MMO: the social aspect

[hipcheck]

there are 2 reasons that MMO's intrigue me: 1) AI is no challenge for me; 2) the social aspect intrigues me.

and when I say social, I say it in a TOG context, not a "lol! fag!1 your a homo!" context that can dominate many online games.

so I'd like to ask you people, which MMOs have you found the social aspect to be the most fun, and the most mature? I know it's mostly what you put into it, but the game itself does play a part.

I could make this a really long post, but I'm sure it's mostly been said... so to the point, when I played MxO, I had the most fun dealing with people. more than L2 or CoH (that's it for my MMO exp.), because there were things like romance built into the game, dance clubs made just to socialize in without thinking about killing stuff, and nice, military-style chains of command laid into the framework.

at this point, which games do you think are the best for this type of play? which ones on the horizon have lots of promise?

[Atrayo]

Hello Hipcheck,

Well in regards to social guild aspect of game play. I often enjoy how the guild huddles together for a common goal to reach. How many step forward to lend a hand and when the goal is achieved it's very sweet indeed. I bet those in the EQ2 TOG division recently felt this when their guild dinged level 50 in-game on server Najena.

In my non-TOG guild days when in SWG. My guild back then was coordinated with a couple other guilds where we built, managed and grew a township on Corellia Starsider server called "Elysium". That ignites the community spirit among many differing groups like what is often known historically during the pioneer days of the Old West and such in the States. But here it is repeated as a social experiement in game design for a MMORPG.

Than of course the political drama of intrigue where individuals and groups are vying for exclusive Intel. Whether by cooperation or competition in game play that can erupt into ego power struggles.

Those are the few social interactions i've enjoyed as an individual or part of a larger group in a MMORPG.