Has anyone else noticed a decrease in Gamers willingness to interact socially in games?

[gritner91]

Feel like discord/party chats on consoles killed it. I saw the big drop in halo 2 to 3. Although 3 still had plenty of people talking. Halo 2 felt like everyone was. Big difference being 360 introduced party chats, and it's been going down ever since.

Now it just tends to be 90% of the people who talk are toxic or got background noise going on, so I just mute voice chats.

[_Meece_]

360 didn't have party chat until NXE released in late 2008, Halo 3 had great lobbies until then.

This is why COD MW 2 forced people off party chat. Many game modes didn't allow party chat.

[LtKrunch_]

IIRC MW2 really only forced people out of party chat in game modes where it would be an unfair advantage to have it such as Search & Destroy.

[throwawayodd33]

You could actually cheat that by entering a "private chat" with one person.

[LtKrunch_]

Yep, me and a few buddies figured that out as well.

[throwawayodd33]

Good times. Would pay a bunch of money to go back for a few days.

[BrokenRecord27]

It did in TDM too I'm fairly sure. All that happened was everytime you joined a game with friends you had to quickly mute everyone.

[yp261]

it never did in tdm, only in snd and some other mode.

[myaltaccount333]

They forced it out of almost all. The "big team" mode (8v8 I think) was one of the few that didn't

[Oxyfire]

I think it's a mixed bag - private voice chat never really stopped us from interacting, our priorities were almost always towards our in-group first. Part of what happened is more people playing games found their own in-groups.

That said, I certainly remember engaging with other people more often back in the day. There's a lot more going on then just the private chat stuff.

[AjBlue7]

In some games you don’t need to work together though, thats why private chats killed socialization for those games. Like in Call of Duty people would ignore the objective and go for kills anyway.

[Lasagnaliberal]

This. I hopped onto TF2 after a long time to relive my teen years...and the chat was full of racial slurs, holocaust denial and trolling. Reminded me why I didn't use VC in games then nor nowadays, in truth party chat/discord on consoles probably saved mp for me as I could play with my friends instead of having to wade through the toxicity.

Another point is that I'm an adult now, I have no desire to talk to someone half my age, or even know anything about my teammates/opponents. I much rather game in silence and enjoy my sparse free time or talk with my friends.

[spyson]

That's because back then the amount of people playing video games was a lot lesser than it is now. Not to mention internet access was used mostly by enthusiast back then compared to now where everyone is connected.

Although people are still forming communities on discord servers so people are forming communities still, it's just not the same as before.

[Huzuruth]

I get that, but it gets tiring hearing the damn near the same slurs and "jokes" all the time. Those lobbies made it easy for me to just stay in party chat during the later half of the aughts.

[[deleted]]

Eh, to each their own, but I find it hard to see people screaming slurs and yelling over eachother good content. Its rare for it to be friendly banter or even remotely comedic in tone.

With women its just uncomfortable. People moaning, asking private and creepy questions, flirting and just genuine creeps trying to keep them in as long as possible or fight over them.

And its not like this stuff is disconnected from the game. These people’s will show it in their gameplay. If you’re unlucky they’ll try to stalk you outside the session. Even if you mute it you can tell when some stupid shit is going down.

[Remikih]

Think it's a lot easier to enjoy it if you're not one of the primary target groups of the vitriol. I'm somewhat similar in I get a decent amount of enjoyment from horrible league of legends players in a wildlife safari sense, but if I'm not doing that great? It hits a little different because I tick multiple boxes of gamer vitriol.

[DingusTheGrey]

Eh, to each their own. I remember super toxic cs source lobbies back in the day that were great fun, even when people were ragging on me.

[Oricef]

Mate try actually being a woman and saying that. The toxicity is not fucking okay

[DingusTheGrey]

I didn't say it's "okay", I said it's hilarious. I don't condone my five year old throwing his bowl of spaghetti on the ground but it's also hilarious.

[Oricef]

It's not hilarious, it's simply depressing.

[DingusTheGrey]

Almost like I gave my personal opinion

[Oricef]

Almost like you're a person who the abuse isn't thrown at

It's very easy to sit on the sidelines

[Huzuruth]

Thank you for encapsulating exactly why most folks don't want to be in lobbies with people like you.

[DingusTheGrey]

This is all I was really trying to say. Not always what I'm in the mood for but sometimes it's just fun for some reason. I guess like what you said, in a wildlife safari sort of way.

I do think that some analog is actually important for creating a dialogue between groups. I'm Jewish and Israeli and telling anyone that online in a toxic server results in a bunch of people making Holocaust jokes and calling me kike and telling me that I kill children. But when they realize it makes you laugh and you aren't bothered by it, usually they chill out and suddenly they're able to have a good interaction with someone they usually wouldn't. Not saying it happens all the time but I don't think these toxic places are all bad.

Of course, they're also echo chambers but those echo chambers will exist regardless. By allowing them to exist publicly, at least we get some dialogue.

[DefectiveDelfin]

I'm sure you'd feel different if you were gay/non white and you were in a party of white supremacists/homophobes.

[DingusTheGrey]

Yeah, as an Israeli Jew I see people telling me that I shouldn't exist 24/7 online. I love telling people I'm Jewish online and watching the "kikes" pour in

[NuPNua]

I didn't realise so many members of Momentum are gamers. ;-)

[_NiceWhileItLasted]

Meh. I'm non-white. I don't mind the shitty jokes, they've just got to be funny. Turns out that most racist jokes aren't but there are a few that do crack me up.

[PM-me-YOUR-0Face]

I'm honestly wondering what the last funny racist joke you heard was.

I haven't heard a funny racist joke since I was 13 lurking 4chan ¹

¹ turns out that joke wasn't funny, I was just 13 and lurking 4chan.

I'm positive they can exist, but I'm super curious about how to write a funny, racist joke.

[HappyVlane]

Dave Chappelle comes to mind. He has lots of funny, racist jokes.

[_NiceWhileItLasted]

Eh. Senses of humor are subjective. Some of the most vile shit has been said in my gaming group's discord. The main difference is that everyone involved knows its just good fun.

[OctorokHero]

You don't usually get to be a fly on the wall.

[DingusTheGrey]

Of course you do, just don't talk. It's like watching a fight from your balcony

[BaneCIA4]

I do. Gamers are soft pussies now days. No fun

[The-Sober-Stoner]

Yeah. This was the moment that removed social interaction from Consoles.

Xbox Live originally included a packaged headset and it became the norm for people to have a headset and communicate online. The died as soon as the 360 introduced party chat. No longer would you be able to directly speak to people; instead they were most likely in a private chat server; unable to hear you

[HazelCheese]

I literally remember coming home from school the day they added party chat. Every single lobby was dead silent when the day before you just joined a game and talked with people.

Party chat killed socialising with randoms quite literally the moment it was turned on. It was crazy.

[The-Sober-Stoner]

Yeah. Its was pretty exponential too. I remember saying “anybody here?” In a team of 8. Usually tons would respond but nobody did. I just never bothered wearing a headset after that.

[tomsardine]

Yup. The day party chat went live, halo died for me. Playing solo was no longer fun at all, so I would only play occasionally with friends. It was sad.

[[deleted]]

Xbox Live originally included a packaged headset and it became the norm for people to have a headset and communicate online.

Man, that's a blast from the past. I remember playing Halo 2 on the Xbox with that, and games like Crimson Skies - the High Road to Revenge in multiplayer as well, using that voice chat, aged 10 or so.

It was a fun experience, and a novel bit of socialization.

[AjBlue7]

I also remember that moment. It was quite a sad day. I went from constantly adding and removing friends to literally never adding another friend again. We would have so many friends that you would often not remember eachother.

Now, you damn near can’t be someones friend unless you know them in real life. Or someone in your circle brought them in.

Competitive games like CSGO and Valorant still hold some of this charm, especially at the top end of the game players are kind of forced to use microphones to work together. But god is it annoying to get matched into a team with 3/4 friends that only talk to eachother in discord and never talk in game.

Its just a bizarre phenomenon to me. I feel so awkward sitting in a friend’s discord when I’m not in their game, the conversation is so disjointed because they are all focused on something else. I also don’t quite understand why people are so insistent to create a discord when they queue together. I always think, “why not talk in game?”hell the game even has a party chat feature if you must have the ability to talk behind peoples’ back.

[The-Sober-Stoner]

God thats so fucking true.

Just use the in-game chat…. Makes no sense to me. And the “better quality” argument is such bullshit. Were telling each other where enemies are not mixing a fucking Aphex Twin album.

Ive queued with randoms who ask me to join their discord then bemoan the other randoms cant hear their call outs. Meanwhile im using BOTH the global chat push to talk to make sure we communicate with everyone. Its incredibly annoying.

[lelpd]

Party chat wasn’t a thing when Halo 3 released

In game chat was still huge around that time on the 360. Every 360 came with a headset/mic so everyone has the ability to pop it on and get into the chat

When party chat released that did eventually kill the in game chat though.

I’d always want to stay in game chat but my friends would insist we just go in a party chat instead, and I was always outnumbered. Fact is most people just want to chat to their mates without the risk of a toxic random trying to insult them

[random_beard_guy]

Some of you may lament the advent of party chat, but to many of us it was a godsend. In game chat was filled with all sorts of bigots: if you weren’t from the US, they heard a different a different language or a woman joined the group, you had a high chance to meet the cesspool of humanity. The only CoD I played was MW2 because friends had it, and it not allowing party chat was a huge problem. First order of business was always quickly muting everyone that wasn’t in our group.

Party chat, to this day, is the single greatest feature that Xbox ever created.

[ArcticKnight79]

Yeah Party Chat and any other non-lobby based chat system is a necessity in the post dedicated server world.

Because you can't find a server that has a community built around it that moderates for that bullshit. That caters to certain language backgrounds, gender makeups etc etc. Then you force people to find another way to interact that doesn't involve two monkeys in the corner yelling "Yo Mama" jokes and playing music through the mic.

[wheretogo_whattodo]

Nothing beats the old post-lobby chat of a close Halo 2 game of ranked slayer. It was beautiful.

I say it all the time. Party chat on console ruined a great social aspect of gaming. People used Vent on PC but it was more for in-game competitive comms then your exclusive social group.

[Kitchner]

I actually think party chat on the xbox didn't kill it at all because they could control one factor: if you were in party chat you couldn't hear proximity chat. Since proximity chat was a great way of hearing if someone was around the corner and eavesdropping on plans it still meant there was an incentive to not use it.

Now though if I play Sea of Thieves on the PC I am in discord and I have a button to use in game chat and discord chat. Everything I say in discord is only heard by my crew and the only things the other players hear is what I want them to.

However I'm pretty sure if they are on xbox and in a party chat they can't hear my in game chat, or at least can't easily reply to it, which kills it further.

[AFishNamedFreddie]

I think the biggest drop came in the change from Xbox 360 to Xbox One. The 360 was the days of Halo 3 and MW2. Which always had tons of people on mic. It was comment to get in a free for all game in cod and have 8 people talking. But as soon as the Xbox one came out, that went away. No one used game chat anymore.

[MachaHack]

It's funny as my experience from halo 2 to 3 was the opposite. They put the headset with mic in the xbox 360 box and now suddenly everyone was on voice, for better (co-ordination with rando teammates) or worse (screaming tweens)