The Trend of Removing Socialization from Games is Cringe

[UR ESTROGEN DEALER]

I just wanted to say that the trend of removing socialization from games is very cringe.

Honestly, I haven't enjoyed games as much as I used to, primarily due to the fact it's extremely difficult to meet anyone nowadays.

Yea, I don't know what the point is, I just remember a time where you could go on almost any game and talk to a bunch of random people in a little chat box.

Better yet, you could go into a game and people would actually talk on voice chat then you would be able to play with them again after the match, maybe make friends lmao idk wild thoughts

[BJWyler]

Blame the toxic trolls. I, for one, am glad I can play a game without having to deal with a single Internet Rando at any time.

[Spawn of Totoro]

I feel the opposite or the OP. Socializing during the game was becoming more and more toxic, from my experience. These day, I just use a Discord Server with my friends and disable in-game talk and chats. Games have become a lot more fun this way, at least for me and the people I play with.

[nullable]

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/green-blackboards-and-other-anomalies

In a way I understand it. Chalk it up to getting older and not being interested in the antics of children, teenagers, and children-in-adult-bodies or having less patience for them. I think gaming demographics are still evolving. A lot fewer people were playing video games twenty years ago, and a lot fewer people were playing PC games. The demographics might have been a bit more "homogeneous", things changed and now everyone is online and lots of people are playing games and the barrier for entry is much lower.

Nothing is new, and everyone is awful. It used to be everything is new, and everyone was awful, so it was slightly more bearable.

But some of it is going to be rose tinted glasses, as a popular 19 year old comic highlights. Maybe it was funny in 2004, and sobering in 2023.

[Reggaejunkiedrew]

The culture of the internet in the last 10-15 years has changed. I understand where you're coming from, but the reality is I don't thihk it'll ever be like it was again.

Even games that have socialization, or have maintained the same socialization have changed. Vanilla WoW compared to the classic reboot is the best example I can think of. Same game, radically different experiences because the world just isn't the same as it was.

[Tito Shivan]

I'm out of the loop. Which games are removing socialization?

I left multiplayer games long time ago. Basically when TF2 started choking community servers in favour of their Quickplay. As the community servers I took part in withered and died, so did my interest for multiplayer.

Also with my limited available playtime, the multiplayer experience offers far too much variance in the ammount of enjoyment I get from gaming, so I stick out of it. I launch a Vs bots CSGO or TF2 match every once in a while when I get the itch. And I only join low-level activities in Destiny 2, where 0 comms are needed and the other players could pretty much be bots (Yet I still have to bear some griefing)

I'm all in for any game that weeds the toxic users from it.

Originally posted by UR ESTROGEN DEALER:

Yea, I don't know what the point is, I just remember a time where you could go on almost any game and talk to a bunch of random people in a little chat box.

That was my experience on well moderated community servers for years. Nowadays all is matchmaking putting you next to 20 year olds tryharding the game and being toxic because they're in the wrong SBMM tier.

Nowadays I just pick the bots. They may be dumb, but they're reliably dumb.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

I'm out of the loop. Which games are removing socialization?

Seems they may removed chats from all the Total War series of games and possibly more (or more to come).

[Crid]

I only recently thought about that .. I am not playing competitive shooters atm but I do play MMOs; FFXIV got 3 NPCs prepared in case you don't want to run the msq dungeons with actual people;other games offer quick/auto battle instead matching with ppl
on a completely different topic i remember someone saying they instantly mute chat/vc when starting a game cause of the toxicity.
the trend to playing multiplayer content alone, without communication is definitely there - some using discord instead of ingame chats, i know, and i like it too - even if it's also a closed circle then; but all in all very sad trend imo - making friends is getting harder, not only cause of the removed / muted chat or auto battles/NPCs and whatnot but also cause everybody seems to be always expecting a stranger saying "hi" to be a scammer of sorts nowadays :/

[Zefar]

Text chat is more and more likely to removed from games. Which is rather annoying.

[Komarimaru]

It's a combination of UK, EU and American laws.

Not sure for the previous two, but in the US, games have to have accessibility options for those impaired, even with just text chat.

[chocolate donut]

Originally posted by Komarimaru:

It's a combination of UK, EU and American laws.

Not sure for the previous two, but in the US, games have to have accessibility options for those impaired, even with just text chat.

Huh? What does this have to do with accessibility?

Also, if that's really true, then I think a lot of games are breaking the law because there are plenty of games with examples of lacking accessibility options. Can you cite all this?

[Mailer]

Battlebit Remastered seems to get a lot of positive credit due to having proximity all-chat, and in their case it is actually making the game more popular by having funny interactions like that shared on social media.

TF2 has an all-chat option but the server needs to support the vote first.

I do think there is some merit in thinking online interactions are on the decline in games, because I've also noticed the same reluctancy in high-profile games to add basic communication features, as though developers/publishers are afraid people are going to abuse it or something.

Garry's Mod still has a lot of that stuff and it is likely due to voice chat at all that servers are even remaining popular, because it's honestly just a night and day comparison with being constricted to a chat box with no audio.

In my opinion, it's better to leave those options on the table, but equip the user with tools to mute and isolate themselves if they want to. Not the other way around.

[Komarimaru]

Originally posted by chocolate donut:

Originally posted by Komarimaru:

It's a combination of UK, EU and American laws.

Not sure for the previous two, but in the US, games have to have accessibility options for those impaired, even with just text chat.

Huh? What does this have to do with accessibility?

Also, if that's really true, then I think a lot of games are breaking the law because there are plenty of games with examples of lacking accessibility options. Can you cite all this?

Just one of many articles about it.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/video-game-communication-now-covered-by-accessibility-law

Basically any new game, or games with large updates must adhere to the new accessibility laws.

Those that don't wanna deal with it, just remove chat and voice features.

[sfnhltb]

I think you mean socializing, not socialization. Socialization is the process of teaching kids (or adults) not to be criminals, or toxic antisocial brats, etc. Not many games have ever done much of that. Socializing is talking to other people.

Lots of games will go this way where the multiplayer is simple enough that complex interactions are not needed, it saves the hassle of dealing with toxic players driving others away from the game, or having to pay to moderate and ban players that abuse the system, or media stories about how your games chat is being used to pass bomb making advice or as a channel for grooming children or whatever.

It is also useful for multi-language player bases, if you can only communicate using a selected list of emoticons it both stops many ways for players to be toxic to each other while removing language barriers, at the cost of limiting the amount of information that can be passed, so it only really works for relatively simple games.

[Crazy Tiger]

You call it cringe, OP, I call it welcome. I play games to enjoy myself, not to be blasted by toxic asshats that scream every time I do something they don't like. So if games remove things like chats, I'm perfectly fine with that.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at 🃏:

Most people flock to specific social media services and there's an increasing trend for people to engage in anti-social behaviors with each other, which ultimately result in the destruction of socialization options.

Most social sites boosting negative interactions because they generate 'ENGAGEMENT' (thus visits, likes and shares) play a big role in the degradation of digital interactions.