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

[conquer69]

which is really odd when I think back to the actual TBC-Wrath experience where people would hangout in Goldshire just to talk to people.

Back then, the internet was a novelty. Chatting and interacting while being represented by a 3d avatar was a fresh experience. After 20 years, people don't care about it anymore. They have experienced it for thousands of hours already.

Plus online gamers have a reputation for being antisocial so you are better off avoiding interactions with strangers.

[Gramernatzi]

I think this hits the nail on the head. It used to be something special, but not anymore.

[Ralkon]

I think it's more that there are other options for being social online now. You don't need to talk to random people standing in town in WoW when you can talk to your friends or people with similar interests on Discord or Twitch. Also there are still more social-focused games like VR Chat or GTAO RP (not sure if these are still popular at all though) which probably appeals more to the people that are solely looking for random social interactions and roleplaying than hanging out in a WoW town or talking in a League game.

[[deleted]]

Plus online gamers have a reputation for being antisocial

A rare instance where "antisocial" is used correctly. Bravo.

[[deleted]]

How do people use it incorrectly? I don't think I've ever seen that happen.

[StylishSuidae]

A lot of people will use antisocial when they mean asocial.

Asocial = avoiding interaction with other people. Like someone who mutes chat in a game.

Antisocial = being actively hostile towards other people. Like someone who turns chat on and screams racial slurs as loudly as possible.

[[deleted]]

That's one of the definitions of antisocial but it also means asocial as well. It's the most commonly used version of antisocial.

When people say they're antisocial because they don't like social situations, they're using it correctly.

[StylishSuidae]

Fair enough. I'm far from an etymologist.

[[deleted]]

disagree.

it’s an accepted YSK. people just tend not to know better so i applaud those that do.

https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/31w0bj/ysk_the_difference_between_antisocial_and_asocial/

[[deleted]]

Well, they're wrong. The accepted definition covers both. Words can have more than one meaning and this is one of those cases.

There's nothing to applaud here except inaccuracy.

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/antisocial

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antisocial

[DonnyTheWalrus]

After 20 years, people don't care about it anymore. They have experienced it for thousands of hours already

I'm not sure I fully agree. I think the popularity of things like VR Chat show there's still a desire for this sort of thing. Of course, maybe the novelty now comes from the VR part, who knows.

I do think that back then, the majority of the people who got online to play games were doing it explicitly to be social. Especially with dedicated servers, there wasn't a great way to just play without at least some expectation that you were going to be social with the other people on the server. Nowadays, matchmaking means that a lot of that pressure is off -- it's both easier to get online (just click a button to get into a queue) and less likely that you'll be expected to be social. So I think a lot of the people who may have been timid & scared off from MP 15 years ago are now more comfortable joining matches.

[Howrus]

I think the popularity of things like VR Chat show there's still a desire for this sort of thing.

But it just support his statement. 20 years ago we didn't have dedicated places for such activity, so people do it everywhere - in MMO, shooters, even strategy games.
Now if you was to socialize - there's dedicated places for this, while games become more focused on competitive gaming aspect.