I think many people are in the boat I am in.

I had a huge community of friends during the dawn of Asheron's Call, then moved to DAOC, then AC2, Then WoW.

Then people started having kids, jobs got harder, time became scarce or people (like me) just burned out on the endless leveling climb. (It only took a decade. :-)

One of the reasons you can never go home again is because your community isn't there. I am betting that's just not me but a lot of people. Even if I wanted to go back to WoW or DAOC my friends are all playing other games or not at all or super sporadic.

I also think some of it has to do with the homogenization of games and becoming jaded. UO, AC and EQ both had huge death penalties. They were also the first and those worlds were amazing!

Part of what made it a world is all different playstyles being forced into the same playground.

Now you can find your niche game full players who think just like you. Boring.

 

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We also need a communication tool...maybe many would
give it another try if it would be done in an organized
way

Currently I have yahoo, icq, mumble, aim, skype, xfire,
steam, ventrilo and teamspeak contacts

 

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Totally this.

I voiced it in about these words, 6 years ago in DAoC when they started to degrade realm rewards/incentives and do instancing.

 

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Yeah a couple good points there.

We usually focus much on game mechanics and other things, which are a part of course, but I do think at some point modern players tend to ask "what do I get out of it" a bit too much. Where is the next thrill, the next goal, the next achievement.

Our minds were fresh too and didn't have much to compare to in those first games, helps quite a bit, stuff was new for quite a while and accepted as-is more.

 

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You have as much fun as you allow yourself to have.

 

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You can make new friends. I did that when I went back to DAoC about 14 months ago or so

 

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Actually we need LESS communication.

The only reason the communities really worked in the old games was that voice was not discovered yet.

Pre-Ventrillo you only got a few non-guild texts and they were thought out and delivered in a specific manner... IE if you had a thread on some topic being typed in guild... People didnt even know my gender after I was in a guild for a year. I didnt know if you were a 15 year old in a basement or a 35 year old in an attic. I didnt have to care. As for encounters -- people had to learn them.

Post-Ventrillo you end up with blah blah chatter in crackling voices sometimes with foul language that you would never see in a guild chat. You get to hear the baby cry -- the parent yell at kids -- the 15 year old (hopefully) lying about his drug score. The crackly voiced adolescent male playing the hulking barbarian or the sulky female assassin. Encounter orders are given on demand with people not learning the encounters just learning to follow orders (mostly).

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I understand it is easier and more efficient to use something like ventrillo but I really and sincerely dislike it. It completely removes any immersion I have in a game. It also forces you into the real lives of guildmates who you are usually better off avoiding that way.

It is easier to have a long-term gaming relationship with someone if you don't have to hear their ventrillo chatter.

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One final note -- gaming was a lot friendlier to introverts before ventrillo. This is why so many people solo so often as opposed to group -- the bar is different... Before you didnt have to chat AT ALL or if you did it was in controlled typing both ways. Now any group is an invitation to drama and for the introvert can have all of the difficulties of meeting someone in real life.

 

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I actually totally agree with you, but you missed the point...I was talking
about "staying in touch" communication, not "in game" one

 

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I agree with your comments on voice chat.


But actually a typical pickup group has much less communication these days than it used to. Most of my flashpoints runs through SWTOR I have trouble even getting people to respond to what I'm saying at all.


A large part of it is that modern MMOs have no downtime. Any time spent typing is time that could have been spent fighting the next set of mobs. People don't want to take the time to type if it means an efficiency loss. Usually the only time anyone is willing to type anything in a SWTOR instance is while you're waiting for an elevator.