Removed
Actual social system in WoW is nothing compared to how it used to be. Trade chat is basically all about selling boosts, visions, levels, mythic mounts. When you get into a group you don't get a single "hi", 'cause people just want to get their stuff and quit asap (read world bosses and other things).All you have is grinding, killing mobs together but nothing more. It is obvious that guilds do talk on Discord. Back in the day there was no Discord and game was full of life. People were chatting on different channels and they were like in every city. Now? Now you've got ten thousand portals in Stormwind. Ironforge is totally a dead city (used to be the most crowded one). You simply put everything in Stormwind, forcing people to be here in case they suddenly want to go somewhere else. Well, true, people are also in Boralus, 'cause there are teleports too (alliance player).Nobody care about social nowdays, because game is all about grinding to the death.People used to spend in raid 8 or more hours. Now that there's that whole group finder etc. people are leaving after first wipe. This is ridiculous, 'cause now you can spend 8 hours in raid just finding people 'cause of tens of groups active at a time.People got unpatient, want everything in an instant and hate waiting, because you guys pampered the community with stuff like teleports everywhere. Many small steps and now you got.. this.
The social aspects of gaming today is generally summed up in one word. Toxic. The things that are not toxic these days, aren't social. In general.The rest is addiction, escaping reality, depression, wasting your time away and of course, microtransactions.
The group finder tool is so toxic that I don't even attempt to use it anymore. This is not a good example of a social experience.
I've been grouping for rare mounts a fair bit lately, or for the friendly alpaca in Uldum (appropriate name, now that I think about it). People usually do say hi and ty at least, and there's usually a fair amount of chatter when waiting for spawns. There's still interaction out there for people who seek it. :)
Promoting solo play over group play results in an antisocial game.It shouldn't be this way, especially consider it's an MMO(RPG).
I'm thankful for the modern conveniences Retail has introduced over time, which meant that interacting with people was no longer mandatory. I'm also thankful that a lot of the people who complained about it now have Classic, even though it apparently isn't as social despite being nearly the exact same game as Vanilla.It's too bad there are still the people who want Retail to revert back in some ways to Vanilla, and I hope that if Blizzard ever listens to them, they won't go too far.I don't know why, but for some reason people have this idea that as soon as something is called MMORPG, you must absolutely play with other people or it's wrong and bad. But I don't see it that way. To me, MMORPG just means a big world in which I can cooperate with other players if I want.
I completely disagree with Brack, he clearly doesn't play his own game, and if he does, he's only playing with close IRL friends/family and doesn't include the random social interactions that everyone else is used to.The social interactivity has become more and more increasingly toxic over the years, across the entire gamer atmosphere, not just on Blizzard games, but all games.Gamers hate on each other day in and day out, and for what purpose? They gain nothing from it personally, nor does the person on the receiving end. The only thing that happens is a vicious circle of toxicity from more gamers as new gamers are brought into this new version of being sociable while playing games.We have an entire world that would like to censor all video games, are quick to blame video games for violent world events (See: Columbine News Stories from the mid-late 90s).J. Allen Brack, I challenge you to step aside from your own personal views on World of Warcraft, sit down, sign up for a World of Warcraft subscription, and play the game - both retail and classic, for 1 year. Come back and tell us you still feel the same way afterwards.
do you really think it's nice or fun to force a player (who doesn't want to) to socialize? I remind you that although there is a lot of content that you can do alone, it is always your decision to do it or not. You can't force players to connect with other people if they don't want to. That is not pleasant, they cannot force you to "make friends" if it is not what you are looking for. Maybe you have a wrong idea of what an MMORPG is, because you forget that it must be a game and therefore fun, that is a priority, then everything else comes.
Blizzard has a weird idea of what finding friends and guildmates mean. Anyone who plays FFXIV will likely know, because that's the only modern MMO that actually encourages social behavior. Friends and Guildmates are people you are going to play with more than once, twice, three times even. People you are going to anticipate waking up to talk to and hang out with. People that as soon as you log on you check if they're on to go do stuff with them.Wow hasn't had that in years and years. WoW has press a button, group with randoms you'll never talk to again. Even the Mythic+ system that you have to sign up for, people barely speak, you're declined 10,000 times if you're not 10 ilvls over what the dungeon even drops, then watch someone rage quit and ruin a key on one wipe because you didn't gigarush the timer.Wow is hardly a social construct anymore. Just because you can play with people, doesn't mean you're engaged with them. League of Legends is more social.
I have been playing since Vanilla and the game hasn't changed at all as far as being social goes.
You can't force people to socialize if they don't want to, the game offers you everything (really everything) if you want to meet new people (guilds, groups, arenas, communities, voice chat, etc.) The people decide that.
Wanting more people to play your game doesn't always make for a better environment.I still maintain that what WoW needs for its long-term growth is players that like the game... players that don't like the game & still play, regardless are not doing the game any good.Some aspects of the game that have been introduced in the name of advancing the social aspect of the game could do with being removed; sure, there would be a knee-jerk "Wai yoo doo dis...?" reaction to their removal, but the game would still survive, maybe even prosper more from it.Until society embraces 'quality over quantity', games like WoW are destined to fall into a mass gathering of isolationists who feel no more need to interact with anyone else other than to get an objective completed & move on... like a school of piranha at a feeding frenzy.Talking of isolationism, Wowhead needs a way to get their users informed that others have directly interacted with their input... commenting on stories/articles like this is all well & good, but where's the need to follow up if you can't see if anyone else quoted you, etc? Maybe a comment count is a sufficient metric for user activity to be measured...
I really like the point Archimtiros is making. It's true that by many aspects the game is very sociable still. And it is not so much by many others. But It's also good to remind ourselves of the past. Personally I would not want to go back to a world where I need 40+ minutes to create a group just to run a Heroic dungeon. Especially in levelling.As an example I started playing Lotro for fun and mainly the environments and the story. But the story in the Breelands naturally pointed me towards a dungeon, and I found myself incapable of running it due to lack of new players (ngl), but also due to not really any tools to find a group. I think it's a real shame to miss elements of the story, gameplay, and environments just because of that. So that's a big plus there for WoW and I wouldn't want it any other way.On the other side, I also feel like unless you're raiding in Mythic, raiding has lost its soul. Because you can find groups of people that are over-geared for the difficulty and that steam-roll the Normal and Heroic content, semi-hardcore ( Heroic + sometimes a few mythic bosses) guilds have lost all their purpose. There isn't a feeling of fulfilment when you get curve with your group as some of the guildies just get theirs in groups with random people they might never meet again. I feel like this aspect of the game has been broaden too wide, and lost its charm. It would not be a bad thing there to go back to something a bit less accessible to solo players.
My guild was planning to attend Blizzcon. We’ll likely do our own meet up if it’s appropriate instead. I’m as social as ever in wow. Moreso now than i was for several years. Like all social activities you get out what you put in.
I only know my own experience. In vanilla I joined a guild and we did dungeons and raids a few times a week. In TBC it was the same, until the beginning of wrath when my guild was disbanded one morning when I logged in. What killed it for me was LFR. I was playing disc priest and no one seemed to understand the spec., so I got heal, no, dps, no, heal, no, dps...it was hard to keep up. I was kicked for low dps. I was shocked. In cataclysm I was playing on my hunter. I tried to run HoO. First boss someone left so we waited, but it was the same all the way through until I ended up alone half way through. I finally finished by soloing later, and I did this until Legion. By this time I was a little phobic about pugs, but I joined EoA and literally secs later I was out. Now I leave all my dungeon quests until I can solo them. It is easier but less rewarding. I do miss group content but I just can't go through the pain any more. I pay for a game I can enjoy playing not for stress.