Question time: How often do you actually talk to strangers in MMOs?

As MMOs have continued to adjust themselves for a more modern (and aging) audience with pesky things like 9-5 jobs, children, and—heaven forbid—other social responsibilities, they’ve tilted towards more solo-friendly content. Most of Final Fantasy 14’s main story quest can be played without grouping with a single living person—World of Warcraft now has solo-friendly endgame options like Delves or Prey to keep you busy, and so on.

Not to mention the wider design—on the whole, casual content requires less coordination and classes are more self-sufficient. It’s entirely possible to log into an MMO, play for a few hours, and dip without having ever said a single thing to anybody beyond a wave when you enter a dungeon, or a “ty4p” at the end of it.