Importance of Player community

[Nate]

Hey guys,

So I pondered how to go about this and wanted to just share my experiences. I started MMO's in the days of Ultima online and pretty much been playing them since then. I wanted to list what I played for > 1 month.
UO - AC - EQ - DAOC - AO - E&B - V:SoH - Lineage2 - TSW - CoX - WoW - Aion - Conan - Horizons - EQ2 - SW:TOR - GW2 - ESO - RoM - FF11 - FF14 - LOTRO - Shadowbane

There were some others (Wildstar and such) but I wanted to shorten the list because I feel that less then 1 month isn't really enough time typically to consider giving the game a fair shake.

I find that games have become too "quick" over the years and there has been little motivation to "find adventure" and so it has been more then a little off putting. Something about logging in and knowing EXACTLY what you should be doing with your time and I guess the line gets blurred as to playing a game and signing onto a job. I remember when "hey I think I want to try a raid" vs "Shit I gotta go get AOTC so that I can use the finder and be considered for a slot so that I can get my ilvl up" I also want to qualify that I do not have a problem with raids - I do consider the feeder pellet method of design where your "task list" is given to you when you login, it feels like a chore.

I realize some people do not want to waste their time; so how do you figure is the best way to balance a organic game play experience (which this game appears to be offering) versus a skinner box that seems to have become prevalent in current game design for MMOs?

[Rekoor]

I think the last time I logged into a game and really felt like I could just log in for the sake of being in the game online and hanging out with my friends was in the earlier days of Star Wars Galaxies. Yes, there were some things I had in mind that I should probably do as soon as I had the time but I could also just log in and dink around as much as I wanted without it feeling like a waste.

I think it felt organic because I could easily log in and do whatever I wanted, without much being barred from me being able to access. Obviously there were things that if I went and tried to complete them I'd get my butt handed to me, but that was part of the learning experience.

I have played WoW (as so many of us have) for years. I've come to somewhat despise the months leading up to expansions such as right now because I log in, even if I'm trying to log in and level up an alt, and kinda go "what's the point when there's an expansion coming out soon and none of this will matter?"

I believe to keep a balance between the two, you'd have to make sure that most areas of the game didn't follow along the lines of "you must complete a, b, and c to access x, y, and z". Not saying you can't do that at all, just keep those restricted access areas to a minimum. But also make the things you can do outside of those a, b, and c activities matter, so that players take part in them as much or as little as they want to.

[Eso]

@rekoor Oh my. I remember SWG days prior to their completely and utterly ruining that game. Yes, I frequently logged in just to be a part of the community. The taverns, with musicians playing. Learning from other players directly (as it was a mechanic). So, all-in-all, if a game can accomplish that it will have an incredibly community.

[Jetah]

one thing that's changed over the years is information. Back in UO we still were reading magazines to get our information about new games or any tips n tricks within them. Now we can hop on youtube and watch a walkthrough or visit the website that datamines to see new content before it's released. If you're having a problem with a quest, just read the comment section on that datamine site for the walkthrough (or watch the link to youtube).

We use to have hard decisions when building our character and we have no information to go on, just the description on the character or talent sheet. I remember picking a Fireball skill in Diablo 2 because it has the highest base damage. Eventually I used a character trainer to try the frost orb and then it dawned on me how different these spells are and that the description & numbers listed on the tooltip weren't explaining it all.

What had me log in UO and DAoC were my friends. I had no idea what I was doing back then so everything was new and exciting. It reminds me when I played Monopoly for the first few times. Now when I play Monopoly I can see who's going to win after 30-60 minutes.

I bought the CE of SWG but never played it. It had some interesting concepts. They wanted a world where pub dancers were needed and it allowed players to do something completely different in a game. It wanted to create an organic world where small professions had huge roles to play.

Now it seems the pace is hastened, the sense of adventure is gone. mobs aren't a threat unless you're in a dungeon or raid. Professions don't matter because gear drops are better in raids. PvP is instanced and a win can happen in less than 10 minutes. and you'll never lose gear because everything can be infinitely repaired.

Then the online bullies, aka trolls, entered the game created a toxic environment which pushed out many females and forces those that stay to 'have thick skin'. Right now this community is one of the better ones i've seen. We're still learning about the game, still speculating, still butting heads on points of view but we're having good conversation that should be building a good community. If there was a way to shun the trolls and keep them out then this could be the best community!

[Benseine]

I expect that in this game I really have to explore

I expect that I have to survive in the open world, my journey might lead to my death (of hunger, thirst, cold, dehydration, sickness and ofc lots of violence)

I expect that I don't have a grind spot and don't have to do dailies

And I'm pretty up-to-date with all the gamecontent of Fractured

[Shadowkiin]

I hope the community is helpful to new comers or even veterans that are stuck on certain quests etc.
Nothing worse then joining a game and its full of elitests that ignore newbies and don't offer any advice.

Also i hope that finding a hunting party wont be hard to do, seeing that it will be a new game i can see the party system should be amazing to start with and hopefully in the future as well.

[kellewic]

@shadowkiin said in Importance of Player community:

I hope the community is helpful to new comers or even veterans that are stuck on certain quests etc.
Nothing worse then joining a game and its full of elitests that ignore newbies and don't offer any advice.

In the time I've been here, I think everyone has been helpful to anyone asking good questions. However, after the 100th "when is the game releasing" or "how can I get an alpha key" kind of questions, you tend to get the RTFM responses.

[Gothix]

There is a difference between people who are genuinely stuck on something even after putting in the effort, and people who just click "next next next accept", enter the game, don't read anything written on their screen, even the stuff written in huge letters, and then just "spam ask" stupid questions that are obvious to anyone who even looks at their screen.

[Jetah]

@kellewic said in Importance of Player community:

@shadowkiin said in Importance of Player community:

I hope the community is helpful to new comers or even veterans that are stuck on certain quests etc.
Nothing worse then joining a game and its full of elitests that ignore newbies and don't offer any advice.

In the time I've been here, I think everyone has been helpful to anyone asking good questions. However, after the 100th "when is the game releasing" or "how can I get an alpha key" kind of questions, you tend to get the RTFM responses.

I tend to get there much sooner than 100. more like 10.