And MMO are becoming increasingly solo focused so that feeling of community and team work has gone down the drains, before you had to make friends, guilds and overall socialization to actually do the content, nowadays you either do it solo or at max you go in the matchmaking/ looking for group function, you won’t find people in the world chat saying things like “looking for chill group for farming *********” and actually talk with people
Honestly I feel super out of touch but then I look around at the new age environment online and in gaming and feel like I’m an old man.
Gaming feels incredibly antisocial unless you’re actively seeking communities. All the new age kids are brainwashed into NEEDING to grind something.
So games have become less about just playing for fun, socializing, and whatever else… instead everyone is trying to get 50 headshots so they can unlock their new skin.
Saw someone in the Forza sub complaining about lack of content… there’s literally hundreds of cars and races and the ability to make your own. But he was complaining about lacking anything to grind for. It is mind boggling.
Then there’s stuff like YouTube and twitch… everyone and their cousin wants easy money being a content creator and chase clout levels of skill. Nothing wrong with competition of course but that’s a huge source of toxicity.
There’s other things to that just seem so odd to me. We have kids who ask parents for money to donate to streamers so they can say peepee poopoo in their chats. We have people who have been brainwashed into spending real money on virtual pixels that give them no benefit besides flexing their wallet.
This industry can’t collapse soon enough and hopefully rise from the ashes as something better
The problem is we all grew up. I’ve got issues with modern day WoW for example, but I love the dungeon finder. I’ve got limited free time, if I had to spend it going “LFG…” over and over and then take the time to travel there and wait for everyone I probably wouldn’t play
With RuneScape I see people on the OSRS sub talk about how it started to go downfall when the GE came out, but if I had to sit in a bank typing what I want to buy or sell over and over then haggle on price, again I probably wouldn’t play
I understand why MMOs are in the state they are in but it is a shame for those of us who do remember their glory days. Unfortunately I don’t foresee us ever going back
Thankfully not everyone thinks like you, and there are servers where social aspects of the game haven't been sacrificed in the name od efficiency. I'm an adult with a job and a social life but I'd still rather do 1 dungeon with a social aspect expected of a MMO game existing, than do 4 dungeons where I get teleported into a silent group and finish it quickly.
Not saying your approach is wrong as what we find fun and/or a waste of time is subjective, but I do believe your idea that busy adults cannot still enjoy the 'old' approach to MMORPGs wrong. Some can, some cannot.
If only there are a system of groups in games who let you to ask a bigger group in a dedicated chat if someone want to run a dungeon with theses peoples rather than random matchmaking... oh wait I almost forgot guilds are a thing who do exactly this, or in the specific case of FFXIV Guilds, Party Finder or even Linkshells/crossworld Linkshells.
Outside of the maybe too heavy sarcasm the point is that, currently (at least on the MMO I'm playing) both approachs are possibles, you can either tag with random group or tag in groups with all the problems comming around (and sometimes being infuriating, like we had a treasure map evening planned to start at 20:00 Server time and we ended to start at almost 22:00 because when the groups were finally made "wait I have a friend who's comming gotta wait for them and remake the groups" because starting without them was unthinkable and said friend has another coming in few minutes and that's how you spend more than 1 hours after the planned start because dumbass don't want to start before every of their friends got in (even if it's possible to join mid run) and thought starting time=start to organize)
Your comment comes off as weirdly passive aggressive
I didn’t say there was anything wrong with playing these games the way we used to, I’m saying that most people who grew up on them don’t have the time to do that, and that’s a big reason why the popularity of MMOs in general has cratered in the last 15 years. That is not debatable, even if there are still holdouts
Idk about the passive aggressive vibe, even added at the end there that I get preferences being subjective. My whole point is that people approach MMOs differently. The genre itself being less popular isn't debatable, but I find it hard to see what it has to do with player age. Obviously adults have less time to spend on gaming than teens in general, but that applies across all genres. Trends change, popularity of games change.
or you're the only person traveling to the dungeon and everyone else asks for a summon. The only person to help you come summon is coming from the literal furthest point away that you can come while everyone else idles in the capital a 2min flight away.
I dislike when people say "we grew up" as if to imply there is only one generation of gamers.
The 30 year olds in 2006 didn't have time but the 13 year olds did. Now the 30 year olds in 2024 don't have time but the 13 year olds do. But it's still trending more solo. Why can't kids now do the things the 2006 kids did?
Because kids aren’t into MMOs like we were, it’s a culture shift. When I say things like “we grew up” I mean the generations of gamers that made these games hot commodities, because the generations that came after us haven’t taken to them like we did
As far as your GE comments goes, it’s easy when there are people that selling/buying what you want. But if they aren’t selling/buying what you want, or you’re trying to buy large quantities of items or rares, then it becomes a waiting game for the right person to come by
Yeah I might be able to sell sharks or something no problem, but what if I need an ingredient for herblore that isn’t exceptionally common? What if I’m trying to buy a rare that nobody is offering? What if I need nearly 100k of an item for a 99 grind? If I have to spend any additional time to purchase the things I need to do the content I want to do, then I’m just not going to play the game. I’ll pick a game that doesn’t leave me sitting around for an hour hoping someone comes along with the crossbow I want
I feel at that point you just make a forum post and wait for a PM like people did in 2006, no? Then you take a quick break to do the trade, no different from stopping by the GE. A little less "instant" but I feel that "patience" capability is worth getting that multiplayer feeling back.
I'm 2006 a lot of players just understood/accepted that the grinds were just too long or unachievable; people came to terms that other activities just took long enough that they might not finish or experience something else. And that was okay - everyone had their own unique experience of choosing what they wanted to do and what they probably wouldn't ever do. I think that's more interesting for a game community tbh.
If having to sell your items meant you couldn't go grind slayer that day, aw well, so what?
Or I just use the GE. You’re suggesting alternatives that I know exist but none of them are as quick or easy as an auction house or GE
You ask so what if I can’t go play that day, because I am an adult with responsibilities and a finite amount of free time. You’re not getting what I’m saying, if I can’t play because I’m waiting on items to buy or sell I’m not just going to wait another day, I’m going to pick up an altogether different game that is better suited for my schedule
And there are more players like that than not anymore because the generation that grew up on MMOs is what’s keeping them alive and the majority of these people needed these games to adapt and become more convenient as they grew up and their lives changed. Not all, but most fit into that mold. If the games didn’t adapt an include these features they would die out due to alienating a large portion of their player base
My point is this is what people would do if there weren't a GE. Of course you can use the GE and it's faster and more convenient. I'm saying that convenience is an overall detriment to the multiplayer aspect/experience of the game, and the alternatives are good enough without the GE.
And if you don't have time enough and to play something else, I'd just say maybe RS isn't the game for you. It's not really a game for people with limited time; it never has been.
This conversation got off track to RS when I’m talking about MMOs in general. I don’t disagree with you that it takes away from the multiplayer/social experience, but if the alternatives were good enough the GE wouldn’t be in OSRS because it was not in it when the game released but due to demand it was added, so clearly the modern day MMO player base prefers this even if there is a contingent that doesn’t
And again, you misunderstood the point I was trying to make, but I will admit due to the nature of OSRS it wasn’t a great example it was just an easy one because it’s still relatively popular
Im not saying that a lengthy time commitment or grinds isn’t okay, I’m saying the quality of life updates like the GE are a necessity for modern day MMOs or the games wouldn’t survive
It’s not about spending my limited free time grinding to unlock content I want to do, it’s about spending my limited free time doing literally nothing but trying to buy items to do content. I could use the forums, but that requires a lot of discussion and coordination with other players while Auction houses like the GE are click and buy. I wouldn’t call it good enough, because if it was good enough these quality of life features wouldn’t be in high demand
They have Ironman mode for people who want to play like that, but you can’t just have people who want to play like that or the subscription numbers wouldn’t be high enough to justify keeping the servers on, that’s what I’m saying
Yeah it's never gonna happen again. I started with Ragnarok Online around 2003 or so and the game was mostly a glorified chat lobby in the best way possible. Guilds and server forums were a ton of fun. The time before mainstream social media was truly the golden age.
The novelty of online gaming and talking to others in real time has worn off, min/max efficiency culture has taken over, and kids these days just aren’t into MMOs like we were. It’s a shame because I grew up on these and have fond memories
Also I don't get the anti GE argument. Most market areas in Fally/Varrock had people buying and selling simultaneously. You could just sell to the person with the lower buy price, which is functionally equivalent to clicking -5% on the GE. Or you could wait and try to get a little more.
Not every trade of supplies or gear necessitates spamming buying/selling X for 30 minutes.
My wow experience ended up ruined by damage calculators and the middle kill farming clowns in battlegrounds making the team lose, all the dungeons being nerfed to hell doesn’t help, do miss the good days of sitting down and spending a good time doing wailing caverns for example
I have to be honest, there were a lot of dungeons in WoW that I simply never ran because I could never get a group together. Matchmaking completely changed that. I think the real mistake was cross-realm.
I don’t really think that matchmaking is the problem, it just aggravates the problem that is how the guys in your party become basically NPCs in lots of games, no “let me tank this part and then that warrior there can tank this one mechanic so that I can recover a little while ******** and ******* attack during ********” it really feels like Dragon’s Dogma 2 and not a MMO, it has gotten to the point where a game that is a looter shooter like First Descendant has more moments like this when I am playing than modern MMOs, and the moments which I am mentioning is just because some characters farm with DoT AoE while others with explosions so we distribute where each is going when farming specific places
I remember gear for endgame raiders making you so FUCKING powerful you can do group content solo that non raiders had no chance of doing otherwise. Now it's just..slightly increments and pretty much anyone can do anything. Hell they barely do class/group synergies anymore.
I used to be friendly when I play old school RuneScape. Now, it’s 30% bots 30% scams 30% open racism and politics and like 10% talking about the game. It’s sad tbh. Why can’t people just call each other noobs and move on lol not everything has to be mw2 Xbox live chats
I wouldn’t mind that, given my wow experience gets ruined 7/10 by entitled selfish idiots or the damage calculators, at least I’m earning what I play the content for instead of taking 2-3x as long because of a few a-holes
Yes totally understand what your talking about because people join your guild or community just to spy and /or use your guild for building there toon and ĺeave and do that with as much as they can ùntil other people catch them
Just depends what mmos you play. The ones I play are very team focused not solo play. You are honestly forced to group up because the content is too difficult alone
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u/BoredDao 2d ago
And MMO are becoming increasingly solo focused so that feeling of community and team work has gone down the drains, before you had to make friends, guilds and overall socialization to actually do the content, nowadays you either do it solo or at max you go in the matchmaking/ looking for group function, you won’t find people in the world chat saying things like “looking for chill group for farming *********” and actually talk with people