Guild Wars 2

Shared loot and experience is the best thing to happen to the MMO genre in years, trust me you do not want to go back to the cut ‘n’ paste mechanic of mob tagging and rewarding only the player that hits the mob first.

A mob tagging mechanic simply makes an MMO play worse the more players that are in the area with players kill stealing and stepping on each other’s heads to get ahead.
In GW2 everyone in the zone is essentially working as a team regardless of if you tagged them to join a group or not.

This is changing the way MMO players play the game. You will see people go out of their way to give a player a rez or just spontaneously follow you and start playing in a way that compliments your combat style to proc. Combat combo’s.

NO, if you change this mechanic and force players to compete against each other for mobs and loot drops you would change the cooperative nature of the community.

If you are the type of player that needs to see a list of player health bars down the left side of your screen to feel you are interacting with others join an active guild or become the one to send out group requests.

I must be antisocial.

Since I always decline guild invites that happen without a simple Hello..

Same with group invites from players I’ve never seen on screen and I look around, each time.

I don’t think that it’s the mechanics of the game that are making players appear antisocial; I think it has more to do with how popular voice communication has become.

I may be working with others in the area I’m in but most of the time I’m in a VOIP chat channel with 50 other players in my guild.

Using text chat to communicate with other players also becomes problematic as MMO combat becomes more action and reaction based.

I also have to agree with the above poster, I never accept a random invitation to group from someone that hasn’t sent me a tell first.

I am in a party almost at all times I’m on. The parties just happen to be primarily guildmates. Guilds running together in a party get a boost to the influence earned.

As for voice chat, it’s not laziness. With the active combat we have here, there is simply no time to type in most big events, especially a boss fight. Stopping to type can easily get you killed, think of trying to type a line of text in the Metrica fire elemental fight.

My previous game had built-in voice chat for the entire party, and it made a huge difference in communication, as even many who didn’t have a mic would still be able to listen.

Logun.2349:

I don’t think that it’s the mechanics of the game that are making players appear antisocial; I think it has more to do with how popular voice communication has become.

I may be working with others in the area I’m in but most of the time I’m in a VOIP chat channel with 50 other players in my guild.

Using text chat to communicate with other players also becomes problematic as MMO combat becomes more action and reaction based.

I also have to agree with the above poster, I never accept a random invitation to group from someone that hasn’t sent me a tell first.

I think it absolutely has everything to do with voice chat. I myself am always in voice chat when I’m gaming, with my guildies. it’s just easier especially with the way combat is in GW2.

I don’t think it should come as a surprise to anyone why people that stay inside playing on their computer may be unsociable.

@Logan
I agree that shared rewards are a positive thing. Never liked it in previous MMOs, people either party up to share the rewards or don’t and some even spontaneously throw derogatory remarks just because they got the mob.

Umbra.5180:

I must be antisocial.

Since I always decline guild invites that happen without a simple Hello..

Same with group invites from players I’ve never seen on screen and I look around, each time.

I believe these are the kind of habits that we should attempt to eliminate. Although I’m not sure what drives the mass of the people to reject invites besides being busy, not interested,being invited into a guild that you know mainly speak in a foreign language or just want to play alone all the way which is weird to me since it is a MMORPG and not an RPG, unless you bought an MMO just so you can show off things to people you obtained by playing solo.

For me, I usually accept group invites and often, they are people who were close by and have a DE that they required help in or they found the way to the puzzle and such. If it was some bullocks I’ll just leave the party then. I know I can just look for puzzles on the .net but that kinda dulled the feeling of finding it.

For guild invites, how I perceive it for those guilds inviting without chatting first is that those who invite usually are hesitant of opening up first especially towards a specific person even when its just through whispers. Based on my past experiences I believe that it demoralises the person to continue recruiting when no response is given although not substantial and even unnoticeable at first.

Finally, I agree that voice chat are becoming more of the way to go since it is accessible while in combat although it does require purchase of peripherals and setting it up for which most casuals won’t want to do.

Valca.1234:

@Logan
I agree that shared rewards are a positive thing. Never liked it in previous MMOs, people either party up to share the rewards or don’t and some even spontaneously throw derogatory remarks just because they got the mob.

Umbra.5180:

I must be antisocial.

Since I always decline guild invites that happen without a simple Hello..

Same with group invites from players I’ve never seen on screen and I look around, each time.

I believe these are the kind of habits that we should attempt to eliminate. Although I’m not sure what drives the mass of the people to reject invites besides being busy, not interested,being invited into a guild that you know mainly speak in a foreign language or just want to play alone all the way which is weird to me since it is a MMORPG and not an RPG, unless you bought an MMO just so you can show off things to people you obtained by playing solo.

For me, I usually accept group invites and often, they are people who were close by and have a DE that they required help in or they found the way to the puzzle and such. If it was some bullocks I’ll just leave the party then. I know I can just look for puzzles on the .net but that kinda dulled the feeling of finding it.

For guild invites, how I perceive it for those guilds inviting without chatting first is that those who invite usually are hesitant of opening up first especially towards a specific person even when its just through whispers. Based on my past experiences I believe that it demoralises the person to continue recruiting when no response is given although not substantial and even unnoticeable at first.

Finally, I agree that voice chat are becoming more of the way to go since it is accessible while in combat although it does require purchase of peripherals and setting it up for which most casuals won’t want to do.

It’s not anti-social to expect some form of communication prior to a guild invite. It’s perfectly acceptable.

As for casuals who cannot afford / be bothered to take a few minutes and a tiny amount of whatever their local currency is for a cheap headset – that’s their choice.

If someone wants to invite me all they need to do is ask if I want to join their party. If that is too much then why would I even want to group with them? Given that the only benefit of a group is an extra chat channel I’m not interested in someone who doesn’t chat.

I think the game is more geared towards piling in than getting people to talk to each other in game. If we were thrown into groups when we entered events that might work out for the better and engage players into adventuring together after the event comes to a close.

As a beginner, I’ve found myself somewhat at a loss for company, I’ve tried being witty and engaging in general through /say but people are always focused on moving forward, getting money, getting geared, getting to 80.

Jestunhi.7429:

It’s not anti-social to expect some form of communication prior to a guild invite. It’s perfectly acceptable.

This… I’m not the biggest fan of how guild systems tend to function in general, but if I don’t know you or anyone in your guild, there’s really no reason you should want me in it or expect me to join. Especially if you haven’t even spoken to me.
You simply want to play together? Then chat while we’re playing. If we hit it off, add me as a friend and we’ll go from there. Otherwise, not interested.

You guys missed the whole point.
It’s not about doing everything solo, or to do things only with friends/guildies.
It’s about the game doesnt encourage you to meet new people by joining groups or making ones, simply because it makes no difference in the situation and nobody bothers – you can still get XP and loot and buffs even without grouping.

I think it because over the past few years games have become easier to advance in. It`s not like it was in the old days with eq where it took a year to lvl to 60. Now you can hit cap in most of the newer games within a month and playing solo to boot. You really don`t need to rely on people in the same ways you had to before when you had to have a group. People complained about not being able to solo and now everything aside from dungeons and certain events can mostly be done solo. So with this trend in gaming being so fast people are forgetting the purpose of what an mmo is supposed to be about, playing with other people. Sure I have 30 other players on my screen helping me do this event, but it`s not the same as it used to be.

Why does it matter if groups are encouraged? Why should people feel the need to group?

Guilds are far more social and have significant benefits via guild upgrades, etc.

If you want social, join a guild.

The game stimulates kind behavior, but not social behavior. In the beginning there where many problems with parties, with overflow servers, joining stories and dungeons. This indicates that they didn’t have the social aspects of MMORPG high on their list. Don’t get me wrong, I love the game and I want it to be a big success.

Many of my friends choose Whisperer and unfortunately the personal story is not different at all. Joining your friends personal story will never make you see something new. You’ ll end up either not seeing your own character talk or doing the same exact story again.

It’s worrying how many people equate “groups are not required” with “ANet doesn’t care about social aspects”.

As if the defining feature of multiplayer content is being in the same group instead of working together to achieve a goal (which is what I currently do during hearts & dynamic events without needing to join a group) or working against each other to see who is best (which is what I do in WvW without needing to join a group).

Hopefully someday people will realise that GW2 gives all the benefit of grouping (resource nodes not 1 use – all players can use them, anyone who tags a mob gets credit, more than 1 person can loot a body, etc), all they are doing is not requiring you to join a group to get them.

With my close friends, I’ll group no matter what as long as I’m not redoing content. I also won’t burden others if I’m popping on and off every 15 mins. That’s not fair.

Without voice chat, grouping and talking is near impossible in this game anyway. You can’t effectively stand still and do well at the same time, which means anything other then /lol isn’t going to cut it. This isn’t EQ or DAOC where you could mostly stand still, wait for your auto attacks, hit taunt and a couple other buttons every 1o seconds. It doesn’t work. Forget about dungeons or DEs. You have to be “on” all the time.

I’m personally not comfortable voice chatting with a bunch of random teenagers I happen to meet anyway. Typing, no big deal. Listening to squeeky voices. hehe… No thanks. Talking to a guild of like minded people is different, but I still prefer typing. Easier to follow conversation without people talking over one another. You simply can’t have conversations through voice chat with more then 3ish people without one person talking over others.

There could be distance based voice chat, so anyone within view can simply talk into the game and everyone else could hear, but imagine the problems with that=) It could be an option though. See what happens.

Besides, as other said, besides the high lvl zones where spawn rates are out of hand, you don’t need groups. Dungeons and pvp, WvW. Sure, grouping is mandatory or helps. But you can play most of the game without dealing with anyone and its by design.

I’ve had a pretty good time in meeting up with random people all the time. I rarely accept random group invites without a polite “Hey, wanna group?” first. I find the group request without asking first rude – not really sure why though, I just do.
So, applying that logic to others, I find simply asking “mind if I tag along?” or “Are you after ____ too?” will net me good results in meeting up with people.

Met up with 3 other people in one of the snowy areas the other day. We seemed to be the only ones in the zone outside the resident bots; so we teamed up to get 100% of the map done. We never “grouped”; just joined together. I honestly hadn’t noticed we weren’t ever “grouped” until we were almost done. O.o Anyway, had a blast.

Well yeah it depends on the gamer. I absolutely cannot stand grouping while doing typical quests. It just feels too restricting. Sometimes while leveling I’ll just decide to go exploring. Or I’ll just log because I feel like doing something else. Or maybe I’ll just craft for a while. I don’t really want to run all these decisions by a group of people no matter how friendly we are.

Group quests, dungeons, instances, etc no problem. Just regular questing or hearting or whatever it’s going to be called here – not so much.

I do not group a lot to be honest, I enjoy it that way. As far as being sociable I have my guild for that which I chat with consistently.

However, “out in the open” conversations are few and far between, and normally those are with somebody who happen to be in the same farming spot as me as we just kill everything and chat to lessen some of the tedium.

Map chat is a joke in most zones so unless it’s answering a question I usually have it turned off.

Doing the same RB with a character who happend to walk in the same area is not social interaction.

It is all linked together, people complain about the endgame because people grouping in actual formal groups, e.g., party, guilds or squads, gives the “us and them” feeling and the possibility to score as a group. This keeps people in a game for years even after they run through all content within the first month after release. Groups need things to collect and own and achieve by doing group activities.

If fighting alongside someone outside of a group isn’t social interaction then nor is fighting alongside someone in a group.

There is no difference except his health is now on the left of your screen.

No open world content requires grouping.
There is no reason to group, other than assembling for a dungeon run.

Well, maybe a minor social one… I group a bit with my 4y old son, as he cries for help every now and then – and by grouping I can track his position.

To put groups to use, grouping should offer value. In regular MMOGs the health bars are a good reason. But in GW2 most casual players dont care enough, and larger events easily have too many participants anyway.

One suggestion: Have combo’s matter more within groups. Mark the buttons in player UI that are combo starters, and when a starter is in effect, mark possible finishers.

I prefer to run in a group. I don’t mind having to wait for others to keep up. I do sometimes get irked when they don’t wait for me. I find most tasks are just safer and faster done with others and not having to look for help to kill a champion or get a rez is nice too. Fighting along side others in DEs is close, but when nobody says a word and everyone disappears the second it’s done, I don’t call that social.

No open world content requires grouping.
There is no reason to group, other than assembling for a dungeon run.

There are many places in the world that cooperation is more than just convenient, but downright necessary. Maybe you don’t need a group, but it can’t be done solo (at least for most professions).

Map chat I find useless. So many people turn it off outside the newbie zones it’s completely dead. When I do talk there, I rarely get a response, let alone an answer to a question. I will admit it’s in another tab for me so I don’t see it all the time, but I do respond when I can. Ask for a group or partner to do hearts and DEs with? Might as well be speaking in a foreign language.

I am hoping that someday a dev will release a group centric MMO like EQ of old. Not that it punishes solo/casual players, but give substantial benefits to grouping besides social and faster killing.

Chaorx.2178:

No open world content requires grouping.
There is no reason to group, other than assembling for a dungeon run.

Well…. Yes. That’s one of the key points of GW2. You can interact with your fellow players in a social manner without having a gun against your head that is forcing you to formally group (as is common in other MMOs due to how their AoE Buffing and Loot Drop mechanics work). I’m playing GW2 for exactly this reason. There is a social aspect of creating spontaneous combos with your nearby players. The same goes for my ability to Revive any player I can find (which seems to really help the community spirit of this game).

I know that other people come from MMOs that are based on making formal groups. However I don’t see that system as a positive thing. It creates a culture of Us vs Them, which leads to social cliques and elitism. Yes, having your own personal loot drops in GW2 would mean that it wouldn’t ever get as bad as a “traditional” MMO. Yet it seems that ArenaNet has a similar point of view as my own when you look at how they designed GW2.

Jestunhi.7429:

If fighting alongside someone outside of a group isn’t social interaction then nor is fighting alongside someone in a group.

There is no difference except his health is now on the left of your screen.

Unless you party with this random and / or you talk, otherwise it is very different. In a guild you ll party with the same people, you get to know them, you speak to them on TS. Thats social interaction, making jokes, becoming friends. Otherwise why not play a solo game, very often the graphics is much better and the story more intense.

beren.6048:

Unless you party with this random and / or you talk, otherwise it is very different. In a guild you ll party with the same people, you get to know them, you speak to them on TS. Thats social interaction, making jokes, becoming friends. Otherwise why not play a solo game, very often the graphics is much better and the story more intense.

You can talk without being in a group.

Comparing no group & no chat with group & chat will obviously be different. But what about no group & chat vs. group & chat?

Now the only difference is the blue dot on your map, the addition of an extra healthbar and a different colour chat channel.

Wiser with Age.3714:

Chaorx.2178:

No open world content requires grouping.
There is no reason to group, other than assembling for a dungeon run.

Well…. Yes. That’s one of the key points of GW2. You can interact with your fellow players in a social manner without having a gun against your head that is forcing you to formally group (as is common in other MMOs due to how their AoE Buffing and Loot Drop mechanics work). I’m playing GW2 for exactly this reason. There is a social aspect of creating spontaneous combos with your nearby players. The same goes for my ability to Revive any player I can find (which seems to really help the community spirit of this game).

I know that other people come from MMOs that are based on making formal groups. However I don’t see that system as a positive thing. It creates a culture of Us vs Them, which leads to social cliques and elitism. Yes, having your own personal loot drops in GW2 would mean that it wouldn’t ever get as bad as a “traditional” MMO. Yet it seems that ArenaNet has a similar point of view as my own when you look at how they designed GW2.

Sure, nice thing is that you can play it as you want. Doing a combo has nothing to do with social interaction. Talking with people and getting to know one another, that is social interaction. Nice thing about GW2 is that you are not forced into any of this, but loyalty to the social group is often the thing that keeps people playing the game far after the end-game has been reached.

Am I asocial? I don’t know..It’s just that my playstyle involves doing one thing, then suddenly dropping everything and running off to do something else, wherever my mood takes me. I don’t think party members would appreciate me suddenly leaving the scene to warp off to god knows where, thats why I usually decline random party invites.

StormcrowX.9236:

Am I asocial? I don’t know..It’s just that my playstyle involves doing one thing, then suddenly dropping everything and running off to do something else, wherever my mood takes me. I don’t think party members would appreciate me suddenly leaving the scene to warp off to god knows where, thats why I usually decline random party invites.

Fortunately, you don’t have to find out as you already get credit for helping them kill, you already get loot for the kills that you worked together on, you already get to communicate with them.

You already have the advantages of a group without actually having to group.

A bunch of people doing the same (non-soloable) event at the same time, assisting one another as needed (more or less), is that not a group, are they not “playing together” – even though they are not grouped up?

Jestunhi.7429:

beren.6048:

Unless you party with this random and / or you talk, otherwise it is very different. In a guild you ll party with the same people, you get to know them, you speak to them on TS. Thats social interaction, making jokes, becoming friends. Otherwise why not play a solo game, very often the graphics is much better and the story more intense.

You can talk without being in a group.

Comparing no group & no chat with group & chat will obviously be different. But what about no group & chat vs. group & chat?

Now the only difference is the blue dot on your map, the addition of an extra healthbar and a different colour chat channel.

Sure, not so easy though. It is more easy to start interacting because you have group goal. Anyway the community is pretty good, maybe the best I ever seen. If the OP asks us why are so little people social, then I ll tell him that the activities don’t require interaction (except dungeons) and it is like a solo game with NPCs.

beren.6048:

Sure, not so easy though. It is more easy to start interacting because you have group goal. Anyway the community is pretty good, maybe the best I ever seen. If the OP asks us why are so little people social, then I ll tell him that the activities don’t require interaction (except dungeons) and it is like a solo game with NPCs.

Chatting in /p is no easier than chatting in /s.

And 2 un-grouped people at a heart or DE also have a shared goal. A group is not required for that.

Jestunhi.7429:

If fighting alongside someone outside of a group isn’t social interaction then nor is fighting alongside someone in a group.

There is no difference except his health is now on the left of your screen.

I have to agree with this, I think this game is more social than any other MMO to date. You simply are working on objectives together with everyone in the area.

The games mechanics mimic group play without actually needing to be in a group the only difference is you don’t see a row of health bars down the left side of your screen.
You actual see the social mechanics at work every time in mid fight someone tries to give you a Rez or lays down an AOE and other change their tactics to take advantage of a combo maneuver.

I personally don’t need someone texting about their cat in a chat window to feel like I’m having an interactive social game experience. The social aspects of the game come through on a much more tactile manner than any other MMO I’ve played.

I simply always feel like I’m having a multiplayer experience when other are nearby, in fact the only time I start to not enjoy the experience is when there are fewer players to fight alongside.

The simple solution as always if you want to have a more traditional grouping experience is to find an active guild to hook up with.

In the rose colored glass days of early WoW, I was still very much the same person: Introverted, awkward, aloof and alone while questing. It was only occasionally that I had to suck it up and ask in local for help on a quest. Then I found out about dungeons and I would wait in the cities to find groups. I was still very timid about this because I had no idea what I was doing and back then, that could mean a very miserable and long time to finish any particular dungeon out. (Wailing Caverns, anyone?) The way I remember it, I started out just being honest and up front with everyone, ‘Hey, I’ve never done a dungeon before’ ….‘Hey, I’ve never done this dungeon before’ ….‘Hey, I’ve never tanked before’ …etc. Amazingly enough, most everyone I can recall running with not only didn’t appear agitated by this, they were actually willing to help and I sctually turned out to be a very decent tank in the end that more than enough people actually began seeking me out when they needed a tank and it landed me a spot in a raiding guild as an offtank. (the beginning of the end, but that’s another story) Back on my server, I felt I had made a name for myself and many people who helped me along the way made a name for themselves to me. I felt like I belonged in this community.

Flash forward some, and to be honest, I believe we need only go as far as the first time the new lfd tool went from server only to cross realm and suddenly all that changed. People seemed to have this attitude that if someone in the group came out and said at the beginning that they had just hit level cap, didn’t know this dungeon, or were new to the most crucial two parts of the holy trinity and without so much as a word they were kicked from the party, or certain people just left. Then came the gearscore naughtsies that didn’t even need to talk to you, they would wave their magic gearscore wand and if you weren’t up to par you got kicked. Alot of times people weren’t even willing to explain boss fights and one wipe often meant the group just disbanded and the run died because most people don’t want to join a dungeon in progress if you’ve already cleared the first boss….unless its a tank fishing for the last boss dungeon clear.

I could go on and on but at this point the community feel almost instantaneously died. The feelings of camaraderie gone. While it’s true there’s nothing stopping you from grouping up with players from your own realm the truth is when people aren’y synced up and waiting on their friends they can queue and then they get their dungeon runs in and then suddenly they don’t need to go so…..then you have to queue yourself. At this point in the story you can tell I’m not a fan of lfd whatsoever.

Of course in GW2 the feelings I get of camaraderie have been largely restored, but there is still a hollow feeling of community simply because we don’t really need to get to know each other when everything can be accomplished outside a group, and everything is so fast paced (either by design or by human nature) that there’s barely time to waste typing in say or map chat when we’re busy dodging stuff and whatnot. And I’m still left with a bitter taste in my mouth about the gaming community and I feel like any pug runs I may be a part of I will find the same people that turned me off to that other MMO long ago. So that’s really why I roll solo most of the time. It doesn’t seem worth my effort to put up with abuse or witness others putting up with it….much like in real life, unfortunately, it seems I’d rather play alone.

I’m Ituhata, and this has been a 60 second rant. Thanks for reading.

It’s just like real life in a way. All it takes is saying “hi” or “hey how is it going..” to start the ball rolling.

Whenever I group due to being forced by the game I tend to not care about the other players; we are just putting up with other players so we can do something each of us individually wants and go back on our separate ways. As a consequence, if the game forces grouping on the players, I tend to get into more groups, but to not care much about the other players in the group.

In GW2, since we don’t need to group outside dungeons, I get into way less groups, but for those groups I get into I tend to care a lot more about the players.

BTW, since in GW2 I can always go help a player without being concerned for the other player getting less rewards due to the interference – not to mention I also get rewarded for helping out – I tend to help other players in GW2 a lot more than in any other MMO. If it will take less than a minute for me to get to the player that needs help I’m almost guaranteed to go help, whereas in other games I would pass right by other players fighting mobs without caring (being shouted at for trying to help can have this effect

Never underestimate anti-social trolls, even in this game. Shared EXP is great as it minimizes KSing, but some abilities are used for trolling purposes like hunter knockbacks, which funnily only seem to be used when others are around. Not saying all who uses these kinds of skills are trolls, but the context in which they’re used makes me a bit suspicious. Scattering mobs is also less efficient during DEs as the closer mobs are to eachother the more damage you’ll get per skill overall as you’re hitting more mobs with caltrops, meteor storm, etc., depending on your class. If that’s the intent then the joke is on them because I usually do enough damage to get kill credit and sometimes even loot anyway ^_^

“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.”

I’m looking forward to Phantasy Star 2 coming out even though it’s probably going to be pay to win (Sega said so themselves). It has the best character customization I’ve seen (although this could also be a curse since I really don’t want to see disproportionately big… melons everywhere -_- ) and I love the anime graphics and they remind me of Star Ocean somewhat =) The series is even older than WoW dating as far back as the Dreamcast! I even created some custom characters. They’re female so I’m not going to use them in game, but they are cute ^_^

Agemnon.4608:

Never underestimate anti-social trolls, even in this game. Shared EXP is great as it minimizes KSing, but some abilities are used for trolling purposes like hunter knockbacks, which funnily only seem to be used when others are around. Not saying all who uses these kinds of skills are trolls, but the context in which they’re used makes me a bit suspicious. Scattering mobs is also less efficient during DEs as the closer mobs are to eachother the more damage you’ll get per skill overall as you’re hitting more mobs with caltrops, meteor storm, etc., depending on your class. If that’s the intent then the joke is on them because I usually do enough damage to get kill credit and sometimes even loot anyway

“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.”

I’m looking forward to Phantasy Star 2 coming out even though it’s probably going to be pay to win since it has the best character customization I’ve seen and I love the anime graphics and they remind me of Star Ocean somewhat =) The series is even older than WoW dating as far back as the Dreamcast!

Given that the chances of getting loot depend on the damage that you dealt it’s entirely viable for someone who does mostly single target damage to split up a group of mobs so he has more chance of getting credit for each of them.

That’s the way the system was designed, and grouping doesn’t change that one bit (you still have to hit each mob even if you are in a team full of AoE users).

beren.6048:

Sure, nice thing is that you can play it as you want. Doing a combo has nothing to do with social interaction. Talking with people and getting to know one another, that is social interaction.

We obviously define “social” in different ways. I consider it to cover any kind of interaction that involves using social skills or social interaction. Whether this is verbal or non-verbal is undefined.

So many people define “social” as talking. You have guilds for that. Beyond the general community of a Guild environment, I really don’t see why a game designer should intentionally create game mechanics that force people into formal groups since they have absolutely no way to guarantee “social” interaction as you’ve defined it. Nor does that even mean that such “social” interaction would automatically result in even vaguely positive forms of communication thanks to the current social expectations of what can and can not be said in a MMO.

If you force formal grouping on people, then you create the need for Guild Groups and PUGs. With a PUG, you’ll either get sane people with social skills or people who like to run at the mouth. The only way to avoid that is to run with only Guild Groups. However in MMOs like EQ2 (which introduced their own instanced Guild Halls that acted like independent cities), this need for Guild Groups caused the community to permanently splinter into countless Guild city-states. This took the Us vs Them issue of MMOs to an even greater level, which created a poor environment for new players coming into the game since they encounter a world of anti-social cliques and a relative ghost town of a game since everyone was lurking in instanced Guild Halls.

Now I’m not saying that every MMO will turn out like this. However I’ve experienced grouping and Guilds in some of its worst aspects. (It’s made me permanently cynical about the value of Guilds, but that’s something that I try to keep to myself since most people seem to genuinely enjoy them.) I don’t want any MMO that I enjoy to turn into that environment. That situation was the result of many years of “evolution” within the “social” community. There can be some very negative aspect to the “social” world that you prefer.

ArenaNet is doing something different. They’ve always been rather up front about this. Whether you personally appreciate their point of view or not, this is the game that they wanted to make. I personally object to anyone trying to get any developer to change some of their core game design decisions in a MMO. Pretty much every developer that has caved in to this type of reponse has caused their MMO to implode. Succeed or fail, I want to see what happens when GW2 tries things its own way.

I am a social person, but I have not had yet any , and I mean ANY party invite yet. Playing from Beta1. In my opinion I am playing single player game. I would love to get in guild that would have people who can join me in my exploration, as I am generally finishing from about 1/2 to a whole region in a night. I guess I’ll post “beautiful and strong norn warrior in her 50-th is looking for guild to join” into Guild section :-)

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.

Let’s look your question from the other side.
If people which you mentioned (we) were social, they would go to a bar or a friend or a movie to socialize with a “HUMANBEING” instead of playing an MMO game and roleplaying an unnatural character.
That’s just easy to see actually…

@Jestunhi for the previous quote
I agree its not anti-social to reject, just wanted to justify why some people do guild invites in that way and why we shouldn’t disregard the invite because of it. Now that I’ve read my post again, it does not seem to bring across my point at all lol.

The reason for this is that I got an invite into a guild through that method in a previous MMO I’ve played and it was great. Active and fun guild community and even won first in PvP tourneys although I’m not inside it but did practice with/against them for the tornaments. Just saying that it could be a good thing so we shouldn’t just ignore such guild invites.

Anyway for the topic on why, I believe positive social attitude will just only increase the community’s social attitude. If everybody’s mentality is, “He doesn’t chat, why should I try to socialise with him?” which I actually also do, then of course the gaming community will be more unsociable as its currently perceived to be since I assume from the start, gamers naturally tend to be introverts thus less likely to start a conversation although wanting to party up and socialise. I know I was an introvert in my younger days since all I did was play games (NES/PS1 era) and you know what made me more sociable besides being conditioned by school to be the active participators and taking initiatives in class? It was making friends who started the conversations both real life and eventually in-game and for me it was in FFXI which was my 2nd MMO.

So, basically what I want to bring across is, don’t ponder why gamers are unsociable, but instead be the gamer who socialise with them instead. So like if they invite you suddenly, send them a whisper asking why and such for info. If you see someone running by and you think you want to party up, call em out and hope they stop to listen and party up. If you’re already doing that then uhh… hope more people do it so it becomes a habit for the community cause I doubt they’re sociable in real life if they’re not in-game so I doubt its something some feature in GW2 can fix instantaneously. Although some features could be implemented into the game to better facilitate the socialising aspect of the game.

Ugh, I get so used to typing a lot for school that it becomes habitual.

Jestunhi.7429:

beren.6048:

Sure, not so easy though. It is more easy to start interacting because you have group goal. Anyway the community is pretty good, maybe the best I ever seen. If the OP asks us why are so little people social, then I ll tell him that the activities don’t require interaction (except dungeons) and it is like a solo game with NPCs.

Chatting in /p is no easier than chatting in /s.

And 2 un-grouped people at a heart or DE also have a shared goal. A group is not required for that.

Obviously a free spirit here :P Yes, but I am talking more about a group being a guild, squad or a constant party. These people in the field are randoms in the same area, after the event you forget about each other and maybe you say thanks for the revive.

Join a guild, I always end up grouping with at least one member, she is always grouping with me…as a matter of fact, but indeed the game is a huge group event, everyone is doing the same stuff at the same time.

akuzum.5263:

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.

Let’s look your question from the other side.
If people which you mentioned (we) were social, they would go to a bar or a friend or a movie to socialize with a “HUMANBEING” instead of playing an MMO game and roleplaying an unnatural character.
That’s just easy to see actually…

Yes and no, don’t always have time for that or, after a day of hard working, I feel more like gaming. Some people watch another episode of Friends, I open my PC and play a game.

Agemnon.4608:

Never underestimate anti-social trolls, even in this game. Shared EXP is great as it minimizes KSing, but some abilities are used for trolling purposes like hunter knockbacks, which funnily only seem to be used when others are around. Not saying all who uses these kinds of skills are trolls, but the context in which they’re used makes me a bit suspicious.

To be honest with you, back when I actually ran a longbow, I would use that knockback skill in groups because I felt like one player was taking too much damage and I wanted to get that mob or at least one mob off of him or her for a second so they could recover.

It’s mostly because we aren’t forced to play together, whenever we need a healer or a tank to proceed with the game. Removing the holy trinity means that people aren’t forced to talk with others, but can choose to play with people that they like. This means that conversations are generally more private, rather then public. The fact that ArenaNet don’t allow any rude behavior also means that there aren’t as many arguments, and this also has an impact in how visible players seem to be in the world.

“To be honest with you, back when I actually ran a longbow, I would use that knockback skill in groups because I felt like one player was taking too much damage and I wanted to get that mob or at least one mob off of him or her for a second so they could recover.”

That’s a proper, intended usage whereas “lol no credit 4U!” isn’t.

I love doing things in a group, but I do so with guild members. I chat a lot, but I do it in guild chat or sometimes map chat.

I used to pug a lot of dungeons on WoW in TBC and ended up with quite a few additions to my friends list because of it. After the cross realm dungeon finder was added I’ve had so many bad experiences with pugs I don’t want to do it any more, even if this is a different game.

As for groups for questing etc, I’ve never liked doing that with random people. I find it quite awkward and people don’t really chat, in my experience.

I hate random group/guild invites from people who haven’t even said anything, I think it’s quite rude.

I will happily talk for hours in guild chat and level, do WvW, do dungeons etc with guild members. We even had a jumping puzzle race one weekend.

I think the social aspect of all mmo’s comes from guilds. It’s like joining a club irl and making friends there while doing some activities. Pug grouping is like asking some random dude in the street if he wants to go to the cinema with you.