I made the following observation, mistakenly, in another forum, where it got lost in the middle of a flame war. So I'm posting my thoughts here:

 

 

 

"A popular argument against SWTOR is its lack of in-game player community. A popular supporting argument includes the lack of content promoting an active player community. Agreed, that is something that could be implemented. But let's inject some sociology:

 

I want to throw something else out there, as food for thought. Perhaps this lack of community stems from the time we live in. MMO's are no longer anything new, and games that are coming out these days are somewhat "a dime a dozen," in that as far as MMO's go a new one comes out every 2 or 3 months. Players are less willing to commit to a game, and therefore tend to express a kind of indifference to it when playing. They know in the back of their minds that they have dozens of other choices if they don't end up liking the game, even in the slightest.

 

So they're not as careful about making friends or socializing because, why bother? We'll just move on to the next game in a couple of months anyway, right? That just seems to be the mindset of it.

 

As far as earlier MMO's like SWG, I don't think a newer MMO will ever match the community it once had. It doesn't matter how much content you throw at it. The only way I can see it happening is if the game is mind-blowingly revolutionary in its design, and word gets spread like wildfire about this amazing MMO that is just beyond belief. But too many players are non-chalant nowadays for games to impress them like they once did."

 

 

 

I've never played SWG, but I can understand from how vocal its players are about their community. But if you had never played SWG, either, insert any early MMO you want, from the 90's to 2006-2008ish (release date).

The biggest challenge to community is splitting up the playerbase into dozens of servers, then splitting those servers into dozens of planets. The closest thing we have to "hub" is the Fleet, and people really only spend extended amounts of time there once they hit 50.

The biggest challenge to community is splitting up the playerbase into dozens of servers, then splitting those servers into dozens of planets. The closest thing we have to "hub" is the Fleet, and people really only spend extended amounts of time there once they hit 50.

 

A popular supporting argument includes the lack of content promoting an active player community. Agreed, that is something that could be implemented.

 

This.

We dont even have server forums.

I dunno I play I have friends here I meet new people...it's no different than any other MMO I played.

The biggest challenge to community is splitting up the playerbase into dozens of servers, then splitting those servers into dozens of planets. The closest thing we have to "hub" is the Fleet, and people really only spend extended amounts of time there once they hit 50.

 

There are a couple of things I can think of that could help with this:

 

1) Flashpoint access on level appropriate planets - right now if you never go to fleet you would never know flashpoints even exist. Since most of the quest givers for the flashpoints are droids who emit holoprojections, I would not think it would be that hard to inject them into each planet. Further, having the spaceport on a given planet have access to the flashpoint would give players an opportunity to look for a group and quest at the same time rather than basically having to choose one or the other.

 

2) a "galaxy-wide" general chat - right now general chat is limited to where you are. So unless you are at fleet during prime hours, that channel is all but silent (in my experience it is rare even in prime time to see more than a token LFG message in general chat on a planet). With a "galaxy-wide" general chat, the channel would probably be more active. Granted some find this annoying, but right now I think it is a necessary step.

Most planets I'm on tend to have no more than 10 to 15 other players including myself, and there is little to no general chat whatsoever, now and again a spam for LFG or LFM but that's it. On reaching level 40 I tried asking on general if the speeder training was worth paying the credits for and no answer. I then whispered 2 level 40 or higher players politely asking their opinion without getting a reply, that's just plain anti social in my opinion. I whispered a third player and he was polite and said that for the speed increase he didn't think it worth the credits.

 

I may not respond to questions in general chat depending on where I am, in the middle of enemies for example but I always respond to a whisper, even if I have to look for a safe spot to do so, I feel it's rude not to.

 

I've played other MMOs and this one has got to have one of the quietest chat channels I've seen, on release there was a fair amount of chat on every planet, and over the months from then it's just dwindled to nothing. I've no idea as to why, perhaps because players are leveling and moving on to other areas, I've no idea, but I've noticed a definite drop in chatter of any sort.

What makes things harder is the lack of abilities to chat, mingle, or interact with others. Sure you can group up with people when on a planet or be in planetside chat/fleet chat, but there is a disconnect still.

 

I can have a player standing right in front of me and not really know he is talking because I need to look all the way up (or down depending on where you have yours) to see who has said what. Comment or chat bubbles make things a little bit more personal due to the fact that it is coming from the character just above their heads.

 

Another issue, which is nice in a small way, is there is no inter faction chat. Yes it cuts down on trash talk and all that but, we need an enemy in a game like this. We need a good natured rival who can talk to us. Especially in pvp, where trash talk is part of the game.

 

Additional problems is the lack of a server forum. How can we get to know anyone outside our circles without having a place to seen names and play with different personalities? Usually these places are great to see trading, events, and general comments that usually affect us since we are on the same server.

 

In short, we need to have crossfaction chat, chat bubbles, and server forums. These will help a lot in building a better community. Keep all the /ignore features and all that to safe gaurd against those who will be a pest, but allow us to talk to each other!

 

SWG was second to none in this area. No one will ever change my mind on that. This game has so much potential and it is still very young. Lets be positive and constructive to help out BW. We can help make things better.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Cynomen

What makes things harder is the lack of abilities to chat, mingle, or interact with others. Sure you can group up with people when on a planet or be in planetside chat/fleet chat, but there is a disconnect still.

 

I can have a player standing right in front of me and not really know he is talking because I need to look all the way up (or down depending on where you have yours) to see who has said what. Comment or chat bubbles make things a little bit more personal due to the fact that it is coming from the character just above their heads.

 

Another issue, which is nice in a small way, is there is no inter faction chat. Yes it cuts down on trash talk and all that but, we need an enemy in a game like this. We need a good natured rival who can talk to us. Especially in pvp, where trash talk is part of the game.

 

Additional problems is the lack of a server forum. How can we get to know anyone outside our circles without having a place to seen names and play with different personalities? Usually these places are great to see trading, events, and general comments that usually affect us since we are on the same server.

 

In short, we need to have crossfaction chat, chat bubbles, and server forums. These will help a lot in building a better community. Keep all the /ignore features and all that to safe gaurd against those who will be a pest, but allow us to talk to each other!

 

SWG was second to none in this area. No one will ever change my mind on that. This game has so much potential and it is still very young. Lets be positive and constructive to help out BW. We can help make things better.

 

WoW had plenty of killer server communities without any sort of in-game cross-faction communication. What killed the community was the implementation of cross-faction grouping solely to provide people with rewards, i.e. patch 1.12 and cross-faction battlegrounds. That was the beginning of the end, and once the whole looking for group tool was added that was the killing blow. The game went from playing with other people for a common goal to using other people to get you your shiny tokens to buy shiny gear so you can get your shiny tokens faster and with less effort so you get get more shiny gear.

To put it simple SWTOR is nothing more than a 1 player mmo. Once you get threw your story you can do a little pvp and maybe a raid if you can find the people.So really once you have played a class to 50 you may as well roll a new toon.Also once you have leveled the classes you liked to 50 and none of the other story's interest you its time to move on to a new game.Look at the new patch coming out. Basically your going to get some new raids that you can try if you can find a group to go with and you get some new war zones.....hmm they are adding stuff like guild banks,legacy roll playing stuff basically junk that has no point. I mean wow I get a buff woo-pie doo or i can level a republic toon that's sith big deal I can make a sith on the imp side join a bg and leave and have all kinds of buffs. Its easy to see this game is lacking just by the way they do things. I mean no guild banks when game comes out.The gear looks like crap and the new sets look just as bad.Theirs nothing for a player who doesn't want to raid or pvp to do I mean theirs nothing hard for you to get or earn. For example if you wanted like say a rare light saber crystal you could farm fragments for it and that could take a long time to get. so it would be a rare reward to be proud of and it should have the stats to match. Then when your bored and cant find a raid and don't wanna pvp theirs some cool stuff to do.No where in this game Sept for the fleet do you really see other players.When this game was shown on TV i thought it was going to put me right in the middle of the war between the sith and Jedi lol what a joke.Their customer service had better start listing to you guys on the forms or this game is doomed.

To put it simple SWTOR is nothing more than a 1 player mmo. Once you get threw your story you can do a little pvp and maybe a raid if you can find the people.So really once you have played a class to 50 you may as well roll a new toon.Also once you have leveled the classes you liked to 50 and none of the other story's interest you its time to move on to a new game.Look at the new patch coming out. Basically your going to get some new raids that you can try if you can find a group to go with and you get some new war zones.....hmm they are adding stuff like guild banks,legacy roll playing stuff basically junk that has no point. I mean wow I get a buff woo-pie doo or i can level a republic toon that's sith big deal I can make a sith on the imp side join a bg and leave and have all kinds of buffs. Its easy to see this game is lacking just by the way they do things. I mean no guild banks when game comes out.The gear looks like crap and the new sets look just as bad.Theirs nothing for a player who doesn't want to raid or pvp to do I mean theirs nothing hard for you to get or earn. For example if you wanted like say a rare light saber crystal you could farm fragments for it and that could take a long time to get. so it would be a rare reward to be proud of and it should have the stats to match. Then when your bored and cant find a raid and don't wanna pvp theirs some cool stuff to do.No where in this game Sept for the fleet do you really see other players.When this game was shown on TV i thought it was going to put me right in the middle of the war between the sith and Jedi lol what a joke.Their customer service had better start listing to you guys on the forms or this game is doomed.

Wouldn't it be ironic if that "junk", as you so kindly put it, brought in millions of players? You're just a bit spoiled because back in WoW you already had all the stuff. But at launch, it couldn't have been perfect. Trust me, i've done my research. IMO, if it launched today, it would have done terribly. SWTOR has better graphics, storyline, and gameplay.

It's not complicated..... We have to many servers.....

 

How else would you explain such low populations in any given zone at a time and 1.7 million active subs?? Everything else can be worked in ex: hubs for each planet/galaxies linked via world chat and a lfg tool...........

To Chat or not to Chat, that is the question.

 

Why someone does or does not interact within the SWTOR community, can be for any reason. We cannot make eye contact, nor make judgements on the feelings of the player by the actions of the character. We don't know if a person is struggling with the game or just bored silly. So we need a way to determine a person's mindset as well as let other's know ours.

 

The LFG concept seems to have limited itself on how it is used.

 

If the LFG was used and the player was more specific with what they are actuall looking for in the comment section, this would be a simpler solution than waiting on BW to have a 1.3 release fix for it.

 

Having the LFG icon next to your name is saying (I'm open to play/interact with others) and adding the specfics in the comment section will state ( This is what I want to do), So when I see your character, I can at a glance see what "mood" you are in.

 

Such as "Looking for a Guild", "New Player, need help". "this is an alt", "Need help with a quest", "To do Heroics". "looking for a questing partner".ect...

 

I would perfer a player say "skilled/serious players only" , or just simply "Leave me alone I am trying to figure out how to get a datacron."

 

 

So the next time you find yourself standing beside someone with a LFG icon showing, check it out to see their mood...you may find a commuinty.

I agree with the op. The glitz and glam of the MMORPG genre has pretty much reached it's peak. Back when the first graphical MMO's hit the scene it was so exciting and fresh. They not only provided entertainment, but engrossed us in social interaction that was pretty limited during that time period.

 

Now we have twitter and facebook and the MMO's keep advancing in terms of graphics, but not much has changed in terms of overall gameplay. I also believe that the attention span of most gamers has dwindled and they are always looking for the next best thing to come out. Unfortunately, there are so many coming out, that we are always seeking that next big thing.

 

I have fun playing SWTOR, but there is nothing revolutionary about it other than the full voice acting and an actual storyline for each class. In the end it's just like most of the other MMO's. PVE, PVP, RAID, click icons, kill things.

 

I think this is why so many MMO's have become F2P.