Reverse WoW exodus

[Sivante]

I feel like the normal reasonable people left. I genuinely do. What we have left is the mmo equivalent of sloppy seconds.

It's weird because at one moment, 14 feels dead as hell. Maybe not in people afking, but like when you try to engage socially or try to be civil, this game is a corpse. I'm not talking about the 1000k people in a zone breaking the hunt train. I'm talking about the game. The queued up for frontline or msq or leveling. That game is dead. Anti-social. Anti new player, whatever you want to call it. Either out of contept or fear from moderation, this game is socially dead. Sure, your FC or your friend group are lovely, but your average player doesn't care. Your average party member is just in it for the reward. The joy of doing it is dead.

I just feel like if you told me 11 years ago, the community would devolve twice, I wouldn't believe you, but here we are. From the indistinguishable Wow/FF14 players of 2.0 to the heavily moderated players of today. Both kin in their contept for a social aspect. Both content with getting theirs while leaving you to twist. The passive aggressive arrogant sort. The "My game is the best game ever!" sort. The hypocrites and those who prop them up.

If there is an exodus, it's of the people who cared about the game. About its health and future. Because it's hollow now.

I despise how much I felt this.

[Ardeth]

I despise how much I felt this.

I despise that I feel it. That it comes out like that. After 11 years, this game is not social. It can be sure, but it is not by default. Absolutely not in no way.

To be fair, that describes the world as it is in real life. It's just that this is meant to be an escape from reality, not a reminder of it.

[Jeeqbit]

I despise that I feel it. That it comes out like that. After 11 years, this game is not social. It can be sure, but it is not by default. Absolutely not in no way.

That's just because people avoid social spaces in the game (mostly out of not knowing that they exist). It is a social game. Here is where you can find it...

Hunt trains
S ranks
Spawner/conductor groups
Alliance Raids
Field Operation /shout chats
Free Companies (actually active ones)
Novice Network
Venues
Roleplay events/hubs
Joining PF for any content... raids, spell hunting, maps, FATE farms. Often they will socialize, depending on the people in there.
Discord communities (which can be for FCs, statics, PUG groups that made a discord server, roleplay groups, etc).
Obviously statics themselves.
Content like Ishgard Restoration (or soon Cosmisc Exploration) when it's actually current content.

I do agree it is often hard for new players though. They feel that there isn't any because a lot of this is endgame stuff or they haven't got used to using Party Finder, haven't got into roleplaying or venues, haven't joined any discords, haven't joined the right FC or the Novice Network and haven't tried hunting or anything like that. So they don't see the social spaces. I believe that is why SE made the Fellowship Finder - as a way to funnel people into some social spaces that they have struggled to find and contrary to popular belief, it does work. Often these fellowships fill up with hundreds of players rather quick, despite all the memes people make about fellowships.

I think the problem you have is with people not chatting in a dungeon or in PvP and this is really why:
1. They don't know anyone there.
2. They are too busy fighting.
3. If you actually start talking in PvP often there is chatter. Just got to take the initiative. Someone has to... I do and it works.