The Silence

It's really really quiet in the world of Star Trek Online. Well, if you include the sound effects, the music, and the other in-game noises, there's always a background of space clicks and beeps, some scary drum music that means battle, and the rush of warp engines powering up.

But there really is not a significant amount of chatter.

Coming from World of Warcraft, I was initially glad to get away from the incessant trolling of the chat bars, the neverending use of derogatory language, the constant stream of mispelled words flowing across the lower left corner of my screen.

But now, I actually am starting to miss it.

I'm not sure if the lack of chatter is because of the low population of players (compared to WoW, STO has barely any!), or simply because I am not a high enough level to get missions in the more populated zones. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I have yet to joing a Fleet (STO's equivalent of a guild). Either way, it is distressing me, and I am not really sure why.

I am an avid RPG player. I've spent months on end playing various games, many of which are similar in structure to STO and WoW. Maybe the anxiety about silence is coming from the simple distinction between MMORPG and a standard RPG: in the former, you know that there are other people out there, and you can see them; in the latter, there is no one else, so the lack of chat is an inherent part of the game's structure.

The social anxiety is pushing me towards exploring different times at which I should play the game. Perhaps on weekends, or late at night there are more people on the server who might be chatting more. Perhaps it is just a part of STO: people are less likely in this game to chat randomly about things that don't particularly matter.

It's not so much that I want people to talk to me; rather, I miss having that constant hum in the background.