This morning’s Daily Grind hurtles through space and time to us from Kickstarter donor Kenneth “Fizwocket” Gonsalves, who wonders about the console community potential in MMORPGs.
Is there a community on console MMOs? With the upcoming console release of Elder Scrolls Online, I’ve been thinking about how players socially interact sans keyboard in a world where MMOs all seem to have some sort of auto-queue everything and actually typing to other players seems almost extinct. I stayed away from console MMOs because of an assumption that there can’t be any sort of community existence. But am I right to do so? Is the community on a console be any different than what we see on the PC nowadays? How do console veterans rate the social interaction of past established MMOs on their consoles?
I’ve always had this concern myself, but console MMOs have come a long way since the days of keeping a wireless keyboard on your lap as you play. Online games like Destiny — not exactly an MMORPG, but on the fringes — get by with voice chat, but it wasn’t always an option; in fact, the game was criticized heavily early on in its life because chat was so limited and yet seemed necessary for group content. Communities seem to form around games regardless, even if those communities wind up using external tools to form those bonds, and that’s true on PC too when chat options are limited, whether we’re talking Ultima Online or Hearthstone. And as Fizwocket himself notes, even modern PC multiplayer games are trending away from gameplay that requires detailed chat conversations.
But that’s my take — what do you think? What are your console MMO communities like nowadays?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
