Potential Benefits: Social Interaction and Team Play
MMOGs are very social games. While they can be played by a single player (this is called “soloing”), the best features of MMOGs are experienced by working with other players. This creates an incentive for players to cooperate with one another in order to achieve their goals within the context of the game.
Characters are designed to be specialized, so that they have specific special abilities and handicaps. By cooperating with players that have different special abilities and handicaps, it is possible to have a balanced group that is very powerful. Working in a balanced group is an ideal way of making progress in the game.
Because of the need to work together, MMOGs incorporate ways for players to find other players to help them. In World of Warcraft, the most basic way of finding people is to talk in a chat “channel” called “Looking For Group.” All a player has to do is describe what their goal is in this channel, and other players who are interested in helping will respond.
Four main chat channels are available:
1 — General
2 — Trade (buying or selling items; available only in major cities).
3 — Local Defense (this channel is used when a city or zone is under attack)
4 — LFG (Looking For Group)
Note: You can only chat with people in the same city or zone as you through these channels.
Other chat channels include:
g — Guild (more details below)
p — Party (a group of up to 5 people)
raid — Raid (a team of 20 to 40 players who work with you in huge quests, instances, and dungeons)
In the image below, people's usernames are blurred out to protect their privacy.
World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
Near each of the main dungeons in World of Warcraft is a meeting stone, a place where a player can find others who are looking for a group. The meeting stone serves the same purpose as the “Looking For Group” chat channel. The meeting stone may make it easier to find players to team up on a quest in a dungeon because it is adjacent to where the quest begins.
The meeting Stone (seen at right with green glowing symbol) helps players find others who want to play in the same instance or dungeon.
World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The players who become a group using the “Looking For Group” channel or the meeting stone do not always work well together, because you don’t know who you’ll end up with, or how cooperative they’ll be. Working with such random players in the game is not ideal, but it is easy, and a normal part of playing the game.
As players become stronger, there is a greater incentive to join a “guild,” which is a group of players who generally play together or help one another achieve their goals. The closeness and focus of a guild depends on its players. Some guilds focus only on playing the game, while other guilds are more social and relaxed. They are usually run by more experienced players, who are often able to help other players learn more about the game.
A guild is a great way to find a regular group of players to play with. By working with the same players, over time it becomes easier to communicate goals and plan strategies for going into battle.