Guild Wars 2

I just want to ask – is it a normal feeling to feel utterly desolate in the MMO world? I mean, like no-one knows or cares who you are, don’t want to help, and you are left to do pretty much everything by yourself?

I ask because I am totally new to MMOs – I have only ever played FPS games. And whilst the community in FPS games is not too great, at least you don’t get time to feel utterly alone. This game however, is so enormous and overwhelming – I love it all. But not the feeling of being the only person in my playing experience.

For a start I think I have screwed up my chat settings – I keep writing to the general chat thing ingame but noone ever responds. I mark that I am LFG but noone ever invites. Just to play alongside another person, make decisions together, instead of the constant drudge of doing things alone. It’s desolate. I am on Far Shiverpeaks server and nobody seems to want to play as a team…literally, a DE happens, 20 people rush to kill whatever it is, and then they all leave to pursue their own lines.

Am I appoaching this all the wrong way? Is this what an MMO is? All that talk about community, is it just advertising? Like I say, this is my first MMO so perhaps I am just not ‘getting it’. Sometimes I find the challenges very hard, but no one is around or wants to pitch in to complete them, so I just end up dying, alone, in the snow, my face all smashed in. It’s a sad, sad story.

I love the game. It is astonishing, and so different from what I am used to. But the lonliness is pretty grim.

What are your experiences?

You have to be a bit pro-active to really get a social gaming experience in MMOs. Look out for groups to join in Map chat (private tell the people advertising – as a general point it’s worth being polite, succinct and informative in private tells).

When you advertise in /map, again be succinct and informative. Not just “anybody want to team?” but “lvl xx [your Prof] LFG [whatever]” or if you’re forming a team “LF2M for xx dungeon” (looking for 2 more, xx dungeon).

As you’re wandering out in the world, you’re bound to come across situations where 2 or 3 of you pursue a DE or a chain. Strike up conversations in /say with them, and /friend them, then later, say when you’re doing a DE and you’re the only one there, politely private tell them (“excuse me, I don’t know if you remember me but we teamed up yesterday, would you be up for xxx?”) to check if they’re available to help. Generally speaking people like to chat in /say while doing hearts and DEs, but usually most people are a bit too shy to start chatting. You have to be the one to initiate. But don’t overdo it and annoy people. Just light banter, and you’ll find people respond, and then you can get a feel for people you’d be likely to get on with and /friend.

It takes a bit of effort and practice, but after a while it becomes second nature and you’ll find people will respond, and you’ll be able to form teams.

Again, the keys are: be polite and informative but succinct.

This is the most antisocial MMO"RPG" i have ever played (Even SWTOR with it’s massive 10 people online was more social).

This is your first MMO? Too bad, because if you go on to others you’ll be sorely disappointing. I’m looking forward to Phantasy Star 2 coming out, I don’t care if it’s going to be a free to play but pay to be a pro game, I’ll play it along side GW2 though it looks really fun and good and has the best character customization I’ve seen. To be fair seeing…, umm…, shall we say, disproportionately big melons everywhere is a negative unintended consequence of such a great character customization.

Wonderland Online is a relatively little known MMO yet it was very active. Yes it was free to play pay to be a pro but the community was great. People would help others and there was an in-game bot because the game was just that grindy. It was the game’s way of saying, “Good luck, you’ll need this for your half a level a month”, and everyone made separate e-mail accounts for all their alts to make leveling easier for those times when you didn’t have the right element to train with (water and fire were high in demand due to experience increasing with damage and buffs and the lower level the pet the higher experience the players would get so we’d dismiss pets, capture, rinse, and repeat until level 180 where we’d class promote. Bursting didn’t work for characters over 180 or promoted characters).

Ang.2157:

This is the most antisocial MMO"RPG" i have ever played (Even SWTOR with it’s massive 10 people online was more social).

I had a pretty cool guild, and they were what kept me playing. Then, the guild disbanded and I just stopped playing because the repetitive endgame grind felt more like a second job. I waited for The Secret World, which was a good game, and in between games would just play and study Chess. I still do but it’s secondary to leveling my elementalist and even thief.

Server population also does matter, I’m not sure what’s the server population is but you might want to consider a higher pop server if it’s lower and servers are also different strokes, housing different people, so on and so fourth. While your current server might be like that a server housing… say, a pretty prominent role-player base or people that are usually socialable beings will probably bring the breath of life you’re looking for.

Current server I’m in, Tarnished Coast (Garnished Toast), it’s brimming with life and you’ll see people talking in /map and oftentimes in cities. Basically, servers really do matter because while it’s the same game template you’ll have different types in them.

Ang.2157:

This is the most antisocial MMO"RPG" i have ever played (Even SWTOR with it’s massive 10 people online was more social).

No game was or will ever be as Anti-social as SWTOR….

MASSIVE Zones made up of MASSIVE zones that were Instanced inside of other Instances so that only 25 people in a 30 mile radius are in the same spot.

Worst miserable mistake for a game of all time.

Esus. I completely feel your pain. The MMO industry has taken a huge turn for the worse in recent years.

My first MMO as in 2005 with the launch of The Matrix Online. This back during a time when social networking was “new” a myspace was incredibly popular. Apple hadn’t ruined small children’s intellect and America was safe from “foreign attacks” and fear mongering.

People were happier back then. My wife (at the time) played World of Warcraft as it was the biggest thing since Apple invented the color white and the 4 cardinal directions.

The mind set is this in an MMO.

1.) I am to powerful.
2.) I can do anything solo and I don’t need help because I’m amazing
3.) People HATE VENTRILO, MUMBLE, SKYPE (Except the younger crowd of course)
4.)Elite players, (that which has no life) will have nothing to provide meaning to their life if you don’t make a mistake, therefore, since no one is perfect, most people avoid the the elite level 80 players and groups so they don’t feed the spoiled brats.

5.) Most important, it has always and WILL ALWAYS take WAAAAY too long to find a group of players. Spamming the phrase "LFG <Dungeon name here> need tank, healer blah blah blah.> Sucks.

So they hid in this game with self heals. awesome. That doesn’t mean anything really. Now people will do less damage, and/or kill themselves more often. With no clear leader (The tank) most people will wander off in any direction. Most people need to be told what to do and where to go. Hence my Apple reference above, no matter how utterly obviously wrong and outdated it is, people do as they’re told. They crave it.

For the rest us free thinkers, we’re only a handful in everygame, this is usually where we get off.

I"ll play for another couple months, hit level 80, get full gear (hopefully, depends on how many Elites are in my way to prevent this from happening) and I’ll quit.

MMO’s have an average shelf life of 6 months before the shiney wears off and they’re history.
World of Warcraft ruined the entire genre and for that nothing will really be popular for a long, long , long time to come.

Companies will keep making them, and this whole F2P model will fade into the background as people that want quality updates and patches, will pay monthly subs to get it, the idea of “Cheap” games will sink it and people will realize that “You get what you pay for.” In a F2P play game, that’s nothing.

We’ll see.

So Esus, you’re not alone. It’s common. It’s going to take years for it to be fixed.

Don’t let the naysayers ruin the game for you, Gurugeorge gives you some good advice for MMOs in general, I’d pay more attention to that. Don’t be a passive in finding others ta play with, talk to people, make friends with them in /map chat, and tell them you could use help. If your server has a low population, definitely move to one with more people – unlike some games, high populations are a good thing in an MMO.

As others suggested, look for guilds online, too – there are plenty of them out there. Be outgoing, the more extroverted you are – and I’m a shameless extrovert as anyone on my friends list will tell ya – the easier time you’ll have.

Most of the time when those flash mobs break up after an event, you can tag along with some of the players for a bit and get to know each other that way; since xp and loot is shared, there’s no chance you’ll steal anything by accident. And if “Looking for Group” doesn’ get you any bites, try “Starting Group”, because chances are there are some people out there feeling just like you.

Ang.2157:

This is the most antisocial MMO"RPG" i have ever played (Even SWTOR with it’s massive 10 people online was more social).

Are you insane? Alderaan had/has like 4 people on it at ‘peak’ times, and Balmorra was worse (woot, alone!) and that was both at launch, AND about a month ago. On The Shadlowlands, which is apparently ‘medium’ population.

I always see others around here, GW2 servers seem to be bigger that what I’m used to, but then again I’ve spent the last ~2 years in Rift and SWTOR, and those games aren’t exactly ‘large.’

gurugeorge.9857:

You have to be a bit pro-active to really get a social gaming experience in MMOs. Look out for groups to join in Map chat (private tell the people advertising – as a general point it’s worth being polite, succinct and informative in private tells).

When you advertise in /map, again be succinct and informative. Not just “anybody want to team?” but “lvl xx [your Prof] LFG [whatever]” or if you’re forming a team “LF2M for xx dungeon” (looking for 2 more, xx dungeon).

As you’re wandering out in the world, you’re bound to come across situations where 2 or 3 of you pursue a DE or a chain. Strike up conversations in /say with them, and /friend them, then later, say when you’re doing a DE and you’re the only one there, politely private tell them (“excuse me, I don’t know if you remember me but we teamed up yesterday, would you be up for xxx?”) to check if they’re available to help. Generally speaking people like to chat in /say while doing hearts and DEs, but usually most people are a bit too shy to start chatting. You have to be the one to initiate. But don’t overdo it and annoy people. Just light banter, and you’ll find people respond, and then you can get a feel for people you’d be likely to get on with and /friend.

It takes a bit of effort and practice, but after a while it becomes second nature and you’ll find people will respond, and you’ll be able to form teams.

Again, the keys are: be polite and informative but succinct.

This.

And if it doesn’t work try a different server. If the lists of which groups/people are on which server are still running (there were a lot before launch) they could be really helpful.

On my server (Desolation, EU) I’ve found most people are friendly and willing to chat, but it needs someone to initiate it. Although people are really good about calling out DE’s in map chat. Even if they’re not actually stopping to do it they’ll let everyone know it’s happening.

Esus, there are a lot of people in game that will party up and play with you. However, you’ll have to be proactive and use /say to them when they’re not occupied. It’s like being in a crowded subway or really any other public place, no one’s going to have anything to do with you unless you say hi.

Join Crystal Desert. There are tons of zergs in the better zones, the big bosses always have crowds waiting, and there’s tons of map chat. Some of it is stupid, some constructive, and some hilarious. There is always LFG going on in Lion’s Arch. Always. There is always a zerg in Straits, and a crowd in Sparkfly and farmers all over Cursed.

Go to the Guild forums and search for Crystal Desert, join a guild that doesn’t offend you, and then you’ll have custom chatter and make a friend or two.

Also, when doing your personal story, ask in /map if anyone else wants or needs the instance.

What you’re seeing is in large part due to some of ANet’s design philosophies (and the people who are attracted by those) and the “everyone in the area can work together on the same goal without being literally grouped” reward system. It isn’t bad, since those decisions were made to remove a lot of petty aggravation compared to other games, but it is indeed different from the industry standard on MMO social expectations.

As for simple chit-chat, joining a guild and chatting in the map channel are excellent ways to socialize while running around solo. Make sure that you have your map channel set to display in whichever chat tab you normally have open, and to chat there rather than the immediate area, type /m or change it by clicking the word to the left of your chat output box. I have yet to find a zone where the map chat isn’t hopping.

For grouping, you’ve already gotten some excellent advice, but a few things to add: first, whatever else you do, do not simply invite people without whispering to them and getting a “yes” back. Even if you get an acceptance, that person might have different expectations of where to go and what to do with the group. At worst, you’ll end up on people’s block lists because they find that behavior extremely rude or irritating.

Secondly, have an actual plan for what you want to do with your group, and include it in your /map or /whisper advertising if at all possible. Thanks again to the options that we have to work together while still going our own ways without fuss afterwards, most people only form pugs (pick-up groups, meaning groups that are not primarily guild members or personal friends) for dungeons and PvP. If you want to grab people to do other things, you need to get that in up front. Something like “forming group to do all of the skill points on the map and participate in any other events we come across” may net you responses by people who weren’t necessarily looking to group, but will join since you’re doing what they planned to do that day anyhow. In addition, people will feel more confident joining a group with a leader who has a plan, no matter what that plan is. Most MMO veterans have experienced at least one group that sucked up their playtime faffing on about what to do, and would rather not do so again.

Finally, respect a player’s decision if they choose not to group with you. You seem like an articulate, friendly, and polite person, so I doubt this advice is really necessary for you, but just for the record: whining some variation of “but why?” at someone is a good way to end up blocked, not grouped. Something along the lines of “thank you anyway, have a pleasant evening,” on the other hand, gets you remembered as that nice person I might like to group with when the baby isn’t colicky, or whatever the reason was.

gw2 is a mmorpg?

If you went to a party, stood over at the side, had some punch and some cake…and every once in a while said, “anyone want to hang out with me?” to nobody in particular…how much of a social experience do you think you would have?

MMORPGs can be social, because they bring a ton of players together and provide them with shared experiences and things in common, and they break down some of the most significant barriers that typically exist in the “real world” when trying to make friends and be social. What MMORPGs do NOT do, is make friends and have social experiences for you. They make the river, they show you where it is…but you have to drink.

I know that it must be extremely overwhelming at first. There’s a ton to learn, not just in terms of game mechanics and functionality, but also in terms of basic things like vernacular and customs for online communities. It’s a bit of an uphill climb to get into your first MMORPG, I totally understand. The cool part is that you have this massive community surrounding you who are willing to help. It might not seem that way at first, but I promise it’s true…and once you get your feet wet and make a few friends, I’ll bet you are hooked for life. =)

So…here’s some basic free advice (worth every penny). I’m sure some of the other posters in the thread have said the same things…but maybe I’ll say something useful. First, ensure that you have the chat channels you care about in a separate tab in your chat window. Make a tab for map chat (and make sure it’s turned on), make a tab and turn on /whisper, /party, /guild, etc. Things like system messages, combat messages, and those types of things just create general spam which is useless most of the time, so make sure they aren’t pushing important chat out of the window by keeping them separate. If you don’t know how to do any of the above, send me a /whisper in game.

Joining a guild can be a great way to meet people and get questions answered. Check in the major cities for guilds advertising they’re recruiting, and chat with them about their guild and what it’s like. Find one that sounds good to you, and try it out. You can join four different guilds at the same time, and switch between them, just to get your feet wet and meet people…and maybe get a better idea of what you like or need from a guild.

Strike up conversations. When you do an event with others, if they help you by rezzing you or whatever, use “/say thanks!” or other pleasantries to help strike up a conversation. Ask about events, or gear others are wearing, or whatever. A lot of this is going to sound kind of familiar…it’s pretty much all the same stuff someone would tell you if you asked how to meet a new friend at a bar or party. You’ve got to be social, and take an active role in learning about other people and getting a feel for the “scene” in order to ever have success.

If you’d like, and this is totally up to you, you would be welcome to join my guild. Just send a /whisper to my user name in game. We’re primarily on the Ferguson’s Crossing server, but we are a relaxed group of friendly folks who would love to help you dig deeper into the MMORPG experience. You could even transfer over to our server for free if you wanted some folks to adventure with on occasion.

Be aware that the mechanics of this game are very well designed to focus the players’ attention on the world and the action…and things like personal story cut scenes and other such content keep people from seeing their chat window. Sometimes it’s not that people are mean or anti-social, it’s just that they are engrossed in the game. As time passes, the social aspects and server communities will develop a more prominent role as people settle in for the long term…so I would expect that quiet chat channels will be less of a problem going forward.

People want to play MMOs as single player games.

People have the ability to group up, join guilds, talk, but no one does.

Don’t give up yet. Most of the players are pretty anti-social in all mmo-s. I am used to people running by me while i’m getting slapped arround by 3 mobs and most of the time no one stops to help. I often got yelled at in other games for trying to help someone, so i’d say this one’s not that bad.
In my experience it’s best to look for groups of 2 or 3 since they obviously like playing with someone. You’ll learn to read body language too ( as strange as that may sound ). You can try using emoticons like /cheer when you finish a DE and so on and look for a response. Communication is the key, it doesn’t have to be verbal.

gurugeorge.9857:

(“excuse me, I don’t know if you remember me but we teamed up yesterday, would you be up for xxx?”)

Don’t try this line on a girl, it rarely goes well for me.

MMOs aren’t as social now, because they don’t have to be. I talked a lot more in DAOC, AO, ect, before voice chat, because you could easily do it while fighting. Think back. a few buttons, slow attacks. No movement necessary. It was easy to carry on conversations while playing the game. Now, you can’t play and chat, unless you’re on headphones and frankly, I just don’t dig talking to people(unless personal friends) in game. Even in 04 with WOW I cared more about being a part of a group. I wanted those virtual “friends” and you needed them to get anything meaningful done. Now it really doesn’t matter.

Back then…single.

Now….married with kids.

How much is there to say to a 20 yr old in college?

Ang.2157:

This is the most antisocial MMO"RPG" i have ever played (Even SWTOR with it’s massive 10 people online was more social).

Yet the friendliest MMORPG iv played

Ironically, GW1 was much more social than GW2.

The whole free mission structure is gone, which was a lot of fun to do with guildies. Dungeons are limited to 5 players instead of 12, do not require a massive team synergy setup but can be beaten by just a combination of 5 individual cookie-cutter builds. Helping and exploring with friends is discouraged by making waypoints cost money. There’s no longer a vast variety of builds and PvP modes to discuss. No guild halls and no strict party doesn’t really add to the group feeling. Cities are WAY too big for their purpose which makes them feel desolate. Trading post completely removed the one-on-one bartering.

I’ve found this game far more social than WoW (the only other MMO I’ve played).

Here, I can randomly help people and people can randomly help me.

I remember in WoW feeling bad for playing alongside another player ungrouped. I felt like I was stealing kills and didn’t know if they were getting their goals accomplished – because just because we’d killed the same boss didn’t mean they’d gotten credit for it, too. :/

I’ve played with so many random people in GW2 so far. I can start a skill challenge and if it’s too difficult for me alone, someone else usually comes over and helps. If I see a new event pop up that someone else triggered, I try to go over and help.

I’ve been in a lot of “unofficial” groups. Often we’ll form a “group” when following the same chain DE or completing the same objectives – instead of going to different bandit camps alone, we all went to the same ones together.

I do miss the pet and mount collecting from WoW… and the fishing (don’t look at me like that), but in GW2 I feel like I’m actually playing the game with other people instead of being the only person in the zone.

If you’re looking for talk, I agree that finding a good guild would be a great idea.

As a long time MMORPG player I will give you the rundown.

GW2 is the most antisocial big name mmorpg ever released… everything is so easy in this game that people rarely ever want to put in any effort to socialize, and why should they, the game isn’t conducive of it.

It is what longtime mmorpg players would consider an mmo-lite, more akin to the level of depth a facebook game might have, than a traditional mmorpg.

@Sheen

Charlie, get off the drugs. You said you’d stop ages ago and still here we see you didn’t.

Being social all depends on you as a player. As long as the game is not instanced to hell like STWOR or STO it is simple enough but even in those instanced games it is still possible to get into contact with people,there is no excuse.

I have been in groups that at first were silent, i break the ice and the group becomes chatty and end up with new guildies or people on the FL, this does not always work but if you never even try to be social it will never happen, This does not happen if you are socially passive.

I have never had issues with it in any mmo tbh. How can you blame a game MMO’s in particular for being anti social? It is up to you.

The argument of “i have no reaons to be social” is a lemon. Even now i meet people by afk chatting in areas using /s and /m, go figure.

Unless you as a individual lack depth yourself this could be a problem for you, get help.

… yeeeahhh. I mean, I’m not trying to hate on WoW – but that is a game that you can do all the “questing” content by yourself. And that’s okay – that’s how they’ve tuned the game and some people might like it. Lots of people like to solo, and that’s okay – but “the grass is always greener” – people complain that WoW needs more challenges and more group content. One game is not going to please everyone.

While playing GW2, I have noticed plenty of “group” content – some that even if it is possible to solo, is still conductive to group play and very difficult to do alone. Lots of people stop to help each other in the world because there’s no penalty.

I think it’s just about what playstyle you want. My favourite part of WoW would be seeing one of those higher-level quest elites you’re supposed to “weaken” with some item and taking it on as-is. I liked playing druid and having the tools to do that.

My favourite dungeons in WoW were ones where we’d get pushed out of our defined “roles”. DPSing as a healer, healing as DPS – I liked the versatility and adjusting to a given chaotic situation when the group wasn’t going “as planned”.

Looking at my preferred playstyle, it’s easy to see why GW2 appeals to me.

I do a lot of what Ceallach does: often I find myself tagging along with a group as we follow a particular event or clear an area, and sometimes conversations start up out of that, especially if you’ve got a good sense of humour Some of my most fun experiences so far have been just random encounters with other players while we struggle with some quest, and the hilarious banter we have while we’re doing it. I’ve found the game to be pretty social so far, but it definitely can be intimidating to just strike up conversation with strangers.

Join a guild…….

[qoute]I do a lot of what Ceallach does: often I find myself tagging along with a group as we follow a particular event or clear an area, and sometimes conversations start up out of that, especially if you’ve got a good sense of humour Some of my most fun experiences so far have been just random encounters with other players while we struggle with some quest, and the hilarious banter we have while we’re doing it. I’ve found the game to be pretty social so far, but it definitely can be intimidating to just strike up conversation with strangers.[/quote]

indeed and humor is key here. I also dont see how starting a convo in a videogames chatbox is such a hurdle.

My first MMO as well; however, I come from a completely different background of purely single player games (or just doing purely single player things – I don’t PvP at all), so this probably colors my perception in a completely different way. I find it is highly social, and in a nice way too, where people are rather helpful and willing to help on request; and yeah, it can be a bit intimidating to strike up a conversation with people you don’t know, but so long as you’re sensible about it, things will go fine.

You see the thing is avan most veteran mmo players that complain about sociability are themselves the least social ingame. They become socially passive, join groups for instance witouth trying to talk just for fun ,joking around or even responding unless they have a ‘reason’ as can be read in this very thread.

The ‘reason’ usually is beingkitten of about something or shouting orders around ending up with the word “noob”

If they are in a guild they tend to only talk to their guild.

They are not complaining about the lack of sociability since they are the prime example of how not to be social. They are complaining about not being forced to communicate during DE’s mainly.

it is the “please hold my hand and make me do it or the blame is on you” syndrome.

It can certainly be intimidating to strike up convo, for sure. I think a lot of times MMO players have a bad reputation of being snarky or mean or overcompetitive and therefore somehow less welcoming. Totally not the case. Well, except for the snarky part, maybe. Me, I just roll with it and if I make a totalkitten of myself then ah well, better luck nextt ime.