Guild Wars 2

Hello all!
I came to Guild Wars of of World of Warcraft (no hate, please) and I was expecting player to player interaction similar to WoW: chatting in map chat, larger guilds, and generally just more friendly players. I was surprised to see that There was almost no chatting in map, and no guilds recruiting or generally looking for more players. Am I in the wrong areas? Or is that just the player base of the game?

The game is very much in flux right now. A lot of people are running fractals, and only fractals, and this has caused a lot of maps to thin out considerably. ANet have stated that they will be adding more incentive to do something other than fractals, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Regarding map chat, many people, myself included, actually turn off map chat (think Trade chat or Barrens chat. It can get pretty awful). If you find yourself fighting alongside some strangers, try striking up a conversation with /s. Some people will probably ignore you, and others may be less than nice (this is the Internet, after all), but you’re likely to strike up some friendships that may eventually lead you into joining/forming a guild that is much better for your playstyle than you could find browsing recruitment ads.

The game’s still quite new, so finding a large, well-organized guild who aren’t already an existing group from another MMO (and thereby more-or-less closed to outside recruitment) can be tricky, but stay vigilant, and you’ll find a group you fit well with.

Also, if you haven’t really made any ingame connections yet, consider changing servers. I recently switched over to Henge of Denravi, and I have been really surprised to see how much more chatty and generally friendly people there have been, compared to the server I came from. If you decide to make the switch, feel free to look me up. I’m not in a big guild or anything at the moment, but I’d be more than happy to help you out.

As far as finding a guild, there are plenty of places to go to find one, but I’ll admit that they’re less than obvious to find. GW2Guru has a pretty good tool for finding/recruiting for guilds at http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/47-guild-recruitment/ , but they’re not the only game in town.

GW2 isn’t so much a community-based game. You can play to 80 without ever being in a party. So as a community we tend to keep to ourselves, just talk in /guild or on our guild’s voice servers.

I’d suggest watching which guild tags you tend to see, try talking. People are people, and many enjoy making a friend, even tho the game doesn’t encourage it.

I agree with the switch server option. Go to gw2guilds.org and check out some guilds.

Also look in the players helping players thread

Edit: plus i expect an influx about Christmas time

Sometimes I try my best to engage people in map chat to add a little community-mindedness. I just get nothing. 10 seconds of nothing, then LF2M FotM 12, and then FOTM 4, COF all paths.

The guild sites I’ve seen are out of date. Listings are from any point since launch. I’ve looked for a night time guild myself and the ones I found were no longer active when I asked the leaders.

Now isn’t the best time to start the game I’m afraid.

Clark Skinner.4902:

Sometimes I try my best to engage people in map chat to add a little community-mindedness. I just get nothing. 10 seconds of nothing, then LF2M FotM 12, and then FOTM 4, COF all paths.

The guild sites I’ve seen are out of date. Listings are from any point since launch. I’ve looked for a night time guild myself and the ones I found were no longer active when I asked the leaders.

Now isn’t the best time to start the game I’m afraid.

You look at an Aussie guild?

Most probably you join one of the dying servers. There is a weekly free transfer so I suggest you find a more populated server to join. People have been migrating servers as there is a very big difference between the dying servers and a populated one in player experience.

Krosslite.1950:

Clark Skinner.4902:

Sometimes I try my best to engage people in map chat to add a little community-mindedness. I just get nothing. 10 seconds of nothing, then LF2M FotM 12, and then FOTM 4, COF all paths.

The guild sites I’ve seen are out of date. Listings are from any point since launch. I’ve looked for a night time guild myself and the ones I found were no longer active when I asked the leaders.

Now isn’t the best time to start the game I’m afraid.

You look at an Aussie guild?

I did and the ones that I was eligible for weren’t active anymore.

I have a very hard time reading map chat while wandering around and killing things, I actually focus on my attacks (probably way more than necessary). Try my server, though (Jade Quarry) I do often see recruitment comments in chat.

2 Problems:

1. There is no time to chat!
2. Chat system is awful!

I recently wanted to answer a guy nicely saying hello (no idea how he managed to do that, must have a third hand and a separate keyboard), and the frikken escort group was out of sight once I manged to get my typos and wrong chat channels sorted out.

@ OP
If you are looking for a nice friendly EU server come to Gunnar’s Hold.
There are lots of people around on the maps and people are really helpful.
We also seem to have a bunch of new players coming in regularly.

Just last week as I was leveling my ele and struggling a bit- another ele on the map that was fighting next to me stopped, offered me some help and even linked me a video.

Another time someone was asking for help with a champ and I asked for a way point link another random player then immediately whispered me to ask if I needed help and if someone had showed me how to link in map yet
I am not a new player but I found it nice that players are so willing to help newcomers.

It is a nice server- give it a go

Corvindi.5734:

I have a very hard time reading map chat while wandering around and killing things, I actually focus on my attacks (probably way more than necessary). Try my server, though (Jade Quarry) I do often see recruitment comments in chat.

Same here, when I attack a monster then kill the 5 friends that always join in, then kill the super fauna that always join in. I have to scroll up to read what was being said in Guild and Map chat.