Do You Believe That More Modern Mmo's Are Becoming Less Social? If So, What Would You Say Is A Big Cause Of This?

[HealingMind]

I apologize if this has been asked before, but, as a relative newcomer to MMO's in general, I've always been fascinated about the stories people tend to tell about the "Good ol' Days" in almost every MMO I've been in. Days where people would be friendly to each other, and you would even make friends online.

Now, I understand that to some extent there's probably a good amount of nostalgia giving those times a better reputation than it deserves, but compared to my experiences in those types of games, they seem to be a bit... lacking. Not that I never talk to anyone ever in those games, it's just that making friends through an MMO seems like such a foreign concept to me, personally.

 

[(PSN)IIIDevoidIII]

Feels like a lot of modern MMOs toss in multiplayer, and other social features, just so they can advertise it as being multiplayer.

These features tend to not be very good, clunky, or just far too indirect to feel like a multiplayer experience.

 

An example of this are some of those popular CCG games where they let you fight your opponents' decks, sure... but computer AI is playing the deck and not another person.

 

It also used to be that forming Clans and Alliances with powerful players would be how you rose to the top, and teamwork being very important. A lot of that teamwork is traded away now for microtransactions. 

[ThePredicament]

In my opinion, it's really what you make of it.

 

Back then, games weren't really tailored to solo players but they eventually caught on, which is a good thing mechanically, but since it doesn't force you to work with others, there really isn't much of a chance to fully socialize with other people. In the MMOs that I've played, where I was forced to work with others, I've met some pretty amazing people all over the world, some became real friends because joining a guild, getting help, helping others is a time focused thing. In an "MMO" like Warframe, sessions averaging about 5-20 minutes doesn't always give the opportunity to talk about stuff, although it's possible (like Cornbread baker from tonight). The choice of reaching out to somebody else is even more of a choice now.

[TheErebus.]

A lot of MMOs tend to have social features, but the game itself doesn't actually support this. Though not really an MMO, I remember making tons of friends on Killing Floor just because of the experiences we had and the fun that we all enjoyed together. In Killing Floor 2, I haven't really gotten that same feeling. 

 

You can make friends through MMOs, like I've made tons of friends just because of Warframe alone (hell I met my ex through warframe as well). It kinda depends on the game. Some of them will net you friends if you all have an awesome time together, but some of them are just all business and little fun can be had, so you wont be able to make much friends unless it's "business only" friendship.

[AdunSaveMe]

I don't think it is. It's more down to the players, really.

 

The "good old days" of MMOs come largely down to nostalgia. There wasn't some big event that made everyne anti-social; it's more likely that those stories just come from the chance of meeting the social people, of which there are many. There's a large portion of people who play MMOs by themselves and don't often talk to strangers, and there always has been.

[egregiousRac]

The main issue with MMO's has always been a significant level of latency and lack of gameplay fidelity due to having to synchronize everything. In the old days, everything was run server side which meant the client was doing very little work. This let them have everybody in one instance, allowing for a stable community.

 

These days, they are doing more client-side so that gameplay can be smoother. The downside is that this makes it harder for the client to handle thousands of players at once, so they instance it. This means that even if the same people are in the same town at the same time every day, they won't see each other all the time. This breaks up the community into small, unreliable chunks.

 

 

The other thing is that early MMO's were much less player friendly. As a result, the age of the playerbase was fairly high. This provides you with a community of adults, which inherently leads to a less hostile group. Nowadays due to a few factors the playerbase in many MMO's has a significant number of kids. This provides a significant number of people that actively don't want to play together because all they want is direct gameplay. It also makes the more mature players quite wary.

[Doom_Bunny]

I agree with the above posts. Most of these stories about the good'ol days are from nostalgic or very social people.

 

Though I find it ironic that more mmmo are becoming solo friendly. While other games are including or going completely multiplayer.

[(XBOX)xLone Arkangelx]

A lot of mmo's have toxic community's that are full of *Redacted* some are better than others but if you do manage to find a good pocket of people, some one will come along and ruin it for everyone. I've seen it happen too many times, it's how some people are. especially online where they think their actions have no repercussions and say whatever they want or whatever. 

 

it's why I sadly fly solo most of time, not bothering to join another group and get invested just for it to happen again.

if I do join a group when I need one, it's usually a pug. or if I am in a clan I'm not as sociable and really just there for whatever group content or help I can get when I need it.

 

If there's a silver lining in flying solo it's that you'll learn to be self sufficient and learn skill or other things etc.

 

not to be all doom and gloom or anything, it's just the truth I've been through in gaming. if you've found a good one ( a good group) that hasn't been messed up by drama yet good. hold on to it etc.

 

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Edited January 6, 2016 by (XB1)xLone Arkangelx

[(XBOX)MK Ultra K11]

Most Peple are pieces of trash thereforre the good peple dont associate wit dem and they dont assosiate wit eahother cus dey h8 echother.