Social Interaction from Gaming

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HasuKishi wrote:

Nevermind his, dare i say, rambling on about scientific social interaction behavior. I'm not bashing on those who like to play solo and neither is he, form what i can tell.

Maybe I'm being a bit sensitive but it feels pretty bashing to me. Look at his other posts for more info.

I agree that guilds could be made more interesting.

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grant_m wrote:

I've always used gaming as a reprieve from human interaction.

In day to day life, I interact only as much as I need to in order to get by out of necessity.

Guilds are fine and everything, but it can put you in a position where an individual, by joining cannot 'choose their friends', so to speak. So, what happens is some very mean and nasty people become your guildies.

Not all humans are terrible, but in the jealousy ridden gaming world, the ratio is high.

Better to be solo and safe rather than be trusting and sorry. For me, anyway.

Well I totally understand that guilds and gaming social interaction aren't for everyone. However, from what I've seen there is a huge demand for it with the right players. I totally understand people work and interact all day but that's work interaction. Leisure interaction is usually better. Some people might just want to chill by themselves after a long day of work but there are plenty of peeps out there wondering where all the social fun is. I was hoping this thread would turn into a bunch of views on guilds and other social stuff from games. Thanks for your input.

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HasuKishi wrote:

I agree that guilds need a revamp. I run my own guild, not that big but we recently got a teamspeak server and some stash tabs, about 25 of us total. However, I've been noticing that only a few of the people we recruit actually participate in social interactions. My thinking is that this may be partially because guilds don;t offer much more than social interaction, so those shyer or more focused on gaming drop out fast or don't join in all. If guilds could provide some fun new game effects, nothing loot based that would make it unfair, just something fun to do with (or maybe against other) guilds. Would let the more game focused guys start communicating and the shy ones to feel more at ease after playing together. Just my ideas

I'm hoping to unofficially help change some guild stuff here. Any input like this is very welcome. And please do check my other posts, as was previously suggested.

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grant_m wrote:

I've always used gaming as a reprieve from human interaction.

In day to day life, I interact only as much as I need to in order to get by out of necessity.

Guilds are fine and everything, but it can put you in a position where an individual, by joining cannot 'choose their friends', so to speak. So, what happens is some very mean and nasty people become your guildies.

Not all humans are terrible, but in the jealousy ridden gaming world, the ratio is high.

Better to be solo and safe rather than be trusting and sorry. For me, anyway.

I run a tight ship with any guild/clan I lead. If drama pops it's ugly head up, I take care of it and sometimes that involves removal of player(s) from the guild. A guild leader/guild leadership should be keeping things in order as much as possible. I totally understand where you're coming from about the whole jealousy ridden gaming world. I've been a victim of it in the past.

I hate all this bullshit about games having to be played with others.

Give me awesome single player games with a forum to chat about it anyday over a crappy multiplayer game.

Competing and interacting with thousands of %&£*& screaming 'OMG GHEY, GHEY GHEY GHEY!!!!!' into their microphones is not a positive social interaction.

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elitedesolator wrote:

Why do games NEED social interaction? Games have historically been single player, and a lot of players (including myself) see a brief lack of social interaction as a good thing, a balance to a busy life outside of games. A life where we interact with a lot of people.

I "understand" where you are coming from. You are an extrovert. You crave / are addicted to social interactions. You don't understand introverts, so you generalize. If social games are what you want then by all means go for it. Doesn't mean everything should think the same way as you.

Don't come in here assuming everyone needs as much social interaction as you do. Also, don't come in here assuming that those who need it less are somewhat abnormal. And in return we won't label you as a typical extrovert who knows NOTHING about how the other side works.

Actually, games have historically been either multiplayer ('Pong' was just the start) OR social catalysts (watch any 80s movie with an arcade game, and I guarantee there'll be people watching whoever's playing). Further back than that and you're looking at board games, which also were traditionally multi-player and today enjoy a serious renaissance as 'unplugged' gaming gains traction.

I would argue that games don't NEED social interaction but if they're in a position to facilitate it, why not? I play PoE solo almost exclusively, but I'm usually chatting away with people at the same time, be it former guildies or anyone else who finds it amusing that I'm apt to respond. The devs themselves have made clear they see trading itself as a social interaction, by their choice to not implement an automated trading system a la marketplace or auction house. Like or not, Path of Exile is online-only which means you are, one way or another, always connected to the rest of the players.

Instancing just allows us to pretend otherwise.

No need to make this about introverts or extroverts. That's not the issue here, and it's a gross simplification to even use either term when talking about social interaction online. No one is 100% one or the other, and in my unfortunately extensive experience on the matter, the internet tends to encourage people to swing between the two more dynamically depending on the situation. This isn't about that, though. This is merely about bonding with like-minded people.

Right now, the guild in Path of Exile is a glorified chatroom with a shared treasure room. I am sure GGG have other plans, but that's all it is for now. And given how lacking in flesh the game is in many other areas, that's all it needs to be for now as well. People ran very successful, very powerful guilds and clans in Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 with absolutely no help from Blizzard whatsoever. The more guild features we get from GGG, the closer to an actual MMORPG we come, and that is not something I particularly relish. I like the bare bones nature of the PoE guild. It seems to fit a relatively bare bones ARPG.

So I don't really see much point to this thread.

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Charan wrote:

Right now, the guild in Path of Exile is a glorified chatroom with a shared treasure room. I am sure GGG have other plans, but that's all it is for now. And given how lacking in flesh the game is in many other areas, that's all it needs to be for now as well. People ran very successful, very powerful guilds and clans in Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 with absolutely no help from Blizzard whatsoever. The more guild features we get from GGG, the closer to an actual MMORPG we come, and that is not something I particularly relish. I like the bare bones nature of the PoE guild. It seems to fit a relatively bare bones ARPG.

So I don't really see much point to this thread.

I understand where your coming from, I really don't want to have poe become some runescape fiasco. I like the rough skeleton that poe gives and how the players have to build characters and such off that, but i feel that the guild system is too bare. Notsomuch a skeleton as a couple femurs and a handful of ribs. We don't need clanwars or guild-exclusive loot or any of that tomfoolery, just something to make guilds a bit more appealing, because as of now you have to have a rather large resource pool (website ownership, chatroom ownership, lots of stash tabs and member slots, dedicated workers, etc.) to make a guild successful, and unfortunately not all of us have pockets quite so deep. Finish the skeleton, I can suture some sinews and flesh on there from it, but right now all I can do is fill in the bones.

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grant_m wrote:

Guilds are fine and everything, but it can put you in a position where an individual, by joining cannot 'choose their friends', so to speak. So, what happens is some very mean and nasty people become your guildies.

Sounds like you and your guildies need to be a lot pickier.

Mine have always resulted in RL friends. In fact, about 25 different people over the years have picked up and moved to be closer to the core group after meeting up.

I'm still looking forward to the advertised guild leagues.

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feyith wrote:

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grant_m wrote:

Guilds are fine and everything, but it can put you in a position where an individual, by joining cannot 'choose their friends', so to speak. So, what happens is some very mean and nasty people become your guildies.

Sounds like you and your guildies need to be a lot pickier.

Mine have always resulted in RL friends. In fact, about 25 different people over the years have picked up and moved to be closer to the core group after meeting up.

Shudder.