World of Warcraft: The 'community'
MMORPG's have become pretty standard in today's world. The idea of thousands of people playing the same game together on a single server, and being able to communicate with each other at will was once a concept only dreamed about. Now that the novelty has worn off of this phenomenon for many, has our desire to build or contribute to a true community been lost along with the novelty?
World of Warcraft is an interesting case, as it reached critical mass a number of years ago. It has in fact become a phenomenon in itself. Many arguably unfairly blame it for attracting the people that are oh-so-despised among the hardcore, known as casual players. The game has countless sites dedicated to it on the internet where people come together to share their rants about it. Television shows both mock and praise it, celebrities sneakily admit to it being their dirty little past time and millions upon millions of people fork over their hard-earned cash month after month in exchange for getting their little slice of the pie.
Truth be told, now that World of Warcraft has become commonplace - something accessible to every Tom, Dick and Harry and his dog - the idea behind it has been lost. Critical mass results in a number of events taking place. One that may not be seen as detrimental to most is the "piggyback" players. You know - those who play it because their friends play it. They feel no true sense of dedication to WoW, but partake in it because the people they already know do.
If you've been playing MMO's for many years, you may have an idea of what the implications of this are. Back in the day - which in all honesty was not very long ago at all - people played MMO's because they were fascinated by them. Dedicating hours upon hours of one's life to a mere game was still seen as unusual by most, and best of all, the playerbase truly felt a sense of dedication to the games in question. The majority of WoW's players of today simply don't have any of the above.
World of Warcraft in fact far from personifies the good connotations associated with the concept of a community. A large number of people may technically be a community, but when these people hardly interact with each other one has to question the validity of it.
One feature of WoW that has salvaged most of what is now for the large part lost is the guild feature. Were it not for guilds, one can only but wonder what state WoW would be in today. Guilds encourage players to work together and befriend each other - both elements of a good community. One can therefore think of them as communities within a community. Think about the people you're closest to in WoW...are they not your guild mates? The idiots and oracles whose chatting you listen to day after day?
So how do we regain that largescale sense of community that many feel has been lost in World of Warcraft? One has to wonder whether it is even possible that the IP as a whole will ever have that die-hard playerbase intent on making it the best game it can be. You know - the type of game where you don't bring real world friends into a virtual world, but make new friends in a virtual world and grow close to them in real life. Whilst the potential for WoW has grown with each new player, the connections players have with each other have conversely shrunk.
Perhaps one day in many years to come World of Wacraft will become the game that many will have forgotten, and few will still know and love. Possibly then will the players it has left experience what a true online game should be - a kinship.
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Comments (8 posted): Comments (8 posted):
Subscribe to comments feedI don't think there is anything wrong with casual players. It is human nature to have different levels of dedications or limits. Some will give up early and some will never give up. This is not just evident in gaming but in all aspects of life as well. Finding a balance is important IMO.
Also, because I love MyGaming and all the work you guys do here, just a bit of constructive criticism: My university lecturers always taught us never to "moralise" at the end of any written piece. Ideally, your concluding text should be a conclusion, that is, a summary of all your main points, rather than a philosophical statement (as per the one you've used here).
Cool. Rock on guys, keep up the good work at MyGaming!
I have played wow dedicatedly, and tbh, im well over it. Getting BiS only feels great so many times. I cannot for the life of me justify spending so much time obtaining certain items, just for them to become obsolete a few weeks later by some major half assed patch released JUST because high end raiding guilds have finished all content and are needing more purplez and such.
I have better things to do with my time thank you. Try some Quake live, its awesome :P
WoW will most probably change quite a bit with Cataclysm, there are some new features, lets hope Cataclysm doesn't ruin it. I'm still amped for the Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. Lots of hype, and it's looking really good so far. Only comes out later next year though.
I’ve been playing WOW for 4 years now and I have had my ups and downs with the game. I went cold turkey for 4 months once (trying 4 other MMO’s) and much to my amazement none of them had the hook, line and sinker that WOW has. There is just something about WOW that makes it addictive. Yes it sucks up all your time like an Electrolux. But don’t all games do that? WOW just brings a well rounded experience to the table. The people/gamers/community makes the game at the end of the day. Having seen the worst and the best the game has to offer in the last few years, I’ve come to appreciate all the different people I’ve met & played with.
I have seen bad apples break guilds apart with their constant bitching. I have seen a group of 25 players rally and work together to defeat dungeon bosses that take a lot of teamwork. I’ve made friends for life with people in Norway, Germany , Denmark and Sweden (Even got invited and went over to Sweden for a month ) Our guild is a collective hive of longstanding friendship that has gone through two expansions and a shitload of bitching sometimes (especially after patch days). But we remain friends and comrades through it all. With the new patch 3.3 things have been made easier to make friends and form groups with the dungeon finder system. This new addition allows you to form a group to do dungeons by searching across various battle groups. The social impact this feature brings is astounding. For now you can form a group in a matter of seconds. Meeting new gamers that play off other realms has never been easier. So I think with this new addition WOW has become more community driven than before.
Just my 2c
You go off at a tangent from your sub-heading, you say people rant about more casual players making the game less fun, but you don't bring any detail into - ie. WHY all the casual players make it less fun. And you sort of step on your own toes with that guild thing. Guilds have always been in WoW - and they were intended for the purpose of making small communities, so the whole game didn't have to be a community in itself. Badly thought out article. Even pacmanza made a point that you didn't even really think of.
Plus, your last paragraph is very cliche and stuffy...
Sorry, didn't mean to lash out. Bad writing just annoys me.
But, anyway, I'm not sure I agree with the point you're trying to make. Sure, noobs get annoying sometimes, but it's nicer to have more people to interact with - you have a better chance of finding people you like. It's not like everyone in real life is perfect anyway. Some people are, sadly, reality's equivalent of a casual gamer.
I am on a private server BUT it is 100% blizz-like.
If i ask for a Raid, they plan it.
If im a few coins short, i ask and i get it.
But most of the things in this article is true.
Too many players on for example.
WOW FTW