Was the WoW community ever good?

[Sunderella]

In my experience yeah, it was better before the systems went cross realm. Before that, you lived on your reputation: you treated people with respect you were treated back with respect. You were an idiot to other people you risked yourself to be blacklisted on a server level.

While I understand the need for cross realm systems, it is true that it killed the sense of community withing the game. Nowadays people usually join and leave groups without a simple hi/bye.

[ryjkur]

That was possible before with mIRC and TS but not really comparable to the ease Discord and stuff has brought.

Well it's comparable with discord, my server had hundreds of ppl in mIRC back in the day just like hundreds nowadays in Discord. Both were as easy to connect into but Discord is 100% more toxic than my old server's mIRC was, today's community is plain toxic.

[Soikona]

For me, it was at at its best at end of WOTLK. People got toxic with cataclysm and their harder dungeons. After that, the toxic attitude of being “the best” seemed to have stuck.

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Well it's comparable with discord, my server had hundreds of ppl in mIRC back in the day just like hundreds nowadays in Discord. Both were as easy to connect into but Discord is 100% more toxic than my old server's mIRC was, today's community is plain toxic.

Basically this. Retribution for example is full of twitch chat nerds, and Havoc is even worse!

[tikcol]

I wouldn't say it was great but at least there was one.

[Sluvs]

I mean, it was better in TBC and classic because you had to form the group yourself. But I also think that min-maxing was a little bit harder and the game's difficulty did not escalate to the point where several addon are needed to raid.

[MrFawlty]

Fanboys : There were a nice people who were friendly and people who decided to act like rubbish. Just like today because how people act in their games is never Blizzards fault.

Normal people : It was better when everyone servers had communities and you were more accountable for your actions instead of the anonymous queues of today.

[Easyclassictopkeklel]

people = shit.
and people don't change.
guess that answers the question.

if you spend some time playing Classic, you’ll see some of that camaraderie as you level. Random buffs, people offering gear, stopping to help with quests...a lot of this happens because there is a need. We don’t need help with an elite on retail because we can either solo it (many if not most classes), or, we hit a button and get a group almost instantly.

Yeah and how long did that last?
I encounter way more toxic behaviour on classic servers than in retail these days.

[Itori]

It was frendlier back in vanilla up to wrath and i think it started going downhill in cata it wasnt horrible at first but by WoD WoW had a bad reputation everywhere for its community. Why it turned out this way? People blame the lfg, cross server, and everything else, but me personally i blame the company for not being more harsh on toxic player, i mean its 2020 and i still see people throwing out the word fag, and throwing out insults from 2006.

[Vaelorian]

It was frendlier back in vanilla up to wrath and i think it started going downhill in cata it wasnt horrible at first but by WoD WoW had a bad reputation everywhere for its community. Why it turned out this way? People blame the lfg, cross server, and everything else, but me personally i blame the company for not being more harsh on toxic player, i mean its 2020 and i still see people throwing out the word fag, and throwing out insults from 2006.

Wait I don't get this. You say that atleast from Vanilla to Wrath it was good. At Cata etc it started going downhill. Exactly what I think concerning timeframe.
So Blizzard had it right at first. Community was great. So then you go on what other people think is the cause for this. Which are systems that make teamwork less required. But instead of saying that Blizzard should create systems that make people want to work together, you blame them for not policing enough.
So in truth. You want Blizzard to bring in these "convenient" systems etc at the expense of teamwork and accountability. And at the same time want them to start slap people around when they behave badly.

Is this not experience- and cost ineffective? I don't see how you can love vanilla - wrath and been informed by others about various reasons behind the decline of the community (which is not a single one on of itself) but want todays systems that are detrimental to the thing you loved.

[taishar68]

people = shit.
and people don't change.
guess that answers the question.



Yeah and how long did that last?
I encounter way more toxic behaviour on classic servers than in retail these days.

I have not, maybe I'm just lucky. I don't think people are shit, but some are, and that often means you may not want to engage in something where there is a high chance for toxicity, like an anonymous group trying to get things done in a very quick fashion.

It is possible you are seeing more toxic behavior in Classic because there is a greater need for interaction than in retail, where everything is anonymous. But again, maybe I'm just lucky.

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It was frendlier back in vanilla up to wrath and i think it started going downhill in cata it wasnt horrible at first but by WoD WoW had a bad reputation everywhere for its community. Why it turned out this way? People blame the lfg, cross server, and everything else, but me personally i blame the company for not being more harsh on toxic player, i mean its 2020 and i still see people throwing out the word fag, and throwing out insults from 2006.

The design of WoW back then, from the increased difficulty to the server identity, made it harder for people to be toxic; given the ability to act anonymously, in a relative sense, we have seen less patience and less interaction from the community as a whole since the end of Wrath, which has been the bulk of WoW's life cycle. I think that is the price we pay for the convenience we've enjoyed, the ability to consume content more rapidly, etc. Nothing is free, as the saying goes.

[Argorwal]

People talk about LFD and LFR but those systems only used for the absolutely bare minimum aspects of the game and very easily skipped in its entirety that to me it’s hard to blame.

My perspective is the knowledge expectation is just massive. A lot of us have been playing for 10+ years. We know every dungeon, every class, every raid, and when we group with people who don’t have 10 years of memorization on every single little thing our patience is thin.

[Necromantic]

The community was at it's best during vanilla/TBC times. Classic was not able to re-capture that because the community has already shifted and you inevitably got newer generation entitled gamers bleeding into it.

Back then:

- People chatted with others. Whether it was useless banter or just how to get something accomplished. Today, people say next to nothing or when they do, it's a bunch of insults or garbage to make themselves feel better.

- We didn't have streamers. People actually thought for themselves. They didn't always reference the thoughts of some vastly immature pleb with a webcam and actually give these people money.

- People just partied with other people. We didn't have stupid 3rd party addons that give people data that 99.99% don't even know how to read correctly. We brought whoever we could and we did perfectly fine.

- Quests were more engaging. People would invite others to join in on quests. The more it happened, the more you'd remember people and in turn, you ended up treating people like people rather than random pieces of garbage. Today, quests are 10 second facerolls.

- World PVP was world PVP. People engaged in PVP and had fun doing so. Sure, there were those occasional failures who were garbage at max level PVP and did nothing more than kill people 40+ levels below themselves. Today, that's almost the norm and people seemingly get aroused from it.

[Necromantic]

The OP asked, I explained the reasons it got to this point. I'm not wrong.

[Beatman]

I'll leave this here:

[Lolites]

LFG and LFR destroyed the social aspect of wow.

it did not, using guild and communities you can actualy be more social than before, its just most people DONT WANT TO

[Celestraza]

It was until LFG was introduced in end WotLK.

I fondly remember when I was a total n00b in Vanilla/TBC. Players took the time to help me out, teach me about key bindings and addons. We'd always call on eachother to do content. The guild you were in did not even matter. I was on a tiny server so you interacted with everyone on the realm.

Nowadays it feels like a single player game. Just rush through content with strangers and buzz off again.

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I think TerrisT & Crackerjack summed it up well.

in my experience, I interacted with friendly people often in Vanilla, and less and less as time went on. By the time we got to Cata, WoW had become largely anonymous outside of guild.

if you spend some time playing Classic, you’ll see some of that camaraderie as you level. Random buffs, people offering gear, stopping to help with quests...a lot of this happens because there is a need. We don’t need help with an elite on retail because we can either solo it (many if not most classes), or, we hit a button and get a group almost instantly.

I think community spirit would improve if we were single server again, but that comes with its own set of issues.

Though I experience the camaderie every day in Classic. Just yesterday on my alt I saved a shaman and later a hunter, while later a rogue saved me. And not only me but many mages help out with portals/water.

It nonetheless is a lot less than it used to be in Vanilla/TBC. There are a lot of grievers and min/maxers that are kind of out of place in Classic. And the server is sooooooo big (we got like 80 40man raiding guilds) it is hard to get to know people outside the guild.

[Krekko]

it did not, using guild and communities you can actualy be more social than before, its just most people DONT WANT TO

I've played actively non-stop since launch. I'd agree. PEOPLE changed as individuals. LFG and LFR didn't destroy much of WoW, the community did that themselves.

Take a look at Classic WoW... the community is vile and toxic as ever and guess what there's none of? LFG and LFR.

The PLAYERS changed and people for whatever reason fail to accept that after all of these years.

I'm a daily Classic player and honestly the socialization in Classic as as low as it is in Retail. Even for dungeons it's simply barking commands, and that's it. People get too caught up with "LFR/LFD killed the community!" but they fail to see how they THEMSELVES killed the community.

Retail gives plenty of opportunity to be more social, the players fail to seize those moments. You get as much out of the socialization as you put in, and people don't want to put in anything. Blame the players, stop blaming Blizzard.

[Lime]

It was more of the same at max level in terms of community. Leveling up was a bit different, though, but that's only natural. When new players surge into a game, they're typically at their happiest, before they start to become jaded.

[buck008]

It was until LFG was introduced in end WotLK.

I hear this all the time, but I disagree completely. WoW's community died because of the meta game. Before LFG etc, there were 3rd party apps that assigned gear scores or tracked achievements that were used as gatekeepers for content. There were a multitude of sites that told you exact what builds you needed, and if you didn't use those you were a moron, etc. People changed too. Gotta remember, 15-16 years ago there was no social media. The concept of massive multiplayer games was still fairly fresh. The player base was different. It was never perfect, but it was better.

I mean, I can't say I'm anything but part of the problem either. Most of my real life and online acquaintances long since stopped playing and I've made no real attempt to meet new people. I'm in a guild that is my alts and people that haven't logged on for 5 years.

People don't really treat it as social any more. People want nothing but the most optimal, efficient use of their time. That's not social. That's silent robots that have the ideal spec and gear and do what they're told.

[Omedon]

"Communities" are terrible. Individuals are worthy. A community of individuals grown one individual at a time can be worthwhile if expectations are managed. The best gaming communities/guilds I have ever been in would be condemned as "cliquey" by someone who joined in any way other than that "one individual at a time" method, and quite often that step gets skipped in this or that group by a sometimes understandable sense of impatience. I mean, time is the great currency we can never get back so I can't fault impatience, but when everyone just says "I'm part of this community" and skips the building process, whether that's a guild or especially when it's a "fandom," that's when things go rotten because there's no filter for people to discover "I should have been part of this other similar community instead," but now it's too late and personalities that will never mesh are clashing and, well it becomes a shitshow, obviously.