Physical Social Interactions

[Kirutsuki]

This is what I enjoy about multiplayer games in general, regardless if they are MMO's or not.

My past comes from the Monster Hunter series, which wasn't an MMO, but was an online game where alot of the gametime was time spent on speaking with other people in a smaller hublike area. Generally these rooms allowed 12people and it had a tavern where you would accept quests and while you were just chilling you'd have people to talk to who were either waiting for parties to return from their quests or otherwise.

This wholesome environment gave me a lasting impression of what it is like to meet people online to get together in these social situations. In 14 it often feel either forced or meaningless to try and be social.

One of the hopes I had for Island Sanctuary for example is that we could have our own little hub like area for people to visit either via random matchmake or otherwise and this area would act as a place for you to party up and start doing dungeons or daily roulette.

One of the things we do do in our FC is actually set-up these smaller events where FC members can get together, but it's never what the game does on it's own.

Think of it this way. Limsa Lominsa is one of the most utilized towns in the game, yet people just stand there and do nothing for the most part. There's literal orchestras trying to get some community situations to happen there, but there is not like a easy to access spot for doing certain activities in the game.

For example, if the The Drowning Wench and other taverns from major cities relocated or at the very least introduced a new sub-tavern like area next to the atheryte; that is freely accessible that just worked as a gathering spot for people looking to party up, it would work wonders for the physical social interactions.

Sure we have party finder, we have duty finder, but those to me don't serve as a meaningful way to socially interract with people.

So what would be the difference with a tavern area like this and just chilling next to the atheryte in Limsa? Well, it should be an area that holds only a set number of people, 4-8 or 24 people. For a much more sociable environment. where you actually see the player you are connecting with.

yes it would work essentially very similar to party finder, but it would actually be a physical place to hang out while still being in the party to start the raid.

Sure you could leave the tavern and it would just put you in a normal PF listing, but the tavern would still be there for you to hang out in.

I know there will be players who wouldn't see the meaning behind something like this because PF is already there, but for me I do think it's important to see the persons character to whom I'm partying up with and talking with.

And yes, this would require cross-world connection in the tavern, so it would connect all players from different worlds. Which probably is something alot of people will find a billion reasons why it's impossible.

[Rinoa_353]

What you're suggesting would be similar to the lobby people you que with others for Blunderville show up until the timer counts down to the start of the match and people come and go until then.

[Kirutsuki]

Yes, Blunderville was great. But reform that place into a tavern with places to sit and drink or eat, heck get some raid buffs BEFORE hopping into a raid. That'd be so cool.

[Shistar]

Yes, Blunderville was great. But reform that place into a tavern with places to sit and drink or eat, heck get some raid buffs BEFORE hopping into a raid. That'd be so cool.

Agree, it'd be really nice! Specially for DPS players having to sit in long queues for their duties, being able to pop into a lobby and chat with people either queueing for the same thing (useful to know what roles are actually needed, since sometimes the in-game counter gets a little confused) or just queueing their own duties in general. I like the idea of making the lobby in an area connected to your Island Sanctuary, since that content has been gathering dust for a while.

[Kirutsuki]

Agree, it'd be really nice! Specially for DPS players having to sit in long queues for their duties, being able to pop into a lobby and chat with people either queueing for the same thing (useful to know what roles are actually needed, since sometimes the in-game counter gets a little confused) or just queueing their own duties in general. I like the idea of making the lobby in an area connected to your Island Sanctuary, since that content has been gathering dust for a while.

Yea it was my initial thought that Island Sactuary would have both your private house you could set somewhere and have some bigger farmlands there.
and if you set up a gathering hub it would be a way for people in PF to easily connect to and join your island. Even if just inside the tavern you've built.
But it would kind of had to have been across all worlds in a DC.

But as it stands first off it's just too difficult to get into your own island sacturary. First you have to teleport to Moraby Drydocks and talk to an NPC.
Which is sooo bad for anyone wanting to go there regularly, let alone making anyone else join your island.
But also secondly the island just doesn't have any of the functionality I would wish for a system like this anyway,
so the only hope is that they expand on the island and make it more of a private lodging system that allows this sort of social interractions.

But as usual the devs just don't expans upon existing systems and keep adding more new instanced based content that is half assed finished when it launches.