These days, I feel like most MMOs are just like trying to play a single player game but with other people getting in the way and/or breaking your shit while calling you an array of slurs.

Kind of like playing a regular game on extra extra difficult mode.

FFXIV has quite literally a Fellowship and Community Finder to look for groups which have similar interests as you. Be it Mahjongg, Role-Playing, Try-Harding old content or seeing for LGBTQ interactions. And the rest is done over Discord, because that is for sure a better communication tool than whatever the game devs can come up with. Even the content thing is not true. There is seperate content which absolutely requires cooperation, schedules outside the cookie cutter main content like Bozja and Deep/Criterion Dungeons. More similar to old school MMOs. I’m fine with a diverse array of content.

WoW these days you can pretty much get through the game and into endgame stuff without being in a guild. It’ll be more tough if you’re looking to run mythics/heroics but if you honestly don’t care about running heroic/mythic raids/dungeons then you 100% never need to talk to anyone.

then you have games like EVE Online where it’s pretty much essential you get yourself into a corp/alliance or a solid Discord group. Sure you can solo but doing so makes an already tough game insanely harder or you’ve regulated yourself to the relative safety of empire space. Faction Warfare is a great noob friendly starting point to dip your toes into corps/alliances and the politics/meta involved with that stuff. But in many cases joining a corp/alliance in EVE is like applying for a job. background checks, interviews, mandatory monthly meetings and call to arms/operations, etc. EVE is like working on Wall Street but you don’t get paid.

FFXIV is another one you really don’t need to join a Free Company. And chances are if you do join one most of them aren’t running the content anyways, you’re just joining to talk and hang out.

I, on the other hand, much prefer being able to play an MMO solo and grouping with people when I decide to be social. Locking content behind grouping is just plain annoying. As with all games, I’m there to explore the world and the story and the less I have other humans involved in that, the better in most cases.

My biggest frustration with community building is how it’s so hard to do natively in game. (I play WoW.) Typing is slow and takes away time from DPS, especially if you are in a group with impatient veterans who want to chain pull. There needs to be quick communication, like a wheel or something. (I use Opie to create this, macro common sayings, like in Helldivers.) I need a V button like from Deep Rock Galactic. Give me fast way to communicate simple emotes and I’ll build from there.

Additionally, I’ll never see the people in PUGs again. Why bother being friendly? In Vanilla, we had the same server, a reduced population. I could literally run into a person in Ironforge a few days after a group. (Don’t group with that guy, he’ll yell at you for jumping.) I’d see the same names in trade chat. (Oh, that’s the nice blacksmith that made my sword!) When everything is cross server, the population is so large and I’ll never see them again, and 1 dungeon run is not enough to know if someone is worth making friends. Friends happen by repeated forced interaction and then realizing later that you liked them.

I also think that a 3rd place would help. Give me a space and a reason to be there. Only running dungeons thru magical teleport menus is immersion breaking and doesn’t foster any social interactions. Chat channels spamming LFG was terrible and slow, but at least you talked to people. The Theme Park nature and menu driven dungeons build zero community.