People don't really like playing with other people

[SableShrike]

"Its hillarious that most people totally understand what it means to be a sell out in music yet very few can grasp the concept in video games. "

 

Best grain of truth so far.

 

I'm an animal professional, mainly out of liking the critters I work with, but also due to the fact that the majority of people depress me.

 

I don't HATE people, but rarely do they give me cause to like them. I ignore the ignorant, is probably the best description. This is a mainstream videogame, so of course that means I ignore a vast swath of mainstream players.

 

I help everybody who asks for it, cuz we got enough fignuts on this planet as is. I try to be decent to everyone, and slap down those who prove undeserving.

 

I have always been an "elitist jerk". Most thinking men are.

 

Half of Americans are scoring less than 100 on IQ tests (that's really bad, if ya didn't know, and I think it's intentionally kept that way, but I digress).

 

Point is, I cannot have a rational, coherent conversation on anything apart from beer, farts, shopping, hunting, sports, or the Kardashians with half of this country I live in.

 

Niche MMOs required that rational coherence, as they were usually difficult, with veiled systems and harsh punishments.

 

By going mainstream, the penalties had to be lessened to keep those who can't perform in a niche MMO model from quitting.

 

Nature of the beast.

 

I like this for what it is, but I don't think I'm ever gonna see another big MMO that has what I WANT.

 

Probly at least 50% of American gamers wouldn't play it, and that's a lot of lost subscriptions.

[silkforcalde]

I'll try and keep this short.

 

I play an imp as of right now on a"standard" server.

 

-Chat is dead.

-People join pugs without saying a single word for the entire mission and then just leave.

-I finally run into another player somewhere in the world and they don't even acknowledge my existence.

-I throw buffs on players as I see them. I rarely receive buffs from other players.

-The only time someone takes interest in me is when they are snagging my mission objectives out from under me.

 

What happened to "community" in an MMO?

 

Must be Imperial side.

 

I play on a "full" server, Republic side.

 

- world chat is basically Barrens chat in every zone. Lots of arguments, trolling, jokes, and TONS of spam for groups.

- people are chatty as can be in all kinds of group content. I've never seen a group disband without a bunch of talk, ggs and "thanks for the group" and whatnot.

- people always help each other out with champion / elite quest mobs and throw buffs on each other and throw emotes out at each other.

Edited January 28, 2012 by silkforcalde

[Uluain]

Maybe it is because I play on a RP server, but I have never had to wait very long to pull together a PUG for Heroics and, with very few (two? three?) exceptions, the group communicated, worked as a team, stepped back from the occaisional wipe to talk strategy before continuing, and rolled appropriately on items. People say "thanks for the group" and often add eachother as friends. Sometimes, I have had the chance to team with the same players later. There is inevitably a "nice to see you again!" tossed out.

 

I have seen ninja looters of resources toward which I cleared the way. I see other antisocial behavior. I don't mean to say I play in some kind of MMO utopia. But community on my server is very much alive and well - enough so that disappointing encounters are the exception, not the rule,

[MouseNoFour]

I will admit to one thing - i accept heroic missions solo, then hand them in solo. I may do them in a group (if i cant solo them) and its doubtful i will find a reason to speak.

 

First half of my leveling for my main, i had other players dictate the story to me in heroics. Regardless whether i wanted to [Attack NPC] or not. So in the end i was forced to vastly outlevel the heroics simply so that i could solo them have MY story unfold how i wanted it to, rather than having a bunch of dark siders ruin it for me.

 

Oh and im SOOO thankful i never needed help on my class story... i would be really furious if i had dark sider interference in that.

Edited January 28, 2012 by MouseNoFour

[Restepor]

I've noticed the lack of friendliness in groups. When I'm grouping I usually like to chat with the other people, most of the time they stay quiet. The only time they do talk is to insult me about how bad I am at playing.

 

I should really join a guild.

[Rahl_Windsong]

Stealing quest objectives is when, for example, you have to blow up a console behind a huge boss. Some players wait for another person (not in their group) to aggro the boss and then they run past and trigger the objective for themselves without fighting the boss.

 

The thing is with TOR you can probably just wait around a few minutes and the target will respawn anyway long before the boss respawns. So it is not necesary to ninja the target just let the guy kill the boss, and maybe fill out a mission report while you wait for the respawn.

 

Most quests where you need to cap x number of targets if you find two or three you don't need to find or clear any more target areas, just wait for the respawns...

Edited January 28, 2012 by Rahl_Windsong

[MouseNoFour]

I have rezzed hundreds of players, buffed even more. Even saved people from death and help them kill whatever enemy they were attacking. Almost never have i even been targeted (you can tell if they are) let alone actually saying something to me. I never expect them to say anything and they dont anyway.

 

Quite often i use my instant ranged attack to hit their enemy a few times, perhaps load them up with a few other instants before moving on.

 

Today a sorceress was dealing with an elite that was around a mission objective i was not ready to use yet (didnt have enough drops yet), so i decided to help her kill the elite. Sat there for 10-20 seconds hitting her target before it fell. I packed up and continued on with my business. Never heard a peep out of her in thanks - nor would i ever expect any.

[Angedechu]

Me, it's to the point that I GIVE to people I meet on planets trinkets I get from lockboxes missions, and no one thank me

 

Yep. A random dude open trade with you, give you a trinket, and you don't say anything.

[Boxcar]

It died long ago. Meet the new breed, and thank WoW for them.

 

Dunno if you've ever played WoW, but the social aspect was the biggest reason I kept playing. Nothing like what you are implying.

[Angedechu]

There was what, 200k Everquest players at it's top ?

[Opferous]

With storyline quests that lock you in to only 4 member parties, not really surprised that no one feels the need to make a cohesive community. Most of the time, I just party up with a friend and we just go questing by ourselves.

 

Now once BW gets the game more stable and optimized, I could see player-run planets/cities creating a real community. The story basically is already set up for serious siege warfare type of play.

 

My fondest MMO community memories were on Shadowbane. Not the world's greatest MMO by far, but the community was friendly, everyone (at least on my server) got adopted into guilds pretty quickly and helped each other out, and people would just hang out and chat in cities in the brief lulls between waves of enemy PCs coming to storm your city. I had hoped for something similar when Rift came out but was sorely disappointed

[Danubus]

There was what, 200k Everquest players at it's top ?

 

I believe it was 1.6 million at its peak, I could be wrong. After 6 years of wow, years of GW and DDO, EQ 2, Rift and currently SWTOR, EQ is still the most fun ive had in an mmo

[Darqu]

So....

let's declare a social server, where people could start leveling new chars up

the unofficial "I like to group even for solo quests" server

[gurugeorge]

I'll try and keep this short.

 

I play an imp as of right now on a"standard" server.

 

-Chat is dead.

-People join pugs without saying a single word for the entire mission and then just leave.

-I finally run into another player somewhere in the world and they don't even acknowledge my existence.

-I throw buffs on players as I see them. I rarely receive buffs from other players.

-The only time someone takes interest in me is when they are snagging my mission objectives out from under me.

 

What happened to "community" in an MMO?

 

The only casual MMO I've ever known that was any different was CoX.

[darkcerb]

WoW players happened, they're a cancer.

 

 

You can't have it both ways, either people aren't talking or grouping or they're crude and rude.

 

We get it you hate wow, go lie down before you pass out.

 

The majority of people aren't that social while gaming, congratulations you've uncovered a basic fact of humanity.

 

For me it's because I don't know any of you from a bar of soap, why should I get all chummy with compete strangers?

 

Why should normal behavior when dealing with strangers be suspended in a world of alias's and internet autonomy on top of biowares terrible customer service?

 

Honestly it's like none of you stopped to ask yourselves what you're really talking about.

[Soul_of_Flames]

The server I play on isn't really the most populated of servers (I assume), but I have yet to run across a single person who 'ruined' the gameplay for someone else.

 

Everyone I group with and talk with is always extremely nice and helpful. I don't think I've ever seen a single negative comment about anyone at all.

 

 

It really makes me wonder what servers you guys are playing on since all I ever read on these forums is how much other players are jerks...

Edited January 28, 2012 by Soul_of_Flames

[Optimism]

I'll try and keep this short.

 

I play an imp as of right now on a"standard" server.

 

-Chat is dead.

-People join pugs without saying a single word for the entire mission and then just leave.

-I finally run into another player somewhere in the world and they don't even acknowledge my existence.

-I throw buffs on players as I see them. I rarely receive buffs from other players.

-The only time someone takes interest in me is when they are snagging my mission objectives out from under me.

 

What happened to "community" in an MMO?

 

WoW spoiled it. People got used to clicking a magic button that would allow them to join groups and everything. I don't think they're looking for an MMO game, moreso they're looking for a console game with an Xbox live atmosphere. Group with other people and never see them ever again.

[firequill]

Hardships pull people together.

 

Its true in all walks of life, and it applies to gaming as well.

 

For example, EVE survived solely on the wills of a strong and comitted community for a long time, simply because it was Hard to survive alone.

It didn't cater to you if you couldnt adapt, it kicked you in the teeth and broke you.

So people banded together for strength.

 

Swg was also big on community, partly for the player-run economy, partly because there was hardly any content other than what *you* decided to make of it, and if you banded together, you could do great things.

 

 

Everything that presents a challenge and requires a group of people is entirely optional in swtor.

 

Lazy Convenience kills.

It kills immersion, it kills community, it kills the need for other people, it kills mmo's.

 

There, i said it, convenience kills mmo's.

 

But what do we care, right?

as long as we have our entitled insta-teleports and faceroll dungeons..

 

p.s .. my opinion.

[Thradar]

 

What happened to "community" in an MMO?

 

Destroyed when mmos when mainstream...and you know when that happened as well as I.

[Soul_of_Flames]

The problem with SWTOR is its story driven nature. People want to keep their story going but that usually results in them soloing it. That's how I play anyway. I'd never invite someone to help me do a solo mission.

 

The only time I ever group is when other people request my help. I have never asked anyone to join me in a group simply because I don't need the help.

 

I spend my time slowly progressing through planets, taking care of every little detail on it before I continue on. As a result, I tend to be much stronger than many of my friends and they are always impressed at how much I'm able to help them with missions they found impossible to do alone.

 

 

IMO, if more of the game was harder to go alone, then more people would group. But because of the game's story driven nature, it can't be or else it would hinder the story's progression. That's why it tends to be more solo oriented than group oriented.

[Marak]

I do miss the glory days of EQ1 '99-04.

 

It sounds masochistic and silly now but back then you literally had to group and that group basically just went out to a random spot in a level appropriate zone and farmed trash mobs. This is how the game was played.

 

What made it cool was those trash mobs were freakin hard. The group required a certain composition that included buffs and debuffs and crazy amounts of CC. It was basically like raiding except all the time. And you didn't want to give up a good thing when you found a good group so you'd sit there and chill with those people for 4-5 hours just grinding away. During that time you really get to know some people.

 

It was all sorts of great and I wish we could get a niche mmo for us hardcore masochists. C'est la vie.

[Poor_Grammar]

Now you can just solo 99% of the content, so why bother being nice the other 1%? It isn't like you'll ever need to rely on them again.

 

This is just a single player game with a sub.

[VorpalK]

I do miss the glory days of EQ1 '99-04.

 

It sounds masochistic and silly now but back then you literally had to group and that group basically just went out to a random spot in a level appropriate zone and farmed trash mobs. This is how the game was played.

 

What made it cool was those trash mobs were freakin hard. The group required a certain composition that included buffs and debuffs and crazy amounts of CC. It was basically like raiding except all the time. And you didn't want to give up a good thing when you found a good group so you'd sit there and chill with those people for 4-5 hours just grinding away. During that time you really get to know some people.

 

It was all sorts of great and I wish we could get a niche mmo for us hardcore masochists. C'est la vie.

 

I have subscribed on and off to Fallen Earth.

 

It's pretty detailed and hard core, and there's a lot of required grouping. I never stay long because I always have to re-learn it and I never settle in enough to get a decent group of fellow players.

 

It might be a game you'd enjoy.

 

Disclaimer: I haven't played it in many many months, but you might want to look into it.

[Kolbenito]

I group with friends that play the game. There is no point in being 50 in this game unless you are only playing for operations (raids), meaning rushing is worthless. If that is an option I recommend it, swtor is actually amazing when played as a co-op rpg.

 

As for groups, I really don't know. It is really easy to blame wow, but I disagree. My guess is it is the difference in players who were playing mmos ten years ago vs. now. The other thing is some people just skip all pre-end game group content, and some people would rather log off than PUG, I have literally had guild members say this...

Edited January 28, 2012 by Kolbenito

[MouseNoFour]

The biggest selling point in this game, in my personal opinion, can also be its biggest problem.

 

The story.

 

If this is ''my saga'' i dont want anyone to interfere with how i want it to play out. If the group i am in has 3 dialogue options:

 

1. Save the civilians [100 LS points]

2. Learn more about the situation.

3. Kill the civilians [100 DS points]

 

I would bet REAL MONEY 95% of ALL empire players would NOT READ ANY OF THE DIALOGUE TEXT and just choose the one with the dark side points ''because my choice is the points, not the story option'' regardless of the fact all 3 were story options. I GUARANTEE if the 100 DS points were attached to the following text ''I am an immature moron'' which THEIR character would say out loud - they would STILL choose the option which held the dark side points.

 

People do not play this game for the story - they play it to 'be the best'.