Guild Wars 2

I don’t know about the rest of you, but so far I’ve found that most players on my server are by and large pretty helpful. Much more so than in other MMOs I’ve played. And by helpful, I mean being out and about in the world and people coming by to help me in a fight or to revive me or work out how to reach a vista, things like that. There just seems to be a lot of willingness to lend a hand. I like it.

I took psychology as my minor during my undergrad, and so this is kind of a neat study in behavior. Given the incentives Arenanet has provided for people to cooperate, it seems like there’s a mild carry-over for generalized generosity, even when there’s nothing like XP to be gained. Arenanet has put players in the habit of simply helping out, in other words. It’s pretty cool.

Have you all been experiencing something similar? Or have I just been strangely lucky in the people I’ve run across?

Nope, not just you. I couldn’t agree more with what you said. Be interesting to see some months down the road if this social feeling still exists.

Unfortunately i havent had much interaction with other players, yeah i see them doing DE’s but so far its been a prett much single player experience for me.

Disappointing.

Pict.5472:

Unfortunately i havent had much interaction with other players, yeah i see them doing DE’s but so far its been a prett much single player experience for me.

Disappointing.

Well, doesn’t sound like an issue with the game. You won’t normally get friends when you have zero initiative on it.

Pict.5472:

Unfortunately i havent had much interaction with other players, yeah i see them doing DE’s but so far its been a prett much single player experience for me.

Disappointing.

And who is that to blame?

I’d agree with you. People have a reason to help people out now because of the way the game is set up. In other games, you get squat if you help someone out besides maybe a thanks. Now, you get xp along with if the enemy drops something.

So I can really see people helping people, especially when it helps them also.

Pict.5472:

Unfortunately i havent had much interaction with other players, yeah i see them doing DE’s but so far its been a prett much single player experience for me.

Disappointing.

Ah, that is disappointing. It occurred to me last night that this experience of players bumping into each other and helping each other out is what I wanted from an MMO without realizing it. I’ve played WoW since 2004, and I found myself wishing I could simply play it as a single player game. In GW2, I’m glad that there are other people around. It makes the game more fun in surprising ways.

One of the things I think is interesting is that interaction has been taking the shape of actions rather than conversation. Meaning, I’ve found myself running alongside someone and we just stick together and kill things on our way to a skill point or something, and there’s hardly a word said. Then, when we’re done, we just go our separate ways without saying a thing. No awkward conversation needed.

Case in point: yesterday I was fighting my way through a cave towards a skill point when I paused in front of a champion troll. A necromancer caught up to me, and without saying anything, we just jumped in like there was an unspoken, “Okay. Let’s do this!” We fought that thing for about six or seven minutes, and we worked really well together. When it was over, all we said was “Nice job” and “You too” and that was it. And it was perfectly fine. Off we went. I don’t remember the player’s name, and this is just one example of quite a few similar experiences I’ve had in GW2 so far. I’m very pleasantly surprised.

Map chat, on the other hand… lol

What I love about the whole no-tapping, everyone gets rewarded system is I can kinda go out and hang ‘near’ people and do what they are doing without being too much in their way or having to necessarily even group with them. The design almost negates the need for a group, per se, other than if you wanted to have a chat with a set of more than two people, but even that could be accomplished with allowing us to create chat channels (maybe it does, never needed to make one).

So I just loiter around the country, farming for crafting materials, that is my main mission in life. I know I was thrown out into the world and need to save it and all (after having partially fulfilled my regret over having not joined the circus, of course!), but there’s much crafting to be done along the way. Some heroes monologue; I craft. I love coming across DEs to participate in with other people tagging along, or finding someone fighting things in an area I’m also fighting things in the hope that it’ll go quicker with two of us.

Rarely I’ll get a ‘vibe’ like they don’t want me following them around, but it’s not often. I don’t stalk, but if you come into a 1000ft area and start fighting things I was also fighting, yeah, I’ll follow you around. And I’m ‘very’ respectful of ‘how’ you are fighting if I join you. If you are doing one mob at a time, I don’t do area hogs, I’ll work on what you are working on, to make sure you’re getting everything tapped for loot.

And rezzing people is probably my favorite activity, especially in combat when I’m toying with my own death. That’s a blast.

I definitely agree that the entire system encourages a good community. That is part of what makes this game so enjoyable.

Yeah, I noticed it too. I’ve had people take the time to practically hold my hand and guide me to vistas, stop and help me kill a veteran I was having trouble with, and seeming go off their path to stop and res me. I’ve also noticed the “silent companionship” that someone else mentioned in the thread…teaming up and fighting side by side through a cave without saying a word, then going our own ways when we get to the other side. It’s a nice experience.

That said, there are still the “grrr” moments…someone running past me with a train of centaurs at their heels, which turn to me and my pet as they continue on their merry way, rezzing me halfway then stopping and leaving, etc.

More of a 50-50 thing for me alot for people helped me and my brother and that but when I was down needing revieing this other player comes in and just comples the event the leaves me there he/she knew I was there I was in the open but didn’t help at all I had a feeling he/she came from WoW (that last part was a joke)

Single serve friends. I think it works great. In other MMOs with the “tapping system” you’ll generally see people running past you and a mob and you would do the same. You tend to avoid other people because they are competition for a somewhat limited resource (loot, XP, quest items).

I like this system much better because instead of avoiding people, you group up, without really grouping up or saying anything. You just work together towards a common goal. I can’t believe we used the “tapping system” for so long when it promotes people avoiding eachother, in an MMO.

I don’t think it surprised me as much because I haven’t really played other MMO’s since Ultima Online years ago, but I have definately noticed it. Both with players randomly joining in with events or detouring to rez someone, and with people being willing to answer questions in map chat.

Contrast that with my first experience meeting another player in WoW when I did the free trial:
Me: Hi.
Pause
Them: Plz leave
Me: Um…ok
Leaves

I later learned that the problem was they were trying to camp a spawn point to gather items for a quest and my being there could cost them drops and XP, which makes it somewhat understandable, but at the time it really threw me. And for the record I’m not suggesting this is either unique to or worse in WoW than other games, it’s just a short and memorable example.

To my mind wanting to avoid other players defeats the entire point of an MMO and should IMO be considered a big problem. I’m very happy to have found a game that seems to be aiming for, and achieving, the opposite.

99% have been helpful for me on Blacktide server, if i’m in a fight whether i can handle that fight with ease or not, people passing by always come over to help. I’ve also been revived every single time i’ve gone down when somebody has been close, only once has somebody walked past me as i lay defeated and rather than revive me, he /laughed and walked off. Still, i found it amusing.

Danikat.8537:

I don’t think it surprised me as much because I haven’t really played other MMO’s since Ultima Online years ago, but I have definately noticed it. Both with players randomly joining in with events or detouring to rez someone, and with people being willing to answer questions in map chat.

Contrast that with my first experience meeting another player in WoW when I did the free trial:
Me: Hi.
Pause
Them: Plz leave
Me: Um…ok
Leaves

I later learned that the problem was they were trying to camp a spawn point to gather items for a quest and my being there could cost them drops and XP, which makes it somewhat understandable, but at the time it really threw me. And for the record I’m not suggesting this is either unique to or worse in WoW than other games, it’s just a short and memorable example.

To my mind wanting to avoid other players defeats the entire point of an MMO and should IMO be considered a big problem. I’m very happy to have found a game that seems to be aiming for, and achieving, the opposite.

This is exactly what I’m talking about. Removing the first dibs tapping system prevalent in so many MMOs promotes people working together instead of avoiding eachother. Other people are no longer competition, but a way to earn your rewards even faster than if you worked alone.

I just find it amusing every time when that big menacing-looking Charr comes to help reviving me. :p

DougM.2305:

I took psychology as my minor during my undergrad, and so this is kind of a neat study in behavior. Given the incentives Arenanet has provided for people to cooperate, it seems like there’s a mild carry-over for generalized generosity, even when there’s nothing like XP to be gained. Arenanet has put players in the habit of simply helping out, in other words. It’s pretty cool.

And that is funny indeed. If we took other MMORPGs as a reference, it’s the egoistical homo economicus everywhere, to the point people could even draw a negative conclusion from human nature in general. Surprisingly it’s the whole opposite here. So yes, the game itself was to blame for the poor community before.

I’ve enjoyed the community so far. A lot of people have been pleasant to talk to.

I’m enjoying the fact that the game has subtle incentives to help each other. For instance, no one yells at your for kill-stealing when you help them, since they still get their XP for the fight. This inspires people to be helpful in other ways. The community in-game is definitely a more helpful and pleasant one.

Its a great community, by and large.

Agreed, I’ve had a really good experience with players in game, even on the overflow servers.

I couldn’t agree more …

Eochaidh.4106:

I just find it amusing every time when that big menacing-looking Charr comes to help reviving me. :p

Having played GW1 for years (and never really used Pyre, the Charr hero) I find I have to conciously remind myself that charr are other players and therefore allies, not enemies.

I notice this, too. A stranger drops by and zaps me with a heal or resurrects me. Maybe they blast a bad guy for me. Some help with puzzles and finding stuff. Advice is plentiful in chat.

Grat times. Good game. Good people.

If I see you dead in my mini-map, I will do whatever I can to get to you and rez you because I love every single one of you. Yes you guy who releases just as I begin to rez you, you too!

I wish i was here 3 years ago:) ppl respecting each other, excited about a game, that was soooo sweet:) Gravedigging old topic, yup i know, but felt like i have to do this:) and yet. It seems, that it’s still actual, in most cases:)

I was all set for dishing out an awesome dose of snark but a +1 comes your way instead.

Trolley.7956:

I wish i was here 3 years ago:) ppl respecting each other, excited about a game, that was soooo sweet:) Gravedigging old topic, yup i know, but felt like i have to do this:) and yet. It seems, that it’s still actual, in most cases:)

It’s all still true for me for the most part. At least in open world.

For the most part it is still an awesome community here. Reminds me of the early days of Runescape when it first got the subscription service. Of course that didn’t last too long tho before all the bots and bad attitudes came to the game.

Of course a big part of it here is like the OP and others have said – build a good game where people don’t compete against each other and get rewarded for helping each other and you will see a much better community.

Yeah there are naysayers who say the community sucks. But I have to ask them is that because they have bad attitude themselves and like to share it around with everyone else? Yes there are bad eggs, but by far the majority of the community is perfectly fine.

The PvP lobby can seem to be the total opposite for the most part, however I just think of it this way. There are bad eggs in this game, and most of them will end up in PvP and hang their the most of their gameplay. Of course there are just people having bad PvP days too and just sore losers and just plain boastful/jerky winners too of course. :P

I get this all the time. Ask a question in map chat and it will usually be answered politely and promptly by five people. Most of the time you can count on others to swoop in and save you when you’re downed, or pitch in with an HP if they happen to be there.

I don’t think the community is “great”. People is people, some are good, some bad and most are neither. This game allows you to cooperate with others instead of constantly forcing you to compete, so we have more room to be “decent”, that is all.

In other words, I believe the GW2 community is better than in other MMOs, simply because the community on those other MMOs is horrible to the extreme. We are just normal.

DougM.2305:

I don’t know about the rest of you, but so far I’ve found that most players on my server are by and large pretty helpful. Much more so than in other MMOs I’ve played.

One BIG difference between GW2 and many more traditional MMOs is that most of the time you’re not in competition with other players for mobs, crafting resource nodes, etc, like you are in WOW for example.

When others are ‘cooperation’ and not ‘competition’ it’s a lot easier to be nice to them.

I remember the first time I tried to do the Silverwaste jumping puzzle, this asura saw me looking lost and she guided the way for me all the way to the end. And it was still a challenging puzzle! It tests your patience, that’s for sure…

I came here from Neverwinter which is the exact polar opposite of GW2 in terms of random players helping random other players.
GW2 is a breathe of fresh air in that respect.

In GW there have been several vistas where I have been pointed in the right direction by someone, just with a casual “jump up this bit, m8” or “that’s the right jump, keep trying”. And in the hidden garden, where death means waypointing out and waiting for the entry event again, there’s always someone hanging around waiting to rez anyone who falls from the tree. I made a point of doing my share of hanging around and rez’ing folk after I had completed the puzzle. It was quite entertaining watching the same few people making the same errors I had just made and then rez’ing them and watching them run round for another go.

It’s not all sweetness and light and, yes, chat can get a bit salty at world bosses if things are going badly (special award for Amber Wurm…) but for the most part there is a helpful vibe about the game.

I was actually fighting a Treasure Mushroom yesterday alone, which it doesn’t do too much damage but the mobs it attracts can be annoying. A few other people came down and started clearing out the mobs, even though they weren’t quite sure what I was doing, because Treasure Mushrooms are permastealth and you need Stealth Detection Mastery to see it, they were helping out and I thanked them for giving me support. It’s funny how it works out when there didn’t even appear to be much incentive for them to help, especially when it seemed like I was randomly flailing at the air.