One of the things that many game makers are coming to grips with is the inclusion of social 'connectedness' in today's MMOs. In our latest Elder Scrolls Online column, we take a look at how TESO devs are making sure their game has all the social connectivity that anyone could possibly want. Read on and then leave your thoughts in the comments.

“...Matt Firor took the stage again to tell us about how ESO will be the most socially connected MMO ever.  Facebook, Twitter, Google+… they’ll all be seamlessly integrated into the game from the start.  You can import all your friends, circles, followers into the game directly.  You can even make a Guild Page on Facebook prior to launch, have your friends join it, have guild members join it, and then import it directly into ESO.  Boom, instant guild.  Matt claims they ZOS knows that people now have friends everywhere, from every walk of life.  They don’t want to make you manage yet another social network.  Instead they believe that Elder Scrolls will benefit by making itself as socially connected to the existing networks as possible.”

Read more of Bill Murphy's The Elder Scrolls Online: Socially Connected on a New Level.

"ESO will be the most socially connected MMO ever"

We will see once ingame. FB, Twitter etc hasn't made MMOs more social before, why would they now? IMO it is more of a marketing scheme than one to get players socially connected.

This is a step back for me being interested in ESO.

Originally posted by Shadow-Focus
First!

People still do this?

Frankly, I don't care about external social networking in a game.

I am far more interested on how a game's design fosters social interaction and interrelationships within the context of the game.

Originally posted by kartool

Originally posted by Shadow-Focus
First!

People still do this?

Sadly, dumb repetitive things entertain people without ever getting old to them..  People still enjoy talking about bacon and laughing at Chuck Norris jokes in game chat.  It's usually a sign of a low IQ.

Originally posted by Alders
I can't be the only one that plays MMO's to get away from the social media crap.

Haha, good point. I'd rather they create their own playerbase-based (doh!) social media instead of plugging into Facebook or Twitter, but then there'd be no point for them, would there?

After all, this is all about spamming your friend list with updates regardless of whether they are interested or not! :)

So, what would my guild be called in game? "Amaranthar's FaceBook Page Friends List Guild"? "@amaranthar1485 Guild"?

It's all just so immersive, ya know? I imagine this will work great for instances though. Just plop characters of anyone online at the time in the instance. Some may be in "sleep" mode though.

Could start an all new complaint, "I died because my FaceBook friend entered us all in a zone, and I was watching porn at the time....didn't he see that?"

Originally posted by Alders
I can't be the only one that plays MMO's to get away from the social media crap.

You're not :) although I play for having fun, not to get away, but I'm with you on the whole soc.media crap avoiding part.

And as GwapoJosh wrote "So you will be "Socially Connected" outside of the game and not in?" it is indeed stupid. I play with my friends, in this case there's no need any soc.media crap. Beside that I play with in-game buddies/asociates/etc., in that case also no need for soc.media crap, we're connected in the game, and that's just fine enough. :)

I can see where this is going with achiements: 

Posted on Facebook: congratulation warrior! You have received the title of Dragon Slayer after killing 1000 elder dragons!

i bet your friends are proud of you!...not!

Originally posted by Shadow-Focus
First!

and what?

i do not want everyone on FB to know what, when and how many hours i play mmos. as a matter of fact i'd rather most of those people didn't know my gaming habits.

frankly this sounds like an idea from a person that plays Angry birds and Farmville more than mmos, just because he was at a seminar that said "the future is all in social media", "you are either on FB or you are dead".

i personally don't like the idea of connecting my favourite mmo to FB. i have a social comunity(FB, Twiter, etc) and a gaming comunity(Steam, Battlenet, etc) and they are 2 separate entities. i have no intention in trying to bridge them.

I play video games to escape RL for a few hours and live in an alternate reality where the rules are different and repercussions for your actions are not as unforgiving as in RL....and now you want to drag RL into my escape reality?....no thanks.