No Community

[LineageRazor]

Just from my experience, console players are less invested and quick to jump to the hot new title that hit the shelves. They just play so many different games. The PC players that I know play less games overall and are far more commited to the mmo(s) they play.

Then there are those who play PC and console games. Man, I wish I had that kind of time.

I dunno if PC players are any better. Thanks to gaming services like Steam, PC players are FLOODED with cheap but entertaining games. I'm pretty sure that, PC or console, whether someone is "flighty" and hops from game to game is going to depend on the person, not the platform.

[AreciaRhi]

I made friends that I talk to everyday (even out of the game) in Final Fantasy. You have to put forward the effort if you desire something like that. I was super anti social when I began to play, but after a while I got tired of it. And even if people are on console I still try to get them to speak

[Voltyblast]

Hmm I don't think there's a "lack of community", however it's definitely overlooked and kind of absent for what I've noticed in the last years: I've been FCless and Linkshell-less (Is that even a word?) for several months and I can pretty much do anything on my own and I literally have no need for a Free Company or a linkshell for how little they impact my gameplay: I cleared Nidhogg with pugs (7 months later but still), I cleared Sophia with yet another Pug and I'm finding Pugs to train for Zurvan.

So....I dunno, I think it's just overall absent than "lacking". Might be wrong but as long as I can do my content, my roulettes and my few trials, I don't see the need to contact anyone. There's quite literally no incentive as far as I'm concerned.

But I might be wrong so take a shot at it: you might be lucky.

[Aramina]

The most salient thought I’ve had here is I miss hating someone so bad that I wrote their name down in a book and stayed up till 3AM grinding so the next time I seen them I'd kill'm and dance on their body while they watched from the afterlife. I want to feel genuine gratitude to someone who escorted me thru Jugnar Forest for my first trip to Jeuno.

Wildstar tried to bring the challenge back. As a commercial venture, it failed. Miserably.

edit: Also: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur...e_.php?print=1 I know it's cool these days to claim 'they must be 14 year olds in their parents basement' but it has been proven time and time again this is simply not true. FWIW, I am a 43 year old... though I do have a 14 year old daughter so maybe I am gaming vicariously through her? o_O

[Seig345]

This seems like an age old argument that has been through the mill on these forums.

Yes, the older MMOs were harder, and therefore you had a greater sense of connection with other players (be it friendly or hostile). WoW broke the genre from niche into mainstream gaming, and businesses are only going to look at those numbers.

We also knew ARR was going to be WoW since at least 2013 when Yoshi himself made a direct comparison to what his goal was for FFXIV's design. Anyone who was paying attention to the game prior to relaunch wasn't surprised to see the game running on the themepark formula.

[Kosmos992k]

I’ve been struggling to define what’s missing here to those who didn’t get PK’d and all their shit taken in UO. The most salient thought I’ve had here is I miss hating someone so bad that I wrote their name down in a book and stayed up till 3AM grinding so the next time I seen them I'd kill'm and dance on their body while they watched from the afterlife. I want to feel genuine gratitude to someone who escorted me thru Jugnar Forest for my first trip to Jeuno.

I see, and you are complaining about a lack of community? If you really think, feel and act as you described, then your exactly the wrong kind of person to be trying to talk about a lack of community.

[Nixxe]

SE went with the "WoW" business model because...They're the lowest common denominator and simultaneously the largest market

There's no game design that can force you to make friends. WoW has changed a lot in the decade I've played it and certain types of content no longer promote the same type of interaction they used to, but all that has really changed is that those opportunities for socialization moved to other parts of the game. Heroics no longer really provide a social experience, but you can bet m+ dungeons do, as that's a type of content where networking and consistency are greatly advantageous. Raiding with any seriousness has always been a huge opportunity as well, even if the casual end of things is largely anonymous. FFXIV has a lot of those types of opportunities as well. I don't really think it's some critical game flaw if it doesn't dump friends in your lap, but simply provides you the opportunity to make friends if you choose to.