After my last article, I was accused of being overly nostalgic and living in the ‘golden sheen’ of EQ1. Well it is a fact that, very much like your first of anything, you look back at it, later in life with a slightly rose coloured tint. With that said I do want to revisit EQ1 on a specific subject and look at why no other MMO has replicated what it had, and that is its social network and networking specifically.
I log onto EQ2 today and the first thing that I do is shout up in guild chat to see if there are any groups going. If ther are not, I’ll have a look in community to see if any friends are on. if they aren’t or they are busy, I’ll shout up in channel ‘ 47 Defiler LFG’, then I will put my LFG flag up and see if there are any groups LFG in the LFG finder. Then I will go and either do some solo quests, harvest or put a group together myself. At no time will I go to say East Freeport and sit on the docks and chat. And that is the difference. When I was playing EQ1 I’d regulalrly log on and sit in PoK and either chat to friends, join in any ooc conversations or sit around and offer MGB (mass group buffs). Sometimes I’d do this for a whole evening, never once even considering xp or questing. Sure if I got invited to a group I’d go and play, but mostly I’d be happy to chat. The other thing in EQ1 is I had a huge social network and I think the prime reason for this was downtime in groups. EQ1 required a lot of downtime to ‘med’ between mobs, and in that time you would chat to the people that you grouped with and got to know them. Friendships were born and you looked for these people when you logged on, sometimes to group with, or sometimes just to chat with.
Today, in EQ2, I can do a 3 hour group and barely speak 2 words to my entire group members, that is unless someone is being an idiot (like the tank overpulling continually) then I may comment, in tells, to another group member about it. Sure EQ2 has its downtime, but nothing like EQ1.
I think one of the other reasons that we dont chat as much in MMOs as we used to is the advent of AIM, MSN, ICQ etc. we now have our own personal social networks, sometimes inside and sometimes outside of the game and we use these other mediums to communicate with our chosen friends. Even more than this many guilds, especially in WoW use Teamspeak or Ventrillo to chat to one another, so you dont even have to break the flow of the game to communicate with friends and peers.
I think in many ways EQ1 was as much of a social communication tool, much like the instant messengers of today, but better in someways, than say MSN. Why better? Well MSN and other IMs are basically peer to peer, if you want group communication you need something like IRC or have to go into a chat room. EQ1 offered all of those things in one product. Peer to peer chat in tells, private channels for group chat with friends, group chat with group members, group chat with guildies in guildchat, and general chat in OOC. Except for other MMOs no other software has or does offer this flexibility to communicate with potentially such a captive audience, especially being able to talk on subject that you enjoy, ie the MMO that you are playing.
Sadly the changing face or evolution of MMOs drives us forward faster, levelling is our only aim, so that we can achieve that holy of holiest of grails – ‘the end game’. Today we strive to be that level 70 (or whatever the level cap is for your game at the time), trying to get their faster and faster, we dont want to sit around chatting we very much ignore the social aspect of the game today and log in for one reason, character progression. Whereas many of the first generation MMO gamers came from a social gaming background, people sat around tables and played D&D or table top campaigns, had a few beers and chatted. When they migrated from real-life gaming to virtual gaming, the social aspect was a carry over, but now rather than 6 or 7 like minded people to chat to, they had potentially a few thousand and so first gen games like EQ1 were very social places to be. As may of the first gen players were diluted with newer second gen (non table top or D&D ers) the social aspect declined and so combined with changes in game mechanic the social element of MMos has declined also. I am as guilty as the next man, I have trillian running in the background, I do chat to guildies even, out of game – although it isnt always easy as I play a healer. Maybe as voice comms become more and more integrated into games and especially MMOs, the social aspect of gaming may return.
July 16, 2007 at 3:27 pm |
Interesting that those tabletop players moved to EQ1, and carried on chatting. Where have they gone from there? Are they still in EQ1? Have they stopped chatting?
There is plenty of channel chat on the EQ2 server I play on … but it’s depressingly full of point scoring and witless abuse. If there’s going to be an interesting conversation, it’s going to be in guild chat.
July 17, 2007 at 9:58 pm |
Reading this article filled me with gross amounts of nostalgia and sadness. I never reached cap in EverQuest 1, but that was never one of my worries as I was playing. Much like watching the infamous “Sayonara, Norrath” flash video, thinking about the social aspect of the game really evokes fond memories. At the same time, it arouses a sense of hopelessness that the very essence of EverQuest 1 is dead forever. I don’t want that to be the case.
July 18, 2007 at 6:06 am |
It is truly depressing, and I too, remembered the good ol’ days of chilling in PoK and enjoying conversations with just about anyone. Even during groups, we debated, talked about our lives, what was new, etc… Now, just like you, I barely speak at all. Usually, the most I say when I’m tanking is “ok”, because if I try to start up a conversation, I get people that say “Talk when you’re dead.” …. lols. In EQ1, I never got to the bigger and badder parts of the game. I was just too busy enjoying myself instead of trying to catch up or get ahead. What’s even more depressing about EQ2 is the level 70 only channel. Nobody EVER talks in that thing. You get yelled at if you do. Why? I wish I knew… some “anti-social” BS.
Games are getting too impersonal and, I agree, are more about getting that Sword of Ultimate Soul-Sucking Pwnage before the other guy… hence the asshole-ish attitude of some raid guilds.
July 18, 2007 at 9:12 am |
Channel chat on Splitpaw tends to be either someone to lazy to find something out and spamming it in channel, people looking for groups / groups looking for more, or puerile nonsense. The days of the EQ1 conversation are dead all you see now is ‘teh fury ftw’. ‘Jitter r teh nubz0r’ or ‘I R l337, meh’. You cant even hold a decent conversation about things like the merits and pitfalls of classes,. as someone will just start spamming that their class r0xx0r.
To answer Spyte’s question, I think that many of the MUD and table top gamers have long left the world of MMOs. Many have probably returned to playing D&D with a pint of real ale, a real pipe and real people.
July 18, 2007 at 3:30 pm |
First time here, Mushii, found you through Virgin Worlds. Your post is something I’ve thought about and talked about in the past. I remember the days when my druid would blow all his mana in a fight and have to take 5 minutes to med up, and the conversations and friendships that emerged from those times. Gameplay has definitely changed in the WoW/EQ2 type of games.
The old days aren’t quite dead, though. Eve Online can be a great place to strike up conversations. There’s plenty of down time there, although you can be busy if you’d like to be busy. Ryzom has a fabulous community. I had great experiences in DAOC on a roleplaying server; I suppose that’s officially the Old Days of mmorpg’s now too, though. But overall, the community does seem to have changed, and I agree that the speed of today’s games and little need for cooperation have made public chat places less enjoyable.
I’m probably looking back fondly on old memories and forgetting the people I had to /ignore in EQ, but it does seem tougher to find communities where the emphasis is on literate conversation and having fun with your fellow game players.
I think there are a couple of factors that contribute to good communities. First is a shared game world. Eve has everyone on the same server. Ryzom only has one server. That makes it easier to track reputations.
Second is the number of characters you can play. Eve only allows training of one character at a time. Who you are is largely invested in one character. Ryzom only has a handful of character slots. DAOC character slots were limited when the game was first released.
Third would be controllable territory or meaningful PvP. Eve, Ryzom and DAOC all give you reasons to make and keep friends. Alone, you’re vulnerable. Surrounded by people you trust, you at least have backup in times of trouble.
Maybe every title doesn’t have to be AAA scale like WoW or EQ2. Maybe it’s ok if niche games break the WoW/EQ2 model and provide worlds that value depth of character and community. Anyway, I’ve said a lot, I should wrap up. Thanks for a trip down memory lane
July 18, 2007 at 6:04 pm |
Like Rick, I found you through Virgin Worlds. I agree that communication has changed greatly in MMO’s since the EQ/AC days. I played AC, and while there wasn’t a great amount of downtime like EQ supposedly had, conversations were still much more frequent in PuG’s and making friends was much easier and more common. That said, I don’t think it really has to do with instant messenging services like AIM and MSN. I think it has more to do with the fact that many games coming out now are so end-game focused (how twisted is that?) that people are in far more of a rush to get there that they don’t want to take the time to make friends (unless they can benefit you in some way.) It took more than two years for the first person to reach max level, and there was tons of content (monthly updates,) so there wasn’t as much of a rush, so people took their time a little more. Also, groups were rewarded with xp in AC, which meant that people tended to group up moreso than solo, and people would hang out in the same places (at least for a few levels) so you’d see the same people and forge friendships with them that way. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some great friendships in more recent games, but not anything like the amount of friends in AC and I think its just the way that games are being built. I think there is simply not enough reward in getting to end-game currently to have such an emphasis on it, which causes you to not enjoy the heart of the game and make friends like we used to. *breathe*