guild Wars and a ton of others. I had the most fun in Anarchy Online, mostly because of the community and friends I made there. They have a streaming radio station, Gridstream, Inc. which hosted “live” events with the DJs logged into the game at a location, usually an in-game night club, while they played music, held contests and other fun things. Again it came down to socialization and friends for the fun.
What happened to the socialization part of MMOs? I log in to most games now and get spammed to death by UberKiller who is bragging about pwning someone or another, MastaSella is hawking his wares on the local channel because the provided ways to sell are obviously inadequate, SupaLevlr is shouting for a pick up group because they need to use someone to power level faster and get more uber loot so MastaSella will not go out of business so they too can pwn someone. Other than that, all communication seems lacking. Most people are only talking on their guild channels or in private channels.
What happened to enjoying getting together with people, making long lasting friendships, discussing things other than how to optimize the time spent online for the betterment of uberness? Don't people enjoy all aspects of MMOs? Do they take the time to look around and appreciate the work the developers have put into making the beautiful and intricate 3-D worlds that the players take for granted? What's relaxing about the constant need to grind to be better? I see nothing but complaints in forums for these games telling everyone how something is unfair, how they should be getting the benefit of this or that, how the game company sucks for nerfing this or that, etc.
I don't know, I personally level at about half the speed of the people around me. I try to talk to people, which isn't easy sometimes. I love to explore. I mean, just running to the very eastern most part of the game map because I want to see what's there is a good time to me. No, it doesn't gain me anything, usually, but sometimes I make a discovery that translates to help in the game eventually.
My point, maybe it is time people slow down, quit complaining, make some good friends and actually enjoy the game as the entertainment it is supposed to be. I'm trying a social experiment, I just stared a casual gamers guild on what most of the grinders consider a PvP only MMO, ArchLord. I expect that there are others of the same mind as me and see more than the PvP. We'll see. I am expecting the negative remarks from the grinding uber-players. Oh well. I don't have anything to loose except some time and, as long as I am enjoying myself, isn't a waste.
Hmm I agree definitely - friends and socialising make mmos fun. In most of the more recent mmos I've played I've noticed that these are lacking somewhat on the public channels. What's your guild name? I might kick off Archlord and give it a go :-)
Tue Oct 09 2007 8:07AM ReportI couldn't agree more. I've wandered through lots of mmo's, but I always go back to the same one, Tibia.
The fact that rules don't allow bragging or selling on chat channels (except for trade or general channel) makes it quite apealing, and also only english is allowed in game-chat, which is great, it reduces the amount of noobs (in my opinion :P) on those channels.
And the whole game depends of the community, most of the quests need to be done by groups, and every class has an specific role,which makes everyone to be dependant of each-other.
And what i love the most: Ppl don't hate u for being random. N trust me, i spam random things all the time :P
So, try tibia...don't get repelled by the graphics, community is great and the skill system for me is the best of all mmo's i've ever played ^^
(As I always say, sorry for the grammar :S)
Tue Oct 09 2007 1:46PM Reporthaving a social network of friends in a MMO makes or breaks the experience for me.
I do NOT stay with the game and keep playing unless I have others to talk to and do stuff with in the game.
even while soloing and doing stuff by myself I am constantly chatting with freinds/guild members. Not having this kind of comradery really breaks the game for me.
It's the only reason I kept playing WoW for sooo long was the group of friends I made.
The community is unique in a MMO because it can be both the best and the worst aspect of the game at the same time
Tue Oct 09 2007 2:15PM ReportI also couldn't agree more. Most of the players I encounter in my favorite MMOs are spoiled, self absorbed, suburbanite kids with anger managment issues. All they do is complain about the game or hassle other players. I wonderwhen they ever actually have time to play. I turn general chat off most of the time because the conversations (if you can call them that) are just retarded.
Thankfully I have a few friends to play with and I occasionally run into really cool people to PUG with. I do wish more people were willing to just make friends, team up and hang out. I hate to say it, but I often wonder if MMOs need more GMs keeping an eye on things in game. If we could get rid of the spammers, griefers and racists, it would cut the yuck factor in half and we'd be left with people that actually like the GAME.
Tue Oct 09 2007 6:14PM ReportTotally agree with you there. It almost seems like whats the point of playing online when you dont speak to anyone? You may as well pull out your modem and play diablo 2.
Good post.
Wed Oct 10 2007 1:09AM ReportSize
I also come from a pen & paper / BBS / MUD background and I think the issue is size.
People in a small village are really friendly, helpful and chatty; whereas people in a big city like London don't even know their next door neighbours.
In a small MUD / MMO a lot of people will connect and get to know each other and enjoy the social experience. Yet on an MMO the size of WOW people run around in their own little world/guild oblivious of everyone else.
I guess you could argue with the sheer volume and transient nature of people in London, how *could* you get cosy and personal? And maybe you could argue the same thing with WOW.
Wed Oct 10 2007 12:43PM ReportMMORPG.com writes:
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