I think I'm at that stage in my MMO career that what attracts me, more than anything else, is playing with other people.
 |
| There's always the automatic dungeon finder, dude. I hear people who use it are absolutely fantastic to play with. Just ask Reddit. From Imgflip (and Reddit.) |
I guess I'm just kind of done chasing the next new thing, whether it's a new expansion or a new raid or a new instance or new gear.*
There's only so many times you can be asked to keep running on that hamster wheel before you start to question why you're doing it in the first place. This is particularly the case if you're also questioning the quality and direction of other aspects of an MMO, such as the story or class design.
But.
I can throw all that whining out the window, since I have a group of friends I play with regularly and I value their company.
It is not a coincidence that I continue to both play WoW Classic Era and have a small group of friends to play with. If it weren't for them, I'd have likely not renewed my WoW game time when it ended back in early 2022, after I walked away from progression raiding. Hell, were it not for the Friday Night Karazhan Run that I raid led** until the guild up and moved from Myzrael-US to Atiesh-US, I'd have probably not made it until March, much less June of that year.
Yet here I am, almost two years later, and I'm still logging into Classic Era regularly.
***
It is also not a coincidence that in the age of people predicting WoW's demise --myself included-- that the power of friendship keeps World of Warcraft and other MMOs afloat.
No, I'm not talking about the Retail WoW team's recent storylines, although judging by some of the commentary surrounding them I can understand why some would feel that way.
 |
| So... Who are the Bronies in this scenario? From Reddit. |
But the reality is that while you can play MMOs solo --and "playing solo" while in a group via the automatic dungeon or raid finder is very much a thing-- MMOs are built upon group content. And you don't have to be in a guild to find friends to play with.
I mean, that's how I found most of my friends in WoW Classic.
Ancient of Tome of the Ancient was the only friend I knew who not only was playing WoW Classic at launch but was also on the server I played on.*** Sure, I knew a few people in the blogosphere who were going to play WoW Classic, but most of those whom were friends were over in Europe. The people from previous guilds that I could have considered friends at one point had either drifted away from the game or vanished from view in one of the couple of guild blow-ups that I've had the dubious privilege of witnessing.
So... outside of Ancient, I was pretty much on my own as far as making my way was concerned.
***
I was fine with that. I'd been effectively playing MMOs solo since about 2011, when the Alliance guild I was in basically faded away to nothing in late Cataclysm and then after a burst of activity early in Mists proceeded to do a repeat performance. The only group content I participated in were the Flashpoints in the "vanilla" portions of SWTOR, and by 2016 or 2017 I moved away from even that.
Given that I wasn't raiding, and --outside of the mini-Reds and my blogger friends-- I knew almost nobody who actually played MMOs, this wasn't a surprise.
But the surprise was that I began to make acquaintances and then friendships with people in Classic WoW.
 |
| Look, I'm tellin' ya, that's what happened. And no, people weren't asking my toons to strip or anything. |
It was a natural outgrowth of manual group creation and obeying Wheaton's Law: "Don't be a dick." I would get into a group, behave nicely and not try to pull threat from the tank, and at the end I'd thank people for the group and if they ever needed a Rogue (or Mage), to hit me up. Most people wouldn't whisper me again, but a few did. From those initial connections grew some of my longest lasting friendships in the game.
While I had acquaintances in Classic WoW that have fallen by the wayside as interests diverged or people unsubscribed, other friendships persisted. It is those friendships that keep me playing WoW Classic Era more than anything else. So when I see that subscriber numbers kind of float between 4 to 8 million --and I'm assuming that paying for game time as opposed to an actual subscription qualifies-- then yeah, there's far more here than just approval and love for the game and its content.
Yes, that's 4 to 8 million players spread across (effectively) 5 games: Retail, Wrath/Cataclysm Classic, Classic Era, Classic Hardcore, and Classic Season of Discovery. I get that it's not the same as 4 to 8 million players that were playing a single game (Retail WoW), but money is money to Microsoft and it pays the bills.****
I realize that friendship isn't impervious to anything video game related, just as in real life, but MMO creators would do well to realize that fostering and maintaining friendships are likely the smartest thing they can do when designing and building an MMO. After all, it is an armor stronger than any plot armor out there, and can keep players subscribed even when the product stinks and the development team make horrible decisions. Okay, maybe not, but when people still play after a bad expansion, I believe there's more at work than that the WoW community are just a bunch of "sheep" who blindly continue to play the game.
And for pete's sake, don't expect the sanitized group and guild recruitment tools to do the heavy lifting of interacting with people for you. I'm almost 100% certain that if I relied upon an automated dungeon finder to enter into Classic Era dungeons that I'd not have made the connections I have. That doesn't mean that there aren't problems in a purely manual system --there are a truckload-- but by minimizing interpersonal contact the WoW team(s) have inadvertently exacerbated the problem of people forming bonds in the game. And online want-ads aren't the answer.
 |
| Uh, that person spamming a level boosting service in Mandarin notwithstanding. |
At least I'll admit that the guild name "Frequently Reported" is kind of funny.
*That doesn't mean that I'm not interested in trying new games, because I am. It has far more to do with games I'm already playing that rely upon people constantly ponying up money for more things --whether it's an expansion or some cash shop item-- than getting a chance to try something completely new. I'm looking at you, Paradox, who either give up on a game after a very short period of time or will simply throw "expansions" at you ad-infinitum until you cry 'uncle'. It seems that every time I turn around there's a new addition to Stellaris or Europa Universalis IV, while on other games Paradox simply gives up on those that need bug fixes and tweaks to make them shine (Imperator: Rome).
**I found out much later from a friend who remained in the guild and in a semi-leadership position that the franken-guild's leadership expected me to run the "social" raids in the same manner as I ran the Karazhan raid, and they were surprised when I refused to move to Atiesh-US with the rest of the guild. Given that my orphan raid was pretty much independent of any guild leadership input or oversight for over half a year, they kind of screwed that up pretty badly given they never bothered to ask me my opinion on things.
***To be fair, I chose Myzrael-US in part because Ancient had decided to play on that server, as I figured that I at least knew one person on there.
****If anything, Microsoft is disappointed that I don't pay for more via the Cash Shop, because there they get maximum profit for minimal effort.
I don't disagree with much of that in principle. I generally found making friends in MMORPGs was the easy part. All you really need to do is chat to people and over time connections form and networks build and before you know it you have a bunch of people you can do stuff with every time you log in.
ReplyDeleteGetting friends was never my problem. My problem was that once you have them, they do indeed want to do stuff with you and that can quite quckly start to feel like an obligation. During the peak of my social era in MMORPGs I used to avoid playing my regular characters just so I could have some peace. I got really fed up of getting tells a minute or two after I logged in asking me if I wanted to go and do something.
Also, relationships in game seemed hyperactive compared to those in real life. In the whole of my life I've only ever fallen out really badly with two or three people but in games I seemed to be falling out with people all the time. And it wasn't just me, before you say it! I was the silent observer to more hissy fits and flouncing outs than I can possibly remember now. When we were putting groups together we had to check if A was online because it would cause issues if they saw we were doing something B and so on.
My long-term impression of in-game friendships was that they were exhausting. The main thing I look for from just about any game is relaxation and back in those days I frequently felt tense. When the genre changed to accomodate solo play much more effectively and especially when it began to offer social interaction without personal commitment, as in public quests and similar events, where everyone is working towards a goal together but no one has to direct the whole thing, I started to feel much more relaxed. That's probably the main reason I stayed with Guild Wars 2 as long as i did - the one thing that game does well is make every other player your friend-for-now.
Occasionally I feel nostalgic about the times when I'd log on, check who was around, see some familiar names and know in a while I'd be doing something fun with people I liked but then i remember all the times I ended up doing something not so fun with people I didn't like so much and I think I'm better off as I am!
I'm right there with you Bhagpuss. I like seeing other people running around because they make me feel more like I'm in a "real place" where what I do has some meaning (which is a bit stupid because it really really doesn't).
DeleteHowever, I find actual direct human interactions exhausting most of the time, and avoid them like the plague. Certainly by the end of an average work day the last thing I want is more human interactions.
I have one set of games I play to hang out with relatives on a fixed schedule, and a lot of others I flit between never getting to know anyone.
Bhagpuss--
DeleteWhat I found in my experience is that I could handle small groups and idle chit-chat, but constant on-the-go type of activities wore me out as well. I remained in the "dead" guild Retail Orphans for so long in Classic because I was able to separate myself from the rest of the raid team without feeling obligated to do things within their guild. I could reach out to people when I wanted to without being hit up for all sorts of activities when I wasn't ready.
In a way, joining the guild at the end of Vanilla Classic was a real disappointment, because when I joined we were about to pivot toward TBC Classic, and the blitz toward max level in TBC Classic began, leaving all of us leveling Shamans behind, forgotten. Ordinarily being forgotten would have been wonderful because the focus wasn't on me, but we were still expected to meet incredibly tight leveling targets without much of any help at all. My questing buddy helped us out as much as she could --she had her Warlock to finish leveling too-- but that was the worst of both worlds. Mere words of encouragement would have been better than radio silence.
Still, the group of us who hang together have commitments outside the game --sports and school events and Scouting and whatnot-- and so if we're not on, we're not on. There's no real pressure to overwhelm each other with activities, and we're all happy we're off the hamster wheel in progressing through Cataclysm Classic and Retail WoW.
Yeebo--
DeleteLast week was a fine example of not wanting more human interactions for me. Work sucked, and I was grateful for that week to end. I did a few things in Classic WoW with my friend group, but on a few days I just stood around in Darnassus and watched the people run by. Merely watching people without engaging with them, like what you'd do while sitting on a park bench, was enough to recharge my batteries.
PS: I should add, more power to you Redbeard. I still miss some of the crews I left behind on occasion. Not badly enough to join a new one, but I see the appeal for sure :-)
ReplyDeleteI do miss some of the people from my original Retail guild back on Area 52-US, but I have no idea whether they play any more or not. There was the one young couple with their newborn, the older guy who worked for the Navy in Norfolk, NC, and the woman who worked the early shift at Dillard's department store, all of whom I would chat with even if I wasn't actually doing anything other than that. It's the casualness of some of the conversation that I enjoyed.
DeleteOh no! And stupid Ancient bailed on the server. I remembered how hard it was in Vanilla to play alone. Pretty much until recently it was not easy. I would join guilds occasionally but occasionally got tired of hearing about the great times they had at night after I logged off. I rarely had any stories about great days when they were all at work.
ReplyDeleteI really glad you found a great group and are enjoying yourself! I admit the other day I looked at the guilds recruiting and searched for "old, really old" to see who was out there and I was surprised there were entries lol! You never know! TotA
It's only a handful of us, so we're not overburdened with too many people demanding my time. It's also in Classic Era, where the pace is far more relaxed than in the other versions of WoW where the community in general is pushing hard to get all the things done. If Wrath Classic or TBC Classic were kept with a handful of unique servers, the pace in those areas would likely be more relaxed as well, given that the focus is not on progression in those places.
DeleteBut yeah, it does get a bit burdensome when you see guild chat about things you weren't included in, especially due to the time differential. It's obviously a different situation if you choose to not get involved --and I have done that before to keep some things at arms' length-- but when you want to do something but simply aren't invited or ignored, that can suck.
I should poke you every so often online, but I'm never sure if you're okay with me doing that. I mean, Cat does demand a certain amount of time with you, and I know better than to get in the way of that.
Poke anytime!
Delete