WoW feels like a single-player game now

[Charge me Doctor]

You're avoiding it then. There are quests as you level that are MUCH easier to do with someone else and if there are others around you can invite them (or they you). That doesn't exist in retail - none of the quests are that hard.

It's even much easier to skip them completely, because they give like, what, 30 mobs worth of exp that you'll need to grind anyways for some bear teeth or whatever.

- - - Updated - - -

Server communities are an illusion.
Guilds are the social units in WoW.

Exactly. When Thermaplug and Grom servers got merged there was literally no shift in "social interaction" besides a bit more "anal" spam in trade chat.

[Specialka]

Like I would like to have a social experience with ppl like you.

I have a social experience with ppl that matters to me, and you do not.

Get a guild and you would have a ton of "social experience" whatever that means.

[Charge me Doctor]

Like I would like to have a social experience with ppl like you.

I have a social experience with ppl that matters to me, and you do not.

Get a guild and you would have a ton of "social experience" whatever that means.

This kind of "wow lacks social interaction!" complaints reminds me of our new guy in a guild who sits in a game whole day, complaining that nobody wants to do M+ with him, but he never bother to ask anyone or go into our discord and ask anyone

[McNeil]

I can get to do some trolling with others in warfront and Korrak's Revenge chats, but the outdoor world feels very much dead when it comes to social interactions. This is the exact opposite in Classic where I nearly always find people willing to quest with me. I'm also not a fan of all the phasing and sharding either. Realm communities used to be a real thing, its what brought players closer together as if you were living in the same small town. Realm identity mattered aswell where ninja looters would get shamed by the server and people who performed really well in their roles would get praised.

[Alaenore]

I have been playing for three months now and have not had a SINGLE social experience.

Define "social experience".

Trade chat, and General chat are commonly used, and are linked to your server. /s is rarely used.
I often receive whisps from people in world quests, or party invites.
Weeklies (from the tortollan, call to arms, the Nazjatar Battle, ...) usually require a group to be done efficiently.
Raids require people to clear.
Mythic+ require people to clear.
Instancied (or not) PVP require people.

So I fail to see how it is not "social". But since you hate CRZ, let's see how it was before it...

You heard people in Trade, General. /say was already rarely used. You saw the same names in the city chatting.
You recevied whisps while doing dailies and were invited to parties to speed up the quests.
You needed people to do the weeklies.
Raids, dungeons and pvp was the same as now.

I think Classic proved the "social experience" is just something depending on the community. People just don't want to talk to you, and even in Classic they are not interacting more than in Retail. "LFG 3 people for <dungeon>" then not speaking to them does not count as "social experience", or opening a party finder is also social.

If you don't interact with people, it's because you're not trying.

[Donald Hellscream]

I've been playing for 14 years and I've had plenty of social interactions both before and after wow supposedly turned into a singleplayer game.

[Cæli]

which is great, single player games are real games

[Doffen]

I have a great time both socially and soloally(lul) in retail. In classic however, less so. I hardly see anyone in the world. Because everything people do in classic is instanced. Sounds familiar? (hint, just like retail)

Get a guild, or join a raid that requires some communication, do battlegrounds, argue with others who got the biggest e-peen etc. Have the game being able to do solo is good. If you want to do something harder, you actually need to communicate. Isn't it great that we got choices? The game was always soloable btw. LFG took it a step further, true.

[Jazzhands]

I have been playing for three months now and have not had a SINGLE social experience. Meanwhile I played Classic for a month and can't count how many people I met.

There's clearly something wrong with the design in retail and I think it all has to do with CRZ, sharding, and cross-realm everything. Why do I see random players from 20 different servers every time I log into Boralus? Especially considering I can't trade with them, can't join guilds, can't even add them to friends list, and any of us could be sharded out at any random moment and never see each other again. Why not prioritize sharding and grouping with people from the SAME realm so actual connections can form? This is a cornerstone of the MMO experience. I actually feel incentivized NOT to socialize with other players because it feels bittersweet knowing you'll never see them again.

It just seems like Blizzard sacrificed actual server communities to give us the illusion of an MMO just because they didn't want to merge dead servers because it would look bad to shareholders.

And honestly whichever genius at Blizzard came up with CRZ needs to be fired immediately and blacklisted from the entire industry. What an idiot.

There's still plenty of socializing, just not in every aspect of the game. Mainly, join a decent guild. Pugs definitely have less of it but it's there, I've had plenty of lower m+ (higher levels rarely have time for it outside of voice) and even warfronts/BGs where people chat. If all you mean by social experience is adding people to friends list, have you tried adding people? If I do an m+ pug and someone is super solid, I ask if I can add them, and they typically say yes, unless you suck in which case they likely say no. Zone wide chat channels aren't that big, and frankly they weren't on Classic either when I played.

If you haven't had a single social experience in three months then you either haven't tried to start one and simply expect others to, in which case you're contributing to the very problem you're complaining of, or you're playing the game in a very solo oriented manner, in which case you're also contributing to the problem you're complaining about. Plenty of people enjoy being social in MMOs, but a lot don't. People can play how they want.

And again, join a guild, if you want to socialize and haven't done that then I can't even. That's the #1 place you'll find socializing because you constantly see those people.

It sounds like you haven't tried to be social while expecting everyone else to be.

[Kanegasi]

There's a difference between forced interactions and natural interactions. Classic forces interactions by design while retail makes it possible for almost any spec to grind up to a power level capable of soloing almost anything.

It is not a requirement to interact with players in an MMO. You share a world, that's it. If you want interactions in retail, seek them out. That's the beauty of retail, every player has a choice.

[Justpassing]

Go play classic then.

[Mozu]

It feels like a single player game on retail because retail is one for 95% of content (if you think pushing a queue button and waiting to get thrown into a group counts as social interaction, I feel sorry for you. LFR/D could put you in a group with AI and it would be no different). Classic is a great example of how disgustingly shallow the social experience is on retail because on retail there's systems in place that allow for it.

The same people that argue "if you don't like flying just don't fly" will argue "if you want more social interaction, just interact more" while conveniently ignoring the core issue with that statement: In an MMO, how other people play the game affects everyone else's experience of the game as well.

If everyone is flying and my dumbass is the only one on the ground, it's an issue. Likewise, if everyone is playing the game as a single-player game and I'm trying to force interaction, it's also an issue.

In both cases, convenience ruled over game integrity. Unfortunately.

[barackohmama]

OP retail fine, this looks to me a as a you-problem.

Delusional

[Vargrik]

I think the main reasons are:

1) Low difficulty of the open world content;
2) The overuse of comms apps like Discord, Teamspeak etc.;
3) LFD, LFR (automatization);
4) Many players that feel like they are playing solo won't even attempt to start a conversation or call other players to do things together.

[Garymorilix]

It feels like a single player game on retail because retail is one for 95% of content (if you think pushing a queue button and waiting to get thrown into a group counts as social interaction, I feel sorry for you. LFR/D could put you in a group with AI and it would be no different). Classic is a great example of how disgustingly shallow the social experience is on retail because on retail there's systems in place that allow for it.

The same people that argue "if you don't like flying just don't fly" will argue "if you want more social interaction, just interact more" while conveniently ignoring the core issue with that statement: In an MMO, how other people play the game affects everyone else's experience of the game as well.

If everyone is flying and my dumbass is the only one on the ground, it's an issue. Likewise, if everyone is playing the game as a single-player game and I'm trying to force interaction, it's also an issue.

In both cases, convenience ruled over game integrity. Unfortunately.

You do realize LFR and normal/heroic dungeons are literally the minority part of content compared to anything above them?

And guess what, anything above them requires social interactions. Hell, try doing LFR crucible without social interaction, you won't even do that.

But I guess you have more time to chat in Classic spamming 1 button rotations.

[Tradu]

I think the main reasons are:

1) Low difficulty of the open world content;
2) The overuse of comms apps like Discord, Teamspeak etc.;
3) LFD, LFR (automatization);
4) Many players that feel like they are playing solo won't even attempt to start a conversation or call other players to do things together.

So programs that are made and used for the express purpose of interacting with other people are making people interact less? I mean, sure, if you only count in-game chat channels(which I guess OP is), but that's a pretty silly line to draw.

[Laqweeta]

You do realize LFR and normal/heroic dungeons are literally the minority part of content compared to anything above them?

And guess what, anything above them requires social interactions. Hell, try doing LFR crucible without social interaction, you won't even do that.

But I guess you have more time to chat in Classic spamming 1 button rotations.

Right, because every class in retail is SO MUCH BETTER being a builder and a spender class. Let's turn everything into Rogue at this point!

You get enough determ stacks anything is possible ^-^

[Mozu]

You do realize LFR and normal/heroic dungeons are literally the minority part of content compared to anything above them?

If you're talking about number of players that participate as a whole, you're wrong. Sorry bub.

And guess what, anything above them requires social interactions. Hell, try doing LFR crucible without social interaction, you won't even do that.

I have done all LFR raids with raid chat turned off. Much interaction. Very social.

[Garymorilix]

Right, because every class in retail is SO MUCH BETTER being a builder and a spender class. Let's turn everything into Rogue at this point!

You get enough determ stacks anything is possible ^-^

Yes, I prefer actual gameplay over watching auto attack animations.

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If you're talking about number of players that participate as a whole, you're wrong. Sorry bub.



I have done all LFR raids with raid chat turned off. Much interaction. Very social.

I'm not talking about player numbers. I'm talking about options.

The fact that you refuse to acknowledge the existence of 3 of the 4 difficulties of raiding and the infinite+ difficulty in m+ does not mean those not exists. And those make up the majority of the game.
And all thos require social interaction.

The fact that u turned your chat off does not mean others dont interact. World doesn't orbit around you. Maybe, judging by this statement, you are the problem.

[sabe]

Blizzard loves to milk their customers.
Back in TBC, Ruin battlegroup had 4 servers only. Guilds couldn't raid, nearly no bgs, very low arena pop.
They did nothing to fix it.
They pushed people to transfer instead of saving player base.
They will do anything to make more money, they don't care if you are having fun or not.