Guild Wars 2

Is this game more anti-social then your average MMO? (SWTOR, WoW, Rift, etc)

I’m apparently on a full world…Anvil Rock, but I never see many people..

Everyone I see never speaks, if they do I feel like I’m talking to a 10 year old with no personality because they’re afraid I’m a predator or something.

It’s really disheartening…

Would be a lot more fun to play with friends and this lack of a social atmosphere is one of the reasons I’ve been unable to get past level 25.

D:

EDIT: For example on World of Warcraft it will take you 2 seconds to make a friend. A normal friend who doesn’t think your trying to kitten them because you spoke. It wasn’t difficult on SWTOR either to make friends. How come everyone refuses to speak or form parties on GW2?

Is it because theirs a lack of competition which means you need less close friends to help you accomplish things? Now that random guy you see wants what you want and your both going to accomplish it together without the need to form a party or have a discussion because neither of you are competing for anything…idk thats my theory.

But where in this is your question? Or are we supposed to ask them?

Did you join a guild? Did you consider moving?

I don’t really understand why that kept you at level 25 though.

Oh wait a question was added!

I do not have that experience, people I have spoken to were all friendly and if not, the block button is helpful. But a lot can be done alone or in a party or just as you say when running into someone.

Guilds are the answer. I spent 90% of the time in this game speaking to my guild. Sometimes I’m tabbed out of game and still speaking to my guild. Half the time I don’t look at map chat.

Find a guild, join it, be social. It’s easy with the right guild.

How can I transfer?

This game doesn’t allow you to be on more then 1 server at a time and I’m not paying money for that..

EDIT: And to Sandra: I can’t go past 25 because even after solo leveling with absolutely no interaction from other players you just get bored. You wish you had people to talk to, to quest around with and all that sort of stuff but theirs nobody there to do it. Nobody talks or nobody is even in the world, its one of the two…

First of all you can transfer with gold if you have enough of it. You don’t need to transfer with money. Secondly you can even play PVe content with a guild on another server, without transferring at all. I have people in my guild who aren’t on my server..but they still guest over for free to play with us.

None of this is what I’m referring too..

None of you honestly have played another MMO where its actually hard to NOT make friends?

Just people to quest with, talk to, run around with. Not generic friends in guilds who only care about your existence for the sole purpose of being carried through content or being given things.

And Vayne if I’ve only been to level 25 theres no logic in me having enough gold, however much it may be, to transfer in that fashion, I personally have never owned even 1 gold before.

This is a drag ..

Cspence.6921:

None of this is what I’m referring too..

None of you honestly have played another MMO where its actually hard to NOT make friends?

Just people to quest with, talk to, run around with. Not generic friends in guilds who only care about your existence for the sole purpose of being carried through content or being given things.

And Vayne if I’ve only been to level 25 theres no logic in me having enough gold, however much it may be, to transfer in that fashion, I personally have never owned even 1 gold before.

This is a drag ..

Which doesn’t mean you can’t join a guild on another server, and make friends, guest over and play for free. The only thing that’s a drag, in my opinion, is you locked into an old way of thinking.

In some ways, being in a guild in a game like this, particularly for socializing is a must. Being in the right guild anyway.

Thats too much for such a simple request Vayne, sorry.

Just reading “Join a guild on another server and then guest over to their server whenever you want to play with people” sounds horrible.

Why can’t their just be friends to play with on a Multiplayer game lol?

People to run around with and level up with on my own server which is supposed to be HIGHLY populated btw…?

That’s a drag, Vayne, that’s a drag.

Being in a guild isn’t something I’m opposed to regardless of how your trying to make it seem. I’m fine with being in a guild. This has nothing to do with being in a guild.

I’m saying how come everyone seems to be opposed to just running around in the open world on my own server, quest, have fun, interact and be social?

Would be nice to test my abilities with friends and have a fun time tackling difficult mobs or something with people I like to play with.

Thats what I’m saying, quit saying for me to go join a guild. I know I can do that, I don’t just want petty generic conversations with acquaintances over a guild chat…christ

I don’t know- on my server people pretty much run around in the open world doing stuff and being social.
I don’t mean guilds since I am in a personal guild- I mean /say and map chat.
The game seems very chatty to me
I have a ridiculous friend list and I am an antisocial person- I don’t know how I managed to make friends.
By helping people, being nice and talking nonsense in map chat, I guess.
I don’t usually party up though unless I play with my husband.

Maybe its just my server then…nobody ever talks in map chat unless its to call events so every half hour or whatever you see “troll” “cuda”

thats it..nobody ever talks in /say on my server even when they are around but quite frankly I rarely see anyone.

So perhaps it’s just Anvil Rock…

In general, in most MMOs I’ve been to, open world chat is most active on RP servers, even if you don’t care about RPing.

On topic of changing your server, this thread about being able to change for free if you have no characters left might help. From what I understand, you can keep all you stored in your bank.

I’m mostly posting this because it seems that you don’t have much interest in playing your character on your given server anyway..

Edit: Apart from that, you can always guest on another server and see how people play there.

Meh, in my experience socializing in games works better when the grouping is more free-form like this. If you have to actively seek people out to group with/join a guild, you end up either with sub-communities that tend to more insular and limit the pool of people that you play with (and thus the possibility of finding the people in the community you might enjoy being around the most), or you get a more base experience with a lot of ‘Facebook friends’. And neither of those is particularly desirable.

i think it is true that most socializing happens in private channels here. i wish public chat were livelier but i think the players are too spread out into different parts of the game. there is not much motivation to revisit most maps once you’re done with them. i was never a big fan of sitting in town doing nothing, so i don’t usually join the lion’s arch hangouts where people lay fun boxes and screw around in costumes. pve, especially pre-80, feels like a single player game all too often, i agree.

personally i think wvw is the best social scene we’ve got. it’s where i get random party invites if i’m solo, chat with people at the supply depot, or find a random person to flip camps with. the downside is that wvw is active at some times of day and dead at others :T but it manages to funnel a lot of players into one place, give them similar goals, and put them in situations where more communication is better

@ dark saviour, the “facebook friends” analogy is so accurate when you join a large guild.

I found my experience to be the exact opposite.
People are very friendly and helpful.
The game design is centered on cooperation. And I do often find that reflected in gameplay. WoW which you mentioned is explicitly made to help you be a jerk towards your peers even when you not intend to. GW2 is the most social MMO I ever encountered.
The community I also found much more enjoyable. Of course you have some trolls in between. But noticably, the player base seems to have a fairly high average age and are thus very mature and considerate. Don’t take some individual trolls for the majority of players and don’t let them ruin the game for you. I agree with the others that you maybe should go to the guild forum and look for a nice, small guild to play with.

In general GW2 community is one of the most friendly I met. However, game design is not centered at cooperation at all. It is centered at friendly behavior, that is not the same as social behavior. Its all easily solo-able and there is no need to be social. Is that good or bad? Should people be forced to be social such that they can do all content? Perhaps some people need a little push in the back, GW2 gives none. Dunno, can understand the different opinions.

I play on Seafarer’s Rest (EU) and I see people all the time when I level my alts. There are people everywhere, I never do events alone.

Farzo.8410:

I play on Seafarer’s Rest (EU) and I see people all the time when I level my alts. There are people everywhere, I never do events alone.

This is more like soloing alongside each other

Cspence.6921:

… but quite frankly I rarely see anyone.

So perhaps it’s just Anvil Rock…

Yeah probably that is a server problem. You can guest seafarers and you ll probably see a lot more people.

beren.6048:

Farzo.8410:

I play on Seafarer’s Rest (EU) and I see people all the time when I level my alts. There are people everywhere, I never do events alone.

This is more like soloing alongside each other

Still we share a common goal, to complete the event, and we help each other.

It’s the same with dungeons then, you are just soloing alongside with others to complete your goal, you just have to use a group mechanic to do it.

beren.6048:

Cspence.6921:

… but quite frankly I rarely see anyone.

So perhaps it’s just Anvil Rock…

Yeah probably that is a server problem. You can guest seafarers and you ll probably see a lot more people.

He wont be able to. Seafarer’s Rest is EU, Anvil Rock is NA.

beren.6048:

Farzo.8410:

I play on Seafarer’s Rest (EU) and I see people all the time when I level my alts. There are people everywhere, I never do events alone.

This is more like soloing alongside each other

At least you are not rewarded for deliberatingly sabotaging the other players. In other MMOs, I often avoid other players for questing. Here I am happy to see someone.

He wont be able to. Seafarer’s Rest is EU, Anvil Rock is NA.

Doesn’t matter, you can transfer. Just guesting isn’t possible.

This game has created a strange output in that it encourages helping people through actions, but because of that its created a strange understood setting in where no one talks because everyone understands what to do.

Part of me feels its due to lack of content that requires conversing.

You mention that you don’t have to compete with other players on GW2 like you would on WoW but at least the competition, in it’s own strange way, encouraged you to talk and form parties with others and make friends.

All I’ve seen on GW2 is people playing the game as if it was single player and all the other players are about the same as NPC’s to them. They never speak they never interact nothing..

Do I prefer the more friendly based form of play where loot is shared, experience is shared, etc?

Sure

Do I prefer the less social community that seems to have stemmed from it…

No..

I’m kinda sad now because I really do like the game I just can’t have fun playing all by myself where the players around me(if I do see any… kitten Anvil Rock) are as good as NPC’s.

And trust me, I try to interact. EVERYTIME i see a player I say Hi, how you doing, whats up, I either get no reply or I’m treated like a predator trying to get naked pictures from teenage boys on the internet and they dismiss me or run off after saying hi back.

Ugh

I think there’s another difference between Guild Wars 2 and other MMOs (that I’ve played anyway).

For a lot of people this game is more active and dynamic. I had no trouble chatting in WoW or Guild Wars 1. I didn’t have to move while I cast skills. Now that I’m moving all the time, I find it hard to type and do events and stuff.

Which is why I can talk to my guild via voice, but I can’t play and type at the same time.

What a sad day for me.

Cspence.6921:

You mention that you don’t have to compete with other players on GW2 like you would on WoW but at least the competition, in it’s own strange way, encouraged you to talk and form parties with others and make friends.

Actually it encouraged me to leave the area if someone else arrived, because it almost always ended in only one getting what they wanted. If you talked to others because of that, conversation consisted solely of ‘could you leave so i can finish my quest?’ and variations thereof. The only social aspect were some community services such as unexpectedly opening trade windows asking mages for food and water.
Here I often talk to people, events get called and organised, people ask for help and answer questions. They are more generous and open towards new players.
I agree with Vayne that moving and typing at the same time makes it difficult, but I always find time to at least type a short hello. Maybe you were just unlucky, I found this community much more engaging than others. When are you online? Maybe try after working hours?

Meluna.1764:

Cspence.6921:

You mention that you don’t have to compete with other players on GW2 like you would on WoW but at least the competition, in it’s own strange way, encouraged you to talk and form parties with others and make friends.

Actually it encouraged me to leave the area if someone else arrived, because it almost always ended in only one getting what they wanted. If you talked to others because of that, conversation consisted solely of ‘could you leave so i can finish my quest?’ and variations thereof. The only social aspect were some community services such as unexpectedly opening trade windows asking mages for food and water.
Here I often talk to people, events get called and organised, people ask for help and answer questions. They are more generous and open towards new players.
I agree with Vayne that moving and typing at the same time makes it difficult, but I always find time to at least type a short hello. Maybe you were just unlucky, I found this community much more engaging than others. When are you online? Maybe try after working hours?

Interesting because it caused me to form Parties with people doing similar quests/activities as me so that we could both benefit from it, which ended up in me making new friends…

EDIT: To answer your question, I generally have no life atm and I’m on all the time. It doesn’t change at any time of the day. At least not on my server.

Yup the game is anti social. You’ll never see me talking in map chat, only in group, guild and whisp chat. Yup the game is anti social or it’s you op…

I often see map chat used on my server; conversations get started all the time about game or random unrelated stuff. If the mood strikes me, I can be chatty in game but I’m not met with such apprehension as the OP describes…

Have you tried jumping into WvW? It’s much easier to find people to run along with you there, and you dont have to be level 80.

You can also try joining other people’s activities (such as public guild missions, parties and temple raids).

It looks like you are playing on a low-pop server, or on low-traffic hours. I would suggest guesting around to check things out. Some server communities are more social than others.

Meluna.1764:

beren.6048:

Farzo.8410:

I play on Seafarer’s Rest (EU) and I see people all the time when I level my alts. There are people everywhere, I never do events alone.

This is more like soloing alongside each other

At least you are not rewarded for deliberatingly sabotaging the other players. In other MMOs, I often avoid other players for questing. Here I am happy to see someone.

He wont be able to. Seafarer’s Rest is EU, Anvil Rock is NA.

Doesn’t matter, you can transfer. Just guesting isn’t possible.

Guest to whatever is the most popular NA server, I dunno which one that is. EUers can go also Desolation, also lots of people.

AntiGw.9367:

Have you tried jumping into WvW? It’s much easier to find people to run along with you there, and you dont have to be level 80.

You can also try joining other people’s activities (such as public guild missions, parties and temple raids).

It looks like you are playing on a low-pop server, or on low-traffic hours. I would suggest guesting around to check things out. Some server communities are more social than others.

Yeah I’ve tried WvW. I die instantly because despite everyone being raised to 80 were not all equal.

Rogues pick me off and I die in less then 6 seconds despite heavy usage of my cooldowns.

Considering I’ve never been past level 25. WvW is not a good place for me to be…or anyone below 80 for that matter.

And from my experience…nobody talks there either..

The only social barrier you have is the one you erected yourself. Find a guild. Or actually talk to someone. If you can’t find someone to talk to, guest to a t3-1 server, they are all decently populated during prime time.

I’m not even really sure what you are asking, if you are looking for trolls in map chat, there really aren’t many around, at least on my server.

Most people ARE socializing….with their guilds and friends :P

Farzo.8410:

beren.6048:

Farzo.8410:

I play on Seafarer’s Rest (EU) and I see people all the time when I level my alts. There are people everywhere, I never do events alone.

This is more like soloing alongside each other

Still we share a common goal, to complete the event, and we help each other.

It’s the same with dungeons then, you are just soloing alongside with others to complete your goal, you just have to use a group mechanic to do it.

Social is talking and joking together. Its more likely to happen in groups. Interaction typically is not needed. Thats what I say. Yes, like in the real world, you have to find the right group of people.

Cspence.6921:

AntiGw.9367:

Have you tried jumping into WvW? It’s much easier to find people to run along with you there, and you dont have to be level 80.

You can also try joining other people’s activities (such as public guild missions, parties and temple raids).

It looks like you are playing on a low-pop server, or on low-traffic hours. I would suggest guesting around to check things out. Some server communities are more social than others.

Yeah I’ve tried WvW. I die instantly because despite everyone being raised to 80 were not all equal.

Rogues pick me off and I die in less then 6 seconds despite heavy usage of my cooldowns.

Considering I’ve never been past level 25. WvW is not a good place for me to be…or anyone below 80 for that matter.

And from my experience…nobody talks there either..

In WvW people prefer to talk on teamspeak or ventrilo, the map chat is mostly used for scouting reports. Check if your server has a teamspeak option.

There are a few ways to avoid being killed, but you need to work with other people.

Cspence.6921:

AntiGw.9367:

Have you tried jumping into WvW? It’s much easier to find people to run along with you there, and you dont have to be level 80.

You can also try joining other people’s activities (such as public guild missions, parties and temple raids).

It looks like you are playing on a low-pop server, or on low-traffic hours. I would suggest guesting around to check things out. Some server communities are more social than others.

Yeah I’ve tried WvW. I die instantly because despite everyone being raised to 80 were not all equal.

Rogues pick me off and I die in less then 6 seconds despite heavy usage of my cooldowns.

Considering I’ve never been past level 25. WvW is not a good place for me to be…or anyone below 80 for that matter.

And from my experience…nobody talks there either..

Rogues are made to pick off the people who don’t follow the commander. They are the assassins. E.g., a guardian is a group support unit, if you walk alone you might loose from a dagger unless its a condition daggerer.

If you are the type of person that can only make friends, if you are forced into a situation with people, I can see why Guild Wars 2 could be “disheartening”. But I honestly find it very easy to spark up a conversation with random players. The thing that makes Guild Wars 2 different, is that no one are forced to play together, so just like when making friends in the real world, it becomes more about your personality, and not what your character can offer.

In GW2, people tend to talk in Map chat as a means of general coordination. We alert each other to zone bosses spawning, when we’re going to zerg towards a multiple group objective area (in end game zones), and when we’re trying to coordinate our server’s movements in WvW conflict. Beyond that, people only use Map chat when they’re chilling out in Lion’s Arch or when they’re camped out at a boss’ spawning point and they are waiting for its spawn to proc within its spawn window.

Beyond that, people aren’t that chatty in the general Map chat. We’re dodging, buffing, rez’ing, and fighting in a constant dance. While we could stop to randomly chat about nonsense topics, there usually isn’t enough time to both play the game and also chat. If someone asks a question in Map chat, they will usually get a quick response through either a Map chat or private Whisper chat response. Yet that’s a specialized set of circumstances.

From what I’ve been able to gather, most of the random talking that you’re looking for is located on private voice chat servers. Most servers have an unofficial chat server or two for their player base. Some use theirs for WvW, while others also use it for PvE. A lot of guilds will also have their own private chat servers. People need both of their hands to actively play GW2, so speaking into headsets seems to be the ideal solution.

I’d suggest going to Lion’s Arch and asking if there is an unofficial voice chat server for Anvil Rock. Beyond that, many guilds will advertise themselves in 1-15 zone and in Lion’s Arch. If you’re looking for a guild (and people to chat to), those are good places to find what you’re looking for.

I dont want to go to a voice chat server….

If I wanted to talk to people like that I would go to a real life area and talk to real life people face to face…

I play online games to speak online and have fun with others online doing online things.

I really hope this type of thing doesn’t become a trend in MMOs because quite frankly its a bit ridiculous to me.

But it’s just my opinion.

And again its not just talking, its playing with other people as well. Doing things together, if I wanted to talk to random people who serve only as acquaintances I would chat people up on facebook or …join a guild.

Its like nobody truly understands.

EDIT: I would just like to make it clear because I’m noticing a pattern of people getting defensive. I’m not dogging Guild Wars 2. The game is very fun. I’m simply unhappy with the way the community seems to interact with each other.

Like it or not, this is the direction that the industry is moving. In a bunch of my past MMOs, lots of people had permanently disabled Map / Level chat. Once they found a guild and a regular set of people to group with, they intentionally became very insular. Over the past 5 years, I’ve seen this MMO trend continue to grow and flourish.

A lot of guilds now have voice server requirements. You MUST be logged into their chat server whenever you’re online. While having a microphone is “strongly” encouraged, they claim that technically it isn’t a requirement. To be completely honest, I don’t like this trend. There are many days where I’m exhausted after dealing with frustrating people and I don’t want to feel obligated to continue talking on my personal time. Sometimes a little peace and quiet would be nice, yet that’s not what a growing faction of MMO players seem to believe.

I’m told that some servers like Tarnished Coast do still have a vibrated Map chat population. That is the unofficial RP server for the North American server cluster, so a lot of people make random in-character and out-of-character chatter over there. If that’s what you’re looking for, then it might be in your best interests to start over there. (You can either pay Gems to transfer to a new server or you could delete all of your characters and switch for free.)

Funny, in IoJ our chats are usually friendly and helpful.
Yes there are the stretches of time where most of it will be locations for group events, but when people do ask questions they get feedback.

Our Lion’s Arch is helpful as well, the other day I partied up with a guild to help on bounty hunting for the first time.

Soo, do you have, between now and 4 hours ago when you made this thread, tried to guest to another server? I am an EU player myself, but I hear good things about the NA server Tarnished Coast.

Cspence.6921:

And again its not just talking, its playing with other people as well. Doing things together, if I wanted to talk to random people who serve only as acquaintances I would chat people up on facebook or …join a guild.

Its like nobody truly understands.

EDIT: I would just like to make it clear because I’m noticing a pattern of people getting defensive. I’m not dogging Guild Wars 2. The game is very fun. I’m simply unhappy with the way the community seems to interact with each other.

Dungeons, sPvP, and WvW are where players play for a common goal. The personal story and open world PvE, is designed to be played solo. That’s just the way it is. The best advice I can give is; try harder. There are plenty of friendly people in this game, even more so the many other MMOs.

It really hasn’t grown and flourished…

From the MMO’s I’ve played recently…namely Rift, WoW, SWTOR, even Runescape..lol

They were all much more social and easier to make friends in. To just have people to play with.

When I said I hope this is not the way MMO’s are heading I meant that more as a shot in the dark..For people to read it and say well kitten GW2 truly is the only popular MMO on the market where 80% of the playerbase rarely speaks in /say or /map chat or hangs out together to do quests or just have fun together…they just stay in guild chat or on random private ventrillo servers and talk.

Again, I love the Guild Wars 2 game. I just really dislike the approach that the COMMUNITY has chosen to go towards social interaction. It’s very pro anti-social and if I wanted to play the game as if it was single player with a guild chat, I would play Skyrim and open up a chat channel with other Skyrim players in it and talk like that.

Cause quite frankly theres no difference in the two and thats where I’m going with this. It’s Multiplayer -_-

Also PLEASE for the love of god and the last time I’ll say this. This has nothing to do with guilds, I’m aware of what guilds are and what they require and what they do and I’m not referring to them in any way, shape, or form.

There are always the reclusive people that never speak outside of the Guild that they are in but quite frankly that’s never been the majority in any of the MMO’s I mentioned above.

I always knew those type of people but they were always 1 among many other social people who gathered together to quest, duel(not an option in this game I know), que for dungeons(again not an option) or do battlegrounds or world pvp with.

It just seems that this type of behavior is a majority in GW2 and I have to look for the minority who reign supreme in other MMOs.

If anyone knows of a NA server that is quite social I would apprecaite it

EDIT: people mentioned Tarnished Coast.

Cspence.6921:

And again its not just talking, its playing with other people as well. Doing things together, if I wanted to talk to random people who serve only as acquaintances I would chat people up on facebook or …join a guild.

One of the key components of how the dynamic event system works is that it basically promotes the completely opposite environment of what you’re looking for. People will quickly and silently work with each other when they find themselves at the same event. They will watch each other’s abilities in order to proc Combo Field effects. Through intuition and observation, players will adapt their combat style to mesh with those around them. Then once the event is finished, people will tend to go on their seperate ways.

The entire mechanic system for GW2 is pretty anti-grouping. We get all of the grouping benefits without having to ever create formal groups. Our AoE and group buff effects will still hit players who are in the area. As if this isn’t enough, we can even help each other rally or we can revive dead players. I have always been impressed by just how many experienced players will help each other rally whenever it’s not suicidal to help their fellow players. It says a lot about the spirit of the community.

You seem to want to create formal groups, which then leads to a tightly knit group of Friends List contacts. People can still find this in GW2, but it isn’t the natural reaction to the GW2 system.

It’s less about formal grouping and more about building and creating friendships on this game that make it worth the grind.

I don’t know about you but when I play MMO’s I like to make friends early so that leveling is less brutal and a more enjoyable experience. It’s more fun to play around with your abilities when you have friends to do it with and its a great feeling to tackle a difficult and perhaps secluded event together that you could not have completed alone.

Formal grouping is just what happens to occur when you make 1 or 2 or even 3 good friends on a game and you want to play with them.

I enjoy that it shows me where a player has been downed so I can help them, the event system is fun as well but lets be honest YOU might look for peoples combo fields and such but in reality everyone is plopping things down just to kill what their trying to kill as fast as possible with no regard to their fellow teamates.

My point across all of this is that, well, quite frankly I assumed that the way this game was set up would ENCOURAGE a more friendly and social environment where people would find it easy to talk and make friends and go around doing events together and having fun because theres no competition with your mates and you can actually try to combo your abilities and practice together since we all know in a large scale event where nobody knows each other, nobody truly bothers.

Some do, most don’t. Thats a fact.

I just feel like this game is set up perfectly for the type of social environment other MMOs have and it could in fact be superior on this one.

Yet it’s just not how it is.

It appears Tanished Coast is a FULL world that I cannot transfer too…

Any other suggestions :<

Cspence.6921:

It appears Tanished Coast is a FULL world that I cannot transfer too…

Any other suggestions :<

Guest there? As far as I know, you can still guest on a full server

Cspence.6921:

It appears Tanished Coast is a FULL world that I cannot transfer too…

Any other suggestions :<

Tarnished Coast gets a lot of hype but there are other awesome, well-rounded servers out there, like Yak’s Bend