I’m arguing with people who think using a particular word means you’re automatically a child groomer. What I got is fine for the intellectual giants I’m dealing with.
If gender identity is just a belief and is overruled by the absolutes of biology, what other beliefs are as powerful at shaping an individual that aren’t overruled by the same criteria? Faith, as unmoored in the physical as it is, just happens to also be an ideological driver of people who do stupid things targeting people with non-“normal” gender identities.
People can claim to identify as whatever they wish and I’m mature and respectful enough to play along with that fantasy…but it is still a fantasy, albeit one that is becoming more and more socially acceptable.
WoW is an MMORPG, which are inherently social games. It’s their “special sauce” or “lightning in a bottle”, if you will.
Queueing up for a 5 man LFD and zerging a dungeon in 10 to 15 mins w/ 4 other people, none of which speak to each other and are all only there to use each other is not social. Not one bit. Whereas, having a buddy and duo-ing from 1 to 60 and beyond is very social. Numerous similar examples can be made but the point is that the open world is a great opportunity for social content, whether accessed as a solo, duo, trio, 5 man, or a raid. The whole genre is has numerous examples of it. Just look around.
As far as one example I think could be very cool is too look at profession and see how you can make them cooperative affairs. Take mining for instance and rethink it. Sure you can keep the 1 to 10 ores per node scattered about system we have now or you could actually have veins and motherlodes/mines that are:
1.) discovered by certain professions like miners and archaelogists (i.e players who dig).
2.) can only be accessed by fighting off some defenders of the area (which would require more than one person, perhaps).
3.) can only be mined using equipment made and operated with assistance by engineers.
4.) would require multiple engineers and miners to extract the assets of the newly found node.
5.) be the most efficient way to extract ores, gems, or the best way to get really valuable ores gems.
6.) these areas are random or procedurally generated so they have to be “discovered” and can’t just be found w/ an addon or watching a video or reading a guide.
7.) These areas aren’t common knowledge once found, so finding one can be a well kept secret and so if you found one you’d want a network of trusted individuals you can /whisper to do this mining operation on the fly.
8.) These mines could be anywhere from Elwynn forest up to Zerith Mortis, encouraging exploration, adventure, and rejuvenating old zones for current use.
9.) Perhaps some of the ore, gems, minerals would be BOP, further making these areas very important.
I’d guess you don’t like the above idea, but you asked for an example and there’s one. Open world gameplay that is relevant, social, and group oriented that doesn’t just encouraging spamming large groups or zerging “rares”.
Sure, I like that idea…but when you boil it down you’re just talking about gathering, which is basically all the open world is used for now. There’s always going to be reps to grind and rares to kill, but the meat and potatoes of WoW is instanced content, and as I said before doubling down on strengths is not bad game design.
First, WoW wasn’t always this way. I’ve played the game since January 2005 and I can tell you what we have now, which resembles more of a lobby game, is not how it’s always been. WoW’s great success and longevity has definitely been in part due to instanced content but it’s not it’s only strength. The open world is and has been a very important strength, even if you don’t see it that way.
Further, I just disagree that you shouldn’t shore up your weaknesses in game design, especially for a big game like WoW.
“Doubling down” on raids and instanced content will turn WoW further into a lobby game. Is that what you really want?
And here’s the thing, instances are generally social and cooperative content (or is intended to be, even though LFD and LFR aren’t) fundamentally. Why not take that strength and further build it into open world content?
The funny thing is, as I complete SL open world content right now, it’s really good and fairly involved, but the problem is it’s not designed for social interaction or replayability. That’s the problem and that’s what the OP is about, even though that point has been lost on most people as this has turned into a thread about “free speech”.
It kind of does in ff14 some guy was being sarcastic and whole group called him out on it while I was doing a dungeon. But the real problem is the problem is going be shifted to discord
I mean there’s no need for any emote really because any emote can be used to (in your words) dehumanize people. Even the positive ones like /smile, or /lol. or /pizza.
I mean it doesn’t have to only be full on extremely negative, it can have both extremes and middles of the negative and positive as well neutral emotes. I am for more options after all.
I always wonder where people like you find all this bad behavior.
Do you expect people to help you constantly in the game - ask you if you need help - consume your time chatting to you? I don’t want any of that and if people started doing that in world content I would be very annoyed.
I love how some players see WoW as perfectly fine and FF14 as some kind of positivity cult. Like some kind of excuse for their behaviour.
Having played it, the community is actually nice and quite different. FF14 definitely doesn’t mess around with chat trolls and won’t give them any ground.
It reminds me of how classic WoW used to feel in the early days. People helping each other and stuff.
Sometime ago that disappeared in WoW, but still remains in FF14. Probably a stronger playerbase of casuals is my guess.
I only play in world content and I actually didn’t notice any difference in ‘community’ in FF and WoW. No one says anything to me in WoW and no one said anything to me in FF which is fine with me.
Toxicity isn’t in “the game” it’s in “the people”. I read through FF forums… saw a lot of the same mean speak, rants, and baiting. Trolls exist everywhere. I also saw a lot of people demanding this be changed and that. Same as here. Same general attitude that “Because I don’t like it, it must be changed.”
