Guild Wars 2

The reason I have seen for unsocial, disrespectful and idiotic social behavior since the WoW era is a direct result of the North American mentality of NEEDING to be better than everybody else.

Not much will fix this unless people start being courteous on the Internet on their own and unless society’s perception of others turns around 180°. Unfortunately, that won’t happen due to the anonymity factor inherent to gaming, where people can be total kittens without any impact to their RL social standing.

EDIT: Hah, that censorship cracks me up every time. :P

There is no real benefit from grouping in the open world sadly.

lorazcyk.8927:

Tell me about this:
When you go out for a movie, don’t you like to enjoy it with a friend? Isn’t it better with friends than alone in a sea of strangers?
If you go play basketball, do you think it’s better to play with familiar people, or alone or strangers? It’s so much more kitten kitten kitten AWESOME to play with each other, tease each other, cheer with each other, win or lose with each other.

Yeah, I go with someone I already know. I don’t show up alone and then pester folks around me, and then loudly complain that nobody wants to be my friend and that I’m so terribly lonely. I have one IRL friend who plays this game. We group up together sometimes. Teasing and cheering is meaningless to me if the people behind the words aren’t people whose minds and thought processes I am familiar with and understand.

If you hate people that much, you can play solo games? This is a mmo.

That whole argument comes across to me as particularly absurd when we’re talking about a game that is giving me exactly what I need and is not giving you what you need. I’ve previously explained why it’s more interesting to participate in a world full of characters played by real people instead of computer-controlled NPCs. Everyone in a zone is grouped by default so we fight, heal, rez, and complete puzzles together. That level of interaction is perfect for me and I don’t want anything deeper with all the strangers out there. I do play solo games, but I also play this.

In this game it’s just a bunch of stangers pressing 1 2 3 1 2 3 like sleepy office workers who don’t give a kitten about each other just doing the bare minimum at their job because it’s enough to get the paycheck.

See, the problem you apparently have is with this game. So telling me to go play something else makes no sense, and it wouldn’t solve your problem anyway.

Psychrome.9281:

beren.6048:

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.

i agree about what you are saying until you said solo games have better graphics i have yet to see a solo game have better graphics then an MMO

Seriously?

MMO’s are designed to be run on almost any system. Compare them to something like Far Cry 3 and see the difference.

You’re spot on with how I tend to see this Azoetia . I play MMOs primarily because I’m aware of being surrounded by real people, I don’t have to be friends with them to enjoy their company, just knowing they’re there is enough. The necessity of interacting socially in order to get things done in a traditional MMO is essentially artifice. That’s why Dungeon Finder groups in those games are often cold and clinical in my experience

GW2 does away with all the barriers associated with getting open world stuff done. Last night, I and about 20 other people did all the DEs in the volcano zone, it was a quiet affair but in that 45 minutes or so I’d revived others at least a dozen times, broken off into small hunting sub groups to get several objectives done simultaenously, then re-grouped to take on the boss, I got revived myself at least 4 or 5 times, then again I found myself in a small sub-group that went on to do some other DEs that the zerg had missed.

And we did all of that instinctively, without once having to convey a convoluted plan, or one person setting themselves up as defacto leader barking obvious information out like commands. It was an organic, fluid experience, and a very enjoyable one.

I could have reached out to the others in that group, but in the end I didn’t need, or actually want to. But then later, I established a friendship with someone when i was trying to get to a vista and they asked how I got to a ledge. We connected and now they’re on my friends list.

Because you’re all bots until proven otherwise.

Hell I don’t even res strangers anymore because of all the times I’ve seen them get up and right back on their farming rail track.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying “nobody should ever make friends in games.” I’m just saying nobody owes you anything and expecting folks to want to know you is severely misguided.

GW2 doesn’t require teamwork to thrive in most part of the game, even though it can help a lot. You can run any dungeon without talking even once. A very big contrast compared to GW Propechies, where you could not even finish a regular mission without grouping up, henchmen were out of the question. It was chaotic but a lot of fun strategizing and messing around. GW2 misses this by streamlining literally everything. Despite not being instanced, GW2 is a lonelier experience than GW1 ever was unless you are playing with friends.

All these people saying “you can’t talk while playing” and “no one makes friends in this game” etc when people in this very thread have proven the exact opposite boggles me.

Clearly, the problem isn’t with the game. The problem is with you. Open up and start talking to people if you want to be talked to. Not everyone will respond, but someone will. Take the first step… stop being so “anti-social” while complaining everyone around you is antisocial :P

This game is fantastic at getting strangers playing together, horrible at evolving that relationship beyond strangers playing together.

Sure, a lot of that rests on the players shoulders, but in general the current game modes and their pacing don’t really facilitate communication or socializing.

I’d love to see game modes/dungeons added that can’t simply be distilled down to speed runs. The modes available are great (WvW, Dungeons, sPvP, PvE), but there’s room to add to that and enlarge the spectrum of available activies.

I’d love some (possibly episodic off shoots of the main story? based) 5 man copies of existing zones, altered to suit the theme, sprinkled with DEs that rewarded you more and more the longer you persist repelling waves or successfully taking back locations, with rare/random named spawns that you could hunt for and which potentially drop rare/unique to that monster skins (yeah a bit of camping) and other vanity gear. Basically a group experience with a decidedly different pace.

I could happily spend all night exploring that. Anyway, I hope additions to the current options are made as this games design leaves so many doors open in terms of potential content styles.

I think the only thing this game needs is more group goals with group rewards. What I mean is something like a guild hall you can collectively work towards with your guild. If you don’t like grouping up then you won’t be missing out as the reward itself is a group reward and not an individual reward like a skin. The problem is when either you feel forced to do group activities for individual rewards, or when you want to do group activities and there is nothing collectively to work for.

I personally love the way this game works, I love mmos because I like that feeling of aliveness that you only get with other real people playing but I also work in a job that means I have to deal with people all day long so when I’m not working I would say I’m pretty anti social, when you spend so much time seeing people the way I do you realise a lot of them really aren’t very nice so why spend to much time making idle chat. Gw2 allows me to chat when I want but still get things done when I don’t. The only area of the game I’ve barely touched is the dungeons and that because of being forced to group,so I may do them at some point. Only finished the last one because it’s the only way to finish the story.

I think its the design more than anything else. different races, big map, different objectives.. You are probably not going to be doing the same thing for very long. Perhaps if you start a pair of characters with a friend and then run together fairly regularly.

I can use some friends for a change. I’ve been solo since launch. Sounds like a blast to be in a small guild that group runs the map sand does events, PS, etc.. I mean just having 2 to 3 friends different profs that work well together makes the game fun.

Sigh, doesn’t seem like it was meant to be.

Take sPVP, the free section, members of the same party are put on different sides. Is this a bug? Or design? If it is design then it is once again a part of this game favoring solo play.

People are shy yes, and people don’t work together if there is no shared effort that requires cooperation and that makes people meet.

because this game is so easy that it is a lot easier to solo than find a group

you are somewhat grouped when you are doing an event…

Because there’s no ‘follow’ mechanic. I love running around with people and killing stuff but since I have to stop to type (inb4 auto-walk), it isn’t convenient to talk/reply to people.

I party daily with a friend. The major advantage of having an “official” party is that you can see where your party members are and you have an extra chat option (easier to switch to than whispers :P). I can also see when he’s in trouble when we’ve moved away from each other for a bit (I go left, he goes right, both working on the same heart/DE).

For me, parties are for friends, and the rest is for strangers you meet on the way and happen to go your way as well. Maybe you’ll start talking and a friendship will form. But that’s not mandatory and at the end you’ll each go your own way.

There’s one thing that I feel is a bit “unsocial”. And that’s the use of local chat. If you’re doing the same DE, even though you’re not in the same “party”, you can still use the local chat to converse with each other…. Most DE’s are too quiet in chatter…

It’s kinda sad, but it’s how players prefer it today. I won’t lie, I prefer it like that sometimes as well. I know this is predominantly a younger players game, but I’m old enough to have participated in AD&D in my youth, a group of players get together in real life (gasp) and have an adventure together. For those of you who have never had this opportunity, it’s a very interesting and great way to live out your fantasies. I was able to find an extension of this later on in life in games like Everquest where you HAD to group to get most things done.

Now all these MMO’s are about soloing, about how much you can get done without a group. I can’t say I blame them to some extent, it is easier to jump in and out of a game instead of being stuck with others and committed to finishing a dungeon or event. I don’t have the solution, but I certainly do miss those days of forced grouping for the social aspect. Seems like GW2’s strengths are also it’s weakness in that there is very little community.

Rick.1378:

I don’t have the solution, but I certainly do miss those days of forced grouping for the social aspect.

I don’t like that forced grouping at all. It would mean I can’t play according to my own schedule. What if I only have 30 minutes to play and have to spend 20 minutes of those to search for a group and then 10 minutes to decide what to do?

We do have the forced groupings for the dungeons and I think that’s enough.

In this game there is no need to group except for Dungeons or PvX. Even so it is easier to just play with Guildies.

Random players coming up to you to invite, what for? I did accept a couple of times and it was a bad experience. They were demanding and unhelpful.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

Rick.1378:

I don’t have the solution, but I certainly do miss those days of forced grouping for the social aspect.

I don’t like that forced grouping at all. It would mean I can’t play according to my own schedule. What if I only have 30 minutes to play and have to spend 20 minutes of those to search for a group and then 10 minutes to decide what to do?

I think the problem is that some folks equate being in a group with being social. Forced grouping doesn’t make folks more social, it just makes it harder for folks like LadyR and I to play. I’ve rarely found friends through forced grouping. Almost every single friend I made in game was from me saying something goofy in general chat, or helping/getting helped with some task.

If you want to make the game more social from a grouping aspect, you’d have to add voice comms for groups. The role players are very social, but they don’t have fighting getting in the way of their typing. This is the advantage of joining a good sized guild – they often have a team speak/vent/mumble server.

One more thing. because of the heavy reliance on constant movement you don’t have time to stop and type.

There should have been a built-in voice comm system from the start. As it is if you are in a Guild with vent you already have it set up. With random players no.

@Pandemoniac: Actually forced grouping also used to be something that’d create an opportunity for social interaction.

Remember the old MMOs, where casters (all of them, but most importantly, healers) had huge downtimes when they had to regenerate their spell point/mana pools? That’s where the social part happened in the games. Since you had nothing to do while support was sitting down, you’d talk to people. It’s as simple as that.

Now, in these new games, there’s no downtime between fights. You go from fight to fight, without ever tiring out, killing things as fast as you can. Either like in GW (we don’t have a resource to use), like in SWTOR (they have a skill that fills you up when out of combat) or like in WOW (mages conjure up food that refills you quickly).

Question is, do we really want to go back to a time where every 20 minutes there’d be a 10 minute break in gameplay because a crucial party member ran out of juice? :P

Ed: This was most apparent in Lineage 2 of all the games I’ve played. Downtimes were silly long in that game at higher levels.

@Truga and @Pandemoniac: “Actually forced grouping also used to be something that’d create an opportunity for social interaction.” this is what I try to say (sorry for quoting like this but it doesnt work).

@Pandemoniac but a Guild is also a formal / forced group. You conquer something as a guild, you do an event or dungeon and you meet ‘friends’. I think it is pretty unlikely you meet someone in one of the many zerg events by just bla-ing to so of the randoms.

Truga.5897:

@Pandemoniac: Actually forced grouping also used to be something that’d create an opportunity for social interaction.

There are lots of opportunities for social interaction that don’t involve forcing me to play with folks I don’t want to play with. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been on a pug with some nimwit that was making my game time less fun, but I was trapped because of the time I had invested in finding a full team.

Don’t even get me started on the folks that roll a healer type for guaranteed team spots and sit around sponging off the rest of the team. And that’s not healer hate, that’s bad player hate. The DPS types that have no clue how to manage their aggro and drag mobs down on the healer (instead of taking them to the tank) while screaming “HEAL ME!!!” are just as bad.

I have played dedicated support characters in most games and take a certain amount of pride at being good at it. There’s no downtime when I’m your healer because I don’t blow all my resources overhealing.

I think that GW2 has struck a nice balance with requiring a group for dungeons and not for everything else. There’s plenty of opportunities to interact with folks, you just have to take the initiative. There’s time to chat during those escort DEs. Someone else mentioned in the forums that he had a good time offering folks tours of Lion’s Arch to get the map completion done.

Forced grouping is not a good thing. I don’t want to sit around trying to find a group instead of actually playing. I don’t want to have to play with people who annoy me because we need a warm body to fill out the group. Grouping should be consensual.

I am not a very sociable player by nature and I resent being forced to interact with others- that said I find myself far more sociable in GW2 than in any other game I have played.
I chat in /say, map-chat and I usually have a few whispers going on, on the side.

I have met loads of people in this game- either just by doing things randomly together and running into each other often enough to notice, solving a puzzle or hard to reach vista etc.
I’ve had the great pleasure of being approached by an RPer in LA and we meet up every now and then.
I have even had random party requests from total strangers just wanting help with a skill point or finding something on the map.
All in all I find the game very sociable without the pressure of forcing me into a specific form of interaction.

May MMO gamers are older and can’t spend 5 hours a day in game and lose part of the time they have meandering around with a group that often isn’t focused.

I’m that guy. I’m 42 with two young kids and a wife that needs me to be able to drop playing at a moment notice if needed. I can only play for 2-3 hours a day on Saturdays and Sundays.

So, I don’t waste time trying to find a group and don’t want to have to suddenly bail on a group when I have to leave.

Many of us from the EQ1 days are all in the same or similar boat and I think we are a large chunk of MMO players. We aren’t the FPS players of today.

I think it’s more along the lines that it seems much slower to be grouped because unless you know the person well and are communicating in person or on mumble (or whatever) people generally just roam around. It kind of feels like being on a leash, like if you don’t want to do what your party mate does, you kind of feel forced to or have this sense of awkwardness.

I talk to people that try to talk to me, but generally I don’t start conversations. There are still a lot of foul mouthed morons in this game that’d rather troll than make a new friend. As someone that waited the entire length of time for GW2 and spent a lot of time on forums talking about the game, I noticed a decline in the maturity and kindness of the community the closer the game was to releasing. Hopefully these people cut it out and/or leave soon.

But in general, for me, I like to do what I want to do, and with my busy schedule, don’t like to waste time standing near someone that types slow waiting to see what they wanted to do. I like to roam around, and if others follow, that’s fine.

The main problem I have is the people that think this is Left 4 Dead and need to live by that name. I can’t stand it when I help someone up in the middle of a champion fight and no one picks me up and I get killed.

Kasama.8941:

It’s mostly because we aren’t forced to play together.

I’d have to say this. In GW1 we weren’t forced to play with other people, but we did need a full group of henchmen to survive. But henchmen were stupid so we opted for real people as often as possible. And forget doing most story missions with hench. Now however, we can quest completely alone and be ok.

I do like DEs though, because they are generally too hard for one person to complete on their own. It forces players to cooperate. I’ve gotten in the middle of DEs alone and have had to run away 1/2way thur until others come to help. I like that.

One down side of playing together but not in groups is that we don’t actually meet anyone. Sure, we kill things along side one another, but I don’t get to know you or add you to friends. Guilds or dungeon groups are the only way to do that.

I don’t know why its so hard for some people to understand that some folks just don’t like to be social. I’m one of them. Conversations in MMO’s, like many in real life, revolve around mindless banter regarding uninteresting subjects, so I tend to avoid them. I might chime in every now and then if the subject matter is remotely interesting, but most of the time it isn’t. Some people, like myself, like the freedom being alone gives you and would rather not worry about the pressures inherent in social situations. We aren’t anti-social we’re just a-social. Ironically, in their zeal to get other to be more social, some players come off as anti-social rather than social.

I’ll share my experience last night.

I was in Straights of Devastation. Just finishing out the map. Up in the upper left there is a skill point, and there was an Avatar of Lyssa there.

I tried to solo it a couple times and died. On my third try there was a mesmer that also needed the skill point. After we cleared a path to the skill point the mesmer asked if I we would like to do the event and take out the Avatar.

We accomplished that task. I then needed to head south and mentioned that to the mesmer. Together we traveled south to the area with the NPC’s and 2 tanks. At that point we parted ways.

Thank you for the company Ms Mesmer. It was enjoyable.

After that I ended up with a ranger near the Temple event. We fought our way to a few skill points and POI and worked to try to get the pact into the temple thing. We ended up failing, but we had a good time.

Thank you Mr. Ranger for your company. It was enjoyable.

Then I headed off to do more of my personal story after I snagged a POI that I missed.

Didn’t need to be grouped at all, and communication was at a minimum as we simply did what we needed to do. Killed things and kept each other alive. When our paths diverged, that was it.

Till we meet again…

So it may not be social/anti-social. Some people simply aren’t talkers. Others are talking already for example with an entire guild on Ventrilo/Teamspeak/Whatever. Perhaps they are chatting to guild members in their guild.

I prefer being “solo” in so much as I have a goal in my head and it’s easier to simply do that goal instead of having to worry about also helping some random person you have grouped up with. You can accomplish that goal and if there is another person or persons around that are also trying to accomplish the goal then great! Work together and keep going till we part ways.

springelf.9236:

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.

You mean, you couldn’t do a quest without a group? You couldn’t walk around certain zones without being in a group? You couldn’t go to the little gnome’s room, without a group? Yeah. No thanks. I will drop this game like it was made of plutonium if they ever go to the Everquest 1 model.

As for me, I think they got it right, just the way they did it. I honestly enjoy playing by myself and have no need or desire for a group to do simple quests or events. When I feel like a ‘group’ experience, I go do a dungeon. I also like being able to help random people, without the commitment of a group. Help get that skillpoint, or help in an event then be on my merry.

I don’t think this is anti-social behavior. I simply like playing at my own pace, without somebody whining that I’m going too fast, or too slow, etc. I do sometimes nab friends to do things with in a group, just because I want to, not because I need to do so.

I rarely look at the chat window, unless someone I know is online. Although I would look at it if I was grouped with others.

Cause this game does not FORCE you to interact with other players, player don’t.
Typing is slow and annoying compared to fast combat and VOIP is.

I talk to all my mates using VENT and only ever type in chat “thanks” if downed and some random rez’s me. Or if we need one extra for a dungeon run. Most of the time I do not even have the chat window up.

The older games which you had to get others together to get things done were more social cause they FORCED you to chat\talk to people to get number together to do stuff.

Theses days, no one really talks to anyone just for the ‘fun’ of talking, or because they are scared that hot looking female they are looking at is really a 50 year old fat naked male.

Grumwulf.9602:

I think the only thing this game needs is more group goals with group rewards. What I mean is something like a guild hall you can collectively work towards with your guild. If you don’t like grouping up then you won’t be missing out as the reward itself is a group reward and not an individual reward like a skin. The problem is when either you feel forced to do group activities for individual rewards, or when you want to do group activities and there is nothing collectively to work for.

I hear you and well said. Over in DDO when a guild puts together enough to get their ship they go about their business of outfitting it with special crafting centers or ambassadors who buff you. Nice to know when you get ready for that dungeon crawl and your whole group can go get some nice buffs that last about 1 hour.

I was going to start a separate thread about this but I guess this will do here. Luring is unsociable to the utmost degree.

The past couple days I have run into a few players who have no want to group or even help you with Events.

Like today I was solo escorting a small child out of a quite populated cave and fighting along the way. Some hunter came running past into the cave with multiple mobs in tow, only to detour through my ranged fire so I would pick up his agro. He continued on, I am going to assume to do his mining or whatever. Then came back the other way and didn’t bother to stop to do the escort or help.

Well the obvious reason is because i do not want to end up with some loser insulting me because i am not doing things the way he wants to or for no reason at all. If someone asks me nicely to help them or join them i would

Pandemoniac.4739:

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

Rick.1378:

I don’t have the solution, but I certainly do miss those days of forced grouping for the social aspect.

I don’t like that forced grouping at all. It would mean I can’t play according to my own schedule. What if I only have 30 minutes to play and have to spend 20 minutes of those to search for a group and then 10 minutes to decide what to do?

I think the problem is that some folks equate being in a group with being social. Forced grouping doesn’t make folks more social, it just makes it harder for folks like LadyR and I to play. I’ve rarely found friends through forced grouping. Almost every single friend I made in game was from me saying something goofy in general chat, or helping/getting helped with some task.

If you want to make the game more social from a grouping aspect, you’d have to add voice comms for groups. The role players are very social, but they don’t have fighting getting in the way of their typing. This is the advantage of joining a good sized guild – they often have a team speak/vent/mumble server.

Couple of years ago I’d disagree with you quite a bit, I have met a lot of people I kept in touch with for years from forced grouping, for me it was Everquest.

But, fast forward to today, married, self employed, 6 month old daughter. Now I’m on the other side of the coin and I can only play for short bursts, or a rare weekend and I see the difficulty of forced grouping for the busy player. I still think most people would make MUCH better social connections with forced grouping rather than the completely unsocial system in GW2, BUT… forced grouping is totally impractical for anyone but a college/high school student with time on their hands and even though I speak about it wistfully I would never want to see it come back.

The solution IMO is to make dynamic events and dungeons and such more social thru the use of tactics and such. Right now they are complete zerg fests which require ZERO communication, DE’s more so than dungeons, but dungeons are mostly zerg fests as well, especially with the absence of tanking and healing and such. Now making them more strategy intensive may backfire if not enough players are in DE’s and they are too hard strategically.

This is kind of what happened in Everquest 2, they made public events very similar to DE’s (yeah it’s not as original an idea as Anet thinks they are) and they were a LOT of fun. For example one public quest involved a giant with 3 adds, you also periodically had a supply merchant run through the zone with several potions which ranged from damage potions to weakness potions and more. The public raid had to coordinate which potion to use when and on who, what order to pick up the adds, how to fight each add and who would offtank the giant while the adds were killed, etc etc. It worked really well and it scaled down to a few players as well, although with only a few players it really started to be too difficult. But it made for a lot of communication between players and you could not zerg down the event, there had to be communication and strategy.

Right now there is just no reason to communicate with your fellow player, zero, zilch.

To address OP: The problem is the game was not designed to be team oriented. These is no need to party up for anything except dungeons. The primary vehicle for delivering story content is Personal Story which is a series of non-repeatable instanced zones designed around solo play (single player game naked inside an MMO). The other story delivery is dynamic events, but dynamic events have a real problem. They aren’t designed to require teams, but since they are not instanced zones you end up with 10,20,30 people (whoever you happen to have at the event at the time) and they are all trying to do the exact same thing. There is no team strategy to dynamic events. When you have a play mechanic that requires a lot of players and it has no team strategy or no head to head competition, it’s no longer a game. Where is the challenge? Where is the fun?

After you play the same event time and time again you begin to realize this rather quickly. I’ve gotten to where I avoid them almost altogether. When I do start one I’m immediately hoping it ends soon. Why? I’ve thought about it a lot and it’s lack of any required team coordination.

I’m not playing a dedicated roll, I’m playing whatever roll I want to play. I hope in the future they provide an option for small party’s to enter an instance of the dynamic event. If they did this it would provide an option to make events team-oriented if the player were to choose. There should be higher rewards for strategic effort verus the zerg rush of events.

When I say zerg rush I’m not trying to attack. On any server you can approach any combat oriented event and it’s the same pattern 1.) attack 2.) avoid damage. I play a Guardian so I try to support the group in the event. I doubt anyone notices I don’t blame them if they didn’t the game isn’t designed for them to care about anyone elses contribution in the open world dynamic events.

That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed some dynamic events, but the ones I have I’ve noticed have always been when there were only 5-7 other players helping with it. There is an optimal level for these events where they can be fun and that’s why I am suggesting players have the option an event instance.

Rick.1378:

Right now there is just no reason to communicate with your fellow player, zero, zilch.

To me GW2 is like a party and games with forced grouping are more like speed dating. Speed dating requires you to interact with people, a party gives you a setting to socialize but only requires interaction if they start rolling out the party games (dungeons). The problem with forced grouping is that unlike speed dating, most of the people in the room aren’t there to meet someone, they’re there to get the group content done.

Group content doesn’t automatically require a lot of interaction, especially if most of the folks participating have done it before. I ran into that problem in DDO – loved the quests in that game, but the pugs rushed through the group content so fast I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t meet anyone to put on my friends list that way. I still had to go out to chat and ask around for like-minded folks.

I’ve found plenty of opportunities to interact with folks in GW2 – helping them find things, admiring their name or their dye choices, helping with champs et. al. There’s no game mechanic that will let you connect with someone else without the risk that they will “reject” you. Whether you’re in a group or not, you have to initiate a conversation at some point that is more than “who’s the main tank and who’s the off tank?”.

Maybe we should start a thread in Players Helping Players with a list of suggestions on how to meet folks.

Pandemoniac.4739:

Maybe we should start a thread in Players Helping Players with a list of suggestions on how to meet folks.

That would be preferably better than sitting around accusing players being antisocial.

Pandemoniac.4739:

Rick.1378:

Right now there is just no reason to communicate with your fellow player, zero, zilch.

To me GW2 is like a party and games with forced grouping are more like speed dating. Speed dating requires you to interact with people, a party gives you a setting to socialize but only requires interaction if they start rolling out the party games (dungeons). The problem with forced grouping is that unlike speed dating, most of the people in the room aren’t there to meet someone, they’re there to get the group content done.

Group content doesn’t automatically require a lot of interaction, especially if most of the folks participating have done it before. I ran into that problem in DDO – loved the quests in that game, but the pugs rushed through the group content so fast I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t meet anyone to put on my friends list that way. I still had to go out to chat and ask around for like-minded folks.

I’ve found plenty of opportunities to interact with folks in GW2 – helping them find things, admiring their name or their dye choices, helping with champs et. al. There’s no game mechanic that will let you connect with someone else without the risk that they will “reject” you. Whether you’re in a group or not, you have to initiate a conversation at some point that is more than “who’s the main tank and who’s the off tank?”.

Maybe we should start a thread in Players Helping Players with a list of suggestions on how to meet folks.

If you compare GW2 to a party then I see a heck of a lot of people just sitting against the wall not talking to anyone at all, lol. I’d think a party you would be socializing non stop and meeting new people, getting phone numbers, making friends, etc.

But I understand where you are coming from. It’s easier socially to just go about your business without having to talk or socialize with others, I understand that’s how the current generation of MMOers feel. I’m an older MMOer so maybe I see things differently, I find the major satisfaction in MMO’s is socializing with others, I hate barren wasteland MMO’s. I know it’s a cliche by now, but if players prefer to do content with no socialization then why do they bother with a MMO instead of a single player video game? Sure it’s because occasionally they do want to be social, but that’s what chat programs are for which you can run side by side with your single player video game.

I’m being a bit sarcastic and I apologize for that, I just can’t fathom why so many like to be unsocial in what is largely a social genre. I truly would like to understand, but as a generally social person in life it just kind of boggles me. It’s not just GW2, but something that has pretty much pervaded all MMO’s.

Oh BTW, it goes both ways too. Someone mentioned PUG’s and the fear of rejection, especially with groups who want to “speed run” a dungeon. This is another player invented mechanic that ruins being social, so I understand how this may be nice to avoid for some players. IMO when they invented grinds for tokens in MMO’s is when we started to see “speed runs”, it’s a horrid grind mechanic and I can’t wait to see when a MMO finally reinvents this.

I view it as everyone is grouped. I’ll call out events but the cool thing is that whoever shows up doesn’t have to be explicitly grouped with me to participate.

Rick.1378:

But I understand where you are coming from. It’s easier socially to just go about your business without having to talk or socialize with others, I understand that’s how the current generation of MMOers feel. I’m an older MMOer so maybe I see things differently, I find the major satisfaction in MMO’s is socializing with others, I hate barren wasteland MMO’s. I know it’s a cliche by now, but if players prefer to do content with no socialization then why do they bother with a MMO instead of a single player video game? Sure it’s because occasionally they do want to be social, but that’s what chat programs are for which you can run side by side with your single player video game.

This goes both ways. If you want to get online and socialize, go play games designed for that. Try the Sims.

GW2 was designed around combat, personal stories, and public grouping. The grouping system is one of the primary reasons I am here, and I started MMO gaming in the UO/EQ days myself. We have always been here. It is not a new phenomenon.

Cortechs.3265:

Rick.1378:

But I understand where you are coming from. It’s easier socially to just go about your business without having to talk or socialize with others, I understand that’s how the current generation of MMOers feel. I’m an older MMOer so maybe I see things differently, I find the major satisfaction in MMO’s is socializing with others, I hate barren wasteland MMO’s. I know it’s a cliche by now, but if players prefer to do content with no socialization then why do they bother with a MMO instead of a single player video game? Sure it’s because occasionally they do want to be social, but that’s what chat programs are for which you can run side by side with your single player video game.

This goes both ways. If you want to get online and socialize, go play games designed for that. Try the Sims.

GW2 was designed around combat, personal stories, and public grouping. The grouping system is one of the primary reasons I am here, and I started MMO gaming in the UO/EQ days myself. We have always been here. It is not a new phenomenon.

I’m not sure when the Sims become more of a social game than any MMO, but I can’t comment I’ve never played it.

But you took my comment to mean GW2 players in particular, and that’s really not where it was meant specifically. I meant it over the entire genre of MMO’s, possibly encompassing the Sims as well. Certainly it’s not a new phenomena, I remember people in EQ1 playing necromancers and enchanters purely because they could solo content that was not meant to be soloed. It’s just that it has become so pronounced that it makes me wonder why people like to be so unsociable. Please don’t take “unsociable” as an insult, it’s just an observation which I’m curious about.

“combat and personal story” don’t need a MMO at all, a single player video game and a chat box would suffice. Public questing is a good thing and I applaud Anet for taking what other MMO’s already started to invent and taking it to the next level, but at times it feels as if they took it too far IMO. Maybe it’s just the simple fact that any and all these public events can be zerged that bothers me, leaving little inspiration for socialization between players. I’m not sure, that’s why we are discussing it as of course we each have our own points of view and preferred playstyle.

But it seems that even “public questing” have a much less important need for other players and in GW2 it’s bordering on just playing a single player game anyway, if you don’t socialize how do you know the other players are real people or if they are NPC’s? Wouldn’t it serve the same function if they were just NPCs? I apologize for being devils advocate, but it’s an interesting subject.

I am “unsociable” because I get very little out of being social. I am here to enjoy the game and atmosphere. I also enjoy helping and playing along side other people. However, I loathe small talk. I have no interest in hearing about peoples’ pets, classes, their jobs, their children, or their partners. I play these games to get away from real life; not have it constantly injected into my playtime.

When I see people jump on their cellphones (or cellular babysitters as I call them) every spare second they have, I wonder if they even like themselves a little bit. They can’t seem to be alone with themselves for even a millisecond.

You say that “combat and personal story don’t need a MMO at all”, but neither does socializing, which was my point. IRC can get you all the socializing you need; so can a VOIP program with a guild. Why must everyone at a DE stop and tell each other their feelings, and what they are eating for dinner in a combat-oriented online game?

I think that the underlying problem with the “why are you playing an MMO if you don’t want to socialize” is that you’re equating meeting new people with socializing. I play MMOs over single player games because I like playing with (and competing against) other people. That doesn’t mean I want to meet and play with new people every time I log in.

And yes, every party has its wallflowers… sometimes all it takes to get them off the wall is someone asking them if they want to dance

The party analogy got me thinking… maybe we need a “Second Saturdays” type player organized mixer. The second Saturday of each month folks that are looking to socialize gather in one of the cities during prime time for the server. Guilds that are recruiting could send some folks to represent them and maybe help organize some ice breakers. It would help the folks looking to meet people to play with find each other. What do y’all think?

You have the casual guilds that are so large, there is little sense of community, and you have the hardcore guilds that are small, but act as if the game is a job. I hate both, and have been looking for a month for that one perfect small/casual guild.

There are days when I’m just plain antisocial, so I flip on the the “invisible” option before I log in.

Other days, I’m quite happy to log vent and seek out my guildmates and/or give map chat a glance now and again in case someone wants help or company.

I like that I can play either way depending on how I feel.