Culture shock

[Tobikuma]

Okay so Im really at a loss with people.
So few people in the game talk in a game (not town).
Other MMORPGs ive played talking was a way of life, and survival. In this games simplicity and talking complexity I can understand minimal discussion, but none at all?

As FFXI vet of 5 years is was customary to say hello upon being in a party, generally bow when playing with asain players, to congradulate players on thier lvling up or treasure drops. Having some discussion on battle tactics if needed. and then thank yous and good byes at the party end.

Whats the point of playing witrh other people if it feels more like a 1 player game?

SO many times have I asked questions (not how do I play ones, but on Warriorn"want me to tank", on enchantress "I can focus healing if you want".
And 1/2 the time I cant get ONE person to answer.

Come on people show some curtousy to people you play with. Say hello at LEAST.

[Splurd]

I do agree that people dont talk much. Too used to playing single player games on iphone perhaps.

[setec]

It's too hard to chat during the game when the whole party moves forward at break neck speed. :)

[Sayishere]

i got a 2g which is alreayd slow as it is, i consider myself a fast typer but even so the group moves to fast and chatting just seems really akward while fighting, in towns people do talk imo

[Azrael]

Well if you have ever played with Ogrim or Alta, or some of the other Legends guild members, we talk on ventrillo cause it is way to annoying to talk on a iphone in game.

http://theappradar.com
Stop on by if you like.

[Hurs]

Yeah, what Az said ^_^

[SlipperyJim]

Yeah, the iPhone chat interface is pretty terrible. It takes me way too long to simply type "Revive, please?" (followed by "Thanks for the revive!"). Now I just poke the "Help!" hotkey, and follow up with "thx!"

[FeralDruid]

the fact that I have to hit the chat bubble, THEN hit the Custom button eats up time, and my party is walking by the time my keyboard pops up.

[Banned]

Bow to a person if they are Chinese? It's a game o.o.

[Tobikuma]

First oiff I know its hard, but hellos, thanks yous and no problems should be used regularly

Secondly I sad asian, and more so I mean Japan who played the game a year before US release.

[AmonRaa]

I agree, nobody's too busy to hit the bubble and the generic greetings button upon entering a play zone.
Especially if you come in late and start picking up items...

I don't know about you guys but I friend up every polite player I meet.
Also dudes who join a group, rush on their own, die and ask for help make me smile bitterly... You don't say hi but expect a revive? Seriously?

[katlanta]

You say "culture" shock. What culture is that, exactly? Your comment "Secondly I sad asian, and more so I mean Japan who played the game a year before US release." implies you are talking about US players. I find your implication that Americans are inherently rude to be a little, well, rude.

I think "Platform shock" would have been a much more apt (and less insulting) title for your post. The other people who have replied here have summed it up pretty well - it is too darn difficult to socialize by typed chat on an iphone game in the middle of a dungeon crawl. Does that mean we should throw all courtesy out the window? Heck no, we just need to find a better way of handling it. There is already a "Hi!" emote and I would love to see emotes added for stuff like "Thx!", "Heal Plz!", etc., and maybe even the ability to add emote hot keys on the left side of the screen if desired. This is a tappy game, not a typey game ; )

[LordRaid]

True in that people don't converse much, however in this game when you have to actively move most of the time to find new enemies with the party, many choose to just fight and not talk.

I personally talk with those who try to make conversation, otherwise, meh...

[AmonRaa]

No offense to the last comment, but I've been moderating a good handful of forums and irc chans these last 10 years, and I have found two facts, which you might take the way you like:

1) the vast majority of the web is populated by americans (just straight numbers speaking). Ergo, the vast majority of rude people is statistically more american than not. This said, I wouldn't equate "not saying "hi" " with "being rude" , and certainly not "american(young) players being often rude" with "all americans being rude". That's just transforming what people said using a biased social filter.

2) very often in my web experience, american people react that way, finding "insulting" what people simply pointed out, never actually saying that "americans are all rude", but often end up flammed by a couple unrelated members. Please don't jump to negative conclusions like that, especially when coming from a foreigner with limited english expression.

It's a common pattern. And about culture shock, why yeah, typically, japanese online gaming networks are polite and people seldom barge in without saying at least "sup!" or something.
Yesterday I spent 2 hours reviving a dude who never said a word in the group chat, and when I made a honest joke about being his private healer, I got a "shut up",followed by a drama queen exit in the middle of a tough fight. That's childishly rude, and the guy was prolly american. So what?

No reason to raise the flag. If you feel insulted as a US citizen, I suggest we start educating rude players in general.

[katlanta]

AmonRaa

1. I never said I was a US citizen. I also never said that I was insulted. I only posted because I was slightly irked by what I saw as the inherent hypocrisy between the title of the post vs. its content.

2. If "Japan" and "US" had been reversed in his comment my response would have been identical except for the corresponding reversal of countries. I don't care for the perpetuation of negative stereotypes about any group. And no, I'm not saying that was his intent at all - simply that his use of the word "culture" in conjuntion with his comment about Japanese players implied a negative opinion of US players.

3. In regard to your point 1): "the vast majority of the web is populated by americans (just straight numbers speaking). Ergo, the vast majority of rude people is statistically more american than not." By this reasoning the vast majority of courteous people [on the web] is also statistically more american than not.

4. I have been playing MMO's for over 10 years with people from around the globe. I have been very social, been in guilds, interacted with many people in many situations and believe me when I say that no one country has a monopoly on rudeness.

5. I hardly think saying that I found the comment "a little, well, rude" is an inflamed response. Furthermore I went on to not only agree with him on the desire for courtesy but also to offer a constructive suggestion for how that might be accomplished in this game.

[AmonRaa]

My bad, I jumped to the conclusion that you had to be american.
As for the title vs contents, it happens a lot when the author is posting in a second or third language.
I believe that the word "culture shock" is used in japanese as a phonetic transliteration which makes it easy to use/understand for japanese people, even though there are often weird semantic changes, like for example "smart" which becomes "fit/slim" in modern japanese while keeping the quasi-english pronunciation.

The problem from my point of view is that the author should have said (or meant to say) "english speakers" rather than "US players", but it would have been an even bigger generalisation.

:(

[Pixxie]

American here, living in Paris.

I have to say, despite the concept of being insulted or not, the OP's original title is quite appropriate to his reaction in game. Each game has its own culture and along those lines each MMO has its own culture. Being a veteran gamer (as he is, as I am, as it seems many of the other posters on this thread are) who is used to a certain MMO culture, to walk into PL and expect that same culture and then to discover it is in fact vastly different than previously assumed.. That is in fact culture shock.

There are many steps to culture shock, and we each generally experience them at different moments.. So it's true that one might feel insulted by another's present thought process. But if history teaches us anything it is that we need to be accepting of differing viewpoints and try to create a dialogue rather than jump to conclusions.

That being said.. C'mon people. Chat a bit more! Especially after lvl 30 when there's nothing else to do..... jjjeeeeezzz...

Then again, devs NEED to implement auto correct :)

[Splurd]

Bow to a person if they are Chinese? It's a game o.o.

Japanese are the ones who bow, and frankly it is just a form of greeting.
I mean, its the same as using the "wave" emote and waving hi.

[AmonRaa]

American in Paris: that's a major culture shock if you ask me lol

I'm pretty sure things will get better after item transfer is on :)

[Legit]

Back to the "Chatting" Idea.
Yeah, i'm shure alot of people find this annoying that players don't talk when in the game, it gets kinda lonley when you're say "Hey", and no one respondes.
But you know, sometimes you mabey don't want anyone to talk because they are either a troll or all they do is spam "REZ"REZ"REZ"REZ"REZ"REZ!!!", And that's annoying...
But overall yeah it's annoying..

[Justg]

We're always looking for faster and better ways for people to communicate. I have the four quick-chat buttons set up for things I say alot: (Howdy, woot, lol, and gratz).

At the very least shake your phone to wave people!

[Tobikuma]

Nah I mean Culture Shock. Im American and we say hello or something silmiler, or for us "men" we do that nod of acknowledgement.
So yes I agree with the hot keys Its not that hard to say HELLO AND THANK YOU.

And also I said with playing with the Japaniese/asain culture we AMERICANS showed them respect by conforming in the simplist way as to type /bow in our chats.
As Americans we were more at ease with our own just saying a greeting of our culture like "sup"?

As Americans if your bartender, waiter, cashier, desk agent ect ect ect..... didnt greet you, you would find that rude. It is american culture as most to GREET in someway in showing you realize the person being there.
And there is just NO excuse to not say thank you.
70 mp to raise, your a waste of my MP is most cases becuase you went off alone to something you cant handle, your too low for the lvl, yadda yadda yadda
Yes some deaths happen that arnt result in ones own stupidity and I feel its my responsibility to raise, where its not so nessecary to thank.

[Splurd]

We're always looking for faster and better ways for people to communicate. I have the four quick-chat buttons set up for things I say alot: (Howdy, woot, lol, and gratz).

At the very least shake your phone to wave people!

I frankly find it quite hard to do. Have to wave it so hard that I cant really play normally. I've shaken it till my ordination flips and I'm still not waving. Maybe my characters are just introverted.

[katlanta]

Excellent points Pixxie and AmonRaa. I guess I shouldn't respond to stuff when I'm tired and cranky! Seems to make me think the worst of people.

Tobikuma -- I totally get what you are saying. As I said earlier I have played MMO's for over 10 years and have been very socially active in them. However, I mostly don't play MMO's anymore and when I do I don't group. The trend in courtesy online has been going steadily downhill and I just got tired of dealing with all the nasties. Not just those who don't say please or thank you but kill-stealers, exploiters, name-callers, hate-mongers, etc. I have had wonderful in-game experiences and have met and continue to meet great people, but that percentage is down to the point where it is just no longer fun for me interact online. If someone initiates non-negative chat with me I will happily respond but I won't initiate contact unless forced to do so. And, if I'm forced to group in a game I just won't play that game. Unless, of course, it's one my son plays too -- if he is rude to me I will ground him!

[katlanta]

Justg -- Thanks for the info -- I didn't know you could set up quick-chat thingies. That is cool! The "shake to wave" thing is nice too but not something I would use. I pretty much only play portable games on my iphone these days because I have rheumatoid arthritis and the DS & PSP make my hands ache. Shaking on the iphone (ipod, etc.) is one of my least favorite features for the same reason. I am a pretty tiny minority there so just my 2 cents, not a complaint. ; )

I do love large role-playing games and Pocket Legends is one of the best for the iphone, so thanks for that too. :)

[AmonRaa]

My quickchat links are : hi there, thx(for friending me or rez), nice item!, and "please don't spread up!"(utterly annoyed by dudes who rush alone in a 30+ maze, die and ask for rez)

To go back to the idea of "bowing to asian players", that's half-ignorant half-insulting imho... I'm from belgium, I wouldn't like people throwing me chocolate waffles as greetings.... :p

Last time a friend tried to be "polite" to a japanese guest, he put a baby spoon on the table because unsure of whether fork'n'knife were okay... that's plain ignorance. Still funny as hell though.

[AmonRaa]

oh, and it seems like ingame, many people take the "shake iphone/handwave" as a "please follow me" request lol

[shruthi]

I agree that people don't talk much. It's too hard to chat during the game. I understand, it's not a necessary.
Thanks you for sharing thread.

Regards,

[flyingscv]

I play on a galaxy tab which is humongous compared to my girl friends who do on their iphone and i can see how hard it is to type on such a small scrren. so i guess the limitation is on eqpt. once it comes out on pc it should be a lot easier to chat i think.

[blurryeyes]

I think it is the nature of iphone in size limitation, in my experience it is slow to coordinate playing the game and typing at the same time.

Imagine if there was a pc version. Id be happy to type more. I always chat when I play mmorpg games like diablo, but for the iphone mmo rpg games i dont even bother to talk much unless nececcesary

[DOAPSaint]

I just use the wave emote for hello and goodbye lol.... and I've seen a lot of people who do the same
You can't really chat with people while doing runs unless you're waiting for someone or just chilling around for some reason after killing the boss
And you always hear "REV PLEASE!!!!"

[vulgarstrike]

who decided to necro this year old thread...

[Noctale]

Since this thread has already been necrofied(?)...

The answer is:

Because the majority of PL's players are kids under the age of 12.
(Correct me if i'm wrong)

[Beez]

I frankly find it quite hard to do. Have to wave it so hard that I cant really play normally. I've shaken it till my ordination flips and I'm still not waving. Maybe my characters are just introverted.

Frankly, I find it quite hard to read your font color.

[Fyrce]

I use a lot of emotes, like laugh, celebrate, dance, etc. Others seem to also.

[Pharcyde]

The Pocket Legends community is a lot nicer than most other MMO's. People are polite most of the time and you get to build good friendships. Mainly this happens on the forums or in casual games/townes. I myself rarely talk when I am in dungeons. It's just too hard to type and fight at the same time with a ipod 1st gen that almost freezes completely when more then 3 spells are going off at once.


I frankly find it quite hard to do. Have to wave it so hard that I cant really play normally. I've shaken it till my ordination flips and I'm still not waving. Maybe my characters are just introverted.

I have the same problems. I wouldn't be surprised if I have shaken some parts loose in my ipod with how hard I have to shake it to get it to wave. Then it will casually wave randomly by the smallest movements when, lets say, changing positions to get more comfortable.