Guild Wars 2

Wondered while was wandering around in Blazeridge Stepps, how many people play GW2 since Beta and still play alone without a guild. I’m PVE oriented, too many guilds are WwW oriented, maybe that’s the reason I still don’t have a guild :0 But had a good time helping others on my own. So there are still people without a guild ? Seems funny to play Guild Wars 2 without a guild. How’s the game experience without a guild for you guys?

The guild that I’m in is so… inactive that on weekdays, I feel playing alone. lol

I can’t imagine people can’t find PVe guilds in this game. There are plenty of them.

o/ I am a lone player, have been since beta (well, sometimes I play with my brother), by choice. I’m not good with social interactions in-game, because there are usually too many moving pieces, discussions in chat change before I manage to type my messages, I’m a perma-noob and not a very good player. My previous experiences in guilds have made my hands shake, caused severe anxiety, and led to my quitting the game until I have the sense to leave the guild instead.

My experiences playing guildless have been good. This game is very casual-friendly, and the fluid grouping for events and stuff works wonderfully. I only rarely feel like I would need a group of people to call to, mainly because the living story seems to like to conclude in dungeons, and I would probably only be good for the very easiest dungeons anyway, and have no real interest in trying them, so I’ll just choose to skip them, and go on playing the way I want to.

i would prefer playing alone 75% of my time.
no idiots, no lucker, no fool, just me myself and i ^.^

I play alone when I’m not doing dungeons or guild missions. The only content I enjoy solo is personal story. Roaming the world I don’t enjoy anymore, after I explored it once and realized it wasn’t rewarding I was done with zone play.

I play alone. I have a guild, but it’s just one I created, and I am the only member. Seriously, sometimes it does get a bit lonely in Tyria, which is why I am always on the lookout for one or 5 good people to be in the guild with me. However, in the end, in this game like rl, I have always been somewhat of a loner, so it’s fine.

Most guilds, no offense, I have found are full of whiny babies – or have a bunch of rules on what you can and can’t say because people will be offended. Like rl, I’d rather just deal with being on my own. Indeed, with respect to why I am usually guildless in this and other games, the line between games and “rl” is starting to blur (the aforementioned “babies” and easily offended in guilds just like rl social circles), but that’s a convo for another day.

Good Topic, OP. +1

Yeah I’m not sure how people can play this game without a guild. It made my WvW 100x better being in an active guild.

I never play alone.
At any given time, in any map zone, I always have potential and actual teammates.

That’s one thing I love about how mob tagging in PvE works and how easy it is to participate in WvW. Playing with your peers and other server members is a simple as playing the game -- parties and guilds are not required.

Don’t get me wrong -- parties and guild can be great, and many are. I’m just making the point that you don’t have to look at the world as "solo vs. guild", as it’s very much not like that.

But I might be taking the "play alone" too literally here.

I still play alone, but I’m in a really nice guild that would play with me if I wanted them to. I just have a hard time talking to people, mostly my guild because they’re all way better at the game than me and I don’t want to screw them up.

I don’t have any aversion to guilds in principle, and in the several MMOs I’ve played, I remember two guilds that were just great, good people, fun times. But on the whole, my play in these games is too intermittent, so what tends to happen is that I’ll join a guild, make friends, then be out of the game for a while, and when I come back the trail is cold, as it were – of course everyone’s still friendly, but the camaraderie that was there before from my point of view, and had built up, is gone, as those who stayed continued to build their friendship, and others who joined and stayed built it up with them. So it’s always a bit sad coming back to a guild after a break.

Hence, I’ve joined guilds less and less over the years, and tend to play more solo with PUG-ing on the side. GW2 is nice because of the “pseudo-social” aspect of open world events. It means I can sometimes have conversations with people with no strings attached, which is nice.

I joined a guild a while ago, but don’t participate much in it, but just reading the guild chat can be fun sometimes. In dungeons I almost always go with PUGs.

I usually play alone. Unless I want to do a dungeon. But even then I can rarely find guild members to make a group with…so I wind up in PUGs from god-knows-where.

This is usually a game that I sit down and play for 30-45 minutes at a time when I have some time to kill. My schedule does not usually fit in with the scheduled events in my guild….and I am not committed enough to the game to change my plans to fit the guild schedule.

The chat in my guild is very often made up primarily of caustic complaining. There are even occasionally trolls in guild chat who spam with endless postings calculated to annoy the others in the guild. In addition to all this, I am not fast enough in “chat” to both play the game and stay on top of a chat conversation (I don’t know how players manage to do this…chat during a boss fight or whatever). So I am not too involved in the guild “social” scene.

Because of all this, my guild has not added much to my gaming experience, unfortunately.

I’m in a guild of one. So yeah, I play alone.

Nice talk guys There are many great guilds. But most have a bossy “Commander” that tells you what to do, and where to go even if your not in www. And there are guilds that have other mini-guilds in them, if I can call them like that. They play in friend groups, like 3-4. A friend of mine told me that she is in a guild like that, everyone is with their “friends” doing dungeons with the experts! I consider myself to have a very strong knowledge and ability in PVE but when I hear about small elite dungeon parties….all people can make mistakes, once I was in Ascalon catacombs and after failing the burrows like 2 times, a guy left saying we are idiots….Or in another dungeon if I use all signets a guy didn’t want to do another run with me because I use all warrior signets. So what? Is how I play, I don’t mind if he uses signets or something else. I know support skills are better in dungeons but still if the player is used with something he may fail even worse if you force him to play the way you want. The game almoust doesn’t need parties outside dungeons because there are almoust always people around you to help,give and take buffs. Is named Guild Wars 2 but guilds are not a must by far. Are a must in WwW I give you that. Played in many mmos.had some great guilds, met great people, never will forget them! Met a lot of cool people here to in guilds I’ve been in. Hope Anet has plans to encourage people to get in guilds more

My problem is that I haven’t really found anyone or a guild that I want to play with. I’m really picky about the people I play with. In past mmos I’ve joined guilds a bit more haphazardly and they weren’t a good experience. So I’m a bit gun shy nowadays.

If you are still playing guildless that is your choice as there are MANY guilds that cater to both WvW and PvE.

SandruDaniel.4386:

Nice talk guys There are many great guilds. But most have a bossy “Commander” that tells you what to do, and where to go even if your not in www. And there are guilds that have other mini-guilds in them, if I can call them like that. They play in friend groups, like 3-4. A friend of mine told me that she is in a guild like that, everyone is with their “friends” doing dungeons with the experts! I consider myself to have a very strong knowledge and ability in PVE but when I hear about small elite dungeon parties….all people can make mistakes, once I was in Ascalon catacombs and after failing the burrows like 2 times, a guy left saying we are idiots….Or in another dungeon if I use all signets a guy didn’t want to do another run with me because I use all warrior signets. So what? Is how I play, I don’t mind if he uses signets or something else. I know support skills are better in dungeons but still if the player is used with something he may fail even worse if you force him to play the way you want. The game almoust doesn’t need parties outside dungeons because there are almoust always people around you to help,give and take buffs. Is named Guild Wars 2 but guilds are not a must by far. Are a must in WwW I give you that. Played in many mmos.had some great guilds, met great people, never will forget them! Met a lot of cool people here to in guilds I’ve been in. Hope Anet has plans to encourage people to get in guilds more

I have had soooo many bad experiences with other players in dungeons….

You can see it coming….lots of times if you are in a group that is struggling a bit there will be one member in the group who is constantly pointing fingers. Not offering suggestions, not accepting any responsibility, just blaming others that the group is not doing well. After a couple of fails or wipes, this type of player usually rage quits. By then the whole “vibe” of the group is so disrupted that the rest quit also.

If you can get into a group of “guildies”, using voice chat, there is usually a bit less anomynity and thus those in the party with anger control issues will generally behave better. That is one advantage to a guild group over a PUG.

But as I said in an earlier post…I can rarely scrape together a group from my guild to run a dungeon…so it is kind of moot.

I am a part of a guild, and I do interact with them through the chat system. Everyone seems to be nice and helpful, but for tackling game content, I am a solo player. I enjoy doing things at MY pace (which can be slightly slow). I am a casual player, though with the increase in game events, I am beginning to log in more frequently.

Most of you people are just purely anti social , how exactly are you that behind walls of text and representation by a pixel? I can’t begin to fathom.

I play with a friend most of the time, but before that and sometimes even then I still play by myself. I like to do things at my own pace sometimes. Also, I am incredibly introverted and shy, so joining guilds is generally pretty scary on its own.

I play alone a majority of the time. Aside from the occasional dungeon and group content I am very rarely in a party.

One of the things that make me kind of enjoy GW2 more then most MMOs. Is I can still participate in group events and not have to form a party every time. I can just show up and participate and then leave. Works great for someone like me that isn’t too chatty in parties and such.

I have my own guild that has a handful of friends in it when they log in. But I usually prefer being without a guild. Just because the constant chatter in bigger guilds always distracts me. :P And sometimes I end up reading stuff I don’t care to hear about. Like Map chat is a majority of the time lol.

The Stain.4169:

I have had soooo many bad experiences with other players in dungeons….

You can see it coming….lots of times if you are in a group that is struggling a bit there will be one member in the group who is constantly pointing fingers. Not offering suggestions, not accepting any responsibility, just blaming others that the group is not doing well. After a couple of fails or wipes, this type of player usually rage quits. By then the whole “vibe” of the group is so disrupted that the rest quit also.

If you can get into a group of “guildies”, using voice chat, there is usually a bit less anomynity and thus those in the party with anger control issues will generally behave better. That is one advantage to a guild group over a PUG.

But as I said in an earlier post…I can rarely scrape together a group from my guild to run a dungeon…so it is kind of moot.

I’ve had this problem with PUGs in the past. Thankfully i’ve gathered a good contact list of decent people to do dungeons with and even on multiple wipes there’s no rage quits or blame dished out.

I’m always looking for more people that hate this kind of behaviour so if you play on an EU server feel free to give me a shout if you need to fill a group. Same goes for anyone.

I experience moderate social anxiety, combined with a fairly low patience threshold for certain common internet behaviors. It took me a very long time to find a Guild I could get along with, and I consider myself incredibly lucky as a result. If not for them, I’d probably still be running solo.

I still mostly play alone though. Rarely team for anything, PvP once every couple of months at most, deliberately avoid heavily-populated areas, etc. I just like having that Guild chat channel to remind me that I’m not really alone.

Being able to solo in an mmo is the reason I love this game so much. I quit playing DC Universe because you had to depend on your team mates ( And I use that term loosely ) to advance in the game. I can’t tell you how many times people would get into fights about how such and such wasn’t giving power or how such and such wasn’t healing, which would result in everything coming to a screeching halt.

In GW2, even when grouping, you still don’t have to depend on anyone to keep you alive.

Being able to solo keeps the game interesting and worth playing because when or if you fall out with the guild you’re in, you can go off on your own and still progress. I haven’t run into an mmo yet, other than GW2, that allows you to do this.

Katreyn.4218:

I play alone a majority of the time. Aside from the occasional dungeon and group content I am very rarely in a party.

One of the things that make me kind of enjoy GW2 more then most MMOs. Is I can still participate in group events and not have to form a party every time. I can just show up and participate and then leave. Works great for someone like me that isn’t too chatty in parties and such.

I have my own guild that has a handful of friends in it when they log in. But I usually prefer being without a guild. Just because the constant chatter in bigger guilds always distracts me. :P And sometimes I end up reading stuff I don’t care to hear about. Like Map chat is a majority of the time lol.

I too like how you can simply run into a group event and join in. I wish you could run into Dungeons and simply join in.

I have not found a guild that I really like so I level my character, explore, and do wvw on my own :P I enjoy it.

Gizmo.9178:

I have not found a guild that I really like so I level my character, explore, and do wvw on my own :P I enjoy it.

Same here. WvW is very solo friendly.

I play alone. I dont hate guilds or anything. I’d like to be in one, but memories of favoritism, internal drama, and people joining, begging for stuff, and hopping kinda have me shy to seriously look for one. I WOULD like to be in a good one though.

I play alone, yet to find a Guild that actually enjoys playing the game. I had one but they left after a couple of weeks. I don’t mind it but someday I would like to do Guild Missions and Explorable Arah.

I am in a guild that, up until recently, was really great. After a lot of key people left, it’s been a revolving door of folks in and out of the guild. I like tighter-knit friendly guilds, so it doesn’t really work for me. I’d find a new one, but I never game that much in the Summer, and I would feel awkward joining, then not playing much.

So, yeah, I play alone 99% of the time.

Ever since the three day head start along with the beta weekends before that I’ve been playing alone. I’ve been invited by guilds a lot (not so much anymore) but decline. I don’t have problem interacting with others at all, just personal preference. It’s actually not that bad to be honest.

Forgive me if I don’t laugh ,but I don’t see the humor in how it’s " Funny to play Guild Wars 2 without a guild". That said I still play the game guildless……sorta.
I have my own guild for personal Storage. I’ve been playing this game alone since I started and let me tell you something about. It’s a lot better to be alone then to be in Bad Company.

Being a wvw oriented player I dont think anyone who plays primarily pve should be playing alone. Our server has several large wvw oriented guilds, but the vast majority of guilds are mostly about pve.

SandruDaniel.4386:

Hope Anet has plans to encourage people to get in guilds more

And this!

Vayne.8563:

I can’t imagine people can’t find PVe guilds in this game. There are plenty of them.

Thing is Vayne, there are plenty of Guilds (even in GW1) that claim “We do it all!” then when you join and chat to your inviter for a while then………………all communication goes dead. I don’t think it’s the fault of the actual Guild and members though, they are just doing what they want to do. There are cracking Guilds that are constantly active but there are many that just want numbers.

Paul.4081:

Thing is Vayne, there are plenty of Guilds (even in GW1) that claim “We do it all!” then when you join and chat to your inviter for a while then………………all communication goes dead. I don’t think it’s the fault of the actual Guild and members though, they are just doing what they want to do. There are cracking Guilds that are constantly active but there are many that just want numbers.

This exactly. There are plenty of random guilds and joining one would be easy. Finding a GOOD one that does all the things they claim to do (no favoritism, no group requirements, guild activities, etc etc)…a whole ’nother story.

Yeah there are plenty of guilds the who pretend to have everything a player needs! Even cookies!!!) But when you join….the bittersweet taste you get….makes you leave ASAP. And the commander thing in guilds….is just lame, everyone can be a commander for 100g, not that hard…be the boss for 100g not that expensive. What I meant when I said that is funny to play GW2 without a guild is that this game should be about guilds…is called Guild Wars 2…not dungeon runners or grinding guys or idk what other activity people have in game except guilds. There is almoust no reason to be in a guild. can get people for a dungeon party from your friend list, or from the map chat, or last choice from gw2lfg. Playing alone is not actually alone all time because people come and go on almoust all maps. Tried to make some guilds on my own but when I saw how many things it needs….politics,lots of guild influence for each and every upgrade you wanna make to the guild(and there are A LOT). In the end all is about is to have fun.

Vayne.8563:

I can’t imagine people can’t find PVe guilds in this game. There are plenty of them.

finding guilds isn’t really an issue

finding a good active guild is an issue though

I’m the only active player in my Guild, so Guild Leadership was transferred to me by the old Guild Leader. I use it just to carry on our name and the Guild Bank. Mainly the Guild Bank.

GuildWarsPlayer.5608:

Gizmo.9178:

I have not found a guild that I really like so I level my character, explore, and do wvw on my own :P I enjoy it.

Same here. WvW is very solo friendly.

Depends on your matchup, but other than getting zerged in a side borderland, yeah it’s solo friendly.

I am a solo player 90+% of the time in any game I play. I have found really nice guilds in 2 games by sort of stumbling into them. I have not found that here but I have not looked very hard either. I am in a guild and run guild bounty and such but have not made a real bond with anyone. I am glad frankly that I can do it this way, it is nicer with a deeper sense of comradery but it works this way for me.

I mostly play alone. I have a guild, but it’s made up of real-life friends, and for the past few months we just haven’t been on at the same time that often. Sometimes I wish I was in a more active guild, but it’s also kind of nice to just be able to pick up and play when I have a random chunk of time and not have to worry about whether my availability fits with anyone else’s plans or needs.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

I mostly play alone. I have a guild, but it’s made up of real-life friends, and for the past few months we just haven’t been on at the same time that often. Sometimes I wish I was in a more active guild, but it’s also kind of nice to just be able to pick up and play when I have a random chunk of time and not have to worry about whether my availability fits with anyone else’s plans or needs.

This. Me. Explains. Me.

Well, sorta. My entire guild is full of irl friends. And then there’s one person that actually logs in.

me

My first guild, that i joined right after launch, died pretty fast.
Recently i joined another guild.
However, most members are lvl80 for a while, and they focus on dungeons,fractals and world bosses. And the new Guild activities.

So, i still solo PvE.
Wich isnt that bad, i can manage most of it solo.
I do hope when i do need some help with something in PvE my new guild will help.

I’ve been in a guild since launch and I love it, they’re a great group of people. I can’t quite decide if I got lucky or if all the research I did paid off – I found them by thinking throughout the betas about what I want from the guild and them combing fan sites for one that sounded right, then reading the public areas of their forum to see what kind of people they are before I asked to join. I suspect it’s a bit of both.

But a lot of the time I still play solo because it’s easier. If I’m just going to go and do some hearts or explore or whatever I’d rather just get on and do it than spend my time trying to round up 4 other people who also want to do that particular content now. And it gives me more flexibility. If I’m planning to do map completion and then get distracted looking for a way up to a patch of herbs and end up finding a jumping puzzle I can go and do that because I haven’t committed to doing map completion and no one but me is affected. And if I decide I want to do the whole puzzle myself instead of being portalled up by the first person to finish I can do that too without feeling like I’m holding everyone up.

I love that this game makes it possible to do almost everything solo, or with whichever random people happen to be around whether that’s 2 of you or 15 or 50. But I also love knowing that if I want or need a group for something I have that option, and that I’ll sometimes be invited to come and try things I wouldn’t otherwise do by people looking for a group.

gurugeorge.9857:

I don’t have any aversion to guilds in principle, and in the several MMOs I’ve played, I remember two guilds that were just great, good people, fun times. But on the whole, my play in these games is too intermittent, so what tends to happen is that I’ll join a guild, make friends, then be out of the game for a while, and when I come back the trail is cold, as it were – of course everyone’s still friendly, but the camaraderie that was there before from my point of view, and had built up, is gone, as those who stayed continued to build their friendship, and others who joined and stayed built it up with them. So it’s always a bit sad coming back to a guild after a break.

Hence, I’ve joined guilds less and less over the years, and tend to play more solo with PUG-ing on the side. GW2 is nice because of the “pseudo-social” aspect of open world events. It means I can sometimes have conversations with people with no strings attached, which is nice.

In your case it might be worth looking for a guild that has other ways to keep in touch. For example my guild has a Facebook group and members who can’t get in game for various reasons (computer issues, coursework, away travelling etc.) will still post on there as and when they can and get to hear about what the guild is up to so they’re not totally out of touch when they come back. And then some people get to be friends in real life too and keep in touch through other methods, even if it’s just phone and text.

I play alone unless i do a dungeon, im also guildless, most guilds have vent or some other voice chat, ive tried a few guilds but im always left not knowing whats going on, in guild groups most are in vent and they do things and i just see them all move, you then get the " oh you should get vent, we are having a good laugh" oh sorry you cant, then someone will say why not, and you get the aww that sucks.

I know peeps don’t remember im deaf, having to explain a lot id rather play alone, i do have a nice group of friends ive met in gw2 and do dungeons with them:).

This is a single player MMO like all the others.

I’ve been playing since release and only have 4 friends and no guild.

I… I don’t even like being alone

I play with myself mainly on weekends.

I’m in a guild just because they invited me, but usually I don’t do anything with them, just WvW pugs and random PvE pugs.