I hate raiding, I hate free companies

[DayHealer]

Too many MMO players lack crucial social skills and when confronted with that fact they would rather project their failures onto other people.

Not to say that casual content is a shining example of communication, because it isn't by nature of how this battle system works. But you can see how people fall apart when there isn't a crutch of forced interaction like there is in places like Eureka. And worst of all because they blame it on everyone else they never attempt to learn social skills.

From all possible examples you take Eureka? like REALLY?

Last time I attempted to do it there were only 2 other guys in the map with me.

[Vidu]

I think there's a big difference between the social scenes in certain content. Players in Eureka and Bozja were very social, compared to the typical daily roulette where people just say "o/" at the start and "gg" at the end. At least part of that is probably because you had to shout for a group in Eureka but you don't have to talk at all to get into a DF party.

...or it might be because Eureka and Bozja have/had a lot of downtime while people were just sitting around, waiting for the next NM/FATE to spawn - instead of running from objective to objective like they do in a dungeon. For a good part they were basically 3D-chatrooms because the only gameplay - killing mobs to spawn the next NM - wasnt very interesting for a lot of people. I dont mind downtime to much, but I'd still say that that wasnt the height of gamedesign... But at the end of the day, that might be me, since I'm mainly here to play a game, not to seek social contacts (ironically enough, I get both - just married someone I met in the game 10 years ago, with people who've been playing the game with us for the past couple years as guests.)

It has always baffled me though to see how almost "desperate" people seem to seek out games like this to find "friends" or some social interaction - or rather how much of an important aspect of the genre that seems to be for people. Maybe I dont understand it because this is my one and only MMO and things were different in ye olde days, but still... seems really, really weird to me...

[Voltyblast]

To be fair, I never hated the raiding aspect in itself, because raiding is just a type of content and it doesn't always mean that people will change because of it. I was a raider in other games but I still played with my friends, so in the end I think the issue was the friends ou had were already problematic, not the raid itself.

Regardless, in this game, FC and raids don't even mesh: even when I raided in ARR, the raids themselves were settled via statics and not actual FCs (I think i only knew 1 or 2 raiding FCs) and I always believed that statics weren't just as organized or well kept than a FC/Guild. In guilds you usually have order and people in charge that had to keep the players under control, and punish the ones who would misbehave, but in here you basically have this "first come, first serve", misbehavior hardly got punished (and if it did, it was because your performance was bad, not because you were a bad person, At least that's what happened to me) and this mentality isn't exactly what I'm used to, and I'm not sure how people can handle this. As a former class officer in another game, I found this whole demeanor unacceptable but "people are content" so I'll just step aside here and carry on.

As for the free companies themselves, I don't like them at all: I joined several but my last one left me such a sour taste in my mouth that I decided "enough is enough". Being shrugged upon because of a different opinion on the game's story - I know, it's ludicrous right? To have a different opinion something people like - was just the final stretch for me and to this day, 4 years later, I haven't joined a FC in order to avoid this thing again, because I have no time to waste with people like those. And anyway, I see no difference as I always played alone anyway so I don't even know I should complain! Oh well!

[LukaRoselia]

Yeah people in FC's are incredibly shallow drama whores who don't care about anyone but their own little friend circle. Been there, done that and I'll honestly never put up with it again.

The other end of the spectrum is that you practically have to live in the game to keep an FC thriving and it just generally isn't even worth it once you see how much people truly don't appreciate it.

[Nav_Fae]

Eureka and Bojaz's socializing is identical to what you can find in Novice Network and the Quicksands of Balmung. I rarely spoke in Bozja and Eureka because it was a lot of trolls and memes. Trigger bait or cliques talking to themselves through shout.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Eureka and Bojaz's socializing is identical to what you can find in Novice Network and the Quicksands of Balmung. I rarely spoke in Bozja and Eureka because it was a lot of trolls and memes. Trigger bait or cliques talking to themselves through shout.

I'll do you one better. Let me actually paint you what 80% or so of the typical Eureka/Bozja socializing experience is

Chat - "lfg leveling"
"any prep groups going on?"
"Has (insert big zone NM) already popped?"
"(insert name of NM) popped, pt 12, shout if you need more time"
"(insert corpse coordinates) can I get a rez?"
"Ovni popped, anyone has dispel?"
"lfg z1,z2,z3"
"when was the last CLL?"
"Did Dalriada already happened?"

Yeah the socialization isnt as substantial, we're all just little hamsters shouting the bare basics of communication and while I get people sorta like this in an MMO, its just plain wrong how hard people try to sell this idea when in fact the reality of exploratory zones just amount to doing this most of the time. Believe me, if you're doing Eureka or Bozja, for the love all that is holy, do so with an actual buddy (unless they're higher level in Eureka in which case you're screwed) because after having to deal with both zones 3 times on different characters just to get the Ozma mount and Shb relic completed, they're not as cracked out as they appear to be.

Usually a player would just pop in, do a bit of prog and then leave and prolly never come back after they finished the story and leave with a bad impression because of how boring the content is designed. I swear the only actual cool and fun parts of the zones are the raids, since they require more cooperation and planning on everyone's end.

[Burmecia]

I swear

.H̛͖̦̞̠̤͒̄̋̑̀̕͝è̢̮̦̮͈͈̺́͒́͋͊̎͒͠͠ľ̶̥̠̹͔͕̯̼̫͋́͋̑͘͟͡ṕ̶̛̤̗̳̹̹̙͓́͛̌͢f̝̞̝͚͓͙̪̀̓̓̓̕͘̕͢͟ų̷̡̛̞̯̹͓̩̥̠̽̍̒̄l̵͍̠̪͖̼̅̅̽̽͌̍̏ ḁ̧̯͓̫͉͙̫̩͛̾̍̿͘͠n̻̜̯͈̊́͋͊̊̇̆̒͐͟d̸̛̛͉̱̯̼͇̲͉̜̰͍̐̈́͋̅̓̀͘͞ â̡̙͈͒͆́̍̈́̀͂͗͜͢͜͡ç̡̬̮̞͚̬̳͚̓̿̈́̃͊͘͡ţ͇͕̼̟̫̃̿́̀̾̋̈́͝ͅi̸͍̬̣͔̙͕̘̻͒̌̏͂̌̆ͅv̵̳̦̤̠̰̥̣̘͈́̀̈́̽͊̚͜e̱͓͈͉̗̠͉͂͗̀͐̎̕̚ͅ F̷̢̣̙͇͖̭̌̆̄͋̕͞C̡̺͙͇͉͚͔͓̋̐̈́̾͊͡ w̛̛͍̭͈̺̖͆͊̍̍̑̔ĭ͕̰̘͙̈́̒́̍̇́̅̕̚͢ţ̢͎̙̰̦͌̉̽͒̀͟͝h̤̰̥̜̪̋̓͐̀̓̃͂̅ Ḿ̵̳̩̪̗̖̮͖͑́̓̈̀́ͅą̴͎̹̘̦̑͂͗̅̊̃̍̔Ň̷͓̼̱̼͋͐̑͜͞ş̵̟̹̟̣̑̀̀͌̂͜͝I̢̭̙̘̙̦͚̲̪̽̇̒͌̒ờ̵̡͉̙̠͕̞̯̒̃̒͘Ǹ̛͓͎̰̲͖̏͒̃̀͊͊͐͞ A̰̫̪̻̰̥̿̊̍̍̋̅̐͜͝ñ̵̪͉̜͇͉̳̯͗͛̅͌͞Ḑ̶̢̨̡͕̬͉̘̘͎̊͗̀̽͆͗̆̒̉͘ ḃ̸̨̡̢͙̟̿̆̑̇̓͛̋̿͢͟ͅƯ̢̦̘͔̘͓̮̅̏̀͛͋͟f̵̨̪͖͓̬̝̹̽̀̅̄̒̕͢F̴̡̺͚͙̻̩͎͚̹̆̃̋͒̉̀s̵̢̨̨̻̣̮̹̬͖͐͑̐̍̓̀͗̅́ͅ :̶̛͍̯͔̙̹̤͕͙̙͑̄͆̓̉͘͠Ḍ̶̡̘̪̞͍͕̬͂͗̊̉̇͟͡͡
.

if my favourite meme.

I joined 2 fcs in HW, FC1 was the coolest FC of the last season and FC 2 was the FC1 killer. Both were about equally wonderful.
Left with friend, converted friend's medium into our own FC house and never looked back. Still rolling with the same friend, 2 server changes later. Couldn't think of punishing myself with any random FC nonsense (dipping my toes into that with alts, to remind myself how it can be). Our fc is small, mostly irl friends, but we do have couple of just random people who joined and stayed, met by our casual raiding and mount farming ventures.

Almost everything in FC is FFA. Airships and Submarines? Use freely. Buff? Help yourself as you need. Flower pots and garden beds? Need not ask.
Fancy Jet blacks and Snow whites, and homeless minions? Sitting in chest's first page. Glowy trial weapons and treasure map mounts/glamours? Let's make it happen together.
+ Loan to buy your own house? Use it wisely. With every new raid tier everyone gets one crafted set for free. With new xpack we have 1-2mo exp 3 buffs ready.

That probably only works because we are so small. We are technically open to people who are looking for place like ours, but almost no one is.
But isn't that the beauty of it all? : )
People looking for FCs they need, FCs looking for people they want.