Do people see this game as an MMO?

[Illmaeran]

Yes, I do still see it as an MMO, and not just on the technicality that there are many players at once. As a couple of you have mentioned, the genre's not the social outlet it used to be, but we do still get to interact with a wide variety of people. Being on a JP server, I don't get the same random chat interactions I used to get on NA servers in other games, but we do still get interaction. Knowing that the majority of characters I see in the game have people behind them gives me a sense of being a part of a community who have a similar interest even if I never speak with them.

I do miss the days where MMO implied higher amounts of social interaction in text chat or voice chat. It is what it is and the community of players has changed so game design has too. It's still an MMO though.

[Shougun]

There are games that do the old school social mmo ideas (particularly thinking of the RPG side), but I think largely overall what an mmo is has drastically changed in a general sense. Often there are large, very large, sections of small scale to solo RPG elements, and of course friend features that old school mmo design would be like "wot teh heck? WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'FEATURE'?" but it is so often I think sometimes people are living in a past dimension when discussing like "this genre isn't for you then". Perhaps uncomfortably for some but what an mmo generally means has changed a lot.

Doesn't mean there is no social, but social is often more a suggestion rather than foisted upon a player (for a large amount of content, there are exceptions). Yet there are absolutely people still hanging out chatting and such.

I do think this is where the global / general chat systems have value that SE may be able to take. Novice network is often treated as such, to the chagrin of others lol. I think that just shows the demand some have. An /optional/, perhaps defaulted to off but introduced as you progress through the game, general chat system or system(s) would probably help some people with their social desires. Of course it will probably lean a bit towards the Xroads WoW chat lol, but simply walking around Ul'dah or parts of Limsa feels almost similar xD.

[Kes13a]

I do think this is where the global / general chat systems have value that SE may be able to take. Novice network is often treated as such, to the chagrin of others lol. I think that just shows the demand some have. An /optional/, perhaps defaulted to off but introduced as you progress through the game, general chat system or system(s) would probably help some people with their social desires. Of course it will probably lean a bit towards the Xroads WoW chat lol, but simply walking around Ul'dah or parts of Limsa feels almost similar xD.

I would be heavily against any form of global chat. I never found NN that bad unlike some peoples experiences, but I certainly dont need another games Trade chat or barrens chat in FFxiv, and I doubt SE would want to moderate it

[RitsukoSonoda]

I think it has more to do with people in this part of the world at least just not wanting to read or type. Over the years the frequency of seeing say "Must have *insert voice chat program here*" has increased in online games and the frequency of people asking questions that the game answered in text based tutorials or text based NPC dialogue increased in all games in general both online and offline. I wouldn't be surprised if an overwhelming amount of apple product owners have already agreed to being part of a human cent-ipad... >.>

[Shougun]

I would be heavily against any form of global chat. I never found NN that bad unlike some peoples experiences, but I certainly dont need another games Trade chat or barrens chat in FFxiv, and I doubt SE would want to moderate it

Even if optional and defaulted to off? At that point why be against it? NN I've not seen as bad as barrens but I have seen Ul'dah and Limsa shout near equal lol.

[ReynTime]

There is little incentive, from a design standpoint, to have a lot of chatting in XIV (and other modern MMOs) due the solist nature of its content and progression.

[Nishira]

It has changed a lot. I have changed as well over time, I used to be more social myself. Maybe that’s the case for more people, I don’t know In dungeon runs I only chat if there’s no rush and everyone is contributing to the conversation, because then I don’t run the risk of letting the tank die. I miss how common that was, and how it’s not a thing these days unless you play with friends and such. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy dungeons with strangers a lot less these days, I find quiet, efficient and fast runs just mindnumbingly dull and robotic. They used to be an opportunity to make new friends.

So I get what you mean. I’m afraid I contribute to it as well tho

[Aelin_Ashryver]

Well I don't have much of talk in dungeons no matter how I start it. As for fc not as easy. What more I want people to talk in game not on a side app that make me stop playing the game.all fc say they are active and all that but 99.9% never are.

Talking in voice chat on a discord does not make you stop playing for more than the half second it takes to hop into voice. If you are typing you may as well type in fc chat. Just bounce about till you find one that is more active. My first fc was totally dead, the two after and my most current are much more active and have chatty ppl in em. Raiding fc's got some good people in em, some toxic ones too but I just ignore them xD

[Scott]

The Gameplay is just to fast to chat. Back in FFXI I always talked during leveling partys and stuff but in XIV there is just no time to talk because you are constantly busy pressing buttons.

[Roda]

I still say that this is because there is a hard mechanical separation between player communication and gameplay.

Because I am staring at the center of my screen and at the actual game world, I never see the socializing going on in my chatbox unless I stop what I'm doing and focus 100% on that tiny corner of my screen.

It just goes from a silent game world to an irc chatroom, and neither of those experiences really capture that vibrant mmo feel.
(Pls give us a speech bubble toggle.)
(There's far more banter in any of my mmos with chat bubbles than in this game)