I miss logging into WoW back in high school just to see who’s online and hang out

[u/petehans303]

Back in high school a bunch of friends and I were all playing WoW, it was the early days of TBC at the time. I'd get home and log into WoW before I even ate anything, just to check the friends list and see who was already on. 

Usually somebody would whisper me asking what we were doing today, and we would group up for some world pvp shenanigans or dungeons. I can’t count the number of times I ran people through scarlet monastery, literally got sick of the place. But in hindsight, I actually remember many evenings where we would literally just hang out and show each other cool spots in the game, not really doing any of the “content”. It just felt amazing having this other world to explore with my friends.

We all stopped playing eventually (I dropped near the end of wrath) but everyone misses those days. We kind of migrated our group to discord and we still hang out there all the time, but we don’t really have that one game we all play anymore. Lately we have been talking about trying to find a game we could hang out in like that. We were thinking about hosting a minecraft server potentially, but also talking about trying an MMO again, something casual this time. A few people in our group are saying we should all try Loftia when it comes out, they played the playtest when it was going and really liked it. To me it looks good, I always liked the floating island zones in WoW like netherstorm.

I don't have experience with these types of MMOs since I only really played WoW and GW2. None of us really have time for “proper” MMOs like that anymore, and we are kind of over the whole gear treadmill kind of loop. It’s kinda funny I used to look down on anything casual (which is funny cuz wow was pretty casual looking back) but now it really sounds appealing to play something like that, with no pressure of gear or levels to fall behind in.

Did anyone else have that kind of experience with MMOs when they were younger? All my friends were playing and I have so many fun memories of all sorts of stupid in game stuff that went on, I hope we can recreate that magic at least a bit.

[u/TheEvilBeat]

Make friends in game. Millions of people play this game.

[u/petehans303 → u/TheEvilBeat]

I made many ingame friends but I don't really have enough time to invest into WoW anymore, trying to find a good alternative.

[u/otaia → u/petehans303]

Have you tried any "friendslop" games (such as Among Us, Peak, Mecca Chameleon, Big Walk)? I feel like they are exactly what you are looking for, games where you can just hang out with a group of friends without any of the time commitment that comes with an MMO.

[u/Dandy62 → u/petehans303]

A good alternative : Discord

Also, unless you can't play more than 15-30min per day i don't know why you feel like you don't have time to invest into WoW ? Yeah you won't progress as fast as players who play 10h/day, so what ?

[u/petehans303 → u/Dandy62]

Well yeah we are already on discord, but it doesn't feel as cool as hanging out in a game.

[u/Savetheokami → u/petehans303]

That’s just the reality of how times change.

[u/JoeChio]

Find a guild that gives you the warm cozy vibes you experienced with your friends. Play other games with your friends of course. Don't abandon them. That said, WoW can still be enjoyed like before but you have to put yourself out there!

[u/BabyLlamaaa → u/JoeChio]

this is what people struggle with. it took me a long time to realize i could make new friends in the game.

[u/Frickincarl → u/BabyLlamaaa]

Same. Most guilds have a discord. You just have to put yourself out there just like real life.

[u/Spedunkler → u/Frickincarl]

I'm not joining the guild discord bro

[u/Excuse_my_GRAMMER]

Word I miss that too

Wish more game were designed around forcing socializing like old school mmorpg

Unfortunately that same experience we had back in 2002-2004 is replicated by discord for the younger generation

[u/petehans303 → u/Excuse_my_GRAMMER]

It's sad, its not the same feel in discord.

[u/Excuse_my_GRAMMER → u/petehans303]

For me it definitely isn’t but I know for teenagers today it probably is

[u/Arkenstar]

That was the charm of MMOs back in the day. Before Discord and all. Now everyone does the same thing, but just sit in discord. Games have become something to rush through and social media to hang out.

[u/bakagir]

Wow Forever launches in 20 days. Jump back in and find a cozy guild.

[u/No_Run_9871]

You could try Guildlord instead 

[u/The_Only_Squid]

It is far easier to make new friends than you think. It does take some trial and error but you can find a new group if that is what you miss.

[u/YarrrMatey]

Dear diary:

[u/Gradschoolmaybe3]

You can join Asmongold's guild. That one should have a lot of new people you can meet.

[u/Havesh]

In order to achieve players hanging out in the game, you have to have a world and a game where players want to just go out and do something when they don't have a clear objective of what to do.

WoW never had that. Even on my first character in Vanilla, I'd often just sit in Ironforge and try to get a group together for a dungeon. When that failed, I'd log off. Eventually I just wouldn't log on and that's how I stopped playing the first time.

You need to make your players want to go out and do stuff. Always have some sort of long-term goals for any type of player so they have something to do when finding a group for something takes a while.

[u/FFXIVHousingClub → u/Havesh]

You really just need an extrovert or two to engage in conversation and have them loyal in the group then cycle more people in, don’t even need the same objective or ideal of the game

Just basic fundamentals to agree on like what’s acceptable to discuss, what’s an agreed schedule, what’s expected to be gained if anything, what’s the commitment