MMORPG gamers are, by nature, an unusually devoted bunch. You must be to sink tons of or 1000’s of hours right into a single recreation. However one factor I’ve observed through the years is that some video games’ communities are a bit extra devoted than most. They’re communities that can keep on with a recreation by content material gaps or main design blunders, or communities that develop so shut they really feel extra like households.
Lord of the Rings On-line
When folks speak about MMOs with good communities — particularly good role-play communities — one of many first names that at all times comes up is Lord of the Rings On-line. I haven’t spent a lot time in LotRO myself, however I’ve seen the praises of its group being sung excessive and low.
Whereas the web world is awash in tales of toxicity and harassment, LotRO gamers are principally identified for being well mannered, mature, and useful.
That is most evident within the famed player-run occasions held in LotRO, which permit gamers to indicate off each their dedication to the sport and their group spirit. Most well-known of those is “Weatherstock,” an precise in-game music pageant the place participant bands carry out for crowds of followers.
An excellent group doesn’t simply occur. It’s one thing that must be constructed and maintained, and that’s one thing that LotRO gamers appear to know properly. They care about their recreation and its group sufficient to go that further mile.
EVE On-line
EVE On-line is likely one of the most notoriously tough to select up MMOs in the marketplace. Most individuals who attempt it don’t final greater than an hour or two. Lots of people (myself included) by no means even make it out of the tutorial.
Those that survive the preliminary studying curve achieve this as a result of they’ve an intense ardour for the sport, its deep mechanics, and its cutthroat politics. EVE gamers are devoted as a result of their recreation merely received’t settle for any much less.
It’s that keenness, mixed with the sport’s anarchic emergent gameplay, that enables the EVE group to generate extra headlines than maybe some other MMO’s gamers. It looks as if virtually each different month we get a brand new story of a significant heist, or a brutal gank with a value equal to 1000’s of actual world {dollars}, or an hours-long battle involving 1000’s of gamers. One want look no additional than the notorious World Warfare Bee to see what the EVE group is able to.
The EVE group shouldn’t be at all times the friendliest bunch, nor essentially the most reliable, however their ardour and their dedication can’t be denied.
Star Wars Galaxies
How are you aware if somebody was a Star Wars Galaxies participant? Don’t fear; they’ll let you know.
I child, however it’s a undeniable fact that to this present day you’ll find no scarcity of SWG gamers blissful to sing the praises of what’s usually thought of one of many biggest sandbox MMOs of all time. Galaxies gamers survived two of the most important controversies in MMO historical past — the “Fight Improve” and “New Sport Enhancements” — and proceed to maintain the reminiscence of the sport alive even years after its closure with numerous suppose items and nostalgic weblog posts, and a thriving emulator group.
If that’s not true dedication, I don’t know what’s.
Metropolis of Heroes
One other lifeless recreation whose reminiscence endures because of an extremely passionate fanbase.
With a powerful role-play group and little competitors from different superhero MMOs, Metropolis of Heroes boasted one of the crucial tightly knit playerbases within the MMO world when it was alive, and even now that it’s lifeless, that group endures, albeit in a diminished style.
For proof of this, one want look no additional than the bevy of crowdfunded “non secular successors” to Metropolis of Heroes which can be in growth: Metropolis of Titans, Ship of Heroes, Valiance On-line…
For many who want their Metropolis of Heroes repair in a extra fast kind, there’s additionally Paragon Chat. Whereas not a full emulator, it does permit former CoH gamers to reconnect through a minimalist recreation of the sport that features a number of the environments and the power to talk with different gamers, although not precise gameplay.
Secret World Legends
The unique Secret World was a recreation famend for having one of the crucial heat and mature on-line communities round. Having been an avid TSW participant myself, I at all times felt that such tales have been a tad exaggerated — we nonetheless had our share of trolls and elitists — however actually TSW’s group was a minimize above the typical.
And I actually can’t deny that they have been additionally among the many most fanatically devoted. I shudder to think about what number of hours of sleep I’ve misplaced delving into novel-length principle threads on the outdated lore boards.
Most communities wouldn’t have survived the upheaval Funcom handed down when it rebooted the sport as Secret World Legends, and certainly, a lot hurt was achieved to the playerbase. Many refused to surrender years of progress by leaping over to the brand new recreation — myself included.
However many did make the change, and those who did absolutely should be seen as a number of the most devoted gamers in all of on-line gaming. Nobody else would have the persistence to endure being made to begin over from scratch.
I don’t know if the TSW/SWL group is essentially essentially the most pleasant nor essentially the most devoted, of all time, however it’s the one which felt most like house to me, and thus it should at all times maintain a particular place in my coronary heart.
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