DF zombies.

[Teslo]

A few months ago during a campaign to raise organ donor shortage awareness me and colleagues approached hundreds of people within the shopping district in a crowded city center. And roughly 50% of all people would simply pass you by without giving any intention to respond. Not even a simple notion to state they would have no time right now, they simply flat out ignore you instead.

So why, why would a virtual world be any different? It's just what society is like these days. In case you travel a lot and visit both cities as well as rural areas, it's very clear that in particular within cities this sort of anti-social behavior is the norm.

I actually think this is kind of an unfair comparison. For one thing, standing around advertising for ANYTHING isn't the same as entering into a task with a group of people that you're more or less stuck with for 10 - 30 minutes. Secondly, we're bombarded with advertising from all sources no matter what form of media we partake in. TV, radio, internet, gaming, even just walking down the street and seeing billboards and other random postings. Most people just want to get along to their destination and not have to talk to someone who's outside their current scope of interest. Doesn't matter if you weren't selling something, or that you were trying to raise awareness on a good cause. Your example here would be similar to people standing midway through the dungeon trying to tell folks that there's still hope for the Ala Mighan resistance, and they're trying to raise awareness of the suffering of the refugees.

Take an activity that you do with other people. Say, going to the video-rental store (Which virtually don't exist any more, but used to be a thing!). You're forming a group (Your family or friends) and going to the store to rent a movie. You all work together to accomplish that task, talking to each other about what movie you're going to rent, who wants to see what, etc. Now imagine doing that with three random people. The goal is to rent a movie. There's really no incentive for those four random people to socialize or even talk about movie preferences. They're just going to go in, pick a movie, then go their separate ways.

EDIT: Of course I just realized, like a total derp, that your example is actually a good example in-spite of itself! You're attempting to accomplish a task by raising awareness for your cause, so that's a group that you formed with people. I'm sure you socialized with the other members of the group in order to accomplish a task, rather than wordlessly handing out fliers to each member and sending them off. Granted, this is an activity that you can't really "DF" without at least SOME communication. Though you could get stuck going out with people who just want to get the job done and go home, which would be your DF Zombies, in this case!

[Eye_Gore]

Actually a bit surprised by a lot of the replies in here. A lot of you say that "well I'll never see them again so why talk to them" thats pretty bad in my opinion. I wonder how old some of the people are that say this, maybe I'm too old fashion, maybe this social game really isn't. Maybe it is all a bunch of mindless zombies that forgot why they started playing in the first place, or why they still play, like being programmed for one linear function only. I understand why the DF is what it is, most no one cares about anything but themselves in this social game. Well I'll keep at my futile attempt at trying to talk to people.

[kyuven]

Actually a bit surprised by a lot of the replies in here. A lot of you say that "well I'll never see them again so why talk to them" thats pretty bad in my opinion. I wonder how old some of the people are that say this, maybe I'm too old fashion, maybe this social game really isn't. Maybe it is all a bunch of mindless zombies that forgot why they started playing in the first place, or why they still play, like being programmed for one linear function only. I understand why the DF is what it is, most no one cares about anything but themselves in this social game. Well I'll keep at my futile attempt at trying to talk to people.

Let me put this in customer service terms.
There are some people who will chat up the cashier and make conversation. Some, uncomfortably so. There are others that just want to get their product and leave. Games are a lot like that.
This IS a social game, it just doesn't FORCE you to be social aside from very specific circumstances.
And honestly that's the way it should be. I've played other games where communication is forced, and let me tell you it doesn't make the game any better.
The trade-off for the "zombies" on the DF is that any player anywhere at any time can queue up and get *something* done.
I've touted this over, and over, and over again and I will continue to do so as long as I'm playing games: Players HATE being frustrated, and they HATE being forced to wait unnecessarily. This is why DF-like systems started using server clusters/data centers for their queues instead of just the server itself. This is also why there's "entry level content" like the dungeons in the first place.
Contrast to other games that forced socialization, where you could log in as, say, a rogue, and end up waiting HOURS to get into one of very few spots in a dungeon, and then be forced to wait AGAIN if the tank and/or healer decided to leave too.
Then there's ones that attempt the middle ground and make dungeons that are harder than normal. Well, the thing is if you make something TOO hard, no one will do it at all. If your entire game is built around this, you're looking at low subscriber numbers.
Thus, that's where we stand. It's not perfect, but it's the system we have to work with.

[Eye_Gore]

Let me put this in customer service terms.
There are some people who will chat up the cashier and make conversation. Some, uncomfortably so. There are others that just want to get their product and leave. Games are a lot like that.

When the cashier says "hello how are you today?" Isn't it customary to say something back, or just stand there all awkward staring at them? If I'm at the grocery and the bagger then asks "paper or plastic", do I just ignore them?

[Verlyn]

When the cashier says "hello how are you today?" Isn't it customary to say something back, or just stand there all awkward staring at them? If I'm at the grocery and the bagger then asks "paper or plastic", do I just ignore them?

Complete anonymity does some really crazy things to the way people behave.
Add to that the inability to interact with or friend/encounter people outside their own server ever again.

There are still things FFXIV can currently do to help rectify this issue, so it's not entirely in the player's hands just yet.

[Kiara1]

Whilst that sounds practical, I don't think it'd work in reality. Almost every European country has it's own language. Imagine how empty the servers would be ! :^(

Yeah I don't think it'd work, but one can wish! I am just a little sick of explaining strats in EX primal fights and half the people don't even understand me. And sometimes when I join a pf group I happen to be the only english speaking person in the group, meaning they speak their language and I have no idea what's going on. Eu servers suck, don't join them unless you are multilingual!

[Saseal]

I always say 'Heyos'/'Hellos'/'Hello, hello', etcetcetc and 'Thanks for the party!' (......unless I've been put into a rather foul mood during. Then I guess I'm not thankful for the party >_>). I will pretty much mirror the mood of the party - if it feels like it's a light group, I'll chat/joke. If it just feels.... busy or heavy (I don't know how to describe that feel) and silent, I'll usually stay silent also. If there's a wipe, I might try to lighten it with a "So close T^T" comment or a "Drat >.<" or something....a "@____@;;" if there's a close call or the fight was particularly hectic.
If people are chatty, I'll be chatty - in moderation, considering there's a 95% chance I'm playing healer.
If people seem like they don't give a shit that you exist, I won't say anything.

I don't feel that "you'll never see them again = there's no point" is the best way to look at it, but to each their own. It does add amusement and liveliness to a dungeon - no matter how many times run - when the people around you actually have a personality.... or at least polite enough to say hi. Makes a grinded dungeon more interesting. The best DFs are the ones that are good at both - chatty without getting in the way of the doing. In the 8 mans, the chatty ones stand out, to me and it's usually welcomed. It changes things up. You may not see them again, but at least the experience was a good one. Or, at least, different/unique.

In all, I'd rather have a friendly, comfortable group over a "godly" robotically silent group.

I've also noticed the sudden lack of commendation giving. I'm not really the type that thinks they need to be commended just for healing, but after pulling more than my weight in something and keeping the party from what would have been a wipe, somehow pulling off a miracle and what ever else.... nothing. Awesome. I guess I shouldn't try so hard if no one cares what you're doing for them. I always commendate the person who was either most friendly, did their job best, or seemed to go above and beyond. The people that shine. That is, when there's people left to commendate. Everything has become about getting out of the dungeon/trial like your ass is on fire. And I blame the weapon grind for it.

I'm sincerely hoping SE doesn't add in any more dungeon grinds - it's turning the playerbase impersonal and in a hurry. I doubt thats what they had in mind for the playerbase, but that's what it's become.

Feels like NYC (or worse, Penn Station) at 5pm rush hour - 'don't care who you are, gtfo of my way.'

[Laesha]

I've also noticed the sudden lack of coms. I might be totally off base, but i suspect this attitude developed with light farming and somehow creeped into dungeon content. Likewise, the new zodiac has lots of ppl running dungeons w/ in the same spirit as light farming (get 'er done), so it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to me, tho it could be coincidental.

I always used to give coms out, and sometimes i still do, but like others have mentioned i'm pretty much done going above and beyond at this point. I main whm, and used to A.B.C, stagger my holy's for max stun time, keep all my arc x/class skills on cD, dps with other spells when holy started giving diminishing returns, etc... But ppl don't seem to care. lol. They just expect it. So more often than not i just heal now. After all, the #1 priority to keeping a dungeon run short is to avoid wipes ^_^ so if extra effort isn't appreciated i'm not going to bother. lol.

Sometimes tho, if someone is nice, or talks, or tells me they like my glam, I'll contribute everything i've got down to the absolute last ounce of whitemagery i have to ensure they have the smoothest, fastest, most enjoyable run possible, even tho i know there are most likely no coms coming at the end.

[Noshpan]

Could be worse. Could be playing WoW where the majority of any conversation going on during a dungeon run is belittling and verbally abusing the party members. I'll take silent runs over verbally abusive runs any day.

Also, I can't type and fight at the same time. If I am typing out a message, then that means I'm not performing at my job adequately.

[Xairos]

I dont know if anyone chimed in with this, but you also have to look at the systems that the game is currently on:

On PS3/PS4 (at least for me without an attached keyboard) typing a hello is a bit clunky and takes more time then just not saying anything. PC is the only format that I can set the controller down, type, then hop back into the action.

Unless you play on PC with just keyboard and mouse, typing is kinda tough to do in the middle of an event. A lot of people say this game's battle is slow paced and what not, but man ill be darned if i have time to type something quick, typo-free, and then grab my controller to dodge a hazard.

Oh and lastly, I think this game has indoctrinated us all into this "hurry hurry" mentality since we all dinged 50. But that is another post.