I shout because you won't listen.

Player attitude is a big factor for my length of stay in a certain game-world. I recently decided to try out Lord Of The Rings Online... mainly due to the recent disappointment with many new releases (I'm looking at you Aion, Global Agenda and Star Trek Online!).

It turns out I'd forgotten what a decent community felt like. Now by "decent community", I don't mean simply someone who can be your leveling buddy, or a skilled bunch of players destroying the latest content, or a guy who'll give you the best deal for that shiny pair of boots. No, I mean a group of people who will point you in the right direction, give you no-strings-attached advice, and generally be an understanding listener for the newbie in need. It's no surprise that a player-base such as this has supported Turbine through the rougher parts of LoTRO's three-year existance. A quick scroll through their forums gave me a wonderful change to the "this-is-what-you're-getting-yes-we-can-hear-you-but-we-won't-listen" attitude of a lot of MMO developers of late (take this thread, for example).

As a generally lone wolf in many MMO worlds, I didn't really pay attention to my fellow adventurers. My attitude may have been down to the fact I was simply shying away from the abuse usually found when one asks for assistance ("lol, lern to play, this isn't WoW") - and I've come to realize I, as a paying customer, shouldn't have to put up with such treatment. If a player-base can't be utilized by a developer to be caring, sociable and welcoming due to poor customer relations then I'll gladly take my coin elsewhere.

It's almost a like a food-chain: The developer feeds the player with recognition of their existance and listens to their cries, the player then treats it's fellow player in the same manner. Help to help yourself, Mr MMO Developer, and don't be a faceless machine that churns out new content for it's selfish player-base. A selfish player-base YOU created.