Originally posted by aesperus

Originally posted by ShakyMo
The best I encountered were coh & daoc
The worst were wow & EQ.

The importance of gear seems to be a big factor in amplifying asshat behaviour. I'm not suprised gw2 has a good community.

I've kinda noticed the same.

Not sure if his premise will stand up to rigorous scrutiny (extreme generalizations just...can't), but I'd agree with his game 'community'  general summary.

Everyone seems to have a different theory about what makes 'good' communities and bad ones.  (Given how subjective your experiences must be, whenever people rub against each other, how could it be otherwise?)

Despite fifteen years of players yammeryammering about communities, I don't think we're getting any closer to any real answers.  We just know the stank of a broken one, when we stumble over it.

Originally posted by Icewhite

Originally posted by aesperus

Originally posted by ShakyMo
 

 

Not sure if his premise will stand up to rigorous scrutiny (extreme generalizations just...can't), but I'd agree with his game 'community'  general summary.

Everyone seems to have a different theory about what makes 'good' communities and bad ones.  (Given how subjective your experiences must be, whenever people rub against each other, how could it be otherwise?)

Despite fifteen years of players yammeryammering about communities, I don't think we're getting any closer to any real answers.  We just know the stank of a broken one, when we stumble over it.

I think the ever increasing transitory nature of games within the genre has something (not everything, just something) to do with it. If you go into a game "world", stick down a house in said world and look to be part of said game world for months/years. Then you are possibly going to try and get on with the other players within that game world.

If on the otherhand you go into a game in which there is zero need to build up player relationships, if you never put down a stake in the world, if you have tools which simply give you immediate access to random groups at the touch of a button. And if you don't expect to be there for more than a month of so till the next title comes along. Then you could see why many just don't bother "being nice".

Well that's probably all complete and utter bollocks really but at least I didn't go on about pvp runing communites, or one of the other countless, oft repeated "reasons".

Best community was runescape back before the grand exchange, like...8 years ago?

Runescape back then really was one giant living community. Without a trading post, you'd have to go to the mines and look for people selling ore outside of them, sometimes you'd hire people to mine x amount of something for you or if you were looking to make money you'd work for someone else, you'd use the forums to order stuff in massive bulk, every general type of item in the game was sold in different places on the map and in specific popular worlds. Top of velika big bank world 1 for rare items, falador for mining stuff, middle of velika for general items, edgeville for pvp weapons and supplies, etc, etc.

Those were the good days...now it's a horrible, horrible game.

Originally posted by roo67

I've played quite a few mmos now . The best communitys I've seen to date have been in Lotro and DDO . Given GW2 is so successful I thought it might end up being a bit like WoW in terms of unfriendly players but thus far I'm finding its a good crowd . The majority of people I've met have been sociable and helpfull . Thats always a big plus in my books . Have still yet to ignore a single player .

I rarely hear anyone saying anything in /map chat or /team chat, regardless of how often I say "hello" or ask a question. Almost all of the time it's completely silent and I feel like I'm playing a dead game. However, the majority of the time that I have made contact with anyone, whether it be guild or the general public, it has been a positive experience. I have no idea why people are so quiet in this game, despite me trying to initiate conversations, when many other MMORPG's have an active /general chat channel. 

Originally posted by nate1980

Originally posted by roo67

I've played quite a few mmos now . The best communitys I've seen to date have been in Lotro and DDO . Given GW2 is so successful I thought it might end up being a bit like WoW in terms of unfriendly players but thus far I'm finding its a good crowd . The majority of people I've met have been sociable and helpfull . Thats always a big plus in my books . Have still yet to ignore a single player .

I rarely hear anyone saying anything in /map chat or /team chat, regardless of how often I say "hello" or ask a question. Almost all of the time it's completely silent and I feel like I'm playing a dead game. However, the majority of the time that I have made contact with anyone, whether it be guild or the general public, it has been a positive experience. I have no idea why people are so quiet in this game, despite me trying to initiate conversations, when many other MMORPG's have an active /general chat channel. 

This sounds weird to me. I play on Aurora Glade (EU), and there's nearly always mapchat, and team chat. Haven't been in a zone yet, where I haven't constantly met other players and such... :O Funnily enough, my guild chat is the most quiet, despite having many members xD

Originally posted by nate1980

Originally posted by roo67

I've played quite a few mmos now . The best communitys I've seen to date have been in Lotro and DDO . Given GW2 is so successful I thought it might end up being a bit like WoW in terms of unfriendly players but thus far I'm finding its a good crowd . The majority of people I've met have been sociable and helpfull . Thats always a big plus in my books . Have still yet to ignore a single player .

I rarely hear anyone saying anything in /map chat or /team chat, regardless of how often I say "hello" or ask a question. Almost all of the time it's completely silent and I feel like I'm playing a dead game. However, the majority of the time that I have made contact with anyone, whether it be guild or the general public, it has been a positive experience. I have no idea why people are so quiet in this game, despite me trying to initiate conversations, when many other MMORPG's have an active /general chat channel. 

This has been my experience on Tarnished Coat, unless referring to the starter zones. The starter zones are quite lively, but when I play my Norn ranger through the more peripheral Norn areas (he is level 45 right now) it is very quiet. Many times I would not get a complete window worth of chat to scroll by in my entire session in those areas. (about 2 hours or so per night).

People seem to have different experiences along the social aspect, but this game has felt really lonely to me even though there are a ton of people playing it.

Originally posted by bunnyhopper

I think the ever increasing transitory nature of games within the genre...

As I said, everyone has their favorite theory, but not no data--all of the evidence is anecdotal, all of the theories subjective.

Hell, we could go on for 20 pages trying to work out a defintion for the primary undefined term, what exactly does 'Community' mean to you, and how is it different from what it means to me?  How does 'community' even apply to a playerbase that solos the majority of the time?

Makes a good topic to pull out the leftovers and reheat frequently, I guess.

Originally posted by roo67

I've played quite a few mmos now . The best communitys I've seen to date have been in Lotro and DDO . Given GW2 is so successful I thought it might end up being a bit like WoW in terms of unfriendly players but thus far I'm finding its a good crowd . The majority of people I've met have been sociable and helpfull . Thats always a big plus in my books . Have still yet to ignore a single player .

I 100% agree with all you said. I encountere some annoying and unfriendly players, but thanks god this time Anet put bigger ignore list ;)

PS: Originaly I started on Blacktide [EU], left because of larger non-english speaking and more unfriendly and arrogant "community" there. My new home is way better.

Originally posted by roo67

I've played quite a few mmos now . The best communitys I've seen to date have been in Lotro and DDO . Given GW2 is so successful I thought it might end up being a bit like WoW in terms of unfriendly players but thus far I'm finding its a good crowd . The majority of people I've met have been sociable and helpfull . Thats always a big plus in my books . Have still yet to ignore a single player .

That's b/c there's nothing else to do but hang around and help other players.  Therefore most of the "Achievers" already left... or are confined to very small farming loops in obscure sections of the 80 zones farming "Legendary" components.

It's not all roses and sunshine though since out of the 100 players from launch in the guild I started with, there's now only 3 of us.   I'm not blaming Anet for that but I think there were things that could have been done with Crafting to appeal to those players and atleast give them a few reasons to atleast log in once a week.