I was reading Ogrebears site today (thank you google reader!) and came across this post which really didn’t surprise me, and it’s not the only post like this. One key aspect to ALL mmo’s is community. Some of us find that easier then others. Lets say you’re not a member of CoW (there are a few out there, right?) and you pick up WAR and start randomly playing. How interested are you going to be playing a game where no one talks. This means you can’t ask advice for your class. You can’t easily see guild recruitment messages, you can’t ask someone ‘hey have you seen so and so? I have no idea where I’m going here..’ — you COULD ask these things in says, tells, or in a group, or on the scenario channel, but not out wandering around.
No one talks. Even in the scenarios I’ve been doing, I rarely see any messages at all except maybe ‘hold this place! Work some defense!’ or other brief messages along those lines. There’s just no public channels for people.
Since plenty of other sites talk about how Mythic is ‘on the ball’ about fixing any and all issues that come along (ie: experience boosts for PvE, for low population servers, bug fixes etc) how long will it be before they notice their game has no welcoming community for the new player. This WILL be a turn off for people.
Put yourself in the place of someone completely new. It’s a lot different when you start the game in a prearranged guild, or are playing with friends. Not everyone plays the same and some times it takes a bit to get warmed up. The game is so dang lonely at times, you’re left wondering if you’re playing a different version of the game then everyone else and these characters running around are not characters at all but some form of elaborate bot.
I’m a huge advocate of community being key to any mmo. How much better would it be if folks could put out a “hey I need some help at this PQ” or “Hey we’re getting our asses handed to us in keeping this keep, can we get some help” and actually being able to bond with people outside of their own guild. How are you even supposed to know what sort of player a person is unless you stumble into a group with them and give them more then a second glance as you’re doing a scenario or taking a keep?
Worried about the amount of spam? Well there’s already LOTS of spam out there already and we’ve all found ways to deal with it. Seeing general chatter spam is a lot better then seeing nothing at all.
Didn’t take long at all for Mythic to address this issue at least. I see it’s added to their newest update notes. I’m very glad to see them making such great / fast progress.
It depends on the PvE actually… if you’re in a battlegroup and you’re going for Gunbad then you definitely need to talk. PQ don’t really need any kind of talking, but they’re still a good way to meet people to team up tith eventually
It all has to do with the PvE. No PvE means no reason to talk with anyone to join up or discuss adventures. No reason to socialize (which is what happens in PvE mostly)
As Lars said…but in my opinion..all competition equals no reason to make new friends. I think you would prefer to kill them!
Yeah, I think part of that is simply because the game is faster paced. You have this competitive edge to the PQs where you want to “contribute” the most, so you have a better chance at the big drops, so clearly you aren’t going to sit and chat. During scenarios, every second you spend chit chatting is a second that the opposing side has an advantage over you. I would like to see a world chat mode in PVE though, because that’s the part of the game that really feels dead to me. Even if the general chat can often become pretty juvenile, without it the world feels dead and empty.
I, by no means dislike in game chatter and can definately agree it adds to the game, However, in my MMO gaming experience I find I do find a lot of people in general chat either flaming each other (in either a fun/not so fun way), brag, use heavy profanity (filter or no, I have a child that games with me sometimes), or go off on a crazy tangent on how great WoW is/isn’t. All that leads me to turn general chat off.
So, I’ve noticed general chat is empty but haven’t thought twice about it. Of course, I realize I’m probably alone in that aspect and have accepted my role as a MMO freak :-)
Good point. Once Casualties of WAR closed recruiting, my desire to play WAR vanished, because why would I want to play without friends? I can play plenty of games of that variety for nothing. Hearing that mostly when you’re not with people you know, it’s a silent, solo game, is a real turn-off. I saw Warhammer all over Best Buy yesterday, and I almost bought it — but knowing I’d be playing alone kept it on the shelf.