MMO Social Epidemic

Well my view on the MMO genre is that you play with other people, not that every party is full of conversation. I am social on my FC chat and I don't ignore people when they ask me questions (at least not intentionally) or if we have a slow point in the dungeon like if someone DC's then I'll chat. Other than that I'm too busy to type anything while actually fighting. My rotation will slow down and I will do less dmg if I start chatting, I might also be slower to sleep or avoid AoE because I'm busy talking instead of concentrating on the fight.

I honestly don't see why people get so offended, this is a fast paced game and people are usually just concentrating or have nothing meaningful to say, nobody is being rude to anyone, just concentrating on their game is all.

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Originally Posted by Hocchi

I don't talk to people in real life, why would I in a game.
Silent dungeon runs go the fastest.

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And they're boring as hell.

I've played other games (mostly free to play mmos) and the amount of interaction, both good and bad, is quite a bit higher then FF14. I honestly think it is because of how the game was and is being designed. From the beginning you start off solo but that isn't abnormal when starting out in other mmorpgs, what is different was the cross server dungeons. I hope party finder actually starts becoming more common, it really should have been part of the game in the beginning.

Funny thing about FF14 is it feels a lot like real life. It's like that feeling when you walk down the street and everyone tries to ignore everyone they don't know, almost like everyone is afraid of everyone else.

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Originally Posted by Artemiz

I honestly don't see why people get so offended, this is a fast paced game and people are usually just concentrating or have nothing meaningful to say, nobody is being rude to anyone, just concentrating on their game is all.

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Yeah I guess this is the crux of it, the thing is FF11 was alot slower pace and there was ample opportunity to chat in between pulls, waiting for replacement party members to arrive , after being forced to zone after a mob train etc.

I don't talk much in dungeon for this reason, I usually have alot to do and don't want to miss something.

FC chat? I dunno, there was by far alot more interaction in 1.0, used to average 3-4 tells when logging in and usually had some type of convo going in chat as well as people talking in vent/mumble.

Noticed a significant decline after 2.0 but that may be due to changing servers and only knowing a handful of people.

I always try to say "hi" at the very least during any DF Run. And afterwards, providing the people don't immediately run to the exit, I target everyone individually and /bow as a way of saying thanks for the run.
Sadly, not many people tend to stick around :(

I'm still waiting to see "this is the entitled generation" thread to pop. It happens on every MMO, every year and it's always the generation after the OP that's the entitled one, not his, of course.

My FC chat is pretty active, and if it isn't then we are on Team Speak. I chat in a PuG if people need help, or if they say hello. Otherwise I stay quiet because I don't see a need to talk. I don't think that makes me or them anti-social.

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Originally Posted by Moontide

I quit Guild Wars 2 altogether after the incident. I can't imagine how antisocial some people can be in a game that's supposed to be a social experience. Nothing that bad happened on FFXIV yet for me though. Then again I haven't touched lv.50 content just yet.

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Updating. Finished Praetorium for the first time on my other character. This'll be my one and only QQ I ever post on these forums and a bit beside the point. Sorry for that. Either way it was as I feared. Impatience, belittling, not letting people watch cutscenes lest they'd miss the fights. And I was specifically begging them to wait for me since the beginning. It was a nice conclusion to a PvE story turned seriously sour during the last few meters thanks to the intolerant party members. Community is what makes or breaks an MMO for me. If this was indicative of how the endgame community is, it's time for me to look for a new MMO.

Moontide, same thing happened to my hubby and me in Prae. Some members were fantastic while others rushed ahead and griped the entire run. It was rather discouraging. My experience in AK was even worse.

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Originally Posted by Moontide

Updating. Finished Praetorium for the first time on my other character. This'll be my one and only QQ I ever post on these forums and a bit beside the point. Sorry for that. Either way it was as I feared. Impatience, belittling, not letting people watch cutscenes lest they'd miss the fights. And I was specifically begging them to wait for me since the beginning. It was a nice conclusion to a PvE story turned seriously sour during the last few meters thanks to the intolerant party members. Community is what makes or breaks an MMO for me. If this was indicative of how the endgame community is, it's time for me to look for a new MMO.

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I have a feeling you'll be disappointed wherever you go.
I haven't found an overall worthwhile community in a good online game since PSO ep 1&2. The other online PS games actually had decent communities as well (compared to other games, at least), but the games were rubbish, so that couldn't hold the experience up on its own.

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Originally Posted by Dark-Saviour

I have a feeling you'll be disappointed wherever you go.
I haven't found an overall worthwhile community in a good online game since PSO ep 1&2. The other online PS games actually had decent communities as well (compared to other games, at least), but the games were rubbish, so that couldn't hold the experience up on its own.

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Out of the half a dozen or so MMOs that I've played only the two I've mentioned now have had such problems though. I know such people exist in all MMOs probably, but the bits where you're forced to deal with that community are the hurtful ones. I can't think of too many similar situations where a blue-eyed first timer gets trampled so a few people in the party can get to their next piece of high level gear 3 % faster.

Some tools or even restraints to encourage friendlier behavior seem like something FFXIV could use as a whole.

It's what happens when you have a story based level especially solo based and no exp gring parties and duty finder. Thanks mainstream gaming

To me dungeon runs are just like bus rides. I want to get to my destination as quickly as possible with as less stress as possible.

I believe people would be more social if they either 1) are not the first person to speak or 2) SE made it easier to either type or talk.

I'm a shy person, making friends online was a big thing for me but after enduring the shutdown of various games over the years very few of those friends are still around. Losing contact with friends you were close with for years is depressing and it never gets easier. After the last game I played shut down and the friends disappeared, I told myself I wouldn't go through that anymore.

I think the battle system makes me shy. In 11 as well as being slower paced there wasn't really that much room for error. Whereas in ARR sometimes it feels just missing one GCD or not moving quick enough will ultimately cause a wipe. Theres a lot of pressure. Even in Party Finder groups that advertise for newbies to learn the various Trials do end in cursing "learn how to do ur job" and rapid disbands when things go wrong. It feels like you have to prove yourself to even be entitled to talk. But after a win half the party is gone in 10 seconds...

A lot of true things have already been mentioned here!

"A community won't just come to you, you'll go and meet it halfway."

I've had the exact opposite experiences. I was just thinking yesterday how happy I was that every time I queue for Low Level Duty Roulette everyone's been friendly, chatty, nice, and very helpful.

The other day I was queued into a Pharos Sirius run and most of the people were new, and we wiped a few times, but we got through it and everyone had a great time (everyone was randomly queued).

Yes, there are prima donna healers and d-bag tanks and obnoxious dps but I find they only tend to act that way when people aren't performing at a reasonable gameplay level, which is something I completely understand. I've rarely run into people that have been negative, impatient or mean from the get-go (with the exception of speed runners and trolls in CT but that's still few and far between).

Also, it helps to be friendly, open and talkative. Complaining on the forums that nobody's talking to one another without actually making the first move to be social isn't the way to go about doing it.

The game plays like a single player RPG. Honestly, I don't even know why it's online at all in the first place. This might be contributing to the silence. There's very few things in the entire game that actually require communication with other players of any kind. Coil, CT, that's about it, right? If the game consists largely of single player content, or content where all you have to do is memorize a boss' script to succeed, a lot of people aren't all that motivated to speak. Again, it's a single player RPG put online for whatever unfathomable reason, and it seems that a good chunk of the community just seems to disregard the fact that there even IS a community at all. When you have to go out of your way to do something, and it's not required to get the job done, sadly, not many people are going to do it.

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Originally Posted by Marael

The game plays like a single player RPG. Honestly, I don't even know why it's online at all in the first place. This might be contributing to the silence... it's a single player RPG put online for whatever unfathomable reason, and it seems that a good chunk of the community just seems to disregard the fact that there even IS a community at all. When you have to go out of your way to do something, and it's not required to get the job done, sadly, not many people are going to do it.

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Bingo. This is precisely the issue.

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Originally Posted by Orryo

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Welcome to 2013, it's not just MMO that has lost the social aspect of society.

I often do DF dungeons with 2 of my friends and we use other means to chat (Ventrilo, Teamspeak etc.) just because we don't say more than 2 words to you doesn't mean we're not talking and socializing

i dont bother talking because someone always wants to be a smart ass or has an attitude problem.

I don't talk much in duty because I'm on PS3. It's pretty much impossible to talk while in battle with no keyboard.

I'm very social, in FC chat and on vent, but during instances I have to put down my controller, reach for my keyboard, type something, and then take the controller again, to be able to chat. This I can do in short pauses or just typing one or two letter abbreviations, but it's difficult to type long sentences while pushing button combinations on a controller. Still, I sometimes feel that I want to say things, but it's just not possible. Also, I'm concentrated when I'm gaming and sometimes I can't talk because of that, not even in vent. I wish ppl would stay after an instance and chat for 20 seconds, about the run, it would be nice.

sorry OP, but players who enjoy being social while playing a game online are not going to stop being social while playing a game online unless the game does not LET them be social while playing it...

since FFXIV is not one of those games (there are many chat channels, linkshells and FCs to be social in), seems to me that you happen to be playing with alot of players whom do NOT enjoy being social while playing a game online, nothing more

If you want social maybe you should start a anti-duty finder committee.

Sadly, this all comes down to all experience is relative. To you, your server, and the people around you. If you log in and no one is chatting in shout, then you que and get a half baked party that is too busy figuring out how to dance they don't chat mucn, and then you back and in your massive FC that is super impersonal... yeah I could see how some could say this game has a lacking social experience. But so does real life. It is what you make it. Try this; Be spontaneous, be friendly, use emotes, and just try... try, to make a friend. Dare you can't not find someone to hang with while you play this game that you've never met in real life.

Duty Finder systems have done some pretty nasty things to the networking in MMORPGs, lots of people will never meet on their server because they can just skip all the communication with the impersonal cross-server DF grouping system. Don't get me wrong I've met some wonderful people in random DF groups and you should still try to be polite and talkative in those, but mostly you never meet the same nice folks again after the dungeon so it makes making new friends in ARR much more difficult. I've been stuck on a japanese server as I gambled on being able to transfer off soon.. so making contacts on the server is not easy either..

If you can, run content only with friends you've made on your server and your FC, it makes for an infinitely more enjoyable experience than DF can ever give you.

Here's my two cents. It's less of the lack of social. I live in my own FC and LS bubbles though often I shout and make conversation in parties. I take that initiative. Some people aren't that social unless they are spoken to. I know outside of game I am that way. It's not because I don't want to talk, it's just taking me a long time to mull over what I want to say to initiate conversation. I normally say hello, and if a party is quiet, then I let it be or sometimes I just begin to throw jokes.

However, I had the experience that someone was silent throughout an entire run until he was mad at us. We were in WP, and we were goofing off, grabbing almost everything, and he'd just start yelling at us and calling us stupid. We made it a challenge to actually get him to talk since he never said hello at the beginning. And it was so fun messing around with him! The three of us had a good laugh in the end. But it's what you make of it. If areas are quiet, do say hello and bring life to it.

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Originally Posted by Teon

Every 2014 mmos have the same exact thread. Every single one.
Ends up with a common agree about how many jerk sociopaths are online. Some will tell you they chitchat on LS/FC (eventually).
Some will question "talk about what , hi was enough, now do your job or you're kicked".
I understand what you may feel missing: an alive highly social community, everyone smiling each other even if never met, helping each other, working together chitchatting about the battle, laughing if dead.
Those days on mmos are long gone, i doubt they will come back anytime soon. Let's deal with it or jumpship hoping next mmo will be more social (it will not).

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It will change the day mmos stop being theme parks and more social based, think swg (pre cu of course) or uo... now days its all about loot and levels.. and thats the problem.