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'Action Combat' and the 'Decline' of Social Interaction
Dattelis
Member EpicPosts: 1,674
Firstly, my apologies in advance if there was another thread like this in the past.
This idea started to formulate in my mind after I believe someone commented in the 'important abilities' thread (or maybe it was another thread) about how things changed due to how interactive combat has became over the years. This made me think more of how many people had the time to talk so much back in the day, maybe because things all around were just slower and less 'linear.'
What made me finally want to post this thread came about when I was recently doing stuff in one of FFXIV's Eureka zones and people were just randomly talking ALOT while waiting for certain rare monsters to spawn. Doing a little digging, in the past a lot of people were talking about how horrible the Eureka zones initially were because of the grinding you initially had to do if you were new to each zone. This required mob grinding for the most part until you were higher zone level to get more consistent returns from rare farming. Needlessly to say with how interactive FFXIV's combat can get at higher levels, doing that repeatedly for chain bonuses for hours on end isn't exactly the most fun thing in the world. With the changes made I believe during Shadowbringers to those zones, it was a lot more of a relaxed pace with minimal grinding, thus I thought it encourages more social engagement coupled with people having to wait for periods anyway (I guess cause they had nothing better else to do).
So I just wanted to get some ideas going to see if maybe this way of thinking is at least partly correct and maybe which style of mmorpg combat commenters prefer.
Comments
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Just using a different way of communicating.
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ESO, people ramble in zone all the time. That game has in general a more active play style.
Like others noted, a lot of the group communication has migrated to other platforms, dominantly voice. There's also plenty more distractions available. More options for streaming media to watch or listen do in downtime. Maybe someone has their phone on their desk and is texting or browsing on their phone while they wait for a spawn to pop. The division of a person's attention across platforms is in general higher than it used to be, so the source of noncommunication may not have to do with the game at all.
As for the game itself, I'd say it's more to do with the question "What's the point?"
If you're doing individual activities with little to no reliance on others, and impacted little to none by others, there's no real need to communicate beyond for the heck of it. It's not really a concern of how the game's combat plays as much as how the game is balanced and how much it focuses on the individual play versus the collective interaction.
Some people preferred it and still do because it hides everything about you that can be revealed through voice coms such as your sex, age, accents, etc., but it was always meant to be a temporary, 2nd best, communication option.
For anything that requires frequent communication while concentrating on game play, especially fast, intense game play as in PvP or trials, you just can't beat voice.
SOE for a while promoted what I thought was a great solution that provided the benefits of voice while disguising the user's true voice and even adding RP elements that could make you sound like an orc, or elf or dwarf (British or Scottish accents?
And yes, lack of action that demands your attention also promotes more chatting because people in general hate silence and will fill it in whenever they can.
But a lot of that chat is just useless and sometimes offensive babble about pop culture, current world affairs or worse, politics.
Can't say I miss the extra babble and sometimes I just turn off entire channels in games but I definitely do prefer voice chat for trials and group PvP. It's been years since I've done either of those MMO things without using voice.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
For better or worse, the removal of "forced" downtimes is one of the biggest contributors to the decline of player socialization.
Combined with what others said regarding alternate communication channels, faster combat pacing, general lack of needing others to progress all result in a largely solo experience unless of course the player intentionally seeks out socialization on their own.
Sure, we had to do similar back in the day, but it was a bit more organically found than it is today, at least from my point of view.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Why should it be any different in online games?
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
- Faster combat
- Dungeon finder + direct port into dungeon
While many of them also have advantages it also kills the need to communicate.
You do not need to talk about who gets the next mob spawn, or to group up that both get it.
You just port into the zone, run directly somewhere ignoring all mobs on the way (they will reset anyway) kill some stuff and done. No need to talk.
Then you just port somewhere else.
Then there is the issue with Mega-Server and language barrier in Europe.
And the endgame rush. Why waste time for chatting before max level. Waste of precious time.
(I still don't get why most games don't transfer 2/3 of their leveling content to max level. It's the same content but people won't rush it if it is endgame content)
1997 Meridian 59 'til 2019 ESO
Waiting for Camelot Unchained & Pantheon
When content was more difficult players grouped out of need. With the easing of content players could now opt to solo.
They could have chosen to continue grouping regardless to maintain socialization. Instead they largely abandoned it because they now could.
I don't see it very different than at the time of UO, AC1 or EQ.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
The only grouping in ESO dungeons are speed runs where no one chats.
It's so easy , its a game for kids.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Again, what you say of ESO demonstrates your ignorance of it. Based on that continuing display I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn it extended to NW.
People group regularly in ESO for content over a wide range of difficulty from veteran hardmode dungeons with established groups. to casually assembled groups of world boss hunters, to the impromptu cooperation of nearby strangers out of circumstance.
It is a MMORPG I often play in the company of others, whether I want to or not, due to spontaneity of group play, the other being GW2.
That's what you know when you are actually playing the game actively, and not just talk about it on a forum in order to insult it's players...
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
For me, I was able to chat a quite a bit in old EQ. Auto-Attack was why. Most players turned on auto-attack and then pressed their global timed abilities when they popped up.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Yeah voice chat has been a thing in mmos for years; remember everyone used to be on Ventrilo, now it's Discord. It has more to do with mmos becoming more solo experiences over the years.
I tried the modern EQ a bit, and at least early on it is as you say. There is a luxury of time between active uses of ability.
Wizard 101 was a bit snappier in pace, so while you can change a setting in your account that removes that chat limitation it really isn't that friendly to chat between turns. The one I played that quite amenable to such was Dofus.
Dofus is a tactical turn-based MMORPG. The group size is larger and the play deeper. This extends the time between your turns and causes the turns of others to often be longer at least in difficult content. It is much more conducive to conversation during play. Dofus is one of the very few games I was in a guild and actively sought playing with others, which I feel was due to the combination of sophisticated play and the capacity for interaction during play at a pace suited to me.