In general, I think that socializing is pretty dead as far as the "old school" model goes.

Most games these days are theme park and extreemly soloable. Its not like EQ in the early part of the last decade, with grind, grind, hell level, die .... loose said hell level and corps run to get your stuff back IF you can remember where you died since there was no in game mapping feature. You had to forum a community to help each other out. Now in games like WoW and SWTOR there is no need.

On the one hand I like it because well I am a control freak and like to control my online time.

But, on the other hand I do miss having to actually be diplomatic and actually "make friends" not just aquaintances but as true a friend as you can have on the interwebs to depend upon for help when needed. To be honest the only gamer "friends" I have left are those that followed each other from EQ1 from game to game like a bunch of gypsies and my IRL friends that were roped into playing MMORPGs from my PnP groups.

If there is no REASON to reach out and one can pretty much do everything they need without help, no community or socializing will organically emerge.

Its not like EQ in the early part of the last decade, with grind, grind, hell level, die .... loose said hell level and corps run to get your stuff back IF you can remember where you died since there was no in game mapping feature.

You forgot, "play for three hours, figure **** that, and quit."

There is a reason more people play now than played 10 years ago.... most people don't find what you described to be FUN.

You forgot, "play for three hours, figure **** that, and quit."

 

There is a reason more people play now than played 10 years ago.... most people don't find what you described to be FUN.

I wasn't assessing the "fun quotient" of said activities in the original MMORPGs. I was assesing how the old play style was structured to necessitate a truely "social community" compared to the MMORPGs of today. The OP wanted to know specifically if socializing in MMORPGs was nearing extinction. I addressed that comment and used an EXAMPLE of how games like EQ1 organically generated a community. But you didn't grasp that it seems.