Social Interaction

For alot of people their first MMO was Everquest.  I do not know about everyone, but one of my favorite things about EQ was the fact that there was a sense of 'community' among everyone playing the game.  I think one of the largest things influencing that was the ability for casters to be able to cast buffs on whoever the hell they felt like.  I thought it was badass to walk out of Kelethin and see a player hanging out casting SoW, or KEI for donations.  With later games it seems like the ability to do that has gone away, and that sucks.

As evidence to kind of back this idea up, I bring SWG (pre-cu, nge, and maybe a patch or two.. I dont remember).   SWG, to me atleast, had this same 'community' feeling.  You could walk into any major city and find medics buffing for donations.  What really makes me remember these two games in particular was that when you were buffed the game was significantly more fast paced and your down time was generally alot shorter.  So it was never neccisary to get buffs but it helped alot. 

So thanks for reading this all the way through... LoL.   Those were just some thoughts

Great Topic there OP!

I as well miss the sense of Camaraderie that there was in the early days of EQ1, it seems that everyone wanted everyone to succeed or the sense of general help was what everyone was looking for.  I noticed the same in the early days of DAoC ad even EQ2.  I would get buff's from higher levels players when they walked by or a quick heal when I or our group was in trouble.  There was that feeling around that the entire community benefited when everyone helped each other kinda thing.  I remember getting great gear from higher level toons to help me on my way, then I did the same for the newbies who came onto the server ect.... I sincerely believe that PVP may be the blame...........All of a sudden Players wanted to be better then that player or that one and so on.....We became a "me me me" "I want I want I want" generation of players instead of "we succeed together we succeed together we succeed together" kinda group of players. This is my opinion only, I am well into my 40s and have seen much in the MMO world and the longer we go the worst it will be for that lost generation of Players like I who want that "Community" feeling again.........Darkfall being the prime example: If and if this game is released, whether it is good ort not is not the point, it is not targetting a Community it is targetting a community of "I am better then you" bunch o playuers..............of course to each their own and I won't chatstise anyone for playing their style but this is where the MMO World is heading for many leaving many of the old style players behind.......

And lastly maybe the the players like myself have scattered trhoughout the world of MMOs, there is simply too many MMOs and we are probably all palying different ones, hence why that community feeling has vanished..........hopefully not forever!

I thought UO had the best social interaction. Having a need for grouping is great as long as its not forced. It seems like MMOG's have focused more on acheivement lately. Its like we have lost the other pillars of MMOG life like exploring and socializing.

Personally what I think is missing is the feeling of being special or heroic. Take flying for example. Its really cool and can make you feel powerful. But when everyone can fly you don't feel so special anymore. Now nobody wants to play a layman, but NPC's sure can. Unfortunately NPC's are typically outnumbered by players by a wide margin in most games.

Originally posted by Aganazer

I thought UO had the best social interaction. Having a need for grouping is great as long as its not forced. It seems like MMOG's have focused more on acheivement lately. Its like we have lost the other pillars of MMOG life like exploring and socializing.

Personally what I think is missing is the feeling of being special or heroic. Take flying for example. Its really cool and can make you feel powerful. But when everyone can fly you don't feel so special anymore. Now nobody wants to play a layman, but NPC's sure can. Unfortunately NPC's are typically outnumbered by players by a wide margin in most games.

If you want to socialize, go to do with carebears. Leave the dog-eat-dog world of PvP for the rest of us.

Aye...SWG/Pre NGE was great for buffs. Solo or grouping it was always nice to go into the local Inn and get entertainer buffs...as well as others.  Also, I think, the fact that guilds could own, build and maintain their own cities was a great incentive to "Community". In stead of just having an obscure website that was your "Guild" you had an actual community/city where most of then members lived...and had a steak in building.

PvP has, in some sense, has added to the loss of "Community". Well I should say the type of PvP. We would have to defend our city from invaders and such...and invade other cities....so there was plenty of PvP. So many of the MMO's seem to have moved away from community based PvP to a more..."I have better gear and a faster internet connection thatn you...so I am better than you..." PvP

EVE is pretty close to the old style "Community" ...if you get in a good Corp, and you can, generaly get good advice in the Help channel. But, for the most part...giving new players a legg up and helping the Community wrather than only yourself, seem to be gone, or at least very rare. You still see some...from those that understand that without the "Communtiy" you have no MMO...just near empty servers...

Just my opinion...

Mik

Originally posted by PlugInBaby

Originally posted by Aganazer

I thought UO had the best social interaction. Having a need for grouping is great as long as its not forced. It seems like MMOG's have focused more on acheivement lately. Its like we have lost the other pillars of MMOG life like exploring and socializing.

Personally what I think is missing is the feeling of being special or heroic. Take flying for example. Its really cool and can make you feel powerful. But when everyone can fly you don't feel so special anymore. Now nobody wants to play a layman, but NPC's sure can. Unfortunately NPC's are typically outnumbered by players by a wide margin in most games.

 

If you want to socialize, go to do with carebears. Leave the dog-eat-dog world of PvP for the rest of us.

You've completely missed the point that its the mix of all player types that makes the best community.

Educate yourself, newb!
 

There's no reason for community in current MMOs.  It's all about static questing and loot hand outs.  In all honesty, I can't understand how people can spend so much time playing these games?  You quest your way to the level cap, then you either raid or you roll a new character...oh yea, or you can jump into some kind of meaningless PvP.   I just don't get it.  The old days were pretty damn grindy, but it was easy to understand how people could get addicted to that. 

I don't agree with the forced grouping idea, but I do think that there need to be features that encourage a community: a player driven economy, faction wars, scarce resources, hostile environment.  You don't see much of this in current MMOs, hell, you don't see much of anything in current MMOs, other than cheap questing and shallow side features...

 Role playing, and a changing world...after years a zone should not be the same as it was on day 1.

Immersion for me. I'm also semi-used to figuring out things on my own. Drop my character somewhere and I'd rather figure things out and discover the world than being tied to a leash.

Yes! Social things are missing from MMOs, SWG had the social part down, Unfortunately just not much else.

I think we're all right, but I think the lack of niche MMO's are what is missing. Not one thing missing from all MMO's just none taking any specific niche on. Developers are so afraid from limiting their market and losing profit they forget why they are making the game in the first place.

Personally, if a developer would tackle the specific gamer times in some way, it would make for an interesting endeavor. It would allow them to perfect an environment for explorers, hone the socialism for the socialists, etc. etc.

SWG used to be a niche specific game. For gamers wanting to emmerse themselves in the SW environment. But then, they wanted to go full scale and aim it at all gamers and that cost them their niche. Now, sure they get large variety of people, but they lose the loyalty of their original niche fan base.

Look at EQ, for years they stuck to their goals. And because they weren't shooting to please everyone, the game was riddle with bugs compared to today standards but the love the fans have has made some loyal subscribers maintain subscriptions for almost a decade.

It would be great to try to please them all. But the PvP whores and Explorer addict tend to clash. So even if their is great content for both parties. The areas where they cross tends to cause friction that does lower the "fun" elements. And so many people with different game styles saturate the community and people of similar interests have trouble finding one another. So bringing people of similar interest together would help "social" aspects, a little more than people think.

If there were ever a place to be reminded of these words, this is the place...

What would happen if, in an effort to appeal to certain types of player, a MUD was overcompensated in their favour?

Tilting a MUD towards achievers would make it obsessed with gameplay. Players would spend their time looking for tactics to improve their position, and the presence of other players would become unnecessary. The result would be effectively a single-player adventure game (SUD?).

Tilting towards explorers would add depth and interest, but remove much of the activity. Spectacle would dominate over action, and again there would be no need for other players. The result of this is basically an online book.

Tilting towards socialisers removes all gameplay, and centres on communication. Eventually, all sense of the virtual world is lost, and a chatline or IRC-style CB program results.

Tilting towards killers is more difficult, because this type of player is parasitic on the other three types. The emphasis on causing grief has to be sacrificed in favour of the thrill of the chase, and bolstered by the use of quick-thinking and skill to overcome adversity in clever (but violent) ways. In other words, this becomes an arcade ("shoot 'em up") type of game.

It's a question of balance: if something is added to a MUD to tilt the graph one way, other mechanisms will need to be in place to counterbalance it (preferably automatically). Otherwise, what results is a SUD, book, chatline or arcade game. It's the combination that makes MUDs unique - and special. It is legitimate to say that anything which goes too far in any direction is not a MUD; it is not legitimate to say that something which doesn't go far enough in any direction is not a MUD. So long as a system is a (text-based) multi-user virtual world, that's enough.

~Richard Bartle