Is the WoW community missing the point?
World of Warcraft: The 'community'
MMORPG's have become pretty standard in today's world. The idea of thousands of people playing the same game together on a single server, and being able to communicate with each other at will was once a concept only dreamed about. Now that the novelty has worn off of this phenomenon for many, has our desire to build or contribute to a true community been lost along with the novelty?
I don't totally agree with this article.
Sure, some people choose to play alone, or group only with pugs etc. But I think there is a bigger community that goes above and beyond the game itself.
An example is a friend of mine who used to play WoW. He was playing Modern Warfare 2 online yesterday and remarked that his gun was broken and that he needed blacksmith to fix it.
A random person responded that he is a blacksmith and that my friend must meet him in Goldshire to have it fixed. He then died and mentioned it on chat, where the response came "never mind, I can rez you".
Now, my point is - the WoW community is almost like a living organism, it grows and changes, picks up traits and absorbs ideas from other realms of popular culture.
WoW players DO share a kinship in that the game leaves a lasting impression on them and manages to bring people together that would otherwise never have met.
I don't think there is a more pervasive, dynamic and active gaming community out there that can claim to trump WoW.
A perfect example of the community I was attempting to describe is Ryzom's community. A few minutes after logging in for the first time and requesting assistance with something, I was inundated with people offering to help me. Not only that, but after I received the help I requested those who helped me invited me to their guild, in which I was well-received, and even got handed a "starter pack" by someone totally random who was too late to give me assistance.Originally Posted by Cloud
Rarely did general chat spiral into a flame fest. In fact, I never saw that happen at all. Due to the community being rather small, and the game being quite hardcore, everyone seems to be friends with everyone. You know - the type of people who stop and say hi to you when they run past you despite you not knowing them.
Sadly Ryzom didn't turn out to be my type of game, but the community is absolutely unbeatable. Back in the day I experienced a similar thing in Entropia Universe (then Project Entropia). Good times. I made some awesome friends in that game.
PSN: LydonMcG
Well if the definition of community is volunteer helpers and hand-holders assisting new players, then I think our ideas of community differ.
Like I was trying to convey with my earlier post, I feel the WoW community establishes a sense of commonality and familiarity amongst players that truly make you feel like are part of a community in a way no other game I know of has managed to do.
The fact that you get rude, obnoxious players does not detract from the fact that there are great, helpful and knowledgeable players that do help you out from time to time - these are just the realities of life.
I just love the fact that I can meet someone new at a party, find out they are a WoW player and instantly have a huge amount of topics to chat about relating to the game.
No, that's not my definition of a communityYou quoted half of my post.
It's not about being given free things or having your hand held...it's about people showing interest in each other and being willing to take the time to help each other out. Most important is the way in which people engage with each other.
I personally feel no sense of community in WoW anymore. When I first got the game around 3 years ago I did, but these days I simply don't. It's like logging onto MSN and chatting with someone unable to sustain an intelligent or entertaining conversation despite your best efforts.
PSN: LydonMcG
I'm sorry, but that just makes WOW players sound even more insane than everyone already thinks they are. That's reaching addiction levels.
- There is no proof any of us are even alive -
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No dude, thats just community on steroids
I don't think WoW is the only MMO suffering from this. One only has to spend a few minutes watching the chat in Aion to see a similar lack of care and co-operation - and plain common rudeness.
A typical convo might go like this:
Random 1: Does anyone have a rift location?
Random 2: Why don't you go look for it yourself?
Or something a long those lines - which usually descends into a babble of kids insulting each other's mothers. And this is especially sad, given that, technically, the people in that chat are supposed to be on each other's side.
It gets especially annoying when I see a cleric or chanter running past a dead player without bothering to stop the 5 seconds it will take to cast a resurrection spell.
Nope - not limited to WoW at all.
I have some friends on WoW that I met three years ago and we still chat on daily basis.
I think perhaps you should make new friends in WoW? Starting an arena team with a few guys is also a good way of getting to know people and sharing team victories creates real bonds.
It isn't only in guilds that you find this, really, I mean, I haven't been in an active guild for ages on my main but still find that I have some solid friends in the game.
Just the other day, I was leveling my pala, ran into a druid trying to kill an elite on his own. I healed him up and he invited me to the group. Turns out it was a she :P
But then we grouped up and started doing group quests in Dragonblight - she went over to her healing spec and we did about 5 group quests together. And some quests we didn't even share, but just did for each other out of good faith.
Needless to say, I added her as a friend and hope to run into her again at some point ^_^
I've tried - believe me - but there's just something wrong. I made a few good friends myself a few years ago, but everyone just seems so "meh" and solo-focussed that it makes connecting with people on a "higher level" (woohoo...sounds so fancy) difficult.
PSN: LydonMcG
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