Originally posted by GregorMcgregorTalking to people 101 GW2 style:Player 1: LFG Fractal lvl 16!Player 2: LFG Fractal level 21, come on we only need 2 more!Player 3: LFG Fractal 2, yes, 2! I only started playing yesterday *ding!*Player 1: Isn't RPing such fun in this game! /hangs'elf
Sorry, couldn't hear you over TeamSpeak, where most people are. Yeah... that guild thing and all that.
People forget (or don't seem to realize) that the combat style in GW2 is not something you can do while typing out a conversation. Voice comms are much easier, and most if not all servers have their own dedicated TS server available. (Well, by most, I mean I know JQ and DB do... haven't been on others.)
"People forget (or don't seem to realize) that the combat style in GW2 is not something you can do while typing out a conversation."
lol, by your own admission, the game by design does not promote a sense of community.
Not really. You seem to be a classical representative of people who think that "being social" effectively means stopping whatever you're doing and typing a paragraph of text so other people know you're paying attention to them. GW2's combat simply doesn't allow for that.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
“And then when you try to be social in our game. You will say “Wow! That’s incredible, I’ve never seen anything like that before… I tried to chat, I tried to chat again, hey I tried it again – that’s great…No one enjoys that, no one finds it fun. We want to change the way people view being social."
No trials. No tricks. No traps. No EU-RP server. NO THANKS!
“And then when you try to be social in our game. You will say “Wow! That’s incredible, I’ve never seen anything like that before… I tried to chat, I tried to chat again, hey I tried it again – that’s great…No one enjoys that, no one finds it fun. We want to change the way people view being social."
Nice tune. Love the song, i just dont see how it is relative to the thread. If you hint that the game is too silent, I'd urge you to go to a more populated server and see how it goes from there
“And then when you try to be social in our game. You will say “Wow! That’s incredible, I’ve never seen anything like that before… I tried to chat, I tried to chat again, hey I tried it again – that’s great…No one enjoys that, no one finds it fun. We want to change the way people view being social."
Nice tune. Love the song, i just dont see how it is relative to the thread. If you hint that the game is too silent, I'd urge you to go to a more populated server and see how it goes from there
The normal folks call it "humour", you should look it up, it's quite fun.
No trials. No tricks. No traps. No EU-RP server. NO THANKS!
Most mmo's are like this today. Gone are the days of Everquest 1 were you had to group to get things done. Im not saying you should have a group all the time. But its what the main point of multiplayer games should be about. Helping, Socializing, and Interacting.
I tried to return to GW2 this week after I "burned" the game in barely 10 days at its release, made a good looking engineer, motivated myself to try and take it slow, enjoy the sights, and have fun.
I even tried to chat with people, but the kids arguing, spamming guild recruitment or selling gold made it impossible.
I uninstalled the game when I had just hit level 7.
For me GW2 is dull, redundant and a good idea that never worked. I won't even get into the lack of combat roles (I don't like the Trinity name), because then it reminds me even more why I don't bother with it.
My opinion is my own. I respect all other opinions and views equally, but keep in mind that my opinion will always be the best for me. That's why it's my opinion.
I chat with people randomly all the time on gw2 9 times out of ten they respond and we often continue to adventure together. Heck I've had a lot of random role playing experiences even.
Look guys it is all very very simple. You say the game is too solo oriented? I say the game give you a lot more options. If you can't find people to group up with, that is your fault, not the game's fault. For 12 pages players have been telling you that the game is social and the community is great. [mod edit]
I'm playing in EU's Underworld server which is one of the higher populated servers (not Tier 1) and everyday i find myself dropping into a group or a casual chat to have fun. Or people I tag along with in WvW usually invite me to a group and we have a nice chat until the shit gets serious. And you mean to tell me the game doesn't give you the tools to make social connections? [mod edit]
Look guys it is all very very simple. You say the game is too solo oriented? I say the game give you a lot more options. If you can't find people to group up with, that is your fault, not the game's fault. [mod edit]
I'm playing in EU's Underworld server which is one of the higher populated servers (not Tier 1) and everyday i find myself dropping into a group or a casual chat to have fun. Or people I tag along with in WvW usually invite me to a group and we have a nice chat until the shit gets serious. And you mean to tell me the game doesn't give you the tools to make social connections?
[mod edit]
Now hold on a minute here. "If you can't find people to group up with, that's tour own fault?" Really? Have you read the posts where people explain that they try to talk to almost everyone they meet and get no response whatsoever? Have you read the posts where people point out that their chat window stays almost entirely empty from login to log out? It's not just one or two servers, either. I PvP a lot, and the regionwide Heart of the Mists is almost entirely dead socially speaking most of the time.
On top of all of this, try to remember that getting a random person in your group is not socialization. Forming connections with people over a longer period of time is.
It seems that there are at least 3 primary types of responses to the "problem of lonliness" being made here.
1) Folks who say they understand this feeling but assert that the lonely just need to go above and beyond and be super-social to meet people
2) Folks who say that the lonely need to join guilds
3) Folks who disagree and say that there is no social problem at all and that finding friends happens often with little effort
I wish to respond briefly to each of these points of view.
1) Several people here have reported trying to be super-social and still found no success with this. Moreover, we all seem to report that in other games we've had no trouble making connections without the need to behave out of the ordinary, so why ought we need to do so here?
Perhaps more importantly, can a person really in fact make meaningful connections by behaving differently than he normally would? For example, I am a more quiet person in life (much less so in games). I have a harder time making friends because of this. It has been suggested to me to be more outgoing to make friends, but in doing so I would be making friends with others who are themselves more outgoing and therefore not really a good match for me. By simply "being myself," I make friends with those whose personalities are compatible with mine.
2) As has been pointed out repeatedly, joining guilds is not that simple of a solution. For one thing, other than a "core" group, guilds seem to die fairly quickly in GW2. Second, the way the game's group content is designed (both PvE and PvP) it is much more difficult than in other games to come to recognize people in group content and thereby join their guild. This leaves the only real way to join a guild being to choose an arbitrary one from a forum or something similar. Not only does this mean that these guilds are much less likely to be a good fit for a person, but they are also much more likely to be one of the guilds which end up dying out.
3) I played this game for nearly 4 months when the game was a lot more populated than it is now, starting from early access. In all of that time I don't believe I have ever been invited to a party or had another person respond to something I have said, either in /map or in /say. Others have reported similar experiences. Moreover, the social aspect of this game does not reduce to finding a group. You can find a group for content in any game. The question is, can you make longer standing connections/friendships in doing so? In other games, I and others have. In this game, many have been unable to, largely because even in grouping up it is very, very rare to see the same people more than once - and this is how we form connections.
A lot of the people making this third response report things like "35 on my friends list." However, that does not mean that they are in fact real "friends." Just because I have someone on my friends list that I think I can call on for a group at some point, that does not mean much. In other games, I have come to know people in a deeper way which has made my experience in the game richer. Some people become friends who I group with often or talk to, but not all. Even those I hardly ever speak or play with make the game richer and more social by their presence. They are like neighbors, and the game feels fuller because I know that they "live" there.
No one finds it strange that people are saying "YOU NEED TO FIND A GUILD IN ORDER TO EXPERIENCE MULTIPlAYER" ?
Hell, I meet/friend new people all the time in games like Vindictus, Dragon Nest, and even Payday 2 for something more recent. I will say in all of Guild Wars 2, I probably only made one friend out of that whole game. Then again the only reason we bothered talking to him is because of his efforts to keep with us during the launch race. I guess I'd attribute this to the game's lack of necessary communication. Often times in GW2 when doing events, more people often times made things more complicated, especially on events with fail states. Any time we' would try to duo/trio Grenth, we would have to tell everyone that Balthazaar was up, in order to distract the zerg. It may have been a bit slow, but at least we could guarantee success.
It seems that there are at least 3 primary types of responses to the "problem of lonliness" being made here.
1) Folks who say they understand this feeling but assert that the lonely just need to go above and beyond and be super-social to meet people
2) Folks who say that the lonely need to join guilds
3) Folks who disagree and say that there is no social problem at all and that finding friends happens often with little effort
I wish to respond briefly to each of these points of view.
1) Several people here have reported trying to be super-social and still found no success with this. Moreover, we all seem to report that in other games we've had no trouble making connections without the need to behave out of the ordinary, so why ought we need to do so here?
Perhaps more importantly, can a person really in fact make meaningful connections by behaving differently than he normally would? For example, I am a more quiet person in life (much less so in games). I have a harder time making friends because of this. It has been suggested to me to be more outgoing to make friends, but in doing so I would be making friends with others who are themselves more outgoing and therefore not really a good match for me. By simply "being myself," I make friends with those whose personalities are compatible with mine.
2) As has been pointed out repeatedly, joining guilds is not that simple of a solution. For one thing, other than a "core" group, guilds seem to die fairly quickly in GW2. Second, the way the game's group content is designed (both PvE and PvP) it is much more difficult than in other games to come to recognize people in group content and thereby join their guild. This leaves the only real way to join a guild being to choose an arbitrary one from a forum or something similar. Not only does this mean that these guilds are much less likely to be a good fit for a person, but they are also much more likely to be one of the guilds which end up dying out.
3) I played this game for nearly 4 months when the game was a lot more populated than it is now, starting from early access. In all of that time I don't believe I have ever been invited to a party or had another person respond to something I have said, either in /map or in /say. Others have reported similar experiences. Moreover, the social aspect of this game does not reduce to finding a group. You can find a group for content in any game. The question is, can you make longer standing connections/friendships in doing so? In other games, I and others have. In this game, many have been unable to, largely because even in grouping up it is very, very rare to see the same people more than once - and this is how we form connections.
A lot of the people making this third response report things like "35 on my friends list." However, that does not mean that they are in fact real "friends." Just because I have someone on my friends list that I think I can call on for a group at some point, that does not mean much. In other games, I have come to know people in a deeper way which has made my experience in the game richer. Some people become friends who I group with often or talk to, but not all. Even those I hardly ever speak or play with make the game richer and more social by their presence. They are like neighbors, and the game feels fuller because I know that they "live" there.
I'm in most of the same boat as things you've pointed out.
I'm a shy person irl, BUT once you know me, I'm witty, friendly, helpful and I'd give to my last gold piece if you needed it and I didn't. Yes, I can be serious, stubborn over some issues, and opinionated. But I'm no monster you can't say "hello" to that'll bite your face off.
While was GW2 singled out? Because for ME it is the most anti-social MMO I've played (And there has been many - DAoC, WoW, EvE, SWG, SWTOR, LotRO, TSW, GW2, Rift, Neverwinter). A good example of this was a few weeks back I saw someone asking questions in LA and getting told to "Go read!" and to "STFU!" etc. and that was on Piken Square, the so-called RP server. Add to the fact that the guild I was in no longer exists (folded cus no1 played), and my friends list has 25 people on it at least that are never, ever online. Old guildies from old guilds in other games have left, so if I want to play GW2 I have to start over guild hunting by asking the "STFU!" crowd about active guilds? I'd sooner put my wee man in a bacon slicer!!!
BUT, I am glad you players are happy and I guess thats all that matters. Play safe! /over.
Edit: Missed another good point. When the guild was good and strong and had players (all of whom I knew from other MMOs (mainly swtor, rift and wow), people wouldn't speak even when you said "Hello all", why? Because most would answer about 10 mins later and go "Sorry <name>, Hi mate, I didn't see chat, I was fighting!". ...Would that be another slap in the "action combat is the way forward!" dept.? Your so damn busy rolling about like Bruce Lee that you can't see chat or worse still, miss it all together!
No trials. No tricks. No traps. No EU-RP server. NO THANKS!
Joining a guild is really the answer to having social problems in gw2. Just go to LA and ask and you will find one. This is a mmo so i don't see why someone would be apposed to joining a guild. Infact if you want to socialize go to la in general. You can join a few guilds and jump in chat to see which would be a good fit for you and then you're good to go. I know me personally i have guild chat party whisper and say up but usually have map chat off so i can keep up with my friends and guild without map chatter getting in the way. Took me a few but finding a good guild makes all the difference.
I really hate to come here and defend Guild Wars 2 after it has me so disenchanted for so many reasons recently, but the social issue in this game is not one of those problems.
Compared to almost every other theme park MMO-RPG, including World of Warcraft and its army of clones, GW2 is the pinnacle of social game play. While it does not actively force you to group, it does not discourage you from grouping either. Many other games make basic PvE a competitive affair where you're fighting against other players from the get-go and it gets bad enough that you start to resent seeing other players in the open world questing experience. This would make sense if it was a FFA/Faction + full loot open world PvP game, but this happens in many MMO's where, according to the game, those people who are accidentally causing your grief, are on the same side.
Furthermore, what was once a bold promise and still a mildly successful endeavor, open world dynamic events some times have very blatant and very fun scaling mechanics which make it a joy to see other players join the fight. This has its fair share of inconsistency, but it can't be said to not exist.
Also, there's a lot of things that can be enjoyed socially in this game, and which require social interaction to complete. For the majority of my experience, World vs World has filled this need for me. Sure, it doesn't require voip and a guild to be a roamer or faceless DPS in a sea of uncoordinated players. And if you choose to play that way, you can still have a very rewarding social experience from the ad-hoc battles you may get into with players around you. But make no mistake, there's the very real opportunity for fun and performance that comes from having stronger connections with the people you play with. And that is the common goal that brought those players together.
In PvE, there's still a ton of things that, should you choose to tackle it, requires you to have someone with you to complete it. From champion fights to open world mini-dungeons. From simple guild treks to giant guild puzzles, story dungeon to high difficulty Fractals. There's tons of goals to strive for that adequately align you with people who also wish to complete these. If you choose not to make the best of this social opportunity, or if those players happen to be rude or asshats for no reason, then that's unfortunate, but it's not a device of the game.
There's more than just mentioned above, but the point is that this game does more than most to encourage a social experience while not forcing it for those people who don't want to rely on or be forced to adhere to a required social connection just to play the game at all.
What it sounds like from most of the comments on this thread, and what has likely caused so many "it's your own fault" responses, is that people have just ended up in these circumstances of having not seen or heard other players talking, or have not had the same experience they supposedly had in another game, and instead of making a case for why this did or did not happen, have decided to blame some element of the game for it. Whether this does or doesn't hold up is usually going to be based on almost 100% anecdotal experience, but there's people who will tell you that they have not suffered from the same issues, and all of us aren't ArenaNet white knight fanboys willing to suspend logic and reasoning to defend their honor like some on the official forums actually are. It's because we have had a social experience and have made those "real friends" people keep alluding to.
I agree with you 100%. I do like the game and I have had quite a bit of fun with it but I stopped playing because after I get by the excitement of playing a new game and exploring what it has to offer, I start to look for something deeper. Like character growth, friendships, feats, and a way to connect with my character.
I personally feel no connection with any of my characters, or those I play the game with. Like you said, there are always so many people running around doing the same things you are, and most of the time they are working alongside you on the same path or goal but there is no actual connection.
Originally posted by Arskaaa "when players learned tacticks in dungeon/raids, its bread".
Old Lineage 2 C4 or Interlude was awesome friend maker. It was so lively in towns, hunting zones etc. There was no way to play efficiently without good party. RB or PvP/PK partys were nice change in grinding so it wasn't boring to play. Eh.. why did they ruin my game..
I really hate to come here and defend Guild Wars 2 after it has me so disenchanted for so many reasons recently, but the social issue in this game is not one of those problems.
Compared to almost every other theme park MMO-RPG, including World of Warcraft and its army of clones, GW2 is the pinnacle of social game play. While it does not actively force you to group, it does not discourage you from grouping either. Many other games make basic PvE a competitive affair where you're fighting against other players from the get-go and it gets bad enough that you start to resent seeing other players in the open world questing experience. This would make sense if it was a FFA/Faction + full loot open world PvP game, but this happens in many MMO's where, according to the game, those people who are accidentally causing your grief, are on the same side.
Furthermore, what was once a bold promise and still a mildly successful endeavor, open world dynamic events some times have very blatant and very fun scaling mechanics which make it a joy to see other players join the fight. This has its fair share of inconsistency, but it can't be said to not exist.
Also, there's a lot of things that can be enjoyed socially in this game, and which require social interaction to complete. For the majority of my experience, World vs World has filled this need for me. Sure, it doesn't require voip and a guild to be a roamer or faceless DPS in a sea of uncoordinated players. And if you choose to play that way, you can still have a very rewarding social experience from the ad-hoc battles you may get into with players around you. But make no mistake, there's the very real opportunity for fun and performance that comes from having stronger connections with the people you play with. And that is the common goal that brought those players together.
In PvE, there's still a ton of things that, should you choose to tackle it, requires you to have someone with you to complete it. From champion fights to open world mini-dungeons. From simple guild treks to giant guild puzzles, story dungeon to high difficulty Fractals. There's tons of goals to strive for that adequately align you with people who also wish to complete these. If you choose not to make the best of this social opportunity, or if those players happen to be rude or asshats for no reason, then that's unfortunate, but it's not a device of the game.
There's more than just mentioned above, but the point is that this game does more than most to encourage a social experience while not forcing it for those people who don't want to rely on or be forced to adhere to a required social connection just to play the game at all.
What it sounds like from most of the comments on this thread, and what has likely caused so many "it's your own fault" responses, is that people have just ended up in these circumstances of having not seen or heard other players talking, or have not had the same experience they supposedly had in another game, and instead of making a case for why this did or did not happen, have decided to blame some element of the game for it. Whether this does or doesn't hold up is usually going to be based on almost 100% anecdotal experience, but there's people who will tell you that they have not suffered from the same issues, and all of us aren't ArenaNet white knight fanboys willing to suspend logic and reasoning to defend their honor like some on the official forums actually are. It's because we have had a social experience and have made those "real friends" people keep alluding to.
If this is the case, then why do you believe you have had social experiences and found these real friends when so many have not?
Is it not possible that you are the exceptions, that you are simply lucky, as opposed to others having been unlucky? After all, I've given very precise reasons why it seems that I have yet to have any meaningful social experience in GW2, as have others. You're another one of these "join a guild" types, but how do I go about joining a guild? I'm sorry, I'm not going to respond to someone spamming chat or posting on a forum saying they are recruiting. I'm not going to say "Looking for guild" in chat and accept the first invite I get, because the reality is that 99.9999999999% of the guilds that take people in that way are terrible, both in terms of skill and in terms of "personality." If I am going to join a guild, I want to do so because I've come to know some of them over time and recognized that socially and talent-wise they are a good fit for me, or because an officer notices my performance and thinks I'd be a good addition to the guild - and these kinds of things just don't and in fact because of the design can't happen in Guild Wars 2.
At the end of the day, there are a lot of MMOs out there, and a lot of people complaining about them on the internet, but GW2 is the only one that I have really ever seen with consistent complaints about the social aspects of the game. Other games get attacked for content, ease, grind, unoriginality, cash shops, balance, etc. etc. etc., but you just don't see folks whining about the social side of things. With GW2, you do, often, and folks need to take off whatever rose colored glasses they have on and realize that this means something.
I'm going to debunk something in this thread right now.
You do not need to join a guild to be sociable!
Why? Because you can add friends and join parties and randomly chat with people without needing to be in a guild. Sure maybe 1-9 people in a guild are like minded and friendly with you. However, guilds become an antisocial cespool of mixed opinions, maturities, and social raising.
The reason a guild becomes that is because more than 9 people are invited to a guild, or the guild changes direction, or "ownership" (I know it's technically "leadership", but that's BS and you know it). Maybe a friend of the guild leader/officer is invited to the guild, but is a tool to everyone but him/her. That tool invites more tools, and now it's a tool shed guild.
About a month I randomly bumped into a person while waiting for Aetherblade Retreat group. That led into a 30minute chat about Japanese manga/anime, just out of the blue. That person added me, I added him, and now we group often for things like Fractals, world boss Metas, and dungeons. On Wednesday of this past week I was randomly invited to a group of two next to a balloon tower in Guandaren Fields...from there was a bunch of Dynamic Events and an extended lore chat about Asura tech vs the new Watchknights. Three weeks ago in the mists, during a random solo join tPvP match, was communicating well with my team which turned out to be 3 pre-mades; added me and now every other time I'm on I get invited to join in a group tPvP matches about 2-3 times weekly.
Those are just small sociable experiences that are had by PLAYING THE GAME AND TALKING TO PEOPLE. No need to join a guild and listen to another person's whine about another class being OP; hear someone complain about one aspect of the game they don't like over another that they do like; be berated by power hungry nutters who think that they can control someone's entertainment time; and listen to/hear/read opinionated political bullshit every other day.
I find that GW2 can be lonely if you choose to be less social, which I usually am. My guild is always doing things together and I will often just continue doing my own thing, but I've been in groups with them before, tons of people doing events, dungeons, and guild challenges and having a blast, forging friendships, etc. I know that GW2 isn't a lonely game, but I can choose to be alone if I want.
I did have one problem with the current Living Story, however. I mean, it's an MMO right? What's with the Queen's Gauntlet challenges being A.) really hard and B.) being solo content? A minor nitpick, sure, but it seemed out of place.
I really hate to come here and defend Guild Wars 2 after it has me so disenchanted for so many reasons recently, but the social issue in this game is not one of those problems.
**Snipped for length**
There's more than just mentioned above, but the point is that this game does more than most to encourage a social experience while not forcing it for those people who don't want to rely on or be forced to adhere to a required social connection just to play the game at all.
What it sounds like from most of the comments on this thread, and what has likely caused so many "it's your own fault" responses, is that people have just ended up in these circumstances of having not seen or heard other players talking, or have not had the same experience they supposedly had in another game, and instead of making a case for why this did or did not happen, have decided to blame some element of the game for it. Whether this does or doesn't hold up is usually going to be based on almost 100% anecdotal experience, but there's people who will tell you that they have not suffered from the same issues, and all of us aren't ArenaNet white knight fanboys willing to suspend logic and reasoning to defend their honor like some on the official forums actually are. It's because we have had a social experience and have made those "real friends" people keep alluding to.
If this is the case, then why do you believe you have had social experiences and found these real friends when so many have not?
Is it not possible that you are the exceptions, that you are simply lucky, as opposed to others having been unlucky? After all, I've given very precise reasons why it seems that I have yet to have any meaningful social experience in GW2, as have others. You're another one of these "join a guild" types, but how do I go about joining a guild? I'm sorry, I'm not going to respond to someone spamming chat or posting on a forum saying they are recruiting. I'm not going to say "Looking for guild" in chat and accept the first invite I get, because the reality is that 99.9999999999% of the guilds that take people in that way are terrible, both in terms of skill and in terms of "personality." If I am going to join a guild, I want to do so because I've come to know some of them over time and recognized that socially and talent-wise they are a good fit for me, or because an officer notices my performance and thinks I'd be a good addition to the guild - and these kinds of things just don't and in fact because of the design can't happen in Guild Wars 2.
At the end of the day, there are a lot of MMOs out there, and a lot of people complaining about them on the internet, but GW2 is the only one that I have really ever seen with consistent complaints about the social aspects of the game. Other games get attacked for content, ease, grind, unoriginality, cash shops, balance, etc. etc. etc., but you just don't see folks whining about the social side of things. With GW2, you do, often, and folks need to take off whatever rose colored glasses they have on and realize that this means something.
While I don't normally come to defend a Blackgate, in this case I'll make an exception. I can also attest to what Serelisk has said, and have experienced the same myself on many occasions. Both of HoD, & FA when I was there, but also on SoR. Serelisk isn't the exception. What he describes is extremely common in GW2. It's all about 'do you want to make the effort to be social & part of a group? or not?' That's one of the beautiful things about the game. It doesn't force guilds to hold on to toxic players, because they need an extra healer, or tank. If you're being a dick, or don't contribute at all to your server, or guild, or friends, they are NOT obligated to entertain you.
Now, there's a HUGE problem with the paragraph you wrote, which I've highlighted in green. Care to guess?
You are blatantly admitting to avoiding quite a few ways the game has provided to meet people. What you are saying amounts to 'the game is anti-social, because I don't want to ask about guilds, nor respond to guilds looking for new members'. In essence, you are expecting people to magically come to you, get to know you, and form a guild around you, for no reason at all. And I'm sorry, but that's not how the world works. It makes no sense for anyone to do that. None.
If you want to meet people, you actually have to take it upon yourself to go out and meet them. Talk, interact. Ask about some of those guilds that are recruiting. Guilds in this game are EASY. If a guild sucks, leave it, no harm done. If you want to make a more tight-knit group, then you probably need to make some friends FIRST. Heck, most of those guilds you are describing either come from the remaining members of an older guild, friends who know each other in real life, or people who actively try and recruit & maintain a guild of a tighter-core group.
I can tell you for a fact that these guilds exist, and are often oriented around some specific aspect of the game. There are guilds just for friends, guilds for dedicated fractal / dungeoneering groups, guilds for sPvP / tourney's, guilds for havok / roaming in WvW. If you want to be in one, then you need to either make the effort to find one, or make the effort to make one and maintain it. It's that simple.
Most people in this game are also in multiple guilds by now. You can't expect everyone in the game to want to do what you want all the time.
I find that GW2 can be lonely if you choose to be less social, which I usually am. My guild is always doing things together and I will often just continue doing my own thing, but I've been in groups with them before, tons of people doing events, dungeons, and guild challenges and having a blast, forging friendships, etc. I know that GW2 isn't a lonely game, but I can choose to be alone if I want.
I did have one problem with the current Living Story, however. I mean, it's an MMO right? What's with the Queen's Gauntlet challenges being A.) really hard and B.) being solo content? A minor nitpick, sure, but it seemed out of place.
What you say is definitely true. It very much comes down to personal choice.
When it comes to queen's guantlet, most of that stuff is definitely soloable. However, I guess it depends on your class. As my necro I was tearing through those champions no problem. And outside of the guantlet (which is supposed to be a test of individual strength) everything else is very group oriented.
I really hate to come here and defend Guild Wars 2 after it has me so disenchanted for so many reasons recently, but the social issue in this game is not one of those problems.
**Snipped for length**
There's more than just mentioned above, but the point is that this game does more than most to encourage a social experience while not forcing it for those people who don't want to rely on or be forced to adhere to a required social connection just to play the game at all.
What it sounds like from most of the comments on this thread, and what has likely caused so many "it's your own fault" responses, is that people have just ended up in these circumstances of having not seen or heard other players talking, or have not had the same experience they supposedly had in another game, and instead of making a case for why this did or did not happen, have decided to blame some element of the game for it. Whether this does or doesn't hold up is usually going to be based on almost 100% anecdotal experience, but there's people who will tell you that they have not suffered from the same issues, and all of us aren't ArenaNet white knight fanboys willing to suspend logic and reasoning to defend their honor like some on the official forums actually are. It's because we have had a social experience and have made those "real friends" people keep alluding to.
If this is the case, then why do you believe you have had social experiences and found these real friends when so many have not?
Is it not possible that you are the exceptions, that you are simply lucky, as opposed to others having been unlucky? After all, I've given very precise reasons why it seems that I have yet to have any meaningful social experience in GW2, as have others. You're another one of these "join a guild" types, but how do I go about joining a guild? I'm sorry, I'm not going to respond to someone spamming chat or posting on a forum saying they are recruiting. I'm not going to say "Looking for guild" in chat and accept the first invite I get, because the reality is that 99.9999999999% of the guilds that take people in that way are terrible, both in terms of skill and in terms of "personality." If I am going to join a guild, I want to do so because I've come to know some of them over time and recognized that socially and talent-wise they are a good fit for me, or because an officer notices my performance and thinks I'd be a good addition to the guild - and these kinds of things just don't and in fact because of the design can't happen in Guild Wars 2.
At the end of the day, there are a lot of MMOs out there, and a lot of people complaining about them on the internet, but GW2 is the only one that I have really ever seen with consistent complaints about the social aspects of the game. Other games get attacked for content, ease, grind, unoriginality, cash shops, balance, etc. etc. etc., but you just don't see folks whining about the social side of things. With GW2, you do, often, and folks need to take off whatever rose colored glasses they have on and realize that this means something.
While I don't normally come to defend a Blackgate, in this case I'll make an exception. I can also attest to what Serelisk has said, and have experienced the same myself on many occasions. Both of HoD, & FA when I was there, but also on SoR. Serelisk isn't the exception. What he describes is extremely common in GW2. It's all about 'do you want to make the effort to be social & part of a group? or not?' That's one of the beautiful things about the game. It doesn't force guilds to hold on to toxic players, because they need an extra healer, or tank. If you're being a dick, or don't contribute at all to your server, or guild, or friends, they are NOT obligated to entertain you.
Now, there's a HUGE problem with the paragraph you wrote, which I've highlighted in green. Care to guess?
You are blatantly admitting to avoiding quite a few ways the game has provided to meet people. What you are saying amounts to 'the game is anti-social, because I don't want to ask about guilds, nor respond to guilds looking for new members'. In essence, you are expecting people to magically come to you, get to know you, and form a guild around you, for no reason at all. And I'm sorry, but that's not how the world works. It makes no sense for anyone to do that. None.
If you want to meet people, you actually have to take it upon yourself to go out and meet them. Talk, interact. Ask about some of those guilds that are recruiting. Guilds in this game are EASY. If a guild sucks, leave it, no harm done. If you want to make a more tight-knit group, then you probably need to make some friends FIRST. Heck, most of those guilds you are describing either come from the remaining members of an older guild, friends who know each other in real life, or people who actively try and recruit & maintain a guild of a tighter-core group.
I can tell you for a fact that these guilds exist, and are often oriented around some specific aspect of the game. There are guilds just for friends, guilds for dedicated fractal / dungeoneering groups, guilds for sPvP / tourney's, guilds for havok / roaming in WvW. If you want to be in one, then you need to either make the effort to find one, or make the effort to make one and maintain it. It's that simple.
Most people in this game are also in multiple guilds by now. You can't expect everyone in the game to want to do what you want all the time.
I disagree with a great many things you have said.
First, if one game requires effort to find social contact and in another it happens without effort, then which game has a better social aspect and which has a more questionable social aspect?
Second, you say it makes no sense for anyone to reach out to me but that I must reach out to them. Do you really believe this? Is this how it works anywhere, either in life or in game? Of course not. After all, why on earth would I ever want to be "friends" with people who don't consider me worth talking to? In life and in games, sometimes we get to know people because we said hi to them, and sometimes its because they said hi to us. You're really painting a very bleek picture of the community in GW2 as a group of self-important folks who are too good for anyone else. I certainly hope that that's not how everyone is in this game.
Third, you have echoed the same assertion as many others have: "talk to people." "Say hi." "Invite people to groups." Etc. - all despite the fact that multiple people here have reported trying these things repeatedly only to be repeatedly ignored.
Most importantly, I want to very, very strongly disagree with the characterization of my "green paragraph." You are putting it forth as though I am avoiding doing things which the game provides for meeting people. I see it quite differently: I avoid these things precisely because I believe that they are not good ways for meeting people. I have played many games in my life, and all my experience has showed me beyond doubt that joining guilds as the first step to meeting people is an awful idea. On the contrary, joining a guild needs to be the last step which is made after you have already met a good group of people.
I will repeat: any guild which recruits in chat or on forums is almost certainly a guild of poorly skilled players with questionable social qualities. Guilds with talented, fun people to be around don't go around recruiting like that - precisely because they want to maintain themselves as groups of talented and/or fun people. I can speak even from experience as a very high ranking officer in a popular guild in another game: if you go around recruiting this way, you bring in players who are either bad at the game or socially problematic or both. Rather, almost every guild which is worth being in I have ever known in any game brings people in after they have gotten to know the person just from seeing them "around the server." Unfortunately, GW2 just really doesn't afford an opportunity to get to know people in this way, especially when it comes to PvP.
Could I try out this guild, try out that one, try out another one until I found a fit? Yes, but this wouldn't really result in any kind of positive outcome because, as I said, all guilds which recruit in this way are generally bad places to be, so I would be doing nothing more than jumping from one bad spot to another. I know it sounds like a harsh thing to say, but it just is how it is. Moreover, being a "guild hopper" is just a bad thing. It makes it more and more difficult to ever actually find a good home.
I really like this Laiserlike42 guy above me.......He tells it like it is, better than most could put it into words.
GW2 is not designed for a community. Players that are calling it home have to FORCE IT !!!!...I must say some are doing a good job, no thanks to the developers. But this leaves a lot of players without a community.
- Heavy on the Dynamic events. Why group ?... this had been stated over and over and over ! Yet it falls on def ears.
- Zones - Now this is another major killer... How you ask ?.....Well, ill tell ya. In most mmos you have Zones just like GW2, but in GW2 you have mini quest hubs made for two levels with only one objective, then you move on. Who is whare ? I can't Recognize anyone. In and out like a thief in the night !
-Fast paced, tooooooo fast. Events are too easy with no thinking, no planing. 20 people can suck and it does not matter. Do you really care about people doing this ?....ITS NOT THEIR FAULT, but game design.
Find a good guild my butt !...........I'm a level 11, I'm having some fun for now with this game that is not an mmo.
Originally posted by aesperus *snipped for length*
I disagree with a great many things you have said.
First, if one game requires effort to find social contact and in another it happens without effort, then which game has a better social aspect and which has a more questionable social aspect?
Second, you say it makes no sense for anyone to reach out to me but that I must reach out to them. Do you really believe this? Is this how it works anywhere, either in life or in game? Of course not. After all, why on earth would I ever want to be "friends" with people who don't consider me worth talking to? In life and in games, sometimes we get to know people because we said hi to them, and sometimes its because they said hi to us. You're really painting a very bleek picture of the community in GW2 as a group of self-important folks who are too good for anyone else. I certainly hope that that's not how everyone is in this game.
Third, you have echoed the same assertion as many others have: "talk to people." "Say hi." "Invite people to groups." Etc. - all despite the fact that multiple people here have reported trying these things repeatedly only to be repeatedly ignored.
Most importantly, I want to very, very strongly disagree with the characterization of my "green paragraph." You are putting it forth as though I am avoiding doing things which the game provides for meeting people. I see it quite differently: I avoid these things precisely because I believe that they are not good ways for meeting people. I have played many games in my life, and all my experience has showed me beyond doubt that joining guilds as the first step to meeting people is an awful idea. On the contrary, joining a guild needs to be the last step which is made after you have already met a good group of people.
I will repeat: any guild which recruits in chat or on forums is almost certainly a guild of poorly skilled players with questionable social qualities. Guilds with talented, fun people to be around don't go around recruiting like that - precisely because they want to maintain themselves as groups of talented and/or fun people. I can speak even from experience as a very high ranking officer in a popular guild in another game: if you go around recruiting this way, you bring in players who are either bad at the game or socially problematic or both. Rather, almost every guild which is worth being in I have ever known in any game brings people in after they have gotten to know the person just from seeing them "around the server." Unfortunately, GW2 just really doesn't afford an opportunity to get to know people in this way, especially when it comes to PvP.
Could I try out this guild, try out that one, try out another one until I found a fit? Yes, but this wouldn't really result in any kind of positive outcome because, as I said, all guilds which recruit in this way are generally bad places to be, so I would be doing nothing more than jumping from one bad spot to another. I know it sounds like a harsh thing to say, but it just is how it is. Moreover, being a "guild hopper" is just a bad thing. It makes it more and more difficult to ever actually find a good home.
Life requires you to put effort into socializing. There's isn't a single exception to this that I can think of. While we have tools to make socializing easier (not unlike the tools already present in GW2), none of them does all the work for you. Unless you count watching a movie with dialogue as 'socializing'.
Secondly, YES. It DOES NOT make sense for random people (who do not know who you are from a hole in the wall) to reach out to you. This, again, is part of how the real world works. Look at job interviews for example. What often happens with jobs is that they first ask the people already working there (already part of that community) if they know anyone who can do the job they need, and do it well. When that fails, they then generally refer to some database of applicants, in which other people they know have vouched for them. When that fails, they'll look at the people who sought them out, and give them a try. The one exception to this is with things like conventions where they go out and advertise 'hey we exist, maybe you'd be interested in joining!'. Even then, they get you to come to them at the end of the day. This trend extends passed jobs to things like user groups, clubs, etc. It's how the social nature of human beings works.
To go back to what you said about guilds. If you wanted to get more people into a guild you were making, how would you do it? Would you go out and advertise around the game? Or would you walk up to each person 1 by 1, and say 'lets be best friends right now!' ? It just doesn't make any sense.
- I just logged off from the game, and guess what? There's people running around various zones, pinging events, goofing off, and chatting. There's people in Lion's Arch fartin' around, crafting, playing the TP, and chatting. There's people in Divinity's Reach, enjoying the new content & chatting. There's people pinging events & world bosses. There's people posting dungeon, & fractal groups on gw2lfg.com. 2 of my guilds are running events. People are chatting in our server-wide teamspeak. There's WvW going on. Some sPvP groups & tourneys. Guilds advertising.
If that doesn't do it for you, I'm not really sure what you're looking for. I've been playing MMOs since EQ, and while I've had fond memories and enjoyed many of those games, I know they didn't have half the things I just mentioned.
***P.S.***
Please don't mistaken me saying 'it doesn't make sense for random people to reach out to you' to mean that it doesn't happen. People talk. I'm merely pointing out that you can't expect every person in the game to do it. Or that the people that do will somehow be next to you all the time. That's an incredibly self-centered viewpoint. You don't know what other people have got going on. Many have already found friends to talk to, are busy chatting with other people, etc. But that doesn't stop things like random social interactions from happening. It does mean you need to talk if you want to be heard.
Comments
Not really. You seem to be a classical representative of people who think that "being social" effectively means stopping whatever you're doing and typing a paragraph of text so other people know you're paying attention to them. GW2's combat simply doesn't allow for that.
“And then when you try to be social in our game. You will say “Wow! That’s incredible, I’ve never seen anything like that before… I tried to chat, I tried to chat again, hey I tried it again – that’s great…No one enjoys that, no one finds it fun. We want to change the way people view being social."
No trials. No tricks. No traps. No EU-RP server. NO THANKS!
...10% Benevolence, 90% Arrogance in my case!
Nice tune. Love the song, i just dont see how it is relative to the thread. If you hint that the game is too silent, I'd urge you to go to a more populated server and see how it goes from there
The normal folks call it "humour", you should look it up, it's quite fun.
No trials. No tricks. No traps. No EU-RP server. NO THANKS!
...10% Benevolence, 90% Arrogance in my case!
I tried to return to GW2 this week after I "burned" the game in barely 10 days at its release, made a good looking engineer, motivated myself to try and take it slow, enjoy the sights, and have fun.
I even tried to chat with people, but the kids arguing, spamming guild recruitment or selling gold made it impossible.
I uninstalled the game when I had just hit level 7.
For me GW2 is dull, redundant and a good idea that never worked. I won't even get into the lack of combat roles (I don't like the Trinity name), because then it reminds me even more why I don't bother with it.
My opinion is my own. I respect all other opinions and views equally, but keep in mind that my opinion will always be the best for me. That's why it's my opinion.
Look guys it is all very very simple. You say the game is too solo oriented? I say the game give you a lot more options. If you can't find people to group up with, that is your fault, not the game's fault. For 12 pages players have been telling you that the game is social and the community is great. [mod edit]
I'm playing in EU's Underworld server which is one of the higher populated servers (not Tier 1) and everyday i find myself dropping into a group or a casual chat to have fun. Or people I tag along with in WvW usually invite me to a group and we have a nice chat until the shit gets serious. And you mean to tell me the game doesn't give you the tools to make social connections? [mod edit]
Now hold on a minute here. "If you can't find people to group up with, that's tour own fault?" Really? Have you read the posts where people explain that they try to talk to almost everyone they meet and get no response whatsoever? Have you read the posts where people point out that their chat window stays almost entirely empty from login to log out? It's not just one or two servers, either. I PvP a lot, and the regionwide Heart of the Mists is almost entirely dead socially speaking most of the time.
On top of all of this, try to remember that getting a random person in your group is not socialization. Forming connections with people over a longer period of time is.
It seems that there are at least 3 primary types of responses to the "problem of lonliness" being made here.
1) Folks who say they understand this feeling but assert that the lonely just need to go above and beyond and be super-social to meet people
2) Folks who say that the lonely need to join guilds
3) Folks who disagree and say that there is no social problem at all and that finding friends happens often with little effort
I wish to respond briefly to each of these points of view.
1) Several people here have reported trying to be super-social and still found no success with this. Moreover, we all seem to report that in other games we've had no trouble making connections without the need to behave out of the ordinary, so why ought we need to do so here?
Perhaps more importantly, can a person really in fact make meaningful connections by behaving differently than he normally would? For example, I am a more quiet person in life (much less so in games). I have a harder time making friends because of this. It has been suggested to me to be more outgoing to make friends, but in doing so I would be making friends with others who are themselves more outgoing and therefore not really a good match for me. By simply "being myself," I make friends with those whose personalities are compatible with mine.
2) As has been pointed out repeatedly, joining guilds is not that simple of a solution. For one thing, other than a "core" group, guilds seem to die fairly quickly in GW2. Second, the way the game's group content is designed (both PvE and PvP) it is much more difficult than in other games to come to recognize people in group content and thereby join their guild. This leaves the only real way to join a guild being to choose an arbitrary one from a forum or something similar. Not only does this mean that these guilds are much less likely to be a good fit for a person, but they are also much more likely to be one of the guilds which end up dying out.
3) I played this game for nearly 4 months when the game was a lot more populated than it is now, starting from early access. In all of that time I don't believe I have ever been invited to a party or had another person respond to something I have said, either in /map or in /say. Others have reported similar experiences. Moreover, the social aspect of this game does not reduce to finding a group. You can find a group for content in any game. The question is, can you make longer standing connections/friendships in doing so? In other games, I and others have. In this game, many have been unable to, largely because even in grouping up it is very, very rare to see the same people more than once - and this is how we form connections.
A lot of the people making this third response report things like "35 on my friends list." However, that does not mean that they are in fact real "friends." Just because I have someone on my friends list that I think I can call on for a group at some point, that does not mean much. In other games, I have come to know people in a deeper way which has made my experience in the game richer. Some people become friends who I group with often or talk to, but not all. Even those I hardly ever speak or play with make the game richer and more social by their presence. They are like neighbors, and the game feels fuller because I know that they "live" there.
I can understand that in some server might be some communication problem and seems barren due to 2 things.
1: Low pop
2: Many none English speaking guilds rolled on that server for a unoffical country server, so they use Vent,mumble,TS3 ect.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
No one finds it strange that people are saying "YOU NEED TO FIND A GUILD IN ORDER TO EXPERIENCE MULTIPlAYER" ?
Hell, I meet/friend new people all the time in games like Vindictus, Dragon Nest, and even Payday 2 for something more recent. I will say in all of Guild Wars 2, I probably only made one friend out of that whole game. Then again the only reason we bothered talking to him is because of his efforts to keep with us during the launch race. I guess I'd attribute this to the game's lack of necessary communication. Often times in GW2 when doing events, more people often times made things more complicated, especially on events with fail states. Any time we' would try to duo/trio Grenth, we would have to tell everyone that Balthazaar was up, in order to distract the zerg. It may have been a bit slow, but at least we could guarantee success.
I'm in most of the same boat as things you've pointed out.
I'm a shy person irl, BUT once you know me, I'm witty, friendly, helpful and I'd give to my last gold piece if you needed it and I didn't. Yes, I can be serious, stubborn over some issues, and opinionated. But I'm no monster you can't say "hello" to that'll bite your face off.
While was GW2 singled out? Because for ME it is the most anti-social MMO I've played (And there has been many - DAoC, WoW, EvE, SWG, SWTOR, LotRO, TSW, GW2, Rift, Neverwinter). A good example of this was a few weeks back I saw someone asking questions in LA and getting told to "Go read!" and to "STFU!" etc. and that was on Piken Square, the so-called RP server. Add to the fact that the guild I was in no longer exists (folded cus no1 played), and my friends list has 25 people on it at least that are never, ever online. Old guildies from old guilds in other games have left, so if I want to play GW2 I have to start over guild hunting by asking the "STFU!" crowd about active guilds? I'd sooner put my wee man in a bacon slicer!!!
BUT, I am glad you players are happy and I guess thats all that matters. Play safe! /over.
Edit: Missed another good point. When the guild was good and strong and had players (all of whom I knew from other MMOs (mainly swtor, rift and wow), people wouldn't speak even when you said "Hello all", why? Because most would answer about 10 mins later and go "Sorry <name>, Hi mate, I didn't see chat, I was fighting!". ...Would that be another slap in the "action combat is the way forward!" dept.? Your so damn busy rolling about like Bruce Lee that you can't see chat or worse still, miss it all together!
No trials. No tricks. No traps. No EU-RP server. NO THANKS!
...10% Benevolence, 90% Arrogance in my case!
I really hate to come here and defend Guild Wars 2 after it has me so disenchanted for so many reasons recently, but the social issue in this game is not one of those problems.
Compared to almost every other theme park MMO-RPG, including World of Warcraft and its army of clones, GW2 is the pinnacle of social game play. While it does not actively force you to group, it does not discourage you from grouping either. Many other games make basic PvE a competitive affair where you're fighting against other players from the get-go and it gets bad enough that you start to resent seeing other players in the open world questing experience. This would make sense if it was a FFA/Faction + full loot open world PvP game, but this happens in many MMO's where, according to the game, those people who are accidentally causing your grief, are on the same side.
Furthermore, what was once a bold promise and still a mildly successful endeavor, open world dynamic events some times have very blatant and very fun scaling mechanics which make it a joy to see other players join the fight. This has its fair share of inconsistency, but it can't be said to not exist.
Also, there's a lot of things that can be enjoyed socially in this game, and which require social interaction to complete. For the majority of my experience, World vs World has filled this need for me. Sure, it doesn't require voip and a guild to be a roamer or faceless DPS in a sea of uncoordinated players. And if you choose to play that way, you can still have a very rewarding social experience from the ad-hoc battles you may get into with players around you. But make no mistake, there's the very real opportunity for fun and performance that comes from having stronger connections with the people you play with. And that is the common goal that brought those players together.
In PvE, there's still a ton of things that, should you choose to tackle it, requires you to have someone with you to complete it. From champion fights to open world mini-dungeons. From simple guild treks to giant guild puzzles, story dungeon to high difficulty Fractals. There's tons of goals to strive for that adequately align you with people who also wish to complete these. If you choose not to make the best of this social opportunity, or if those players happen to be rude or asshats for no reason, then that's unfortunate, but it's not a device of the game.
There's more than just mentioned above, but the point is that this game does more than most to encourage a social experience while not forcing it for those people who don't want to rely on or be forced to adhere to a required social connection just to play the game at all.
What it sounds like from most of the comments on this thread, and what has likely caused so many "it's your own fault" responses, is that people have just ended up in these circumstances of having not seen or heard other players talking, or have not had the same experience they supposedly had in another game, and instead of making a case for why this did or did not happen, have decided to blame some element of the game for it. Whether this does or doesn't hold up is usually going to be based on almost 100% anecdotal experience, but there's people who will tell you that they have not suffered from the same issues, and all of us aren't ArenaNet white knight fanboys willing to suspend logic and reasoning to defend their honor like some on the official forums actually are. It's because we have had a social experience and have made those "real friends" people keep alluding to.
I agree with you 100%. I do like the game and I have had quite a bit of fun with it but I stopped playing because after I get by the excitement of playing a new game and exploring what it has to offer, I start to look for something deeper. Like character growth, friendships, feats, and a way to connect with my character.
I personally feel no connection with any of my characters, or those I play the game with. Like you said, there are always so many people running around doing the same things you are, and most of the time they are working alongside you on the same path or goal but there is no actual connection.
Originally posted by Arskaaa
"when players learned tacticks in dungeon/raids, its bread".
If this is the case, then why do you believe you have had social experiences and found these real friends when so many have not?
Is it not possible that you are the exceptions, that you are simply lucky, as opposed to others having been unlucky? After all, I've given very precise reasons why it seems that I have yet to have any meaningful social experience in GW2, as have others. You're another one of these "join a guild" types, but how do I go about joining a guild? I'm sorry, I'm not going to respond to someone spamming chat or posting on a forum saying they are recruiting. I'm not going to say "Looking for guild" in chat and accept the first invite I get, because the reality is that 99.9999999999% of the guilds that take people in that way are terrible, both in terms of skill and in terms of "personality." If I am going to join a guild, I want to do so because I've come to know some of them over time and recognized that socially and talent-wise they are a good fit for me, or because an officer notices my performance and thinks I'd be a good addition to the guild - and these kinds of things just don't and in fact because of the design can't happen in Guild Wars 2.
At the end of the day, there are a lot of MMOs out there, and a lot of people complaining about them on the internet, but GW2 is the only one that I have really ever seen with consistent complaints about the social aspects of the game. Other games get attacked for content, ease, grind, unoriginality, cash shops, balance, etc. etc. etc., but you just don't see folks whining about the social side of things. With GW2, you do, often, and folks need to take off whatever rose colored glasses they have on and realize that this means something.
I'm going to debunk something in this thread right now.
You do not need to join a guild to be sociable!
Why? Because you can add friends and join parties and randomly chat with people without needing to be in a guild. Sure maybe 1-9 people in a guild are like minded and friendly with you. However, guilds become an antisocial cespool of mixed opinions, maturities, and social raising.
The reason a guild becomes that is because more than 9 people are invited to a guild, or the guild changes direction, or "ownership" (I know it's technically "leadership", but that's BS and you know it). Maybe a friend of the guild leader/officer is invited to the guild, but is a tool to everyone but him/her. That tool invites more tools, and now it's a tool shed guild.
About a month I randomly bumped into a person while waiting for Aetherblade Retreat group. That led into a 30minute chat about Japanese manga/anime, just out of the blue. That person added me, I added him, and now we group often for things like Fractals, world boss Metas, and dungeons. On Wednesday of this past week I was randomly invited to a group of two next to a balloon tower in Guandaren Fields...from there was a bunch of Dynamic Events and an extended lore chat about Asura tech vs the new Watchknights. Three weeks ago in the mists, during a random solo join tPvP match, was communicating well with my team which turned out to be 3 pre-mades; added me and now every other time I'm on I get invited to join in a group tPvP matches about 2-3 times weekly.
Those are just small sociable experiences that are had by PLAYING THE GAME AND TALKING TO PEOPLE. No need to join a guild and listen to another person's whine about another class being OP; hear someone complain about one aspect of the game they don't like over another that they do like; be berated by power hungry nutters who think that they can control someone's entertainment time; and listen to/hear/read opinionated political bullshit every other day.
I find that GW2 can be lonely if you choose to be less social, which I usually am. My guild is always doing things together and I will often just continue doing my own thing, but I've been in groups with them before, tons of people doing events, dungeons, and guild challenges and having a blast, forging friendships, etc. I know that GW2 isn't a lonely game, but I can choose to be alone if I want.
I did have one problem with the current Living Story, however. I mean, it's an MMO right? What's with the Queen's Gauntlet challenges being A.) really hard and B.) being solo content? A minor nitpick, sure, but it seemed out of place.
While I don't normally come to defend a Blackgate, in this case I'll make an exception. I can also attest to what Serelisk has said, and have experienced the same myself on many occasions. Both of HoD, & FA when I was there, but also on SoR. Serelisk isn't the exception. What he describes is extremely common in GW2. It's all about 'do you want to make the effort to be social & part of a group? or not?' That's one of the beautiful things about the game. It doesn't force guilds to hold on to toxic players, because they need an extra healer, or tank. If you're being a dick, or don't contribute at all to your server, or guild, or friends, they are NOT obligated to entertain you.
Now, there's a HUGE problem with the paragraph you wrote, which I've highlighted in green. Care to guess?
You are blatantly admitting to avoiding quite a few ways the game has provided to meet people. What you are saying amounts to 'the game is anti-social, because I don't want to ask about guilds, nor respond to guilds looking for new members'. In essence, you are expecting people to magically come to you, get to know you, and form a guild around you, for no reason at all. And I'm sorry, but that's not how the world works. It makes no sense for anyone to do that. None.
If you want to meet people, you actually have to take it upon yourself to go out and meet them. Talk, interact. Ask about some of those guilds that are recruiting. Guilds in this game are EASY. If a guild sucks, leave it, no harm done. If you want to make a more tight-knit group, then you probably need to make some friends FIRST. Heck, most of those guilds you are describing either come from the remaining members of an older guild, friends who know each other in real life, or people who actively try and recruit & maintain a guild of a tighter-core group.
I can tell you for a fact that these guilds exist, and are often oriented around some specific aspect of the game. There are guilds just for friends, guilds for dedicated fractal / dungeoneering groups, guilds for sPvP / tourney's, guilds for havok / roaming in WvW. If you want to be in one, then you need to either make the effort to find one, or make the effort to make one and maintain it. It's that simple.
Most people in this game are also in multiple guilds by now. You can't expect everyone in the game to want to do what you want all the time.
What you say is definitely true. It very much comes down to personal choice.
When it comes to queen's guantlet, most of that stuff is definitely soloable. However, I guess it depends on your class. As my necro I was tearing through those champions no problem. And outside of the guantlet (which is supposed to be a test of individual strength) everything else is very group oriented.
I disagree with a great many things you have said.
First, if one game requires effort to find social contact and in another it happens without effort, then which game has a better social aspect and which has a more questionable social aspect?
Second, you say it makes no sense for anyone to reach out to me but that I must reach out to them. Do you really believe this? Is this how it works anywhere, either in life or in game? Of course not. After all, why on earth would I ever want to be "friends" with people who don't consider me worth talking to? In life and in games, sometimes we get to know people because we said hi to them, and sometimes its because they said hi to us. You're really painting a very bleek picture of the community in GW2 as a group of self-important folks who are too good for anyone else. I certainly hope that that's not how everyone is in this game.
Third, you have echoed the same assertion as many others have: "talk to people." "Say hi." "Invite people to groups." Etc. - all despite the fact that multiple people here have reported trying these things repeatedly only to be repeatedly ignored.
Most importantly, I want to very, very strongly disagree with the characterization of my "green paragraph." You are putting it forth as though I am avoiding doing things which the game provides for meeting people. I see it quite differently: I avoid these things precisely because I believe that they are not good ways for meeting people. I have played many games in my life, and all my experience has showed me beyond doubt that joining guilds as the first step to meeting people is an awful idea. On the contrary, joining a guild needs to be the last step which is made after you have already met a good group of people.
I will repeat: any guild which recruits in chat or on forums is almost certainly a guild of poorly skilled players with questionable social qualities. Guilds with talented, fun people to be around don't go around recruiting like that - precisely because they want to maintain themselves as groups of talented and/or fun people. I can speak even from experience as a very high ranking officer in a popular guild in another game: if you go around recruiting this way, you bring in players who are either bad at the game or socially problematic or both. Rather, almost every guild which is worth being in I have ever known in any game brings people in after they have gotten to know the person just from seeing them "around the server." Unfortunately, GW2 just really doesn't afford an opportunity to get to know people in this way, especially when it comes to PvP.
Could I try out this guild, try out that one, try out another one until I found a fit? Yes, but this wouldn't really result in any kind of positive outcome because, as I said, all guilds which recruit in this way are generally bad places to be, so I would be doing nothing more than jumping from one bad spot to another. I know it sounds like a harsh thing to say, but it just is how it is. Moreover, being a "guild hopper" is just a bad thing. It makes it more and more difficult to ever actually find a good home.
I really like this Laiserlike42 guy above me.......He tells it like it is, better than most could put it into words.
GW2 is not designed for a community. Players that are calling it home have to FORCE IT !!!!...I must say some are doing a good job, no thanks to the developers. But this leaves a lot of players without a community.
- Heavy on the Dynamic events. Why group ?... this had been stated over and over and over ! Yet it falls on def ears.
- Zones - Now this is another major killer... How you ask ?.....Well, ill tell ya. In most mmos you have Zones just like GW2, but in GW2 you have mini quest hubs made for two levels with only one objective, then you move on. Who is whare ? I can't Recognize anyone. In and out like a thief in the night !
-Fast paced, tooooooo fast. Events are too easy with no thinking, no planing. 20 people can suck and it does not matter. Do you really care about people doing this ?....ITS NOT THEIR FAULT, but game design.
Find a good guild my butt !...........I'm a level 11, I'm having some fun for now with this game that is not an mmo.
Life requires you to put effort into socializing. There's isn't a single exception to this that I can think of. While we have tools to make socializing easier (not unlike the tools already present in GW2), none of them does all the work for you. Unless you count watching a movie with dialogue as 'socializing'.
Secondly, YES. It DOES NOT make sense for random people (who do not know who you are from a hole in the wall) to reach out to you. This, again, is part of how the real world works. Look at job interviews for example. What often happens with jobs is that they first ask the people already working there (already part of that community) if they know anyone who can do the job they need, and do it well. When that fails, they then generally refer to some database of applicants, in which other people they know have vouched for them. When that fails, they'll look at the people who sought them out, and give them a try. The one exception to this is with things like conventions where they go out and advertise 'hey we exist, maybe you'd be interested in joining!'. Even then, they get you to come to them at the end of the day. This trend extends passed jobs to things like user groups, clubs, etc. It's how the social nature of human beings works.
To go back to what you said about guilds. If you wanted to get more people into a guild you were making, how would you do it? Would you go out and advertise around the game? Or would you walk up to each person 1 by 1, and say 'lets be best friends right now!' ? It just doesn't make any sense.
- I just logged off from the game, and guess what? There's people running around various zones, pinging events, goofing off, and chatting. There's people in Lion's Arch fartin' around, crafting, playing the TP, and chatting. There's people in Divinity's Reach, enjoying the new content & chatting. There's people pinging events & world bosses. There's people posting dungeon, & fractal groups on gw2lfg.com. 2 of my guilds are running events. People are chatting in our server-wide teamspeak. There's WvW going on. Some sPvP groups & tourneys. Guilds advertising.
If that doesn't do it for you, I'm not really sure what you're looking for. I've been playing MMOs since EQ, and while I've had fond memories and enjoyed many of those games, I know they didn't have half the things I just mentioned.
***P.S.***
Please don't mistaken me saying 'it doesn't make sense for random people to reach out to you' to mean that it doesn't happen. People talk. I'm merely pointing out that you can't expect every person in the game to do it. Or that the people that do will somehow be next to you all the time. That's an incredibly self-centered viewpoint. You don't know what other people have got going on. Many have already found friends to talk to, are busy chatting with other people, etc. But that doesn't stop things like random social interactions from happening. It does mean you need to talk if you want to be heard.