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GamerGirlie
West Hartford, CTRegistered User regular
West Hartford, CTRegistered User regular
Currently I'm playing Lotro and SWTOR. I'm noticing that general chat in SWTOR is getting worse by the day, but I don't want to shut it off because I'm on a pvp server and need to know if someone's ganking, LFGs, etc. Also I'm noticing SWTOR forums are going downhill as well. Lotro is getting a bit worse but has always been a relatively nice community. Anyone have any good suggestions for a newer MMO with a good community I can try out? Any feedback is appreciated!
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GW2 is live and the people still playing in the PA guild are great people, so I would recommend looking at that as well, though I can't speak to the wider community in Tyria as it's been a year since I played the game.
On the whole though, most online communities, game based or otherwise, have large pockets of stupid in them or devolve into having them increasingly over time as a result of the Internet always being an anonymous place where people come to blow off steam and/or act like morons in ways that they cannot be in the real world (this forum largely escapes that because we have mods who actually enforce the rules and keep things civil). It's impossible to find a place online, regardless of the format, that is going to be completely or even mostly good in regards to how people interact generally. There will always be exceptions in given situations and if you look in the right places, and some games are better then others, but on the whole, anonymity is a hell of a drug.
LOTRO (though I could be wrong as it's been quite a while since I played the game) is going downhill in this regard most likely because it's gone F2P and it's most recent patches and updates haven't been as enthralling for long time fans of the game as previous content like Moria had been, and thus the void of their involvement in the game's active community has largely been filled with one off F2P players who hop in. Some of these (though not necessarily the majority) come in to troll or complain or are just innocuously dumb and the most vocal are a drag on the community, as evidenced by the level of discourse you tend to see most of the time in general chat.
You could say the same of SWTOR in terms of community and what you'll see in planet general chat or fleet chat, but in reverse on the content end as I feel like there are still pockets of good community sticking around (My current guild on Jedi Covenant, Dominus Nihil, being an example) because they are still pumping out good end game content, periodic events and supporting PvP more and more, along with the soon to be rolled out free flight space fighting stuff. Perhaps you'll have a better chance finding one of these more tight knit communities or guilds in SWTOR that can improve the experience overall then in most other MMOs right now.
MMOs are probably going to look a lot better then they do now in a decade, but even stuff like Star Citizen and World of Darkness is going to have it's idiots. In a sense, in some games like those, it's actually part of the point, and it's extra enjoyable to find these people and kick their butts in PvP then to just simply ignore them in general.
I agree with Core, if you're looking for a strong sense of community in F2P games, you're probably not going to find it in the official forums.
It lets complainers have a place to complain and brave souls have a place where their legit complaints can eventually be found and evaluated.
It is never intended for actual community development, paradoxically. That all happens either retroactively in other games or forums, or on new forums for the game's different guilds, or in the game itself.
EDIT: I'll add to that the caveat that many MMO devs will also have that information brought to them, and then they ignore it anyway, either because they have something better in mind to fix the issue, or because the thing that's broke is too hard to fix/embarrassing to fix or even acknowledge, and they don't do anything anyways and it's forgotten.
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Seconding this. You should still stay off the official GW2 forums, as it's pretty much a giant cesspit of complainers, and the game isn't without its flaws, but in general the game is specifically geared to encourage casual team play. Sometimes I just pick a random dude and follow him around the map helping, and it's the kind of game where that's actually encouraged and you're VERY unlikely to hurt someone if you do (dungeons are another matter)
Also, NICE, the PA guild, is full of really swell folks. We have weekly events ranging from tournament PVP to just casual goofing off in PVE, and people are almost always up for hanging out.
Finally, if F2P turns you off, GW2 is more a B2P game -- you pay the one time fee for the box, and then if you LIKE, you can spend money on cosmetic or convenience goodies, like cool hats or whatever.
*e* Also, while it's too soon to say since it isn't out yet, Wildstar really does look like it's shaping up to have a very dynamic and fun community.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Also, a lot of people still have some realm pride, which is hard to find in any game.
In LOTRO for example: /glff is completely different from Ettens and impossible to compare to /say in Prancing Pony on an RP server.
So my advice is to play games you genuinely enjoy and find the sociak scene within them you appreciate the most.
Also:/ignore is heaven
Not anymore. There are quests throughout the various battlegrounds that allow you to level to 50 in a day and a half times work.
Many people had dual clients used as buff bots, but they have a buff vendor now that puts everyone on the same playing field.
Seeing as how the only experience I've had is CoX, yes. Most of the time, I'm content to sit in the games' threads here and let other, braver souls get that information.
Maybe it's because I was based on the RP server but I didn't really see a whole lot of verbal abuse/random crap in CoX even after it went F2P. Someone had a question, usually it was given a fairly direct and correct response. Even troll questions were answered without snark.
Maybe had something to do with the setting?
Nah, I think if the game is good like CoX was and is fun to play for the most part/well developed, the community tends to give a shit more and are more likely to be helpful to new players and eager to partake of discussions in a genuine way.
Guardian forever! Especially the Guardian global chat.
The game dynamics and social environment also cultivated a good player atmosphere. Sidekicking (why the hell hasn't the sidekicking mechanic made it into other games?) and costume contests are just the tip of the iceberg.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden