So, I’ve quite literally been playing WoW since I was 4 years old (well in a way that I would sit in my dad’s lap while he played and then just create characters for fun) but anyways, I have a lot of long-time memories in this game. When I was a teenager I had a lot more time to play and what I remember was it being a very communal game, with lots of players gathering in places like Goldshire and just showing off their mounts and toys, dueling each other, and everyone just kinda hangin out together. For me at least this was a big part of what made the game so fun. Over the last few to honestly several years I have been in school and working and have been playing on and off just a little bit over the last few expansions as I haven’t really had time. While I still don’t necessarily have time now I am trying to become more of an active player again however I feel as if this community aspect isn’t really a thing anymore. Now anytime I go anywhere with the potential for a community there are just people over the communication channels trying to sell runs and promote things that don’t make sense to me right now. Even though I am trying to be more of an active player I’m still very casual because I’m still in school so the General Channels rn are pretty overwhelming.
I’ve kinda gotten off-topic but the point I’m tryna make/sneak in here is I’d really love to find some other casual players to play and do content with kinda like I used to with other people in WoW. Also on a side note if anyone would like to be a good ol WoW mentor I still kinda have no idea what I’m doing most of the time so that’d be cool too if you’re looking for a protegee to de-noob. But ultimately if anyone else is looking to have an online friend to chill around with in Azeroth please let a girl know.
What happened to WoW was LFD and the introduction of automatically-assembled groups, with “people” you’ll never see again and get treated like disposable cogs.
If you’re looking for actual community, it still exists, but you have to look a little bit off the beaten path for a good guild or community.
RP servers are still a realm based thing so communityis strong. It still has people just vibing in channels, goofing off in town and just having a good time. The recent AH party was a lot of fun hanging with people.
Don’t blame LFD for the internet community overall has declined. People feel free to be horrible to each other. I mean why not since it’s apparent there are no punishment for doing so. I have seen just as many bad people in a guild/community environment. The less interaction with this community the better my experience has been lately. Times have changed.
The community is still strong. One great aspect of the game is the ability to join other “communities”, which are like guilds but a bit less formal. You can be in multiple “communities” even though you can still only be in one guild. This helps people better interact, coordinate, form groups, etc, even when they aren’t in the same guild or even on the same server. It makes it very easy to expand your network of friends.
It’s true that there are a lot of things that are automated now, which used to require forced user interaction. Perhaps some friendships resulted from that forced user interaction. But I don’t think that the automation is a bad thing, because quite frankly the old way was obnoxious and tedious.
There will still be plenty of times when you will interact with others in the game. Group quests, world events, 5-man dungeons, pug raids, etc. When you find a good group, add people to your friends list. Find a good guild (and additional communities) to join full of people who share similar gameplay values as you do.
I think you answered your own title. The game has aged, people are older now, don’t have the time anymore, and there are less people playing. There are still people out there that form guilds and communities. You just have to work harder to find them. I do a lot of my stuff in pugs and solo. I don’t have a lot of time myself to play.
Find a nice guild.
There are guilds for people at all levels so if you want people to play with, or just have fun chats with while youre out and about solo, you can find a group thats right for you.
There’s a lot of communities around, the trouble is (at least for me) being able to commit lmao. I think the main thing is that a lot of the socialization has moved outside of the game.
There shouldn’t be anything preventing the OP from joining their Discord servers. Communities using Discord is not a bad thing. Not much different than in the past really, it’s like a Ventrilo and IRC server mixed into one.
[quote=“Rynaea-stormrage, post:1, topic:1639684”]
Now anytime I go anywhere with the potential for a community there are just people over the communication channels trying to sell runs and promote things that don’t make sense to me right now.
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I think you are looking at the wrong place . check your servers discord or forum for a guild to join . you can probably find some like minded people there
Because they do not have to be held accountable. With no RDF you have to be held accountable, you are rude, you ninja loot, you cheat, the entire server knows about it. With RDF, you can do all those things, leave the dungeon and be left un bothered. When people are not able to simply block and ignore you, they have to find a way to deal with you and that means they adjust and adapt and end up becoming better as a community because of it. Like on Facebook for example, you can threated people, bully them, then block them so that they cannot respond, then unblock them and keep doing it.
Every online community where you do not have the option to bully people and then block them is a better one. I only ever block trade chat spammers in WoW, I have never once in my entire time of playing WoW blocked a single player ever who was harassing me or anything, unless they spam me and block my chat so that I can see nothing else. So I never ignore or run away from any of my problems, I face them.
Honestly, I’m starting to think accountability is a myth.
Only poor folks are ever accountable for their actions, lol.
You can snuff out a human life, and your punishment is a few years in jail, or pay bail and get out pretty much instantly. And cops don’t get in trouble, at all.
It’s awful.
The world is the way it is today- climate change, wealth disparities worse than ever, Russia as a whole and other countries, because of lack of accountability.
Is it our fault for letting it happen?
People do try to fight back, but the odds are against them.
Idk, I’m ‘ready to do something’, I’ve participated in some boycotts and strikes, but I feel like the entire world has bystander apathy. It’s really sad.
Ditto. I still can place the names on the people i remembered back in goldshire back in 2012. Not all of them and i don’t exactly know the exact one i’m thinking of off the top of my head.
(No, i’m not going to name them for their presumed privacy reasons)
How would they be held accountable? How would the entire server know about it?
The things some people talk about in terms of community interaction, and “reputation”, would only work if servers had maybe a few hundred people max and there were no cross-realm groups allowed.
In reality, it’s more like being inside a crowded shopping mall. If someone was a jerk, do you think that the entire mall is going to know about it somehow? Only a tiny number of people would ever know what happened and there would be so many people who didn’t that any “bad reputation” that was earned with those few people would be irrelevant.
So while some people like to think back 15+ years about that friend they made in goldshire and consider that emblematic of the community being “better”, it ignores the benefits that have come with the changes over time. Do you know how many times over the years I’ve found someone else in real life who also played WoW, and for a brief moment we were excited about the possibility of jumping in the game and doing content together, only to realize that we were on different servers or different factions, etc. THAT sucked. Breaking down those barriers means the size of the overall “community” is much larger now. More like the real world. But again, this is why we have guilds and “communities”.
The social fluid got thick and stagnant when Warlord of Draenor came out and everyone was handling their own personal town by themselves, alone, like playing a cell phone game that blizzard was trying to turn a MMO into at the time. “You all have cell phones?” is like an example of the mentality they have towards what they are working with. The games design went from being new and pushy into being a farm for predatorial capitalism.
They put too much into the game that was very unnecessary that in time reveals how thick skulled they are. The secret battle pets involving satanistic crap they put into the game was the final straw for me, the goat, the little girl battle pets and the waste of time were all proof that blizzard has professionals enslaved into something that is the opposite of inclusion, diversity, and equity (I didn’t mean to really go into a DEI speech but it’s the truth). They have talented and highly educated staff becoming a frat working on linear predatorial capitalistic artisanship.
yep agreed, LFD and LFG tool caused people to not have to seek each other out, get to know one another and create a rapport, thus friendships. Now it is just players playing alone, not interested in making friends in game. Which is a shame.
I started WoW about 2 years ago and I can tell you there’s a lot of communities and fun to be had.
I think for me I’m starting to finally feel over WoW but I have to give big props to Broke AF, Boop and Runes for having me.
Lots of friendly guilds out there and you can choose between hardcore and casual.
Only thing I think you might be feeling what I feel now is maybe you had so many experiences it’s hard to try and open your heart to it again.
I found after being a part of a big prog guild once for 8 months something changed in me and I haven’t done that type of progression again. I gave it my all at the time and I think I permanently burnt my drive for raid prog away.
Don’t forget there’s a guild recruitment forum here where you can search for a guild that seems like it’ll be a good fit for you. It’s how I found my guild and they’ve been pretty great.
I’ll also second the rp server suggestion for community, but it can be difficult finding an active raid, pvp, or m+ guild, if those are activities you enjoy.