Guild Wars 2

GW2 purports itself to be a game with a great community due to the everybody wins program it uses. However, what few people seem to notice, or perhaps just don’t know because they never experienced it, is that GW2 actually happens to have one of the worst PvE community’s I’ve ever seen, imo.

— There is no incentive to group with anyone when running about the world. We’ve all fought through countless battles no doubt with strangers, and yet most likely never said a word. The only chat you see between players takes place in shout or guild.

Which brings me to my suggestion:
— I’d like to see a feature implemented that gives small stat or XP bonus’s when grouping with other players. Have the feature scale so that the more people in the group, the greater the bonus. Put a radius meter on it so that they must be around each other for the effect to be active.

Edit: Additionally, there is apparently a bonus for defeating a monster alongside another player. This is exactly the kind of bonus that should be given when actually in a party with another player. You already reap the rewards of killing the enemy, give a bonus for doing so while actively teaming up with other players.

Edit: It has been stated that a main component to the problem of communication is the lack of means.
— So I am also adding the suggestion of an in-game voice communication option within a party, similar to that of EQ2. Join a party, auto-join a chat channel and begin communicating (assuming you set it to auto in options.)

Doing this will hopefully bring the community closer together. It’ll make people actually have to speak to the players they’re doing the heart quests and events with. Most developers have now come to realize and have stated that the largest factor that keeps people in a game are the people they meet while playing. This feature would serve to help facilitate that need in GW2.

Thanks~

It is kind of sad that I am surprised when a stranger initiates conversation during the game. It is really rare.

I think the features Araris proposes might be a good way to keep people engaged in the game without changing the original concept of GW2. Any way to build a stronger community is a plus and would most likely keep people invested and playing. You shouldn’t be able to reach level 80 without ever having to interact with another human being.

Nemara.1508:

It is kind of sad that I am surprised when a stranger initiates conversation during the game. It is really rare.

Exactly my point. Glad someone else notices how rare this really is.

I have to agree on this. The reason most people play these types of games is because they want to play with people. If I can to 95 percent of the game content solo besides dungeons (and the dungeons are more a pain then fun) whats the point of a group? Thats the main reason I don’t do PvE in this game is because its boring. A couple of my favorite games back in the day did this well. Some of those games were Ultima Online, the first Everquest, and Dark Age of Camelot.

I’ll give an example of boring (to me at least) the events. There is no real threat in the events because you can just keep spawning back. In EQ when you fought a dragon you better make sure you were ready to fight it because if not all your corpses were going to be a carpet for the dragon to stand on. Your stuff was on your corpse and getting it back at that point was a pain. A dragon “event” here there is no “scare” if you die. You needed great teamwork to beat a dragon in EQ here its just auto 1 until its dead. No need to talk to anyone either and no real teamwork.

This’d be a problem with MMOs in general. I’m just happy that this game incentivizes them stopping by to help me with my stuff in the first place and gives them some silver to show for it.

And I’d really disagree with the notion that grouping will help. They don’t have to talk to each other in the group.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

This’d be a problem with MMOs in general. I’m just happy that this game incentivizes them stopping by to help me with my stuff in the first place and gives them some silver to show for it.

And I’d really disagree with the notion that grouping will help. They don’t have to talk to each other in the group.

When people have a shared objective, they group, when they group, they talk. Unfortunately for you, you appear to be a gamer of this anti community generation. Rest assured, as someone that has played many many MMO’s, when people group, they talk, they get to know good players, they contact each other after the group because they know they play well, this is how a community is built.

The community disappeared when the need to group disappeared, it’s not a coincidence.

scooby treat.8420:

The reason most people play these types of games is because they want to play with people. If I can to 95 percent of the game content solo besides dungeons (and the dungeons are more a pain then fun) whats the point of a group?

Indeed. I’m thinking of making a video montage of just how bad it is. Been saying hello, thanks, good fight, etc after events and such, just to see if there’s a response. I would say 1 out of 20 people actually respond.

I have gotten messages from people way later in a whisper, saying that they just seen that I had typed.

Which means this… People are so detached from other players during regular PvE, they don’t even bother reading chat. They go from one heart or event to next, without ever interacting actively with another player.

That is a bad community.

While I somewhat agree, I don’t think giving incentives to group up will necessarily foster a stronger community. Yes, chat may become more lively, but only with people asking for parties. Not necessarily with chatter. Not to mention the party limit is 5. The current mechanic of letting people who participate get rewards as well helps more, because group size isn’t limited to 5.

Take dungeons. Before playing mostly with my mates, I pugged, and hardly anyone would chat apart from the customary ‘hi’ and ‘thanks for the run’. Occasionally you’d get ‘want to do another’. In the very rare circumstances, you’d get the nice guy who asks ‘does everyone know what they’re doing?’ and will explain tactics as they go along. But throughout the run, hardly anything.

Personally, I think ramping up the strategic difficulty of the world would aid in fostering a tighter community.

Make events require communication. You got:

• waves of enemies
• evil wizards raining down fireballs from a distance
• some other evil wizards that hex you so that you explode, dealing damage to all those around you if you don’t get out of there.
• siege up on the hill destroying the fort, with other wizards that ward them so they can’t be destroyed,
• all the while, in about five minutes time, yet another group of wizards who are somewhere around the area (which changes everytime) will finish a spell that will completely destroy the fort you’re defending…

with each element of the event that scales depending on the amount of people. Who’s going to do what?

If you then fail, there’s another event:

• people need to be trained, since most of the soldiers died
• people need to go gather certain plants to make remedies for the injured soldiers
• the fort needs to be rebuilt (this happens regardless, to repair the damage), meaning people have to go out and gather wood and rock, with crafting recipes added to create bricks and beams
• people need to keep an eye out for any attacking forces that may take advantage while you’re down…

and so on, so forth. Again, who’s going to do what? Have too many people rebuilding the fort, then the injured soldiers are going to die / you’re not going to be able to replace the dead soldiers ect.

If an entire area gets taken over, then you can’t WP into it.

And then there’s rewarding people who help foster the community:

• Guilds and even individuals who put on events for everyone
• People who are willing to spend the time to help less experienced players i.e. first-time dungeon runners

I’d suggest a player-rating system if I didn’t think it’d be open to exploitation.

There is already “challenging” content in the game, it hasn’t made people communicate. Fact is, once people learn an encounter, there isn’t a whole lot of need to communicate who does what. Besides, that isn’t real communication, it’s instructions.

What I’m proposing is an incentive to group during regular PvE, events, heart quests, the “relaxed” gameplay that players would normally use in other MMOs to get to know other players.

During dungeons you are grouped, correct, but people are merely focused on the content at hand, it’s similar to a raid atmosphere in other games, you give instructions/orders, and move through the content.

In older MMOs, you got to know players while you ran quests together or sat in an exp group. Not in raids or extremely active content. It’s the same in real life, you get to know someone while you relax, not while you’re in the middle of working on a project or running a marathon.

agreed, it’s so boring to auto1 dragons until i don’t bother doing them anymore.

the first thing they could do is to relax the suppression of chat…

Araris.7839:

Nemara.1508:

It is kind of sad that I am surprised when a stranger initiates conversation during the game. It is really rare.

Exactly my point. Glad someone else notices how rare this really is.

It would perhaps get less rare if someone replied, when a stranger starts a conversation. I happened to do it, to just receive “cricket sound” as an answer.
I am among those who don’t team up with strangers, not anymore at least. I only play with my friend, because I had to realize how the most of the community that plays this game is rather uncivilized and rude. (Not saying everyone, but a good part is.) After dungeons, random team up in maps, I just came to the conclusion that if I want to enjoy the game, I have to play only with a trustworthy person that shares my interests.
If whenever I see a stranger I didn’t have the 50% chance to be in front of some rude person that would end up insulting me or claiming me to follow him/her, run him/her through whole story line, maybe I could consider again to lightly go around and team up with others. I know that there is as well a 50% chances that I will prevent myself from meeting a lot of awesome people, but when you reach some limits, you don’t feel like taking risks anymore, seriously…
For now, I just prefer to keep going like this.

Pip.2094:

Araris.7839:

Nemara.1508:

It is kind of sad that I am surprised when a stranger initiates conversation during the game. It is really rare.

Exactly my point. Glad someone else notices how rare this really is.

It would perhaps get less rare if someone replied, when a stranger starts a conversation. I happened to do it, to just receive “cricket sound” as an answer.

The reason nobody responds is that players are so detached from each other, they don’t even look at their chat window.

The detachment is a side effect of the core problem, you don’t need to interact with other players in any way, to progress through PvE.

However, this isn’t only a PvE problem, because it affects the community as a whole.

Araris.7839:

Pip.2094:

Araris.7839:

Nemara.1508:

It is kind of sad that I am surprised when a stranger initiates conversation during the game. It is really rare.

Exactly my point. Glad someone else notices how rare this really is.

It would perhaps get less rare if someone replied, when a stranger starts a conversation. I happened to do it, to just receive “cricket sound” as an answer.

The reason nobody responds is that players are so detached from each other, they don’t even look at their chat window.

The detachment is a side effect of the core problem, you don’t need to interact with other players in any way, to progress through PvE.

However, this isn’t only a PvE problem, because it affects the community as a whole.

You do need instead. Maybe not in the lower level areas, but in most if the higher level areas you often find champions and group events spawning right on a skill challenge. This makes it necessary to interact with other players, if wanting to progress with map completion.
Besides, you receive bonus XP whenever you kill a foe with the help of someone, makes levelling up quicker and encourages people to team up.
Plus, I do not see this problem of communication. Whenever people are waiting for a big event to spawn large map conversation happens as well as interactions with other players. Before complaining you have to consider what kind of sever is the one you are in.
The detachment probles is only: if I have to turn my gaming into a bother, vecause people are unable to behave, I prefer to stay on my own and enjoy.

The very fact that you keep saying you prefer to stay on your own, pretty much makes anything you say on the topic moot. Long ago, people played these MMO’s mainly for that second M, multiplayer. Chatting while standing around waiting for jormag to pop isn’t a community, nor is it remotely the type of the communication I’m speaking about, since we all know that once it spawns, it’s back to silence, back to solo playing.

I play on blackgate, one of the most populated servers, and no, not even in the higher levels do people talk to each other. I have 3 Lvl 80’s that I’ve cleared all the Orr zones with, all without ever joining a group.

Getting bonus XP for fighting a monster alongside someone is the exact problem I’m talking about here. Those players will never say a word to each other, yet they benefited from the presence of another player. Why buy the cow if you get the milk for free?

Instead of promoting communication and community, as I’m sure was intended, the system is making those 2 things obsolete.

Actually, there are two issues here, one is the fact that no one needs to, or does group, however the larger issue resides in the UI and Gameplay mechanics.

I noticed the problem when I was playing in beta, I would never see messages from my friends, and they would get grumpy that I never responded.

When I would send messages to my friends they would never respond.

The reason is due to how combat works, with such a few number of abilities, you never really have to look at your hotbar for more than a quick glance, add on top of this the active and pretty much nonstop combat, and you are staring at the center of the screen for most of your game time.

You never even see the chat window. Compound this with the fact that most people probably do not filter their chat messages to different tabs, and people will never see the text at all.

TLDR: The fast paced nature of the game, combined with the lack of a need to actually look at the UI leads to decreased person to person interaction.

I’m just explaining to you the point of the most of people who don’t want ANYMORE to team up. As I said, I used to team up with strangers any moment (In this game.) and it is EXACTLY what now makes me want to stay alone.
“Can someone help me with this mission?” “Sure” end up claiming you to run him/her through half of his story line while he/she lies on the ground for being too low level, getting free XP. Team up with another random, ends up insulting you to be an idiot and a noob all the time at the slightest problem that you might come across to. Add a stranger to friend list, have to block him/her because becomes worse of a stalker, asking every second to go do what he/she wants to do, leaving you no freedom. This is what happened to me every single time I would team up with someone. I don’t exclude my was just bad luck, but you can’t deny this kind of things drain your will to socialize…
Not all servers are the same, though, really! As far as I read, there are so uber social awesome servers out there.
I play a multiplayer game because I want to play with my friend, so not all people who play multiplayer games are there to meet new people, really.
I know even friends that prefer to play alone, instead of with the people he trust! It’s a matter of attitude.
And as it was said in other threads, MMO is not “Must team up”. People that have only few time, people who are more loner and prefer to stay on their own must not be penalized. That is mainly what my point is about all this.
In my opinion, hardcore farmers, “pros” and elitists sadly are what makes our community so unfriendly.

To be honest, I don’t think you’re wrong in what you say don’t attack me for not fully agreeing with your idea.
I think that something that would make it better would be more options to report negative behaviours for example.
Prevent people from “recruiting” a level 80 to run them through high level story so that they just level up quick and free.
If someone insults you, and to me be called “noob” in disrespectful ways is an insult, minor but still an insult, give him/her a penality (Similar to dishonour hex in Gw1) that for example forbids them to team up, run dungeons, or they get some penality in the drops. (This mainly for dungeon runs I guess.) If people must actually think twice before swearing everywhere, flaming for nothing, insult others, mock them and exploit everything they can, then many more people might actually come back to team up and have friendly behaviours!

Anyhow if they could give some MF bonus that scales up according to the number of people in the team, or some kind of “boost” that stacks on the number of enemies killed in a combo with team mates would probably give a good incentive to team up and actually play together!

Pip.2094:

Anyhow if they could give some MF bonus that scales up according to the number of people in the team, or some kind of “boost” that stacks on the number of enemies killed in a combo with team mates would probably give a good incentive to team up and actually play together!

Great idea!

Syntax.3704:

Actually, there are two issues here, one is the fact that no one needs to, or does group, however the larger issue resides in the UI and Gameplay mechanics.(snip)

TLDR: The fast paced nature of the game, combined with the lack of a need to actually look at the UI leads to decreased person to person interaction.

This is the same conclusion I came to… The problem isn’t that there is no incentive to party. The problem is that it’s too difficult to play and communicate at the same time. Being in a party together doesn’t mean you’re socializing or playing as a group.

I think that more guild functionality, some sort of hot-keyable emotes/canned sentences, and voice chat would go much further toward making folks more sociable than forced/incentivized grouping.

Pandemoniac.4739:

Syntax.3704:

Actually, there are two issues here, one is the fact that no one needs to, or does group, however the larger issue resides in the UI and Gameplay mechanics.(snip)

TLDR: The fast paced nature of the game, combined with the lack of a need to actually look at the UI leads to decreased person to person interaction.

This is the same conclusion I came to… The problem isn’t that there is no incentive to party. The problem is that it’s too difficult to play and communicate at the same time. Being in a party together doesn’t mean you’re socializing or playing as a group.

I think that more guild functionality, some sort of hot-keyable emotes/canned sentences, and voice chat would go much further toward making folks more sociable than forced/incentivized grouping.

I’d disagree, since people aren’t grouping up to even attempt to communicate as is, so they need a reason to begin with. However, I do agree that easier communication would help the situation.

An easy fix would be a solution that is already being used in EQ2, and has been for years. You join a group, you auto enter a voice channel. The vent/ts is built into the game.

Since this feature would obviously only be available in a party, it would be a great incentive to group up instead of ignoring each other.

Also to note, I don’t want the need to group to be mandatory, I’m talking about small incentives to encourage group gameplay outside of WvW/dungeons.

The bonus exp that someone mentioned that is currently being rewarded for fighting a monster with someone should simply be available only if you’re grouped with that person.

The stat option I proposed is already being used in another game….that I can’t really mention. When you enter the group, you see that you’re receiving the 2 man party bonus, say just… power and vit, add another and you get magic find, etc etc.

Hmmmm only advice I can give here is to try out arora glade server or any other if you have heard of other. I do not see anything that one can do to “force” players to talk to each other unless you have a bunch of players that loves talking in which aurora glade will talk your ear off. Sometimes the nederlanders and afrikaans will have a fat conversation but mostly it is english in map/say chat.

Whisper chat makes a sound when you got a whisper – my chat bar is also always out and I make a note of watching it. This is depended of each players and ur playstyle should match what you want.

Torca.5162:

Hmmmm only advice I can give here is to try out arora glade server or any other if you have heard of other. I do not see anything that one can do to “force” players to talk to each other unless you have a bunch of players that loves talking in which aurora glade will talk your ear off. Sometimes the nederlanders and afrikaans will have a fat conversation but mostly it is english in map/say chat.

Whisper chat makes a sound when you got a whisper – my chat bar is also always out and I make a note of watching it. This is depended of each players and ur playstyle should match what you want.

It’s not so much about forcing, its about giving an incentive to actually interact with other players, since the need to do so in basic gameplay has been diminished by the current system.

I’ve played on several servers and others have posted similar experiences from their server, it’s not a server problem, its just an unfortunate side effect of a system that was meant to bring players closer together.

I concur. They need to implement something so that players get together and make friends somehow. If i’m in wvw there is map chat or also the guild chat, but other than that it is rare that people want to get together—sometimes I am left feeling other players are cold and might as well be npc’s. This happened less in wow although I think gw2 is one of the best online games there is—they just need to focus on getting people to communicate in some new way.

Greyalis.2309:

sometimes I am left feeling other players are cold and might as well be npc’s.

That sums up the problem pretty nicely. My thoughts exactly.

Araris.7839:

There is already “challenging” content in the game, it hasn’t made people communicate. Fact is, once people learn an encounter, there isn’t a whole lot of need to communicate who does what. Besides, that isn’t real communication, it’s instructions.

What I’m proposing is an incentive to group during regular PvE, events, heart quests, the “relaxed” gameplay that players would normally use in other MMOs to get to know other players.

During dungeons you are grouped, correct, but people are merely focused on the content at hand, it’s similar to a raid atmosphere in other games, you give instructions/orders, and move through the content.

In older MMOs, you got to know players while you ran quests together or sat in an exp group. Not in raids or extremely active content. It’s the same in real life, you get to know someone while you relax, not while you’re in the middle of working on a project or running a marathon.

You have a point.

At the same time, giving incentives to ‘group’ isn’t the same as ‘chatting’.

Back at a point where grouping to farm was common (something about it netting more loot), most groups didn’t chat. They simply grouped for the percieved benefit of the loot. Sure, you’d get the occasional ones who will chat – exactly like how it is now.

At the end of it all, no amount of incentive will get people to interact and chat if they don’t want and don’t need to. Most will merely join a group, and that will be that.

TheDaiBish.9735:

Araris.7839:

There is already “challenging” content in the game, it hasn’t made people communicate. Fact is, once people learn an encounter, there isn’t a whole lot of need to communicate who does what. Besides, that isn’t real communication, it’s instructions.

What I’m proposing is an incentive to group during regular PvE, events, heart quests, the “relaxed” gameplay that players would normally use in other MMOs to get to know other players.

During dungeons you are grouped, correct, but people are merely focused on the content at hand, it’s similar to a raid atmosphere in other games, you give instructions/orders, and move through the content.

In older MMOs, you got to know players while you ran quests together or sat in an exp group. Not in raids or extremely active content. It’s the same in real life, you get to know someone while you relax, not while you’re in the middle of working on a project or running a marathon.

You have a point.

At the same time, giving incentives to ‘group’ isn’t the same as ‘chatting’.

Back at a point where grouping to farm was common (something about it netting more loot), most groups didn’t chat. They simply grouped for the percieved benefit of the loot. Sure, you’d get the occasional ones who will chat – exactly like how it is now.

At the end of it all, no amount of incentive will get people to interact and chat if they don’t want and don’t need to. Most will merely join a group, and that will be that.

I think that’s a perfect point to see the current state of mind in GW2’s player base. If you look at older MMO’s, you can see that grouping did in fact promote chat. There wasn’t a need to chat outside of your role in the party, and yet they did. The reason for this is simple; its the mind set of the player base. They communicated because they were used to a community that spoke to one another.

We’ve stepped away from that in the current system. They removed the need to communicate about anything, not loot, heck, not even the roles you’ll play in a party.

As I’ve stated before, people used to communicate in these games, its not a coincidence that they magically stopped talking when the need to do so disappeared. You’re right in that group incentives won’t necessarily fix this problem, since the core of it still exists.

However, If you put a couple of people in a room together, you’re more likely to develop a conversation than if you stick them in separate rooms. You’re right, they don’t have to talk, but by placing them in the room, you create the opportunity.

I think there different kinds of players:

The players which don’t want to socialize, but enjoy the lively atmosphere of other players running around randomly and GW2 is a great game for them. GW1 was similar, from my point of view, which might have been caused by heros and henchmen.

The other kind of players, which would like to socialize with other players and build a community, won’t find what they know from other MMOs. I think it’s not only the game design, but also a trend in gaming and internet society. People now prefer the anonymous crowd more, it seems. Games aren’t here to create communities anymore, that’s what meanwhile twitter or facebook do. When WoW was big, those services were not there or at least not that big.

Araris.7839:

I think that’s a perfect point to see the current state of mind in GW2’s player base. If you look at older MMO’s, you can see that grouping did in fact promote chat. There wasn’t a need to chat outside of your role in the party, and yet they did. The reason for this is simple; its the mind set of the player base. They communicated because they were used to a community that spoke to one another.

We’ve stepped away from that in the current system. They removed the need to communicate about anything, not loot, heck, not even the roles you’ll play in a party.

As I’ve stated before, people used to communicate in these games, its not a coincidence that they magically stopped talking when the need to do so disappeared. You’re right in that group incentives won’t necessarily fix this problem, since the core of it still exists.

However, If you put a couple of people in a room together, you’re more likely to develop a conversation than if you stick them in separate rooms. You’re right, they don’t have to talk, but by placing them in the room, you create the opportunity.

And that is why I think challenging content that requires communication would be a better solution than simply incentivising grouping.

Forcing people to communicate first builds the community. When the community is strong, where people see others as comrades and not simply people who will get them better loot.

Forgive the brief comment. On my phone and it’s a kitten to type on.

i don’t like pointless chat during a fight because i’m not good at multitasking so if i start a chat i’m downed a second after, and if i’m fighting i’m not answering.
i don’t think the community is cold or something else, everybody seems quite because they are already chatting with guild or party or even in teamspeak or what else.
despite the lack of communication i never felt alone in the game (always on in ts, guild mates are even too chatty for my tastes and whenever i ask a question about something new, someone in map chat always answer!!).
so what’s the point in saying great fight after a jormag run, what was so great to celebrate there?

i think an ingame voice chat would be a really nice feature for all of those player with no ts or in random group, i really would like it. push to talk it’s so much better than typing!!

Amadan.9451:

i think an ingame voice chat would be a really nice feature for all of those player with no ts or in random group, i really would like it. push to talk it’s so much better than typing!!

The active combat of GW2 can make it difficult to communicate, although I don’t think you really grasped the concept of what I’m stating the core problem is, since we’re not really talking about chatting while fighting in a dungeon; all the same, yeah, the in-game voice chat would help facilitate communication during all avenues of gameplay with random players you may meet in the game.

Tamora.4603:

Games aren’t here to create communities anymore, that’s what meanwhile twitter or facebook do. When WoW was big, those services were not there or at least not that big.

Thankfully, every single game developer disagrees with that statement. An MMO survives because of its community and every single developer on the panel for next gen MMO’s stated that.

People come to a game for its gameplay, they stay (in part) for the friends they make.

I’d like for loot to be taken out of the equation on this one. Right now they require grouping to get better loot options from mobs. Some people don’t always have partners to run with even while in guilds because guilds become cliqy after a while.

I’d like to see a better system as well I think maybe some kind of boon is in order. Maybe a magic find boon would be best.

I would also love a PVE que to allow for event joining and a Firefall style map handler for events so we can see the events for the whole map.

Araris.7839:

GW2 purports itself to be a game with a great community due to the everybody wins program it uses. However, what few people seem to notice, or perhaps just don’t know because they never experienced it, is that GW2 actually happens to have one of the worst PvE community’s I’ve ever seen, imo.

— There is no incentive to group with anyone when running about the world. We’ve all fought through countless battles no doubt with strangers, and yet most likely never said a word. The only chat you see between players takes place in shout or guild.

Which brings me to my suggestion:
— I’d like to see a feature implemented that gives small stat or XP bonus’s when grouping with other players. Have the feature scale so that the more people in the group, the greater the bonus. Put a radius meter on it so that they must be around each other for the effect to be active.

Edit: Additionally, there is apparently a bonus for defeating a monster alongside another player. This is exactly the kind of bonus that should be given when actually in a party with another player. You already reap the rewards of killing the enemy, give a bonus for doing so while actively teaming up with other players.

Doing this will hopefully bring the community closer together. It’ll make people actually have to speak to the players they’re doing the heart quests and events with. Most developers have now come to realize and have stated that the largest factor that keeps people in a game are the people they meet while playing. This feature would serve to help facilitate that need in GW2.

Thanks~

Edit: It has been stated that a main component to the problem of communication is the lack of means.
— So I am also adding the suggestion of an in-game voice communication option within a party, similar to that of EQ2. Join a party, auto-join a chat channel and begin communicating (assuming you set it to auto in options.)

in-game voicechat would be incredible, especially in WvW… it’s one of the many things I was disappointed not to see after they announced that there’d be an emphasis on the “social” aspect of Guild Wars 2

Mist Y.5214:

I was disappointed not to see after they announced that there’d be an emphasis on the “social” aspect of Guild Wars 2

I think a lot of the emphasis on the social aspect of GW2 has gone overlooked in favor of more content. Hopefully the social part of the game gets looked at soon, starting with the suggestions in this thread.

Grouping to bash mobs is not socializing.
Socializing is when you go towards people without anything forcing you or pushing you to do it.

For the people used to games with forced grouping end games, GW2 can be confusing in many aspects. I never had to be forced to speak with people to do it personally, and I definitely don’t define “monster bashing” as the best social interaction ever.

Korrigan.4837:

Grouping to bash mobs is not socializing.
Socializing is when you go towards people without anything forcing you or pushing you to do it.

For the people used to games with forced grouping end games, GW2 can be confusing in many aspects. I never had to be forced to speak with people to do it personally, and I definitely don’t define “monster bashing” as the best social interaction ever.

This isn’t about forcing or pushing anyone to do anything. It’s about giving incentives to group with other players. You do things for an incentive, they made more social guild interactions via missions so that people would actually interact with their guild, they offered rewards for this as incentives to actually do the content.

There is nothing different between offering a reward for guild missions and offering small perks for actually interacting with other players.

In what way is giving a small stat bonus such as additional magic find or healing power, forcing you into a group?

In what way is voice communication within a group, forcing you to join a group?

I understand it can be confusing to someone that’s never experienced what a real community is like in a game, but sitting in lions arch is not the only social interaction that players should participate in.

Forcing people to group up can be a good thing, provided it gives them encouragement to have a friendly chat or get to know each other. At the moment, the only incentive to get to know people is if you want to get familiar with their playstyle in order to form a more effective team. The only reason to have a casual chat is if you’re standing around waiting for something or someone.
In Guild Wars 1 it was easier to type to your team koz you weren’t constantly moving! I mean you couldn’t move and cast skills at the same time, and you could click to move.

@Araris:
Not being in a group doesn’t stop you from interacting with the other people around you during an event. The only difference is that the game doesn’t force you to, and apparently, some people can’t interact with others if they aren’t forced by game mechanics. I’ve a friend list full of people I’ve met “on the field” in GW2.

You mention a “small bonus to stats or XP when grouping”. Well, in theory, it sounds like a brilliant idea, but only in theory. If you make the bonus too small, no one will bother, since the gain is not worth the hassle. And if you make it big enough, it will become the best way to level, and therefore it will become “forced grouping”, aka grouping with people for your personal benefit.

And I’ve been playing MMORPGs since UO beta, 17+ years ago, and I’ve played all the mainstream ones since then (and many smaller ones too), and I was played MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) before that… so please don’t assume I’m some sort of newbie who never saw a “real community”, thank you very much. Some of the best communities I saw were in Ultima Online and Asheron’s Call, two games were grouping was totally optional. And GW2 is also one of the best community in the genre, everyone is helpful and friendly, you rarely see bad behavior even in general chat. And amusingly, some of the worse, most selfish and elitist communities I’ve seen were in games with forced grouping, where “friendship” was all about finding some canon fodder to fill raid spots so one can get his purple gear.

@Korrigan
I’m glad you’ve had such a positive experience with the community in GW2, however, you appear to be the minority. Most people have noticed the issue that is being spoken of in this thread.

Not being in a group, not having to actually play with others, has impacted the community, whether you want to see it or not.

I’m not really sure what it is you hope to gain here? Do small group perks hurt you in some way? In what way, would a feature that would benefit some (if not all) players, by facilitating more communication between them, hurt you?

Simply put, why would you bother trolling over here to voice opposition to a feature that only benefits players and the community?

Have Fun.

Araris.7839:

@Korrigan
I’m glad you’ve had such a positive experience with the community in GW2, however, you appear to be the minority. Most people have noticed the issue that is being spoken of in this thread.

Source of your data? Do you have numbers proving that “most people” have noticed the supposed “issue”, or are you just basing this on your personal opinion?

Araris.7839:

Not being in a group, not having to actually play with others, has impacted the community, whether you want to see it or not.

It’s not about wanting. You opinion is that the impact is negative, mine is that it’s positive, and by not forcing people to interact but giving them the choice, it also create stronger bonds. Who is most likely to become a “true friend”, someone who came to you spontaneously or someone who was forced to by the game if he wanted to maximize “something” (stats, xp, leveling speed, gear, etc…)? Sorry if I don’t believe in forced socialization.

Araris.7839:

I’m not really sure what it is you hope to gain here? Do small group perks hurt you in some way? In what way, would a feature that would benefit some (if not all) players, by facilitating more communication between them, hurt you?

I hope to gain that the game remains as it is, and doesn’t introduce strongly encouraged aka forced “pre-made” grouping for the non-dungeon content.

Araris.7839:

Simply put, why would you bother trolling over here to voice opposition to a feature that only benefits players and the community?

So disagreeing with you is “trolling”. Ok. I doubt the moderators agree though.

You calling me “little guy” is highly ironic, not only because I’m most likely older than you, but also because it’s you who spends pointless posts insulting me instead of answering my points.

I will repost a paragraph you have possibly missed just to be sure you read it:

“You mention a “small bonus to stats or XP when grouping”. Well, in theory, it sounds like a brilliant idea, but only in theory. If you make the bonus too small, no one will bother, since the gain is not worth the hassle. And if you make it big enough, it will become the best way to level, and therefore it will become “forced grouping”, aka grouping with people for your personal benefit.”

Reply to this instead of insulting me, for a change. Do you really think people will suddenly start to form groups out there just for a “small stat/xp bonus”? I don’t. I think the bonus would have to be big enough to be worth the hassle of finding 4 other people. Most people won’t even bother unless the bonus is big enough to make a noticeable difference, and then it starts to become the “best way” to do it, aka “forced”.

Average mf* of all party members = sum of party members mf / number of party members. Would encourage grouping and solve the question of mf in dungeons in one go.

*magic find

Webba.3071:

Average mf* of all party members = sum of party members mf / number of party members. Would encourage grouping and solve the question of mf in dungeons in one go.

*magic find

I don’t think it would solve anything. It would actually make some “leech” other’s magic find and reduce the overall magic find of the whole group. Do you really think people using magic find gear would accept theirs to be reduced to an “average” because some people don’t have any?

Korrigan.4837:

Webba.3071:

Average mf* of all party members = sum of party members mf / number of party members. Would encourage grouping and solve the question of mf in dungeons in one go.

*magic find

I don’t think it would solve anything. It would actually make some “leech” other’s magic find and reduce the overall magic find of the whole group. Do you really think people using magic find gear would accept theirs to be reduced to an “average” because some people don’t have any?

If they wanted to help their friends, sure they would. Also it wouldnt reduce the overall magic find, it would spread it out over the group. If you want you could add a 10% bonus to it for grouping as well. eg sum of player mf / number of players + 10% if you must have some benefit. You miss the point also that people who use mf while in groups are essentially leeching character power from the other group members, you dont think its fair that the other group members should leech their mf? Leeching is a biased word though, call it sharing and it sounds much nicer.

I guess my point is that as far as mf is concerned at the moment there is actually a disincentive to party up because some are getting more benefit than others depending on each invidivuals mf. If the mf is averaged over the whole group than the whole group benefits according to their overal mf / power compromise.

Webba.3071:

Korrigan.4837:

Webba.3071:

Average mf* of all party members = sum of party members mf / number of party members. Would encourage grouping and solve the question of mf in dungeons in one go.

*magic find

I don’t think it would solve anything. It would actually make some “leech” other’s magic find and reduce the overall magic find of the whole group. Do you really think people using magic find gear would accept theirs to be reduced to an “average” because some people don’t have any?

If they wanted to help their friends, sure they would. Also it wouldnt reduce the overall magic find, it would spread it out over the group. If you want you could add a 10% bonus to it for grouping as well. eg sum of player mf / number of players + 10% if you must have some benefit. You miss the point also that people who use mf while in groups are essentially leeching character power from the other group members, you dont think its fair that the other group members should leech their mf? Leeching is a biased word though, call it sharing and it sounds much nicer.

I guess my point is that as far as mf is concerned at the moment their is a disincentive to party up because some are getting more benefit than others depending on each invidivuals mf. If the mf is averaged over the whole group than the whole group benefits according to their overal mf / power compromise.

That may work for guild groups, Webba, but for random groups, I don’t think so. And for people playing in the world with full MF gear, it would actually have the opposite effect – it would discourage them even more of grouping. Why would they accept to lower their magic find for total stranger?
As I said, I’ve been playing those games for a long time. If the average MMORPG player was willing to “share” something, reducing his own efficiency, without anything to gain for him, it would be known.
I see your point, your intention is definitely good and praise worthy (and the OP’s intention too, by the way, despite what he seems to think, I have nothing personal against him, I just critic his ideas), but I seriously doubt it will achieve the goal you want it to :-)

Korrigan.4837:

That may work for guild groups, Webba, but for random groups, I don’t think so. And for people playing in the world with full MF gear, it would actually have the opposite effect – it would discourage them even more of grouping. Why would they accept to lower their magic find for total stranger?
As I said, I’ve been playing those games for a long time. If the average MMORPG player was willing to “share” something, reducing his own efficiency, without anything to gain for him, it would be known.
I see your point, your intention is definitely good and praise worthy (and the OP’s intention too, by the way), but I seriously doubt it will achieve the goal you want it to :-)

You may well be right, reading your post I think its likely that it would not encourage pugs, at least not pugs between hardcore farmers and casual players. Honestly, I think there is very very little you can do to encourage significantly different players to play together though. It would at least change how people view mf in dungeons though.

edit – It does make me think though. What about simply providing minor buffs to things like movement speed or mf for being in a party? Maybe each class could bring a different passive bonus to a party to encourage diversity as well.

Webba.3071:

It does make me think though. What about simply providing minor buffs to things like movement speed or mf for being in a party? Maybe each class could bring a different passive bonus to a party to encourage diversity as well.

Excellent suggestion and idea. It’s about adding small incentives for random and small group play during regular content. Something so people that happen to be in an area together will group up instead of solo around each other, but not so much that they feel they are forced to group in order to feel effective.

Mist Y.5214:

The only reason to have a casual chat is if you’re standing around waiting for something or someone.

This has been my and others experience also. It’s like waiting for a meta boss to spawn is the single time players look around and notice that they can communicate with these strange NPC’s.

While I agree with the VOIP system request, there’s already way too many things requiring people to group in the open world. One of them is directly affecting getting rewards.

In Rift they had a temporary group solution. You walk into a zone where a thing was happening and you’d be instantly grouped with other players who were doing the same event. There was no extra clicking you were just there. poof. When you ran off from the event or the event was over and there wasn’t another one in the area it took you out of group itself.

They also developed a method of credit that didn’t involve DPS as the sole means of getting credit in events, it measured healing and rez.

there was no long waits for these things either. People timed when invasion events happened and they started right on time, there wasn’t a possible spawn time within 1 hour with people just standing around waiting for the boss to show, I mean we know he’s a boss but cmon keep your appointments already Zhaitan! sheesh!

tigirius.9014:

In Rift they had a temporary group solution. You walk into a zone where a thing was happening and you’d be instantly grouped with other players who were doing the same event. There was no extra clicking you were just there. poof. When you ran off from the event or the event was over and there wasn’t another one in the area it took you out of group itself.

That was a great system, I loved it. Something along those lines would be nice here.

I disagree that there are things that require grouping right now though. Working on my 4th 80 right now, done the meta events and event lines in orr, honestly, there is nothing that requires grouping at all that I’ve encountered. I certainly haven’t had to join one.

You actually group up even if you don’t create a formal group though.