Why so antisocial?

[ConradLionhart]

People are so missing out too when they solo it. The pace drops enormously compared to going with a friend. Sure, you can take down a group of four mobs on your own, and after you've done it 10 times it's as unexciting as wiping your nose. With a friend along, you plow through stuff much faster and the quest conversations are much more dynamic and interesting - what you choose to say suddenly means more than trying to maximize companion affection.

 

And let's face it, quest choices are completely consequence-free in this game with the exception of companion affection or light/darkside points. There's no way you can talk your way into more or less success which is a huge shame - Bioware should have made the quest conversations failable in my opinion in some cases. But I suppose the whiners would have whined so loudly at that that the moon would have been shifted from its orbit if they gave a boneheaded response in a conversation and lost out because of it.

 

But I agree, getting anyone to talk in this game is the exception rather than the norm. But perhaps it's just people who sit there with their Logitech G13 gamepad or their Razer Nostromo's and their mouse... great for gaming, and you can't type a thing.

 

It would be nice to have non-linear story, but I will settle for a good story if it means they can churn out content at a faster pace.

[archifikoss]

People are so missing out too when they solo it. The pace drops enormously compared to going with a friend. Sure, you can take down a group of four mobs on your own, and after you've done it 10 times it's as unexciting as wiping your nose. With a friend along, you plow through stuff much faster and the quest conversations are much more dynamic and interesting - what you choose to say suddenly means more than trying to maximize companion affection.

 

 

 

But I agree, getting anyone to talk in this game is the exception rather than the norm. But perhaps it's just people who sit there with their Logitech G13 gamepad or their Razer Nostromo's and their mouse... great for gaming, and you can't type a thing.

 

Unfortunately none of my RL friends play TOR and I don't feel like spending my questing time with people I don't know personally so it's out of the question for me.

 

 

And the other day I logged on Alderaan after peak hours, there were only 22 people on the planet but there was still a nice conversation going on on general chat. I don't think I've ever played on a planet yet without having seen some convo or other pop up except in really, really off-peak hours.

[Nexdine]

Spending questing time with people you don't know personally can be a lot of fun.

 

Keeping in mind Sturgeon's Law, ie 90% of everything is crud, then yeah you will run across quite a few dolts on the way, but sometimes you get lucky and find someone really great to hang out with, too, which can translate to having great people "on tap" to do Flashpoints and heroics with. And it's not like there's time to have a major gabfest going when you're doing the quests, it's mainly a little conversation during lulls (like hitting autorun and exchanging a few comments while running from point A to point B, etc.)

[NoxiousAlby]

This game is NOT a MMO.

 

It's just a social hub game like Phantasy Star, APB and Hellgate.

 

Filled with instances and maps that have population limits.

 

And as far as community goes, there has to be one to be social with to begin with.

 

If you want a MMO community this game is NOT where you will find it. Period.

By definition an MMO is large numbers of players interacting on one server

 

Actual definition:

A massively multiplayer online game (also called MMO and MMOG) is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on personal computers. Most of the newer game consoles, including the PSP, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Wii can access the Internet and may therefore run MMO games. Additionally, mobile devices and smartphones based on such operating systems as Android, iOS and Windows Phone are seeing an increase in the number of MMO games available.

 

So yes by definition Swtor is most definately an MMO

[DariuszPol]

What is it with this game that makes players so antisocial? Im not talking about getting heroic or flashpoint groups. (which is another problem)

 

I was questing in Nar Shadda last night. I play as a healer spec Sage, and noticed there were two other players pretty much doing the same quests in the same order as I was. We were all going around getting quests at around the same time, and killing mobs in the same areas. So I decided to message them to see if they wanted to group for the quests. Nothing....no replies at all. Not even a " no thanks, Id rather solo".

 

later on in the evening I found one of these other guys lying dead. I guess they had died from fighting, or had gone afk and been killed or something. Not really sure. So I revived, healed and buffed him. Not a "thanks", or a "appreciate it". The guy just stood there looking at me, and then ran off.

 

Is it because we have companions in this game that people dont want to group? I like to solo at times myself but its nice to group up for quests if we are all doing the same ones.

 

Its making me wonder why I even rolled a healer, since the only thing I heal is my companion.

 

Chat is for everything. So while I fight I see there:

~ info from combat

~ trolls in global chat

~ guild chat

~ whispers

~ etc...

 

It's EASY to miss when someone send a message to you WHILE he is standing next to you. Worst design EVER. It's not anti-social.

 

Bioware have much to learn how to make MMO.

[NoxiousAlby]

I totally agree with you. The ability for players to do stuff at their pace tend to attract a certain crowd till the realisation that their progression is stopped by group content.

 

The design of the game should stay consistant, BW shift with more added raids should turn these ppl away. Hopefully we would see sufficient raiders to keep the servers alive.

Given that BW own figures that 38% of the population participated in raids from Dec to Feb and that with 1.2 the content is to become significantly harder I wish you luck with that. If BW doesnt add end game content for solo players that they can grind for 3 months in between patches for character progression I doubt 38% of the population will keep content coming at a significant pace. Edited March 9, 2012 by NoxiousAlby

[patchew]

maybe they didnt speak english. maybe theyre just douches, maybe they were having a bad day, maybe they didnt spot your whisper as they were talking in gchat or something.

could be many reasons.

all i tend to do is to note the players names and dont help them if they ask for help at some other stage.

as the leveling is fairly linear and there isnt cross-server stuff then you are bound to come across them many times during your leveling and end-game stuff, so the opportunity to not help them later is going to come fairly soon.

bad reps ruin players.

those two players now have a bad rep with you, permanently .. specially as a healer or tank, you can punish em hehe

[archifikoss]

Spending questing time with people you don't know personally can be a lot of fun.

 

Yeah I can't say I've had bad experiences really in either WoW or TOR apart from some gankers and a few idiots, most have been decent and I have even made a couple of online friendships... But these have been the exception to the norm for me as I'm a shy person and feel uncomfortable talking to people I can't actually see IRL.

 

It's all my fault, not theirs, that's the truth

[Game-Hermit]

What is it with this game that makes players so antisocial? Im not talking about getting heroic or flashpoint groups. (which is another problem)

 

I was questing in Nar Shadda last night. I play as a healer spec Sage, and noticed there were two other players pretty much doing the same quests in the same order as I was. We were all going around getting quests at around the same time, and killing mobs in the same areas. So I decided to message them to see if they wanted to group for the quests. Nothing....no replies at all. Not even a " no thanks, Id rather solo".

 

later on in the evening I found one of these other guys lying dead. I guess they had died from fighting, or had gone afk and been killed or something. Not really sure. So I revived, healed and buffed him. Not a "thanks", or a "appreciate it". The guy just stood there looking at me, and then ran off.

 

Is it because we have companions in this game that people dont want to group? I like to solo at times myself but its nice to group up for quests if we are all doing the same ones.

 

Its making me wonder why I even rolled a healer, since the only thing I heal is my companion.

If there's one thing I learned in my soon to be 31 years of life, it's that 99% of humans are evil morons. Another thing I learned is that the internet magnifies this because people can't get punched over the cable line. People are going to act like people. Doesn't matter what game it is.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Game-Hermit

[RobinVantastic]

I'll say I usually quest alone and not in a group. Simply because I don't need a group to complete the content and because the game is so solo friendly I usually log in and complete quests piece meal. The wife calls or wants to talk or show me something and I'll just afk for a few in a safe spot. So rather then inconvience someone with my play hard for 20 minutes, afk for 10 rise and repeate play style I just solo the things I can.

 

I do generally help people with quests that ask for it, and of course flashpoints are the exception to me "playing solo".

 

 

This x 100%

[SNEAKYSIX]

Agreed that speech bubbles would be a great way forward in a auto designated SAY so it doesnt always spam general. That way an easy alert for help in prox range can be seen.

As for guilds, somebody commented about an elitist culture by more organised gamers in guilds. This to can be an antisocial issue, even being interviewed to join one.

 

IMO i create a guild to help other gamers, to pass my knowledge on and support newbies in getting quests done. Yes some of the gamers out there are not really grateful and use you just to get passed a certain stage. God Ive done that myself many times over MMo years. Still the social interaction is there and it creates a universe of good times for every gamer. This in the long run will keep subs. We owe it to ourselves to make this work (with bugs) on our servers to keep players coming. Best advertising is word of mouth....

Edited March 9, 2012 by SNEAKYSIX

[Tool_of_Society]

What is it with this game that makes players so antisocial? Im not talking about getting heroic or flashpoint groups. (which is another problem)

 

I was questing in Nar Shadda last night. I play as a healer spec Sage, and noticed there were two other players pretty much doing the same quests in the same order as I was. We were all going around getting quests at around the same time, and killing mobs in the same areas. So I decided to message them to see if they wanted to group for the quests. Nothing....no replies at all. Not even a " no thanks, Id rather solo".

 

later on in the evening I found one of these other guys lying dead. I guess they had died from fighting, or had gone afk and been killed or something. Not really sure. So I revived, healed and buffed him. Not a "thanks", or a "appreciate it". The guy just stood there looking at me, and then ran off.

 

Is it because we have companions in this game that people dont want to group? I like to solo at times myself but its nice to group up for quests if we are all doing the same ones.

 

Its making me wonder why I even rolled a healer, since the only thing I heal is my companion.

My main is a typical heal spec sort and I experienced that all through my levels. Not sure what the deal is with people in this game..

[Game-Hermit]

As for guilds, somebody commented about an elitist culture by more organised gamers in guilds. This to can be an antisocial issue, even being interviewed to join one.

The only way for me to enjoy playing with other people is for me to join an adults only guild with a strict and thorough recruiting process. I met a lv50 warrior in WoW who didn't have defense stance trained and asked me (a warlock) what level he gets it, then called ME stupid when I told him lv10. There are at least 2 of that guy in every pick up group I ever joined. Guilds are the only reason I'm able to be social. If I had to deal with random people I'd play nothing but single player games.

[Newsinz]

I don't always group with people for multiple reasons... I have leveled 3 toons to 50 so grouping with people sometimes slows me down. Sometimes I space bar through quest lines and rather then be bothered or bother other people I just run through do my thing and leave. Class Quests... I dont want to watch other peoples class quests... its spoiler for me. Edited March 9, 2012 by Newsinz

[MaliceX]

Solo is faster...

 

I'll do all the +2's when i've done all the others quests on the planet.

The +4's... why bother? more time then worth.

 

I don't mind helping people at all but no I don't want to be stuck with someone worrying about where to go next if they are on the same quests etc.

 

Oh look this guy seen a chest and wants it.. ok look he pulled the mobs to get it.. Do I help him collect this worthless chest or do i just keep on my merry way?

 

A leveling partner is cool.. Random guy wanting to group... not so much...

[Nexdine]

Solo is faster...

 

I'll do all the +2's when i've done all the others quests on the planet.

The +4's... why bother? more time then worth.

 

I don't mind helping people at all but no I don't want to be stuck with someone worrying about where to go next if they are on the same quests etc.

 

Oh look this guy seen a chest and wants it.. ok look he pulled the mobs to get it.. Do I help him collect this worthless chest or do i just keep on my merry way?

 

A leveling partner is cool.. Random guy wanting to group... not so much...

 

For many of us, it's not about doing it at the maximum efficiency to reach a totally maxed out lvl 50 at the minimum amount of time and getting every single point of stat you possibly can... for many, the game is to have fun and to be social and even enjoy the experience along the way. I like finding new interesting people to team with, some are a loss and others are great and go on the friend list for future adventuring.

 

People who want to just mass-slaughter their way with maximum efficiency certainly can but for me that would be a huge pain.

 

The worst experience I've had yet in this game was when I was newly hatched and wanted to check out what all this Flashpoint stuff was about. A lvl 50 powerleveler apparently misread my interest and decided to be helpful so he ran me and a few others through it at hyperspeed. I had no clue what was going on or any idea about why this was considered "helping"... until I realized that people run them for social, LS/DS points and drops even when highly overleveled. But that wasn't what I was looking for so it was massively frustrating, I wanted to actually do it and have fun experiencing new content.

 

To each his own I guess. I like teaming with random people, it's just a shame that so few of them reciprocate the sentiment.

[Basiliscus]

I hate to say it, but the standard questing structure really discourages ad hoc grouping, because everyone has to be on the same quests, and be willing to do the exact same thing at the exact same speed. If someone in the group wants to go off and explore, but the others want to just quest, that creates conflict. Better to just do things at your own speed.

 

Older games, you really couldnt do anything on your own, so you were forced to compromise what you wanted to do, and how you wanted to spend your time for the sake of being in a group. I cant say this way is better than the current solo setup, but it did FORCE socialization, if thats what people are looking for.

 

Not to mention the faction system that has left certain sides (mostly republic) on some servers decimated, so you're lucky to break double digits on leveling planets. Older games had no factions so everyone was playing together, here half the server is behind a wall.

 

Another thing is that, well, we've already seen the content a dozen times while leveling up. I've been saying since the beginning, without some kind of cross server lfg thing, trying to find groups for the leveling dungeon, with level appropriate people will be a real challenge once the population hits 50, especially on lower pop servers, either the players just arent there at that particular time, or they would rather quest because they've already seem the FP a bunch of times on their main. So your choices are to either skip it, or get a lvl 50 to run ya.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Basiliscus

[Rimca]

1. People are naturally lazy.

2. You don't need to group for 99.9% of this game.

 

Which is the fall of this game for me.

 

2012>MMo>story>companion>gear>solo>pve>travel>pvp>operation>faction> play together

 

For me the fall of star wars is the core of the game, very poor game design because the game is not build around playing with other player but rather isolate each other to a certain level. Most of the player stay on this poor level design. And rightfully get dissapointed.

 

I got to say that instances were a good idea on paper, i alway get my named kill and nobody would ninja my mobs kill toward quest.

But in the world of instance my game is empty, too few people on the empty open world, all going to there own instanced part of there world.

 

Most of people are allienated IRL to some degree, why can't I virtualy be open to any other player by game design, not forcing but rather enhancing this gameplay ?

 

Greed is good, right EA?

 

I guess some people live IRL in an instance too.

[Nexdine]

I hate to say it, but the standard questing structure really discourages ad hoc grouping, because everyone has to be on the same quests, and be willing to do the exact same thing at the exact same speed. If someone in the group wants to go off and explore, but the others want to just quest, that creates conflict. Better to just do things at your own speed.

 

That's what the holo participation thing enables, but it's rare that it gets used I find, at least in my groups. But in theory a group of people running generic quests could get many of them and turn in many of them more or less simultaneously while using the holo function.

 

Or if someone needs to go haring off to do something else while in group, then fine - he/she can participate via holo for the needed quest talks. Assuming the quest in question isn't one that mandates physical presence of course.

[Game-Hermit]

The only way for me to enjoy playing with other people is for me to join an adults only guild with a strict and thorough recruiting process. I met a lv50 warrior in WoW who didn't have defense stance trained and asked me (a warlock) what level he gets it, then called ME stupid when I told him lv10. There are at least 2 of that guy in every pick up group I ever joined. Guilds are the only reason I'm able to be social. If I had to deal with random people I'd play nothing but single player games.

Yep, just killed the world boss and the jedi ninja'd the +aim earpiece. This is why I don't PUG. >.<

[RabidPopcorn]

What is it with this game that makes players so antisocial? Im not talking about getting heroic or flashpoint groups. (which is another problem)

 

I was questing in Nar Shadda last night. I play as a healer spec Sage, and noticed there were two other players pretty much doing the same quests in the same order as I was. We were all going around getting quests at around the same time, and killing mobs in the same areas. So I decided to message them to see if they wanted to group for the quests. Nothing....no replies at all. Not even a " no thanks, Id rather solo".

 

later on in the evening I found one of these other guys lying dead. I guess they had died from fighting, or had gone afk and been killed or something. Not really sure. So I revived, healed and buffed him. Not a "thanks", or a "appreciate it". The guy just stood there looking at me, and then ran off.

 

Is it because we have companions in this game that people dont want to group? I like to solo at times myself but its nice to group up for quests if we are all doing the same ones.

 

Its making me wonder why I even rolled a healer, since the only thing I heal is my companion.

 

The perceived "changing" nature of MMO communities: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=325564

[Farho]

People don't see messages in their chat panels. Fact. Sound or blinking type would be a cure. Edited March 9, 2012 by Farho

[TheSwamper]

I see a lot of people blaming the game, but I think most of that blame belongs on the players.

 

Myself included.

 

Let's look at the advantages of playing solo in ANY MMO:

 

- I play at exactly the pace I'm most comfortable with.

- I get all the drops.

- I take breaks when I feel like it.

- I never have to wait for another person to be ready, come back from afk, get to the instance, etc.

- I do the quests I want to do, in the order I want to do them.

- For NPC conversations, I get to skip what I want to and not skip what I don't want to.

- etc.

 

Some people might call this selfish, but so what? Am I expected to pay my 15 bucks a month to sacrifice what I enjoy for some vague 'greater good' of the game?

 

Note that nothing I've listed has anything to do with the particulars of this MMO.

 

Those that want to group will find ways to do so. Heck, even I will, when I feel like it, but I won't feel guilty if I turn down some stranger's random offer to group.

[Neoforcer]

why do pppl decline your group invite and are anti-social it because we do not want to be bothered by helping you quest. This is not because were in a new game that can be soloed i did this in wow not going to carry a newbie alt of some one..... If i want to be social i have my guild vent to be social.

[DNordman]

Those guys were not anti social. They just didn't know english. I bet they sit in a house with a bunch of other chinese farmers...not anti social at all....