Guild Wars 2

I really love the mechanics of guildwars 2… but I have a single major gripe that is really killing the game for me.

Sure, some mechanics here or there are wonky (I’m looking at you grenade kit), but that’s really not important.

Now the big initial rush is cooling down, I’m having a huge issue.

The missing bit, is social interaction.

The problem stems from some core mechanical issues. For one, dynamic events are great, but you never get the urge to group with people while doing them, since everyone gets credit. You can go about them alone. Everyone gets their 2 minute meetup, and then disperses, never saying a word.

Then there are issues with hearts. You can’t get credit for the same heart twice, so if you have half the hearts, and your buddy has half the hearts, then it just won’t work.

Then you have personal story quests… some of them you can bring group members in, some of them you can’t, often a no-go one right after a perfectly fine one. There is also something about them that is also inherently personal (like stepping in the middle of a movie, half way) that makes people avoid grouping with you in them.

In every major MMO I’ve ever played, there were chat channels. I don’t mean say map group or guild… those are basic simple ones… I’m talking about custom channels, both private and public, as well as public topic (trade, help, the tavern, etc) themed channels. Even if I do get in a good map conversation, oop, personal story put me in an instance, breaking my map chat.

Yes, we have guilds… my guild has about 5-6 people on max at a time, even with like 40 people are registered. That’s not enough.

Then lets say I do have friends in my contact list, from the basic game hud, I can’t see who’s online or not, without constantly opening a menu… and then you can’t talk to more than one of them at a time.

In WOW, when I played years and years ago, I had an optional HUD segment that let me see who was online or not at a glance, click their name, without opening a huge thing, and send them a message. That’s a big deal. I would ee who’s on, at all times, and don’t have to keep typing /tell name, when dealing with multiple people. Makes it way easier

I play MMOs to socially interact, and this isn’t working. Please implement fixes to these issues.

Pile of views with no replies… eh

Have a reply. GW2 is co-operative but not social so far. I agree. I’ve commented on that on another thread. Maybe if you’d searched the forum & commented on the other thread…

As someone said somehwere else, a problem at the moment is that we 100 threads on a topic with 5 replies each, instead of one thread with 500 replies. The dev’s are far more likely to take note of the latter. It’s another symptom of the lack of social cohesion in the game.

The anti-griefing set up (no node stealing, no mob stealing) is great. Unfortunately a side effect of just running in to belt something because you’re not “hurting” the other player by helping them is that you’ve also, ultimately, no reason to talk to the other player…

not sure what they could do about it but sometimes the game just feel like a singleplayer game. but if you go in a area where there is some dungeon or a big event then suddenly the chat goes on nonstop. I’m in 5 guilds and there is max 10 players online at a time and often none at all and there is usually no social interaction what so ever. I’m not complaining or anything I’m probably just as much to blame for it but it makes the game feel so empty.

Choose to group, choose to interact and socialize. GW2 does not require this, and that’s great, so far as I’m concerned, because it’s not ANet’s responsibility to enforce grouping and socialization. There are those who like to level in groups, there are those who like to level solo, the game supports both.

You have been handed the tools to socialize and group, if you so choose, but you have to make the conscious choice to use them. If you see someone, talk to them, run alongside them and help them complete their tasks, invite them to a group (and if they decline, it’s not because the game doesn’t enforce grouping, it’s because they choose not to group with complete strangers), etc.

I do not feel social interaction is missing, I get plenty of it on a daily basis just by playing through solo, and I have yet to join a guild, which is sure to bring even more. I do concede to your points that there are some issues regarding personal stories and, potentially, the setup of heart quests, though.

I’m happy knowing that someone will talk to me for the act of socializing, not because I stole their node or killed their mob and accidentally upset them and now they’re going to harass me across multiple characters.

I get what you mean, the same kinda happended when I played Rift. Easy to group up during events but right after all would go about their own way again.

I guess it all starts by yourself: make clear to others you would like to join a group, ask for others to join in mapchat, make /s remarks to start up a conversation, …

There are plenty of possibilities but they require you to take initiative.

“LFG to do events/hearts/personal story together”
“what level are you?”
“Level 15”
“oh, I am lvl 2, can I join?”
“Sure, what you need to do?”
“Well, all of it, I have just started”

or

""LFG to do events/hearts/personal story together"
“what level are you?”
“Level 15”
“I am lvl 50. I have completed all these arias and I am pretty bored now, What you want to do?”

or"

“LFG to do events/hearts/personal story together”
“what level are you?”
“Level 15”
“Oh, cool, I am lvl 15 too. I want to go in a highlevel aria to level up faster”

This is not social interaction. Its called “taking advantage of the current situation” Anyone who is pretty lazy do do things on their own or they are too hasty in leveling up will jump right in and when they are done they go away even without a “thank you” or “nice meeting you”

So interact. Once initial contact has been established, SOCIALIZE. I don’t know if it’s a misunderstanding of the definition of socialization or incomprehension of something else that people aren’t being clear on, but nothing, to me, is missing in this department. And, no, noting people run off without so much as a “thank you” or a “nice meeting you” is not propping up the argument. This will happen regardless of what you do with the game, unless you immobilize the player in place until he thanks those that have helped him/her.

A game developer can’t force this sort of thing, it’s not their responsibility, and it’s a ludicrous idea to think they can or will. The onus is on the players.