Lets talk about the social aspects....

[AppleJinx]

I play on the PS4 without a keyboard so typing is hard.

[RiyahArp]

The worst thing to happen to MMOs was Discord. That's where all the socialization went. They are all talking out of game on it.

[Vidu]

The worst thing to happen to MMOs was Discord. That's where all the socialization went. They are all talking out of game on it.

...and why is that such a bad thing? I'm very happy about it - I enjoy the voice chats with friends far more than having to type everything in chat and its great that I dont have to be logged into the game if all I'm doing is talking to my friends anyways (aka: not playing the game and just using it as a chat-programm with a pretty interface).
You can still meet people in the game, if you want to.
But whats the difference if an FC talks in there private FC-chat or on their private discord-server because thats more convient?

[Soupa]

I have an FC to talk with. I just find the game at large was more social in ARR and HW. That said I have changed servers since that time.

....Isn't that enabling the problem you talked about in your first post?

EDIT: Oh wait someone already called you out on it NVM

[Paladinleeds]

To me, I have made friends, but I'm not usually the initiator. Thing is, I made a friend (who has now since moved to another datacentre), because they loved my dark skinned au ra. I've actually made friends off this forum, including someone off this very thread (Vidu, I'm looking at you here). Fact is though, while I do try to muster up some conversation, it usually only happens if something has gone wrong. I do try to say my hello's and goodbye's but sometimes I forget even that. I'll be civil with people, but I'm in a duty to beat the duty, not to make friends. If I make a friend that's a bonus, but to me, the dungeons are a means to an end.

[Alestorm]

The worst thing to happen to MMOs was Discord. That's where all the socialization went. They are all talking out of game on it.

And before that was Ventrilo and Skype; using voice chat is nothing new in MMO's.

[Akor]

The worst thing to happen to MMOs was Discord. That's where all the socialization went. They are all talking out of game on it.

and before that we had mIRC, msn, icq, aoe, yahoo msg etc. So yea. Only time i rly chatted (ingame) is when there needed some organisation or everybody who was online in the game. If not i used other chat programs to talk to my guild mates.

I mean let us be honest, not everybody likes to start chating with randoms, only if u know you have something common with that person to start of a conversation.

I think today's age is way more easier to find someone in common than it was 10years ago, bc we have now twitch + discord.

[RiyahArp]

...and why is that such a bad thing?

It divides FCs for one. You end up getting cliques based on who uses it and who doesn't, and it tends to make normal FC chat very silent. Also its hard to split focus since you might text chat with it or swap files, so you often keep the Discord window/app open over in game stuff.

and before that we had mIRC, msn, icq, aoe, yahoo msg etc. So yea. Only time i rly chatted (ingame) is when there needed some organisation or everybody who was online in the game. If not i used other chat programs to talk to my guild mates.

None of these really replaced ingame chat though. Even vent and teamspeak tended to be limited to raids; the culture was different then. Discord manages to draw people out of the game to socialize a lot more, during actual gameplay.

[AphraelAmarantha]

I just don't like people in general, in game or irl. I don't know, why would I want to talk to you? I just want to do my play vs environment and do the story mode when its available. If I had the option I would solo the dungeons, but since I cant, I have to tolerate three to 23 other people depending on the content. I am not adverse to making friends but I have trust issues so its usually a problem that I don't want to deal with anymore.

inb4 play single player game: There is no single player game rn that satisfies my itch for a good fantasy rpg like FFXIV does. If there is a single player game that has the same aesthetic and has a better story, I would love to know what that is (and I already played Skyrim to death lol).

[Aldora]

Social interactions start with the simplest things, like using an emote. A few days ago i saw someone walk up to me, stop for about 10 seconds while his persona was facing me. Thinking that he was checking me out or at least figure out what gear i was wearing, i bowed. He asked me if needed something from me. We started talking about other players walking up to and you can tell that they are checking you out and even taking pictures with your character (without saying a word).

Then suddenly an Au ra girl walks up to me and starts looking at my Minion. I responded with another bow, which was returned in kind. After that, a hilarious chain of reactions occurred which made me giggle. It basically went like:

- The male Huyr player i was talking to, told me to pet the Au ra girl, so i did. But, i also told her that "He made me do it"
- She responded to him with a hiss and a "No petting!" remark.
- She then switched to her Paladin, unsheathed her sword and pointed it to him
- I too switched to my Paladin, stood next to her, faced him and said "Together now!" while doing a /battlestance emote. (As if we were going to beat him up)
- Then a male Au Ra joined in on the "Conversation" and /pet me on the head.
- Shortly after we got onto our Christmas Bear and started throwing gifts at each other.
- This turned into a battle royal where 5 more people joined us and did the same thing.

Here's the full conversation (up until the point when gifts were thrown about):



The good part about this was that we haven't met before this and the conversation was totally random at that. /thumbsup

The moral of this story is that social interactions can be found everywhere, even in the game right now. It just might need a little push in order for it to flow. Just an emote of cracking a joke would be enough to set it into motion. (^_~ )

For instance:



Ever used /blowkiss on someone who has turned into a frog (especially after getting hit by a frog trap in Palace of the Dead)?