The Best Social features in MMORPGs

The chat function in MMORPGs has long been the gateway for players to converse, make friends, and brag about their DPS after each boss fight. Social mechanics have come a long way since ‘/whisper,’ and developers have sought to make the online experience as social as possible. For many players it’s the social side of online gaming that keeps them coming back, especially during content droughts and stale leveling stages, so it’s no wonder that we have seen all kinds of social mechanics being tested.

We’ve brought you our list of the best social features in MMORPGs that add that little extra sociability to your online experience.

Guilds

Guilds have become as much a social staple of MMORPGs as the friends list. A community within a community, they help bring like-minded individuals together for the benefit of each other. Running dungeons, gearing up and even crafting are all made easier once you are supported by a guild. When combined with the ability to create ranks, have shared storage and their own housing, it’s easy to see why guilds are a must-have for many MMO-ers.

Guilds also act as a catalyst for player-made social activities; hide and seek, guild lottery and pvp tournaments are a few examples of how guilds use more than the given tools to keep things fun and social.

ArenaNet presented a solid guild system in both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, allowing for; customisable ranking, guild halls and guild-versus-guild PvP — few things fill you with more pride than when you impale the member of an enemy guild with your own guild banner.

Recruit-a-Friend

When starting out in a new MMORPG it’s great to have a friend who can show you the ropes and even drop some spare gold in your bank. This initial helping hand

In the spirit of friendship, and to gain more players, some MMORPGS have implemented Recruit-A-Friend systems that reward you for introducing others to the game. Experience boosts, exclusive mounts, titles and skins are all examples of benefits gained when using the RAF system.

World of Warcraft offers a triple experience boost with their RAF system, helping you and your fresh-faced friend get to end-game content sooner. Even more alluring was that if your recruited friend paid for a month subscription then you got your next month free, a great incentive for dragging your buddies into Azeroth.

Mentor/Student System

It’s not always a friend you need in an MMORPG, it’s a mentor. Someone who has beaten the hardest raids, crafted the rarest weapons, dominated the arena and has the reputation points to prove it.

Offering newbies the opportunity to gain advice from veterans is great quality-of-life feature in MMORPGs, but it also helps new players takes those first steps into forming a social circle. A mentor can become a friend, raid partner and even a guildie in the future.

FFXIV has a brilliant mentor system to help new players. Once you’ve completed a handful of specific achievements you can become a Mentor. Better yet, mentors can choose to specialise in their chosen field, whether it be PVE, PVP or crafting.

Similarly, Eve Online has the Eve University mentor programme where mentors are paired up with students for a three month period to help speed up progression along that infamous Eve learning curve.

Music and Dance

If you are someone who can’t dance or play an instrument in real life then I am sure you are happy to know you can do these things in some MMORPGs.

Music and dance features in MMORPGs are a pinnacle of the social experience. Unless you are a completionist, the only reason you would sing, strum and dance in an MMORPG would be to display your creative genius to others and get them to join in. Features like this really help to break up the grind that is often present in end-game MMORPGs, giving you an opportunity to sit back and get expressive with friends. If you prefer, you could travel the MMO world as a bard, singing stories of your guild's latest raid conquest.

Mabinogi features an interesting music system that allows players to learn and play a variety of instruments. This learned skill also has non-social applications such as reducing the growth times of your crops and producing gameplay buffs.

Marriage

Lastly we have marriage. No, we don’t mean that girlfriend you had in runescape back in 2006 — we mean a marriage system that is built into the game for the mutual enjoyment of two players.

This is a feature not often seen in western-developed MMORPGs, but is another example of how games are encouraging us to be more social and create meaningful relationships online. Marriage often comes with some useful benefits too, such as player buffs.

Elder Scrolls Online comes with a fairly basic marriage system: each player gets a ring providing a 10% experience boost whilst leveling. Ragnarok Online offers a much more dramatic marriage mechanic where, as well as being able to teleport to your partner, you are able to reduce your own health in order to heal your husband/wife. In RO, love really can hurt.

Of course, we can’t talk about marriage in MMORPGs without mentioning Lucent Heart. An anime inspired MMORPG based on finding your soulmate was never going to appeal to everyone, but to those interested in a socially driven romantic MMO Lucent Heart offers a decent platform. Special buffs, items and emotes are all up for grabs if you happen to marry one of your three soulmates in the game.

That’s our list of the best social features in MMORPGs. Did we miss your favourite way to socialise with your fellow players? Comment below with how you talkative online.