Why did mmo's become so anti social and friendly?

[Gilraen]

I miss that little Chocobo mouse icon

I liked it, too... so I made a cursor out of it. It's only two panels of animation, you know. Making a full cursor set, though, I haven't done.

[Ulathskullsplitter]

Because game developers quit releasing single player rpgs. Especially jrpgs. People like me who grew up in the golden era of the jrpgs always had something to play back in the day. Almost every month saw multiple new releases. Nowadays we are lucky to get 2 or 3 jrpgs in a year. So the antisocial gamers have had to migrate to mmo's as the only source for their stat grinding, loot hording fix. I don't want to log in to chat and make friends. I just want to play an rpg and get my fix that isn't available to single players anymore. Ever since the "cool kids" took over my hobby all that gets released are first person shooter and sports games. I wish gaming had never become so mainstream.

[Emtron]

You know what you do?
Take a screenshot and make fun of their rudeness :]

Thats actually a really good idea.

[Warlyx]

Or the original intro in 2003ish? Was still on the PS2 version for a while.

EEEYYYYYY.... WEEEEOOOOEOOOOEOOOEEEEEEE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LQ-iCZ2FnE

beat that !

vanadiel march medley in the distant worlds concert , awesome ! <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF0liILxnZ8

[Taruranto]

Instaces and focus on solo-content.

[Magis]

beat that !

vanadiel march medley in the distant worlds concert , awesome ! <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF0liILxnZ8

Holy crap! Thanks, this is awesome! Never seen it before .

Aghh, the nostalgia... hearing that horn come in and play the melody, gives me a tear.

[darkstarpoet1]

the problem is games have went from catering to one type of player to trying to make middle of the road games and get many different types of players together in the same game. when you have hardcores and casuals together you will always have different views and they are miles apart. there is nothing the devs will be able to do as long as they try to cater to both crowds they will continue to have a great divide in the community. with the great divides comes hatred and and a very caustic community.

[Asiaine]

Ever since the "cool kids" took over my hobby all that gets released are first person shooter and sports games. I wish gaming had never become so mainstream.

Good point! Costs to make games have gone up so much, that they only way to recover it is to make it mass appeal. This is different than games of old where it could easily be niche due to low production costs. However, consumer expectations are now to have games with amazing graphics (which is expensive). If we were all happy with 8-bit console games again, we would have more of the jRPG type games we loved.

So what do we do? Lower our expectations or perhaps look towards Indie games?

[Asiaine]

All is not completely lost... with a few changes, things could be made better:

1) Cross-world friend/black list, so we can stay in touch (or ignore) those we meet in DF.
2) Cross-world chat (so we can talk, and arrange parties with people we've met in other worlds and play together in DF).

(DF should not be a way to be anonymous, but a way to bring together more people to overcome the 'limitation' of multiple small worlds rather than one giant shard)

The next part that needs to be adjusted is much more difficult: What causes a strong community? The need and ability to interact regularly and extensively. Unfortunately, with combat, and dungeons, and battles as they are designed now, there is no need to spend a lot of time together. And the time spent is in such a way that you do not really have time to socialize.

Therefore, and to the chagrin of many, a 'slow time sink' needs to be introduced:
-- Combat that can be done slowly (unrealistic, as would need to change the entire game)
-- Battles that take a long time to do (unrealistic again)
-- A form of hunting where you stand around and do nothing (no one will want this)

Which means a new and novel system must be created. A sort of 'social points/reputation' system. Perhaps a mechanism where you earn reputation given to you by others... Almost, if you will. A player-driven levequest system where other players grant leves to friends first, and hopeful strangers next.

[Hiroradius]

Good point! Costs to make games have gone up so much, that they only way to recover it is to make it mass appeal. This is different than games of old where it could easily be niche due to low production costs. However, consumer expectations are now to have games with amazing graphics (which is expensive). If we were all happy with 8-bit console games again, we would have more of the jRPG type games we loved.

So what do we do? Lower our expectations or perhaps look towards Indie games?

For the record, I was always happy with the 8 bit and 16 bit.. The current level of RPG that come out are more focused on flashy graphics, the better they look usually the worse the story is and the less you are allowed to actually do in the game... Look at Final Fantasy 13.. it looks great, graphics are just wow.. fighting is so fast, and yet... the game is a straight path no exploration, the battle system requires almost no skill whatsoever (you just say fight and watch it, you can interupt it if something looks bad to say change a class or use an item, but otherwise your just sitting their watching.) The more they focus on graphics, the less they give us. I'd would be happy with 8 bit and 16 bit games again if they would give us more story, character development, exploration, and actually made fights where you needed to think and not watch.