Guild Wars 2

I rarely see people grouped in this game, why is that? Do gamers this day in age just want to be left alone to do there own thing? I myself have a heck of a time finding people to play with.

Discuss.

Because people are unreliable. If something is doable solo, you can usually get it done more efficiently alone than with a group. Plus keep in mind that the whole personal story system, bar the last mission, focus on a solo gameplay style.

it honestly depends on the person I think. some people don’t mind grouping and if I get pinged a group invite for an heart or area I’m doing – I’ll join in a heart beat – pun intended.

Honestly, the whole game is a group imo lmao.
I mean..everything you do is basically helping each other out.
Revive folk on the spot, killing gives shared EXP for everyone. o3o
Maybe join a guild and hope they talk? :c I would just love a social guild in my server really…Though Map talk is also fun at times.

I’m not really unsociable, I just have issues approaching people I don’t know, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. It also probably doesn’t help that a lot of people have possibly come from other games where the community is pretty toxic, and you tend to get verbally abused for making mistakes in dungeons/group content…I know that kind of put me off running dungeons with anyone but friends when I played WoW…will probably never run them in this game either.

It is because it’s not needed to group outside of dungeons. I like playing with people in the open world, but there’s no need for me to be in a group with them. If someone else wants to party up and sends me an invite, sure I’ll take it.

So in other words it’s not the games fault for lack of people not wanting to group together? Or does the game encourage solo play outside of dungeons?

I play with others all the time, no need to group up for it though, just run up to an event and contribute.

I usually send an invite to anyone doing the same quest as me. But for the most part I don’t really care either way, usually faster to go solo

I group up a lot of but it’s normally with my husband or guildies. I’m generally wary of strangers for a couple of reasons.

1) I’ve had a few bad stranger experiences in the past.
2) I’m a guild leader and sometimes I just want some me game time.

Tharjax.9068:

So in other words it’s not the games fault for lack of people not wanting to group together? Or does the game encourage solo play outside of dungeons?

Nope, not the game’s fault. I guess gamers just tend to be lone wolves by nature, or prefer to run with people they’re already familiar with. I use to be pretty social when I started playing MMOs (lawl, I think RO was my first, and I used to randomly chat up dead people and sit on their corpses before they made them disappear…>.>)…not sure when that changed, but now I tend to personally only run with friends or alone.

So in other words it’s not the games fault for lack of people not wanting to group together? Or does the game encourage solo play outside of dungeons?

Well like I already said it encourages solo play in the personal story missions. Also, anyone who is a GW1 veteran will likely be used to running with a full hero party by now and not fully adjusted back to grouping.

Not grouped = unsocial?

Since when?

Refusing to group, that could be unsocial. But simply not being in one at this moment in time?

because i’m always in /g… and i feel lazy to have to switch to /s then back to /g after…

so i look silent. ~__~

What you have to keep in mind is that there is limited use in grouping.

Without grouping you still get xp from joint kills, buffs tend to be AoE rather than group-based, etc.

Because this game is designed with the solo player in mind. There’s no benefit to being grouped so people don’t bother.

They need to either add some areas with seriously upped difficulty or start offering incentives to group.

Most games these days cater to solo players. Game is too easy, exp is shared…so ppl dont bother. I miss games like EQ, where you had to group. A mix of solo play and group play would have been nice.

Yeah, groups are pretty much useless here.

And the game isn´t helping either.
Just like in any other MMO you have to create your own group chan by hand and it actually hinders you in communicating with the rest of “the Zerg”.

This is one design idea that should´ve simply been killed of or actually upgraded in some useful way. Instead to just coping it over from their old game.

I may be wrong about this but It seems to me, we gain influence faster when completing events while grouped with guildies. That at least appears to be the case from my own guild leaders perspective.

HawkMeister.4758:

Yeah, groups are pretty much useless here.

And the game isn´t helping either.
Just like in any other MMO you have to create your own group chan by hand and it actually hinders you in communicating with the rest of “the Zerg”.

This is one design idea that should´ve simply been killed of or actually upgraded in some useful way. Instead to just coping it over from their old game.

How is my communication hindered by joining a group?

It takes less than a second to type "/s " or "/g " to change channels, if that’s what you are talking about I see it as a non-issue.

I feel cramped in a group. You have to observe niceties, rules and the feelings of others, all normal social behaviour off course. You can not drop a group after 10 minutes. You can not impose your own wants constantly. Groups tend to do mundane, repetitious stuff imo, like kill mobs for hours on end in the same spot (EQ). Groups sometimes tend to be inefficient or ineffective and I feel you still have to be nice then.

Grouping with people you know or like does not change a whole lot to the above. When I started playing MMO’s back in ’99, I never started with the idea of “whoaa, I get to kill stuff with 5 people for hours on end”. I started with the idea of entering a Fantasyworld, “where thousands of other people would be too”.

Sure, it also said " Fight monsters together with other players" on the box, but that never implied the “group-up” thing for me. If anything, that is exactly what DE’s are for me. MMO’s was about an immersive world, NPC’s, treasure, hidden places, exploring, secrets, and off course, meeting other players in that world.

Just not “kill stuff for 2 hours with the same 5 people”.

Jestunhi.7429:

How is my communication hindered by joining a group

Actually you´re right, chat(apart from /map) is pretty much useless anyway.
There is no time to chat during a fight, and if you do you´re either defeated or doing it wrong.

I prefer to group with people I know real-life and have on skype/teamspeak. but different working schedules makes grouping somewhat difficult except on weekends.

in the open world I often run with another player without grouping – its not necessary and it feels more natural to help each other out and part ways again after a while.

if you’re in a group, you have to constantly consider your teammates. you can’t just go get something to eat and park your toon, your group will not like it. if you don’t group but use the system ANet placed for us, you can still work together, but less closely tied, for me it just feels more natural.

You don’t have to be in a group to be “sociable” in this game. I’m having fun with players who walk beside me for a couple DE’s without having to be in a group. I’m having fun in map chats.

I see a lot of people complaining about the lack of player interaction in this game, but it always sounds like they somehow magically expect it to happen. If you don’t say a word, you can’t expect the player next to you to start a conversation. If you put a little effort into it, you’ll have a fun discussion in no time. And if you are the quiet type, you can still play together with other people without it being awkward.

So no, I do not think GW2’s system of grouping and playing together makes the game less social. It’s the players themselves that make the community, not the mechanics of the game. And compared to GW1, this game has a more vibrant community, IF you are willing to put in the effort.

There was (probably still is) a feature in Rift where players could group up without asking and invitations. All you need to do is click on an individual or existing group and join up. If you aren’t interested in grouping you can just set your private flag. That was something that worked pretty well. Warhammer had public groups too and they worked well. What you don’t want though in PvE is huge zerg groups forming, of course (Warhammer groups were unlimited or at least very large).

As many mention, I believe the hardest part about grouping is with instant communication. Playstyle is a FAR second, as people can adapt playing to suit the moment – ie, I would never ask a Ranger to rush into a mob and I would never as a Thief to stand back and DPS. Unless you’re directly speaking (same room/phone, skype/group chat) it’s hard to communicate. I type at 90 WPM and even I have difficulties conveying on the fly messages to my group, while fighting off a mob. Often, by the time I type my super condense message (“Lets move” or “Pull back”), the moment of necessity has already passed. Hell, even typing “TY” for being revived is a bit of a pain sometimes.

roqoco.4053:

There was (probably still is) a feature in Rift where players could group up without asking and invitations. All you need to do is click on an individual or existing group and join up. If you aren’t interested in grouping you can just set your private flag. That was something that worked pretty well. Warhammer had public groups too and they worked well. What you don’t want though in PvE is huge zerg groups forming, of course (Warhammer groups were unlimited or at least very large).

But this would give no advantage in GW2.

The only noticeable difference between a 3 players working together and 3 players working together in a group is that one has access to the /group channel.

There may also be a difference in guild rewards, the tooltip of it (I forget, is it karma at the guild level or something else?) seems to imply that guildies grouping up will increase the rate at which you get it.

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

You don’t have to be in a group to be “sociable” in this game. I’m having fun with players who walk beside me for a couple DE’s without having to be in a group. I’m having fun in map chats.

I see a lot of people complaining about the lack of player interaction in this game, but it always sounds like they somehow magically expect it to happen. If you don’t say a word, you can’t expect the player next to you to start a conversation. If you put a little effort into it, you’ll have a fun discussion in no time. And if you are the quiet type, you can still play together with other people without it being awkward.

So no, I do not think GW2’s system of grouping and playing together makes the game less social. It’s the players themselves that make the community, not the mechanics of the game. And compared to GW1, this game has a more vibrant community, IF you are willing to put in the effort.

Couldn’t agree more with you. It’s not really expected that some random person who walks by you just outta no where speaks up, or feels like talking. Couldn’t have said it better then what you just did.

If you’re not willing to talk yourself, why should you expect others to talk as well? Sure, you get those few “odd” people who talk, but they do in fact make the game more interesting. And as the above person said, most people now a days I would imagine are using such programs such as Dolby, Skype, Vent, Team Speak, etc. Though, I don’t quite agree with his laziness of deciding not to type out words period, he does have his point.

Another reason you might not see people acting so Sociable, as you put it, is due to the fact there is a message suppression in effect right now, so you’re not able to just spam the chat, and flood it with useless, and mindless chatter, which is both looked down upon, and seen as a good thing in the eyes of mixed minds.

If you buy an mmorpg, and expect things to just happen, people to just talk, I’m afraid you probably bought the game for the wrong intention, and at the very least start communicating yourself, or simply play solo.

And to point out to an above poster who claimed that the game is too easy, quick experience, etc. And that he/she remembers back in the days of EQ, well, that’s just the sort of style all the players now a days are become bored of. It’s boring to search for parties hours on end, and if your gear isn’t up to par, you’re not able to join a group, thus, allowing you not to get the gear, because you’re not allowed in majority of the parties. Guild Wars 2, at least in my eyes, is breaking away from it, and doing a good job. The dungeons in explore mode are still heavily group based, and it seems they’re trying to have everyone, rather then a small minority of people enjoy the game. I can’t say I’m one who enjoys looking for a group forever, but I do enjoy being in a group for challenges such as dungeons to obtain gear.

Anyways… A good way to start being social, is simply to form a party, within a party, forms interesting conversations. I would suggest trying to invite others, and or talk during Dynamic Events (Not so much Dynamic, as Reoccurring…)

What’s the point of creating a group for non-dungeon things? Grouping does not change the mechanics in any way except that you see those faces on top left corner and blue dots on minimap. We are all automatically part of one large group where ever we are. You are grouped with everyone you see.

There is no tagging or shared objectives or anything like that like in other games. You won’t get credit from kills or loot even if you are grouped if you do not attack the mob and if you attack the mob, it does not matter if you are grouped with others or not

Ameepa.6793:

What’s the point of creating a group for non-dungeon things? Grouping does not change the mechanics in any way except that you see those faces on top left corner and blue dots on minimap. We are all automatically part of one large group where ever we are. You are grouped with everyone you see.

There is no tagging or shared objectives or anything like that like in other games. You won’t get credit from kills or loot even if you are grouped if you do not attack the mob and if you attack the mob, it does not matter if you are grouped with others or not

One point would be so you & your friends can keep track of each others locations while running around together.

MrsAngelD.6971:

Ameepa.6793:

What’s the point of creating a group for non-dungeon things? Grouping does not change the mechanics in any way except that you see those faces on top left corner and blue dots on minimap. We are all automatically part of one large group where ever we are. You are grouped with everyone you see.

There is no tagging or shared objectives or anything like that like in other games. You won’t get credit from kills or loot even if you are grouped if you do not attack the mob and if you attack the mob, it does not matter if you are grouped with others or not

One point would be so you & your friends can keep track of each others locations while running around together.

Yes of course it’s different if it’s about friends and guildies. I thought that it was more about random grouping for hearts and de:s and such.

I find I can complete things faster than most people.

Not to sound like a moa kitten or anything, but usually I find that I’m done with a quest or heart or whatever faster than my group mate. I mean, its fine everyones at their own pace but I like to get in and get out, be done, experience what there is and hit the next area. Most people are slower.

As some people have mentioned, grouping is much more prevalent in MMOs where 9/10 classes are forced to group..ok well virtually none anymore (maybe EVE), but EQ back in the day, and DAoC for RvR. It depends on the MMO really. I never joined a group in UO, which was quite a bit before EQ/DAoC, hell a grouping system didn’t even exist for years in that game.

The problem nowadays is you don’t need a group. Do you think people enjoyed looking for groups for hours in EQ1?? No, they did it because they had to, but they met amazing people along the way in the process, which I daresay made the experience more fulfilling than if they had just soloed their way to the top.

Add in the fact that certain MMOs led to an influx of a lot of undesirables into the genre, and the free-to-play model opening it up to a demographic that doesn’t have credit cards..of course no one wants to spend hours looking for groups anymore, but it seems MMOs completely skipped the middle ground between “must have a group” and “don’t need a group for 95% of content”

kyokara.1867:

The problem nowadays is you don’t need a group. Do you think people enjoyed looking for groups for hours in EQ1?? No, they did it because they had to, but they met amazing people along the way in the process, which I daresay made the experience more fulfilling than if they had just soloed their way to the top.

It seems MMOs completely skipped the middle ground between “must have a group” and “don’t need a group for 95% of content”

This needs to be said again.

The players of this genre are at a point where they don’t know what’s best for themselves anymore.

Tharjax.9068:

So in other words it’s not the games fault for lack of people not wanting to group together? Or does the game encourage solo play outside of dungeons?

As somebody mentioned outside of dungeons you dont need to form groups to do DE’s or raid bosses. All people need to do is work cooperatively to do DE’s and champions/bosses. People will start to converge in an area, work together and go their own ways once finished.

But it sounds like you want to group up with somebody and chit chat. If that is so, then i would recommend finding a social guild and see if anyone wants to team up. Teaming up with random people, and then trying to start up a conversation usually makes people uncomfortable. Some people want to tune everything else out and become immersed in the environment, not carry on a conversation, or have to do anything with their guild. If you are in a guild with people you are close with, you dont even need to be questing together. If there is a guild vent see if there is a general chat channel that people use. One of my old guilds, people would go to a channel and just talk about random stuff. But one person could be PVPing, another could be leveling, another could be doing a pug raid, and yet another could be in a city just spinning on their mount.

Nyaochan.1756:

I’m not really unsociable, I just have issues approaching people I don’t know, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. It also probably doesn’t help that a lot of people have possibly come from other games where the community is pretty toxic, and you tend to get verbally abused for making mistakes in dungeons/group content…I know that kind of put me off running dungeons with anyone but friends when I played WoW…will probably never run them in this game either.

I suffer from SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder), so I rarely group and never do dungeons/raids. I started playing WoW with a friend and he convinced me to let go of my fear and try out some dungeons with him. Being a dungeon-newbie, I took a hell of a lot verbal abuse from some of the people we played with via the dungeon-finder and it really brought me down and discouraged me from doing dungeons/raids. Since then I haven’t played a single dungeon in any MMO and I doubt I’ll ever get to see the ones in GW2, so I can certainly relate to your story Nyaochan.

Tharjax.9068:

I rarely see people grouped in this game, why is that? Do gamers this day in age just want to be left alone to do there own thing? I myself have a heck of a time finding people to play with.

Discuss.

TIME.

You work, you have obligations towards your family. Comitting time to an entertainment is one thing. Comitting time to wait someone to make his dinner or take the dog out to poop while trying to achieve something is just a big NO.

That simple. When we grow up, we start giving much more value to time. Without 16h a day to play games you don’t want to wait on others for anything else.

its not just gamers, its a lot of people.
And it’s their not there.

Kasenai.9418:

kyokara.1867:

The problem nowadays is you don’t need a group. Do you think people enjoyed looking for groups for hours in EQ1?? No, they did it because they had to, but they met amazing people along the way in the process, which I daresay made the experience more fulfilling than if they had just soloed their way to the top.

It seems MMOs completely skipped the middle ground between “must have a group” and “don’t need a group for 95% of content”

This needs to be said again.

The players of this genre are at a point where they don’t know what’s best for themselves anymore.

If majority of people actually wanted forced grouping, there would be forced grouping in every game.

Aaand I’m pretty sure that people are also free to decide themselves what is best for them.

When was the last time someone invited you to a party just to help them kill something or help them with event? Mine was never.
The problem I see is the shared loot, the thing where you can loot a monster even if someone else has started the fight with it.
This is why players dont feel like grouping up with others, because they can simply do that without a party. Thus, you are just another player passing by, missing tons of opportunities to meet new people…..

Taihaku.8412:

Maybe try asking them if they want to group instead of standing there with no one inviting you and complaining about it?

maybe dont come here responding stupidly and not contributing to anything?

Ameepa.6793:

Kasenai.9418:

kyokara.1867:

The problem nowadays is you don’t need a group. Do you think people enjoyed looking for groups for hours in EQ1?? No, they did it because they had to, but they met amazing people along the way in the process, which I daresay made the experience more fulfilling than if they had just soloed their way to the top.

It seems MMOs completely skipped the middle ground between “must have a group” and “don’t need a group for 95% of content”

This needs to be said again.

The players of this genre are at a point where they don’t know what’s best for themselves anymore.

If majority of people actually wanted forced grouping, there would be forced grouping in every game.

Aaand I’m pretty sure that people are also free to decide themselves what is best for them.

Even FFXI that had forced grouping as progression eventually came to its senses and changed it’s leveling system. People just don’t have so much time in their hands like thy had 10 years before.

Really? Another thread?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Why-are-a-lot-of-gamers-unsociable

Sartheris.8456:

When was the last time someone invited you to a party just to help them kill something or help them with event? Mine was never.

Never.

When was the last time you helped someone kill something without being invited? Mine was yesterday.

I’ve encountered several occasions during my puzzle hunt and map completions of social people where we group up or just explore together to solve puzzles or vistas although usually it’d be a one time thing and you’ll rarely ever meet them again, maybe in Lion’s Arch sometimes.

With that said, I believe those map pings are one other advantage for being in a group. It sure does help players who needed a more precise location for entrances to caves which are hidden in every nooks and cranny of an area.

I wish those map pings work for the whole map rather than just parties tho I can foresee ping spam in the entire map if they do.

Sartheris.8456:

When was the last time someone invited you to a party just to help them kill something or help them with event? Mine was never.
The problem I see is the shared loot, the thing where you can loot a monster even if someone else has started the fight with it.
This is why players dont feel like grouping up with others, because they can simply do that without a party. Thus, you are just another player passing by, missing tons of opportunities to meet new people…..

Games where you don’t get to share credit on mobs or events when not in a group promote social interaction?

How many people have you invited to a party or initiated conversation with? I always see this kind of point made with reference to how other people don’t initiate…well you can initiate if that’s what you want.

Another issue is that people often confuse “interaction” with communication or grouping. At least in this game, interaction comes in the form of cooperative rather than competitive behaviors, which tends to promote a more positive community overall.

If anything allowing shared credit in activities whether grouped or not is an improvement on previous models. The specific issue of grouping up or not is more of a cultural issue. Cultures where individual exceptionalism are promoted tend to have more lone wolf gamers as opposed to cultures which feature a more socially cohesive identity. That isn’t an issue the game can address. Also, as I said, if you don’t like that others don’t initiate grouping but don’t do any initiating yourself, there’s really no solution that can be offered.

Forcing people to do things they dont want to do doesnt make them do it. I played a ton of MMOs and I’ve seen a lot of ways games try to stimulate each other to party. From kill 100s of this mob to get those 50 drops you need to dungeons to having few mobs with long respawn time. Yeah in these games you get to an area and you get invited to a party. Does any socialition really happen? most of the time and I just want to be generous there all you get is thanks for the party and how many do you still need! Dungeons provide a little more interaction. You get stuff like looking for a party and do you need a party? if dungeons are hard you get someone telling people what to do or dont.

Just cause you form a party you’re not going to have meaningful discussions. You can have those meaningful discussions without forming a party if you really want to!

I play on one of the unofficial roleplaying servers and I can tell you there is tone of socializing between players. they dont form parties for that!

Parties are just a tool wether you socialize or not is your decision and it depends on you nothing any game can ever do about that!

Galen Grey.4709:

Forcing people to do things they dont want to do doesnt make them do it. I played a ton of MMOs and I’ve seen a lot of ways games try to stimulate each other to party. From kill 100s of this mob to get those 50 drops you need to dungeons to having few mobs with long respawn time. Yeah in these games you get to an area and you get invited to a party. Does any socialition really happen? most of the time and I just want to be generous there all you get is thanks for the party and how many do you still need! Dungeons provide a little more interaction. You get stuff like looking for a party and do you need a party? if dungeons are hard you get someone telling people what to do or dont.

This reminds me of a behavior that I first observed in pre-CU SWG. The mission terminals would give higher rewards for more people in your group. People would form a group at a grinding hub like the Mining Outpost on Dantooine and keep it filled up so that the missions would pay out ~30,000 credits each. Then people would pick up and run missions entirely by themselves. We called them “solo groups” which is kind of an inherent oxymoron.

This is the kind of thing that happens when you create such barriers, people just incorporate as one more step in the process of maximizing efficiency without changing their behavior patterns.

Usually 2 or 3 of the 20 people in the group would be shooting the breeze (I was usually one of them), but most were entirely silent.

Those days are over. It’s either 1-2 threads about how we aren’t forced to socialize, or ten trillion threads about how we can’t solo things.

There’s really no middle ground. If there can be soloing, nearly everyone will choose to solo.

I’ve never been big on actively-seeking out a group, and it’s a major part of why I loved the concept behind what was done in the open-world here. In the end, it hasn’t gone exactly as I hoped, as there’s little reason to socialize with anyone else specifically since, though everyone is playing together, it’s not a linear experience, and thus you aren’t thrown together for any length of time. But at least I’ve got map-chat, and it’s still far better than anything that requires actively grouping (hence why I’m loathe to attempt any dungeons).

I suppose I was spoiled by PSO being my first online game, since that essentially provided the best type of set-up for my preferences. You could join a game or start your own, jump into playing, and socialize with whoever happens to be in the room. Someone new comes in? Drop them a pipe and carry on. Kill crap and shoot the breeze while you progress from Forest-to-Falz or Temple-to-Flow. I really wish dungeons in this game would have adopted a similar model, but I know that it wouldn’t have gone over well since that would have ripped the ‘challenge’ out of them. :-( But they’d likely have to be made massively-longer if that was done anyway or you’d end up with something similar to PSU or PSO2 where the content is all in such short, insular bursts that rooms don’t have proper time to get into full swing.