Can’t you just imagine imagine a camera flashing between these two? The similarities are too much to deny, Square Enix! We’re onto your secret Caulkin manifesto, bringing the child star back to the mainstream! There will never be a Home Alone 5! Never I tell you! Neveeeeeer!
It’s been a little funny playing FFXIV the past couple of weeks. A lot of what people were so scared of has turned out to be a non-issue. Fatigue and quest limits in particular have gone pretty much unmentioned by the majority of players actually in-game.
The non-issue of the fatigue system is especially noticeable. If there was ever a flash in the pan, this was it. I’ve only talked to one person who’s even encountered it since they fixed the error that made it so apparent in beta. I’m not sure exactly what they did but there are some pretty hardcore players in my guild and none of them seem have even mentioned it. Maybe it’s because they’re changing classes fairly often. Still, they’re in their mid-twenties by now and that’s pretty good for this early in the game. Myself, I’m level 14 and admittedly casual (maybe 7-10 hours a week), so I’m guessing I’ll probably never see it at all.
Then there’s the leve limit; there’s something that has to be clarified here. I’ve heard people say that there’s an eight leve limit and that’s simply not true. I repeat, you can have more than eight leves at a time. It works out like this, leves are broken into two categories: crafting and field (combat/gathering). There’s a limit of eight per category which means you can actually have up to 16 at once. The timers on each are a little different– 24 hours on crafting and 36 for the field – so it’s possible to have the cooldowns overlap. Still, let them all refresh and you have a lot of quests to do, crafting often taking longer than the kill quests of other games.
The issue is more conceptual than anything. People don’t like the idea of being limited, even if it probably wouldn’t slow you down much anyways. Just by playing for a couple hours and doing all 16 of my leves, I was able to get two and a half levels last night. That’s not bad and actually a bit faster than leveling in many other games. Add into that some personal crafting time and it becomes even more possible to race through the levels– all without normal quests. There’s this little mental hang-up that says “well, what IF I wanted to play for eight hours a day, I should be able to do that!” and, yeah, I can empathize with that. Doing that exclusively through leves would be game breaking, though.
The timer is important because leves are simply too rewarding. If you removed the limit, we’d see people hitting the level cap within the week. You’d also see people ignoring other parts of the game because they’re followed such an obvious path of least resistance. There’s an argument out there that we need more types of quests to break up the monotony, leves being basic kill quests, after all. I’d tend to agree but that’s a little different than saying there’s nothing to do.
The issue people are having is a general aversion to approaching crafting as a legitimate playstyle. As much as people enjoy crafting elsewhere, many players simply aren’t ready to make it such a big part of their play. That’s fair and an aversion to crafting will definitely hinder your enjoyment of the game– it does, after all take longer than combat leves, effectively cutting 60% of your playtime right out of the equation. Not good for hardcore players. For players who appreciate building and creating, however, it’s a refreshing change from the norm.
If you choose to do all leve types, you can expect to be occupied for a couple hours at least. It’s actually lead me to not log in a couple times. The completionist in me wants to get everything done so they’re refreshed for next time, but there’s more there than I can reasonably do in one play session. For a working person, FFXIV is a great choice; even a few leves gives you a nice sense of progression. Add into that your own crafting and random kills, and you’ll probably level faster than you would elsewhere. In the end, the game probably isn’t a good match for the four hour a day player that wants quests non-stop. Crafters rejoice, however, because FFXIV gets it very right and you can spend LOTS of time getting better at what you do.
In the end, both XP fatigue and the quest limits are good examples of behavior we’ve seen in almost new every MMO. We see something that, by concept, sounds risky and so we rail against it (transmutation stones, anyone?). As is often the case, the reality doesn’t live up to outrage some would have us foster. That’s definitely the case here, so take complaints with a grain of salt. I’d bet most people complaining haven’t even encountered what they’re railing against. Or, in the case of leves, don’t want to try something that other players may well enjoy. Being locked in a single playstyle isn’t a design flaw. Good or bad, it’s just being stolid.
Post-Note: It’s not worth an entire post, but I thought it was worth noting that playing FFXIV has actually made me want to get back into LotRO a bit, too. The game’s have such different takes on the MMO that I’m kind of excited to step back into a more structured experience. I guess it just shows how different a niche this game fills for me.
Hey Guys,
Just a little quick hit to give Ferrel some love for a neat contest he’s running. SOE has been in touch with him and hooked him up with a couple 30-day gold memberships to EQ2 Extended to give away. Between now and October 29th, just head over to his contest page and submit your answers to his list of questions. This is a good chance to see what the game has to offer with a full membership. Give Ferrel some love and help him show SOE where the fans are at!
My little lala'fell, shortly after making him. Quite the pre-order hat, eh?
After thinking on it, reflecting on the comments and words of encouragement I’ve received, I’ve decided that the best option in discussing the highs and lows of FFXIV is to simply share my own experiences and write about it without trying to convince anyone either way. Early on, I think I did a decent job of describing both sides of the story, so I’ll let that stand on its own. I’ve come to the conclusion that the game is simply too different from what most people expect and MMORPG to be really convince anyone without having them try it themselves. I’m alright with that, though, because I’m much rather keep things in the conversational.
So, to keep on that vein I thought it would be a good time to discuss some of the hardships I’ve had getting used into the game and how I’ve overcome them.
Let’s get this out of the way first: this game desperately needs a tutorial. It is far too complex to not give new players some kind of introduction to the many unique systems and mechanics. It’s not incorrect to say that the game throws you into the deep end and says “swim.” The only introduction you get is a brief example of combat and a mission line telling you to visit some trainer NPCs. I’ve always firmly believed that a game should never expect you to go to a third party website to play effectively. FFXIV fails that test unless you have some generous and patient friends who happened to start before you.
That being said, it is not impossible to learn. When I first started, I didn’t have a linkshell (guild) and only knew the most basic parts of the game, namely that equipping different weapons changed your class. Thankfully, two things clued me in to how the game should be played: the console-esque user interface and the franchise’s history. With a UI that seemed to be a direct iteration on the series’ many console offerings, I decided to talk to NPCs. In doing so, I discovered that many not only offered lore but some good direction on what to do and explore. Between that and the initial story missions pointing you toward the key hubs (class guilds, leve givers, and the first aetheryte camp) and a little exploration, it wasn’t hard to discover what direction the game was pointing me in. It also wasn’t hard to see that it wasn’t going to go out of its way to help me get there.
Clobber-thing!
You have to be patient and ready to figure things out on your own– which isn’t as bad as it sounds. Combat is pretty straight forward and the first mission set explains well enough how to get and complete leves. From there, a little basic exploration of the menu system takes you to a screen to equip your skills. The game doesn’t explain any of this but it’s not too hard to understand. You have a screen with your available action bars. To the right is a list of skills categorized by the weapon/class type. Some cost action points, of which you gain more of as you level. While it may be a little confusing at first, the system messages in your chat log tell you when you try to do something you can’t and why.
Combat itself is also very straight forward. It’s slower and almost feels turn based… but not quite. You have HP, Mana, and build up points to execute other skills. At first I wondered how I was supposed to loot but then I noticed messages in my chat log saying that drops were being added to my “loot list.” Auto-loot by default. Over the next few levels, just as my own action bar got more complex, so did the mob behaviors. After a while, they’d run off and find help leaving you to fight three mobs instead of one. This is when I discovered just how strategic the slower pace of combat allows things to be. By all rights, I should have died far more often than I have. Having that extra bit of reaction time has been a great help and I feel more involved and less “auto-attacky” because of it. This is all stuff that should feel right at home to any MMO player once they’re used to the interface – which takes some getting used to. My advice is to drop the mouse all together. You can do everything with the keyboard and you’ll feel much more at ease once you do.
Crafting is another story. You pick up gathering and crafting quests at the same NPCs as the combat ones. The difference is, there’s a lot more complexity here. Nevermind the actual crafting process, though it’s a complete mystery for newbies as well. My first question was “how the heck do I even start?” I found the option after a friendly stranger told me to check my menu after I put on the right tool. Sure enough, the first option is “synthesize.” Clicking it brough up the crafting pane with options for “requested materials,” blank spots to drop items for a recipe, and the option to my main hand or secondary tool.
Dancing girls! Well. One dancing girl. For a little bit. I love how when you lock on, your head follows her as she dances.
Okay, but now what? I had picked up the quests but I didn’t know how to make what they requested. There’s no recipe section of the menu. And which tool was I supposed to use? What difference did that even make? Again, I had to explore. By clicking on “requested materials” it brought up my quest panel filled with all of the crafting leves I’d chosen. Okay, good. I chose my quest and the recipe box automatically filled in with a bunch of materials the NPC had given to me when I’d first accepted the job (inaccessible in your inventory, mats are expensive!). Taking a guess that to build fulfill a quest called “Momodi’s Study Suits” I’d have to use a hammer, I selected my mainhand weapon.
Things got even trickier. All the sudden, I’m sitting at an anvil with a timer counting down, a glowing white ball in the middle of it, and a three options I had no idea what they meant. Standard, Rapid, Bold? Quality, Durability, Completion Percent? Easy enough to understand, I suppose, but there was never anything to tell me which did what. On top of that, the darn ball kept changing colors. Nearly every single attempt I tried (it takes five or six choices to complete one order) exploded in my face. By the end I felt like the single worst armorer in the world.
As it turns out, there’s a method to it all but I had to find that out from other players and a developer interview a week later (to address the same frustration I had). Basically, a white orb is pure and likely to succeed. Anything with colors represents impurities in the metal and is less likely. They also respond better to rapid or bold synthesis. A lot of this is still left to be discovered. As you can see, it was all just a big recipe to leave players feeling defeated.
Ending with something pretty...
Something funny happened over the next couple days, however. I started to get better at recognizing what I should do and when. The durability and quality were variables that even helped make it a bit suspenseful. I have 40% left to complete, a 26 quality level and a 60% durability. If I do rapid, it might fail but if it doesn’t I can get a big completion spike and be able to pump up the quality at the end. It became a process of actual creation instead of the “click to create” scheme most other games offer.
In short, the problem with crafting system is the problem permeating almost every other part of the game: they’re just not explained well enough. I’ve found a lot to be great fun, involving, and, just like Pete at Dragonchaser’s recently wrote, I’m more gripped here than I’ve been in other games this year. There is simply no excuse for the mystery square has seen fit to embed in every aspect of the game, however. I’d go so far as to say that if they’d simply explained everything a bit better, they wouldn’t have gotten nearly so much bad press. But that’s just my opinion.
Hopefully this post sheds a little light into why I feel all the negativity surround the game is a bit misplaced. Where some people might simply defend it because of its Final Fantasy heritage, I think more players don’t defend it in such detail as the detractors attack simply because many of the issues fade away once you’re past the initial learning curve.
Make no mistake, the game has lots of room for improvement. The market wards are absolutely atrocious – and even still I’d recommend making a tutorial before revising them. There’s a lot to love here and it challenges what we recognize a modern MMO to be. The lack of explanation of those very challenges is probably the single biggest thing keeping people from getting to the top of that curve and finding what it is we’re seeing that they’re not.
For now, I’m happy having another game to throw some of my free time at. If you can get past the initial hump, FFXIV makes for a great MMO without the distinct combat emphasis of other MMOs. Virtually every part about it tells you to slow down and play for the moment; be free in what you want to do, when you want to do it. It’s a refreshing change from the end-game rush other games emphasize.
Hey Guys,
Another week, another Multiverse! This week, the part of Riknas is being played by Jeremy of the MMO Voices podcast! We always have a good time when members of the MMOV crew join us and this time was no different. Thanks to him for joining us and best of luck to Riknas who was out for the SATs!
We talk about the weeks news, including:
We follow up with a talk about free trials, demos, and other fun “try it now” options and weigh out the merit/drawbacks of each.
It was a great show. Be sure to stay until the end for a special surprise from Ferrel. Remember, if you like the show, participate by sending us an email at multiversepodcast@gmail.com or leaving an iTunes review.
See you next week for Germany-cast number two!
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I give. Throughout my time with FFXIV, I’ve tried to be objective, but perhaps I’m guilty of investing myself too much in trying to share something I enjoy. As much as I like it, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no point in trying to fight the tide of bad press and player opinion. The result of trying has only been arguing, being told I’m a fanboy, blind, or other things up that alley. The whole topic has just become an uphill battle and at this point I think I’m ready to just enjoy the game and stop fighting the flow of the community.
If you like it, fine, and if not, that’s okay too. For now, I think I’m going to pull back a little bit, stop reading sites outside of my normal circle, and focus on what I like about the genre and community. I feel tired, so maybe that means I’ll post a little less this week. I honestly don’t know. Writing is in my blood, so if I do I’m sure it won’t be for long. It’s just time to recharge my batteries and get back to focusing on the good I like in the genre and our community, and less on defending myself and a product I didn’t even help make. Somewhere I must have decided that XIV was getting an unfair shake and that I should speak up against what I felt was wrong. That can be someone else. From now on, I’ll write about what I like and what I’m doing. The whole thing is simply too divisive and nobody wins.
I’ve removed the last post to prevent further comments. Thank you to those that shared you opinions. I have never minded disagreements and even welcome them as an impetus for discussion. But, coming out of the argument, I think that makes a good first step. For those of you who would still like to read the original, I’ve left the post active over at MMO Voices.
– Chris
Note: Emyln, I did respond to your comment. I’m hoping you got that via email but if not, please let me know. I’m glad you came by and left it.
Update: And here’s this week’s Lagwar article: The War on the Subscription. Enjoy!
Forgive me interwebz, for while the doors to my virtual haunt have been open, I haven’t been here to keep you company. It’s always unfortunate when I’m pulled away right when the ol’ blog gets a round of attention (thanks Massively!). It’s been a week full of subbing (the teaching kind, not MMOs), visiting with friends, and generally being tired off my butt. Gaming has been pretty scant but I have managed to get a little done.
I managed to snag a few rounds Modern Warfare 2, hit prestige level 37, and have some fun. At this stage in the game’s life, though, it’s full of people who’ve hit max level multiple times, know the best camping spots, and have their grenade launchers perpetually lifted. Rounds are little more than a series of explosions. I’m not even being jaded– I like the game– but, literally, that accounts for like 90% of the game’s sound now. It all feels like it’s on life support now, too. With Black Ops coming next month, it doesn’t seem like Infinity Ward much cares about adding to or improving the game. There’s one well known glitch on the Fuel map that’s been in since the start. How hard would it be to simply patch the darn thing out? Make the whole area unenterable. Problem solved. But, I digress…
I also played a little Final Fantasy 14 and got my ass kicked by a giant chicken. Syp is posting about ravens, but the Dodos are where the real fury is at. My little lala’fell went through all the guild leve’s at Camp Drybone with no problem until it came time to face the chickens. A few pecks later and I’m flat on my back looking at the dark parts of Foghorn Leghorn. I managed to hit physical level 12 (have we accepted PL or just level for that yet?) and rank 9 Gladiator/7 Pugilist. I’m also working on my armorsmithing. Oh! And my crap broke. I need stuff repaired but I have no idea where to go to get it done. After my wife dozes off tonight, I’m heading back to Ul’dah to hold up a “will grind for food repairs” sign.
Random note. Why I like substituting elementary more than high school:
Senior Jock (ignoring his science lab): Hey, teacher, look at me do the t**ty dance. *makes his pecs bounce, winks at the girls nearby* Come on, do it with me.
6th Grader (on the computer): Teacher, look! Have you seen this new 3DS thing?
That actually happened… in the same day.
Anyways, it’s been a busy week. Hey, since I FAILED YOU UNENDINGLY since Tuesday, let me make it up to you with a smattering of Lagwar Friday articles:
Today’s article isn’t up quite yet but it will be soon. I quite dramatically titled it “The War on the Subscription” *cue ominous music*. I considered Blizzard or Die, Sub Hard: Debit With a Vengeance, and a Vampire in Sublyn: A Wes Craven Film Syeric of Lagwar Article, but I think what I chose fits best. I’ll update this post with a link to it when it goes live. Enjoy! And comment, if you’d be so kind. I need more comments over there. It makes me feel valued 😀
Oh, and that Scarybooster guy is pretty funny. He needs LOVE TO SURVIVE. GIVE HIM YOUR INTERNET LOVE OR FEEL HIS OMINOUS WRATH *cue creepy themesong music*. Nah, he’s a good guy though and fun to read. You probably already know him but I’m hoping this sends him some clicks. Besides, he loves you back.
While I tend to get most of my gaming news on the internet, when I saw the latest issue of EGM magazine (issue 241.0), I had to pick it up. Since the magazine started back up, they’ve been doing an excellent job of getting unique interviews and scoops from inside the industry. This issue was no exception with “First Look At Undead Labs’ ZOMBIE MMO” emblazoned on the cover.
We’ve heard very little about the game, there are some nice tidbits to be found here.
The Quotes
The atmosphere reminds me quite a bit of Fallen Earth.
“[The world] is present day, just a few months from now, however long it takes for the zombies to completely destroy everything that’s functional about civilization. The premise isn’t how you deal with the initial zombie attack, it’s how you deal with the aftermath and survive.”
The article comes with little bits of concept art and one big two page spread showing a downed and destroyed airliner lying on the fields of what could be LAX.
They also give us good indicators about what to expect of the game world:
“The game will not be ‘a canned, theme-park MMO,’ but rather a dynamic world to be reclaimed and rebuilt. That world is present day, just a few months from now…”
“After scavenging resources, you’ll need to pool some ideas and blueprints together to retrofit the settlement with defenses. The game’s dynamic and malleable physics engine lets you design obstacles, cattle paths and all manner of cruel and ingenious traps to stem the flow of sudden zombie strikes.”
Gather and crafting? Bolstering defenses to ward of zombie strikes? Sounds like we’re playing territorial domination here and that’s pretty cool.
This all makes me think the game may have more in common with the world of, say, Darkfall over WoW. The article definitely gives the impression that taking things back– and fighting to keep it– is a big part of the game. James Phinney and Jeff Strain go on to say,
Safe For Work Edition of This Zombie
“Real empowerment! Not running out to kill 10 things because I said so.” Strain quickly adds, “Like if we drop you into the middle of the zombie apocalypse with a crowbar and put you at the end of the Santa Monica pier, you know what you have to do, right? There’s no guy standing around with a little exclamation point over his head that you need to talk to,… your goal is to survive at any cost and find some kind of immediate shelter.”
“Banish the memories you have of the PC MMO paradigm for combat, and start thinking AAA console action game.”
“[Forge] understands that weapons (like the M14 assault rifle or long-bladed machete) need to feel snap-fast and satisfying, to pierce bones and dismember limbs just so.”
“‘You have to look at what the interactions are like in the films and books, [says Forge]. There’s this really strong visceral connection between melee and ranged combat… …I’m looking to put that experience in your hands with the slickest control scheme we can come up with.'”
Which is great on a number of levels. First and foremost, people expect zombie games to be about action. They want to shoot off limbs and explode heads and come up with their own interesting ways to dispatch the undead– that’s the whole basis for the Dead Rising series, isn’t it? Combat is God of War is fun, there is no doubt about that. This game will require a different approach but it sounds like they’re on the right track.
It’s not all about high intensity action, however:
“All the basics of zombie apocalypse survival are required in our world: food, water, shelter, and of course, bullets,”
“Over the first couple of days, you’re going to be worrying about food supply, how to equip yourself to deal with travel, protecting yourself from the elements and conditions”
To me, this sounds like basic “get gear, get food and water to regen” stuff, but it gets better:
“In quieter moments you’ll be able to build out the settlements, even plant and grow gardens within. You can’t drive a chainsaw through a zombie’s skull on a crappy diet.”
Survival will surely be a team sport, too.
“Ultimately you’ll try to locate other friendly humans and increase your chance of survival through numbers. Together, you may eventually gather enough materials and defensive measures to move into larger shelters like an abandoned house, and potentially clear out other nearby establishments like the local 7-Eleven”
“‘A lot of it has to do with how real world the stories are– aside from crazy hordes eating your flesh. It’s everything you see, like the breakdown of human society, the challenges people face trying to survive, figuring out if there are others you can trust, learning to work together.”
There’s no mention of whether the game will feature both solo and group paths; however, I think it’s safe to say the it will. Console games are not renowned for mandatory interdependence, though I’d like to know how much a lone ranger would be able to do if territorial take-overs are a major aspect of play.
Finally, they give us an idea of how each player will progress and advance themselves:
“Though in an early state of development, it appears the game may adopt an open character progression system (not strictly class-based).”
They go on to provide several possible “specialty roles” players may be able to adopt, such as “ace mechanic,” “the guy with medical training,” or “an ex-special forces tracker.” There is definitely a sandbox vibe coming from almost every part of this game. I’m hoping they keep the open class system. We need more of that in this industry and it seems fitting in such a modern setting.
Thoughts
I have to be honest here, when I first heard about the game I pretty much wrote it off. This article piqued my interest but I’m still not convinced it’s a good sell.
At its core, this game is three niches deep. It’s an MMO, it’s post-apocalyptic, and it’s zombie based. Add into this the fact the it is being made “purely for consoles” and I think we have cause to worry if they’re not over-specializing. I have to wonder who the target audience is for this game. Is it MMO fans, zombie fans, or action fans? While the last two might fit together, consoles players aren’t the most accepting of the many aspects of play we MMO players take for granted.
In that way, the design really seems to be at war with itself. While console players will expect high-intensity action, the article seems to indicate that there will be a lot of downtime. Do zombie fans really want to plant gardens and search for blueprints? Moreover, are we emphasizing the zombie-theme or the post-apocalypse? Though we’ve frequently seen the two tied together, in terms of design, the two could drastically effect how people enjoy the game. Though zombies are obviously a huge motivator, what’s to set this game apart from the likes of Fallen Earth?
As an MMO on a console, the challenges this game will face are huge. It must be able to support an MMO sized audience. I’m left wondering if the confounded design paradigms will offer enough to justify consoles players tying themselves down as most MMOs expect them to– a sentiment fairly unique to the MMO genre. We have to remember that console players often look down their noses at us. Playing one game to the exclusion of most others– and paying for it— is absolutely foreign to them. Still, I’m obviously not saying that there is no hope. The game is not dead in the gate.
In short, Undead Labs must strike gold, perfectly balancing a blend of console-based action with the addictive drip-feed of MMO progression systems lest the ultra-niche nature of the game bar them from mass-market or even mid-market success. Yet, in an era poised to explode the possibilities of expansive online gaming on every platform, if there was ever a time for console MMO hit, we are rapidly approaching it.
And the thing is, as an MMO and console fan, I think this game could be good. Really good.
Undead Labs is stuck between two audiences who generally want very different things from their titles. Can they bridge the gap between our expectations, deliver on both, and give us that proverbial handshake between genres? I sure hope so, because they’d need a damn good game to do it. And that’s a game I want to play
Hey Gang,
Episode 28! Minecraft! Turkeys!
This week we were happy to be joined by Beau and Leala Turkey. You’ll recognize them both as big members of the community. Together they write the Spouse Aggro blog and podcast. Separately, Beau is a columnist for Massively and writes the Free For All and Rise and Shiny columns. Leala is the host the very popular Ravenwood Radio podcast and designer of MMO Voices (which the two started and run together).
We had a plan for a main topic but we wound up having such a good time during the interview that we let it take us where it would. We wind up talking about about WoW, Wizard 101, gamer mentality between “kids” and “adult” games, behind the scenes at Massively.com, what it’s like to work with a large child-based audience (kid stalkers?), and the real scoop on the main free-to-play fears from someone who’s played more of them than most other of us combined.
This was a very fun episode to record and we want to thank Beau and Leala for joining us again. We’ve been following their projects forever and it was great to finally talk to them. We have some great discussion, so let us know what you think in the comments!
Remember to check out their projects and enter to win some Zentia swag! Also, they’d appreciate any help you could give towards meeting their goal for their Extra Life Gaming Marathon for Kids. Go here to donate.
If you like the show, consider dropping us a 5-star iTunes review. We have a little bit of a backlog of iTunes reviews, so get in now and we’ll highlight you on the show. Don’t worry Jeremy Stratton, we haven’t forgotten about you 😀
Enjoy the show!
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[audio: http://vagary.tv/multiverse/episodes/multiverse28.mp3]
Other Links: If you like the Multiverse, check out Sarc from Lagwar.com’s podcast MMO Weakly!
Welcome to the 5-ma... er, chat graveyard
Wolfshead’s latest post talks about the failing state of chat in MMOs today. Like all of his posts, it’s an enjoyable read and is delivered with all of the experience and eloquence we’ve come to expect from him. In it, he postulates that the current silence dominating 5-mans is an early indicator of MMOs losing the need for player’s to communicate entirely. I have to disagree this time.
Why’s it so quiet in here?
As a root cause, Wolfshead points to the Looking For Dungeon tool. He’s spot on in a side-effect of its introduction, too, in that people don’t see much point getting to know players they’ll probably never see again. The most polite among us will offer our hellos and congratulations, at times, but seeking out friendships with these players just isn’t feasible. Short of giving out your real name, there’s no way to talk again and little hope of ever being matched through the tool again. Still, that’s not the reason no one’s talking.
The lack of communication is a result of two things: it’s late in the expansion and strategy is no longer required in most dungeons. I firmly believe that if dungeons offered more challenge, players would be forced to talk and strategize. Today, not only have the majority of players memorized the strategy for every 5-man encounter, but, that strategy is made moot by the fact that each is little more than a DPS race. This wasn’t the case at the launch of WotLK. Dungeon Finder or no, when players face cooperation or failure, communication happens.
The difficulty curve and penalty for failure was so harsh in the EQ days that players had to communicate. Players running 5-mans in the Cataclysm beta are talking and planning again – today, in WoW. It’s unfortunate that 5-mans are the quietest they’ve ever been but I don’t think we can lay it at the hands of their original conception.
Chat still happens
The most puzzling part of the article is that it doesn’t touch on raiding. Communication is, and always has been, the biggest factor in success. I don’t think it’s much different from vanilla WoW, actually, because when people don’t talk, they fail. Unlike 5-mans, raiding isn’t something players can do whenever and however often they want. Fights are longer, more complex, and can’t just be steamrolled without ever changing position. Groups who don’t talk take the risk of being unprepared and face a much higher chance of failure – repair bills, downtime, and peer pressure are usually enough to ensure players talk it out beforehand.
Granted, most communication is done over VOIP these days, but is that really so different? VOIP works because you can communicate more, quicker and addresses the main limitation text chat has always faced: when you’re typing, you’re not playing.
The fact that players still talk in these larger scale encounters seems to prove that the reasons for talking are timeless: when strategy is required, people talk.
Wolfshead’s article highlights dungeons in-particular, but I think it’s still important to note that chat is still widely and frequently used in guilds, tells, and in cities. Friendships are still being made in WoW every day, people have just given up trying to do so with momentary strangers.
WoW is no example
There are lots of ways in which we can judge WoW’s impact on the larger genre, but I wouldn’t count talking among them. Apart from gear inflation, WoW is unique in a number of ways that impact the player’s need to communicate. Foremost among them is just that WoW is so damn huge.
WoW is supported by a number of communication killing resources. Database sites, strategy forums, YouTube tutorials, and dedicated class blogs all remove the need for in-game strategizing. While similar sites exist for other games, the sheer size of WoW’s fanbase ensures that these are more readily available than anywhere else. When I first started WoW, just before The Burning Crusade released, in-game questions were often redirected to thottbot. These days its WoWhead. When those same questions are asked in LotRO, there’s no such well known site for players to be pointed towards. Inter-reliance is much more prevalent outside of WoW and, as a rule, chat is still important and well used.
The console shift
I agree with Wolfshead in one of his biggest assertions: console MMOs will most likely remove chat entirely. Short of using a keyboard, it’s just not feasible. At best, we’ll see pared down versions and quick-phrases similar to FFXI and XIV. More likely, I think voice chat will become the norm – but only if consoles MMOs take shape as their PC counterparts, and I’m not totally convinced that’s going to happen.
In the end, I see Wolf’s point and personally find the 5-man silence a bit depressing; it highlights that no one really cares that you’re there, it’s just a badge run. Even sadder is that this will probably become the standard for single-group dungeons once the initial newness wears off. Still, for a little while right at the start of Cataclysm, there will have to be a comeback. We’ll be slowed down, in the dark, waiting for the scales to tip back into “everyone but you knows this fight, so you’d better just go with the flow.” After that, we’ll go back to talking in /guild and /say. I used to really enjoy meeting new people in PuGs. I guess those days are done – but I still don’t think chat will ever really die.
