Get everyone talking in the world, and I think general socialization would be better.

Most of what can be done comes down to this: make it harder.

If people simply can’t beat a dungeon by zerging in and AOEing everything then they have to cooperate to come up with a plan. That was how WoW used to work in 2004-7.

Think of a game like Football. You have to talk to each other, sometimes warn team mates you’re going for the same ball, discuss strategy at half time.

WoW is like a game of Football where if anyone simply kicks the ball as hard as they can you win. (Much of WoW, not arena or complex raiding). If Football worked like that no one would talk either. But it doesn’t so people talk to each other.

I actually don’t see it as a problem that WoW has developed on these lines – it’s clearly what a lot of players wanted. But I don’t want the other dikus to get swept along. Let’s have WoW for the people who basically want a fruit machine and EQ2 and Lotro for people who want to collaborate to beat a challenge.

I play MMOs for the social grouping aspect and I have nothing to do in EQ2 anymore, as the game I wanted to play is gone. I am in a great guild with great people but they do not group outside their tight group that they have leveled to 90 with (and they have of course done all the instances umpteen times and does not want to do them again, understandably so).

The EQ2 developers have talked about an updated LFG tool with more options and a better search tool but it is unlikely it will ever be implemented but the ideas posted where nice (something as per the EQ2 Guild finder tool).

The trends of MMOS today are several, but there are few games out there that actually offers anything to people that wants to group and advance at a decent pace, games where you can find people to group with if you are late into the game.

It is a social issue too in EQ2 if you get and instance and gives proof that you have never done it before you usually are in for trouble, most players does not want to spend extra time showing a new player the ropes as it is much more efficient to run 3 instances in one hour than to run 1 instance for one hour and have several wipes. This has lead to a situation where you barely dare to do anything anymore, many have tried PUGs for the instances where you actually only recruit new people, this can be fun if you can stand the taunting in the public channels.

Currently me and my wife are unsubbed from EQ2 but if anyone has any tips on a game where you can go out and get a group, play for some hours and have fun, even if you are not A Leet, B Maxlevel, C on your 15th run through the dungeon please let me know

First, I think MMOs do provide ample opportunity for you to group. Perhaps that word is a poor choice. MMOs provide ample reasons to group. Specifically talking about WoW, You have five-man dungeons, 10, 20, 25 and 40 man raids, 10, 15, 20 and 40 man battlegrounds, 2, 3, and 5-man arenas, groups quests, guilds, RP, you name it. There are enough mechanics in the game that force you to group and interact with other players.

“Once you understand that a lot of people view gaming as a hobby and like MMOs for the opportunity to meet and play with fellow gamers online (much as you’d make friends via any other hobby) then you can see how badly game designers have failed this group.”

This is the part where I had some trouble agreeing with what you said. If we are to look at MMOs as a “hobby” with you expect to make friends, it must be said that you make those friends by doing the personal physical effort of interacting with them. The hobby in question only provides the platform. In a social gathering, say where a group largely comprising of strangers with few common friends gets together for a night of Taboo. Taboo gives you the social platform, it si a great group game to play and it provides you with a logical reason for interacting. How much you choose to interact and/or take it past the Taboo stage is entirely up to you. (I am a little high on cough syrup, so this may be a little hazy here).

Similarly in MMO’s, all the reasons I listed above provide the platform, but it is up to the players to use that platform to their advantage and get where they want. I don’t think the developers need to force it any further. I absolutely agree that they need to encourage it by providing activities that are a lot more fun to do in groups.

Third, You also raised the point about being placed with a group of similar-minded individuals. This is very tricky. We largely make fun of these compatibility websites like eHarmony.com, because software cannot assess your compatibility with a group, no matter how many character traits and variable you feed it. Partially because you will never find the “perfect” guild, there will always be some problem (big or small), and partly because there is no scientific way to replace intuition, gut-feeling and just the natural feeling of belonging to a certain group or idea.

Sorry that if this turned into a rant

One thought is to do what they did in EQ2 for Guilds and apply that for characters.

If you’re a social type of gamer that likes to group to do some outdoor quests (even though it’s less efficient than just soloing in most cases), then you set that flag. If you’re the kind that likes to duel, turn on that flag. If you just want to solo and not be bothered with group invites and duels? Turn off those flags.

If you like doing dungeons, turn those on. If you don’t, turn those off. That would help define how people group.

If you just want to grind or chat while gathering or something, maybe there is a flag for that.

You’d need a mechanism to tie all that together too. Think of it as almost being a dating service.

The technology is there, no one is really using it.