How does Retail fix the social issue?

[Crimson Spears]

It would help if they removed the lower difficulties and drastically increased the power world mobs had in comparison to the player from what it is now. The main source of friction in wow comes from the massive skill difference in its players. To my knowledge no other game allows itself to be as mindlessly easy as wow at level cap.

If you raise the skill floor you will see people slowly start to trust one another more as the players who kick protection was implemented for are slowly driven off to face book games were they belong. It seems cruel but everyone would be happier with that.

[Alroxas]

What about the interviews where devs acknowledged older versions of the game had a much stronger community and social aspect to it?

Yes but in full context those devs also mention that server identity has eroded because of the convenience and QoL changes added to the game.

[Ealyssa]

The amount of whispers I did in Shadowlands between 50-60 was 0. Yes, 0. I also am pretty sure I joined a group 0 times.?

That's very clearly a you problem...

I just leveled my mage 50->60 in SL spaming dungeon last Sunday. Met plenty of interesting people (and obviously also a lot of non talkative one).
It's up to you if you want to interact socially. Asking for a game to force you to it its extremely akward to say the least...

[Wavebossa]

It would help if they removed the lower difficulties and drastically increased the power world mobs had in comparison to the player from what it is now. The main source of friction in wow comes from the massive skill difference in its players. To my knowledge no other game allows itself to be as mindlessly easy as wow at level cap.

If you raise the skill floor you will see people slowly start to trust one another more as the players who kick protection was implemented for are slowly driven off to face book games were they belong. It seems cruel but everyone would be happier with that.

You would be creating more issues by removing the most popular parts of the game.
If you are annoyed that you get grouped with players much weaker than you... instead of removing difficulty settings... stop pugging with players that are not on your skill level.

I cannot tell you how much more fun this is when you actively discern who you play with

[Dreadgear]

I think the answare is known to many but they are not willing to accept it.
There must exist inconvinient scenarios or content that can be done only by grouping and incentivise to group with the same people over and over rather than randoms.
Otherwise as long as there's something that can be done solo, it will be done solo. I am a firm believer that MMOrpgs should rely on group content and people playing together. There are dozens of genres of games that can be played solo or be played Solo in multiplayer but MMOs should not be one of those.

[Crimson Spears]

You would be creating more issues by removing the most popular parts of the game.
If you are annoyed that you get grouped with players much weaker than you... instead of removing difficulty settings... stop pugging with players that are not on your skill level.

I cannot tell you how much more fun this is when you actively discern who you play with

Most popular in the sense that everyone does them or that they are popular in terms of enjoyment? Right now the first 10 levels of wow are by far the most popular the game has to offer with that broken logic.

Again your solution is to add more friction because that playerbase is never happy in the mindless modes of the game. If you want wow to be more socially stable you have to press for a cull of its more... challenged players.

[Gorsameth]

Most popular in the sense that everyone does them or that they are popular in terms of enjoyment? Right now the first 10 levels of wow are by far the most popular the game has to offer with that broken logic.

Again your solution is to add more friction because that playerbase is never happy in the mindless modes of the game. If you want wow to be more socially stable you have to press for a cull of its more... challenged players.

Pretty sure there is more toxicity coming from you in just 2 posts then the entire 'casual' playerbase
produces.

How about you get out of their game instead. Go play Wildstar, I heard they cater to the more hardcore WoW player... oh wait.

[Crimson Spears]

Pretty sure there is more toxicity coming from you in just 2 posts then the entire 'casual' playerbase
produces.

How about you get out of their game instead. Go play Wildstar, I heard they cater to the more hardcore WoW player... oh wait.

I'm a casual player myself...well usually im on half shifts from this lock down so now am logging in hardcore hours... before I logged in roughly six hours a week and cleared mythic raid then logged. As casual as they come.

If you want to improve the player base as a whole you have to actively work to eliminate people who simply can't play the game.

[Mr. Smith]

That barely ever happened. Usually you only start to chat with people when you are looking for dungeons or for a 5 player quest and you only do this because the game design won't allow you to actually play the game during that time. What you describe is nothing but a fanfiction.

I don't know what to tell you. As a person who generally avoided players unless it was for a quest/dungeon, I still ended up making multiple friends, and joining multiple guilds in BC/Wrath as well as in Classic, one of whom ended up being one of my best friends in real life.

I never made the claim that the system in Old WoW was perfect, just that it was better than what we have now because it at least tried to encourage you to interact with people out in the world, which is important in an MMO.

[Kokolums]

yes I'm sure you want to wait 20 minutes to kill a quest mob. Gives you all the time to socialize, I guess.

I never said you should. In fact, if you play BCC, you will see people group up to get kills. Hence, social.

[richterlevania3]

The thing that makes a MMORPG attractive is the social aspect, no?

No.

/chars

[Stardrift]

Obviously theres more social interaction if youre forced into it, doesnt make it better though.

Its also not a lie, just because youre an anti social bee that needs blizzard to kick your butt into the direction of the nearest human being before you would even remotely consider to interact with em, doesnt make the game not social.

I just don't get why you get so defensive about these topics?

Players noted the game lacks incentives to be social. Some players miss the incentives because it made it much easier to be social. And now players here are discussing what can be done about it.

And now we're getting people like you who come in and just be an ass about it lol

- - - Updated - - -

Yes but in full context those devs also mention that server identity has eroded because of the convenience and QoL changes added to the game.

I'd say they're wrong about it eroding. Server identity died immediately with CRZ and then made even worse with server merges. The merges were necessary, but with CRZ you rarely see the same people in-game anymore.

[Nnyco]

And now we're getting people like you who come in and just be an ass about it lol

Said the guy who basically just finished his statement earlier with "NO YOU'RE WRONG, YOU LIE LOL".

[Kehego]

I never said you should. In fact, if you play BCC, you will see people group up to get kills. Hence, social.

forced interactions arent social interactions

nice try though.

[Stardrift]

Said the guy who basically just finished his statement earlier with "NO YOU'RE WRONG, YOU LIE LOL".

Because why bother lying? Just to be a contrarian? Gross, no thanks lol

Blocked.

[sam86]

they don't, as long as token wow exist they don't and they won't
why social? to pug a raid? go pay blizzard real hard cold cash to get gold, use that gold to get ahead of curve, now u can pug and get to a raiding guild
u don't want to buy tokens? enjoy solo mode wow, farm pets and mounts

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not sure there's anything Blizzard can do to force socialization without alienating more players than not.

try remove tokens, make boosts useless as they were in old days, most top guilds won't care to boost since gold is just for consumables and repairs (and just 1 day do few dailies cover that and way more), ppl will actually have to pug to do anything at lower tier raiding, and can actually move to better raiding without need to spend 1502 euro to get ahead of curve

[Mokrath]

If you're basically required to "socialize" for even basic content, is it really socializing?
Retail has plenty of willing socialization.
Go camp a rare, plenty of people interact. Sometimes we have mount-offs, sometimes we play with toys, other times we bitch and moan about drop rates or respawn times.
Go run M+ or join an active guild that isn't just some spam auto invite garbage. You will need to socialize or you won't last very long.

Retail made socializing optional and, to nobody's surprise, people opt out of it more often than not.

[Gratlim]

Maybe that is just me but the fact that "non WTS spam" chat died, sacrificed for discord servers for most guild has a lot to do the feeling that the game lost a lot of its social aspect.

Now the population is split in their own private servers and public chat are mostly the place to make money for boosters etc.

[Crimson Spears]

Maybe that is just me but the fact that "non WTS spam" chat died, sacrificed for discord servers for most guild has a lot to do the feeling that the game lost a lot of its social aspect.

Now the population is split in their own private servers and public chat are mostly the place to make money for boosters etc.

The massive skill chasm the game fosters doesn't help either. The jump from content being utterly brain dead to challenging is massive and sudden.

[Kyriani]

they don't, as long as token wow exist they don't and they won't
why social? to pug a raid? go pay blizzard real hard cold cash to get gold, use that gold to get ahead of curve, now u can pug and get to a raiding guild
u don't want to buy tokens? enjoy solo mode wow, farm pets and mounts

- - - Updated - - -


try remove tokens, make boosts useless as they were in old days, most top guilds won't care to boost since gold is just for consumables and repairs (and just 1 day do few dailies cover that and way more), ppl will actually have to pug to do anything at lower tier raiding, and can actually move to better raiding without need to spend 1502 euro to get ahead of curve

This sounds more like you have an issue with tokens/boosts than anything to do with improving/encouraging socialization.