I know I'm supposed to be getting
detox'd from WoW, but this struck me like a blow to the face:
We're with you in that the game
is just more fun when you have friends and guildmates to run with. The issue we
run into is, "what happens when they're not available but you want to do
things?" So the most we can do is facilitate the means to get with others
easily. We can connect you to other players, but we can't force people to talk
or be social. It's going to take effort from the community itself to make it a
more social experience by being social. I don't think what you're referring to
is a design issue. And if you think it is, I'd love to hear your thoughts on
how it could be improved. Just keep in mind, if you share some thoughts, they
should keep in mind the current structure of the game. Without taking anything
away or putting new restrictions out there, how would you go about doing it?
Because as it is right now, it's easier than ever to be put into contact with
other people. It's just a matter of then getting those people interested in
interacting socially.
It wasn't a particularly happy
thread (like another poster noted, you don't have to be "old" to
dislike the direction games in general and Blizzard in particular are headed),
but the blue response is intriguing in that it sheds some light on Blizzard's
attitude towards the "death of community". Apparently they blame the
"community" itself. Players can
talk to each other, plan events, run dungeons with friends, and take their time
instead of racing to the end. They don't do those things because they don't
want to!
Oh, right. So instant teleports to
dungeons have nothing to do with the
death of world PvP. Grouping with people you won't ever see again totally does not encourage lack of interaction.
Also, such anonymity has absolutely zero
to do with the terrible attitudes you often find in LFD and LFR. Forcing people
to do dungeons they might not like, because "random heroics" are far
and away the easiest source of mandatory "valor points", is completely unrelated to players wanting
to be done as soon as possible. Oh, and by the way, there is nothing, nothing preventing players from turning
off that 15% debuff.
It's one thing to say: "the
majority of players prefer fast access to dungeons and gear over an engaging
experience, so we have to oblige". That is true, I wager. Convenience
rules supreme. But believing or pretending that the game's structure, built
by Blizzard alone, does not affect players' attitudes is baffling. It's like
Keynesians and their laughable belief that there is nothing structurally wrong with economic booms, and that they could go on forever
if not for those pesky "animal spirits" and "expectations". And not unlike
Keynesians, Blizzard here resorts to second-rate "psychology" to try
and give their claims some credibility. Yes, people all of a sudden became less
communicative. It's a "social" issue. Suure.
In short, my opinion remains the
same: Blizzard is doing themselves and their players a disservice by assuming
that everyone must experience heroics, everyone must have epics, everyone must
have something "fun" (again, definition disputable) to do at a mouse
click's distance, no matter the indirect costs. It's a condescending way to
treat their players. "Here, maybe you're too lazy or incompetent or socially
impaired to do this, so we'll dumb it down and force everyone to put up with
it." But if this post by Nethaera is representative of the company's
attitude, how can Blizzard do anything to stop the dumbing down process, if
they don't even acknowledge they have a hand in it?
