How social are you?

[Chingalling.1208]

Sometimes the idea is brought up in conversations about existing and new mmos, that mmos these days are much less social than they used to be, and that you aren't forced to interact like you used to in older mmos or older iterations of mmos. Anet likes to emphasize making friends in their game, but it can be argued that they don't always incentivise that.

 

How social do you tend to be playing gw2? In what ways and in what areas of the game are you most or least social? And would you prefer that more interaction was incentivised?

[Tarlonniel.6534]

_narrows eyes_

 

What are all these people doing in my single player RPG?

 

_grumbles about games not being what they used to be_

[knomslayer.9457]

I probably say hi to every random player i met.. i say *hello* or compliment their outfits .. some greeted me back but some just waypoint as fast as possible or mount up then press space bar to get away from me :( its sad but i understand them because i used to be them.

[Westenev.5289]

Personally, I make it a personal rule to say "Hi" in some way, shape or form to my party members. If they don't say hi back, then they're either busy, afk or just plain bad players (flamers, quitters and autoattackers). I usually quit these parties.

 

I don't think there's anything Anet can do to make the game more social. Part of what made MMO's like Runescape great was that you practically had to drop whatever you were doing and expwaste for a few hours just to keep your sanity. The end goal (skillcapes) often so far off, there wasn't much point exp grinding everyday. The exp could wait, y'know?

 

Guildwars 2 is full of short term goals, but many of the longer term goals are either undesirable, somewhat optional and lack prestige. I think this is why we tend to play like hamsters on wheels, always moving from short term goal to short term goal without stopping for air.

[Game of Bones.8975]

I must be somewhat social or I wouldn't have answered this thread.

[Lexi.1398]

I usually don't respond to peeps in /say unless it's a Big Event and something funny happened, or unless i can see someone in a situation i can explictly help with. Though i usually prefer whisper for the latter due to distance. I consider myself pretty social though, i don't shy away from map, team, squad or party unless talking is inconvenient for me for whatever reason (im usually quiet during high level fracs n raids because concentrating, even in voice). I'm a pretty social person in RL too though.

 

I kinda prefer it this way though, lots of old mmos "force you to interact" because of some bs game design. Between potentially months of grinding, depending on the game, or asking someone who already did the grind to make me a thing, i rather take the social route, but i really shouldn't have to do that to keep sane playing a game - which is why i don't play those sorts of games.

[Iozeph.5617]

Social enough to answer when I'm being spoken to- which isn't much if at all on average. I believe it could have something to do with the age and the emotional baggage of players depending on where they fall into age brackets. Younger players who might be picking up GW2 as their first mmo might tend to be more social because they believe there's not much to lose engaging with other players.

 

Older players who've been playing this genre for over ten years or more might be burnt out on the social aspect or simply gun shy because they spot certain traits or patterns of behaviour in other players in chats and they filter that through whatever negative experiences they've had with people in other mmos. They take one look at being social in this game, say, 'to hell with that, I've had my fill of that sort of nonsense,' and keep to themselves.

 

Of course this is speaking in broad and general terms and there's bound to be plenty of people who had nothing but positive experiences with guilds and other players in other mmos and so they'll tend to be more social regardless.

[Tukaram.8256]

I tend to look at my chat window and see someone said hi... 15 minutes ago...

So I guess I am about as social ingame as I am in real life ha ha. I honestly have never looked at the chat system enough to know how to talk to open world, guild, team etc. Maybe I should?

[Gop.8713]

I rarely speak even to the ppl I actually want to talk to, just bc I'm into what I'm doing. I speak most often in guild chat when I have something funny or relevant to say about something other ppl are already talking about . . .

[Mea.5491]

I'm social enough to join open world PvE meta event squads and chat with the squad if there's a funny convo. I also happily answer questions on map chat.

But I'm not social enough to be on voice chat 24/7. I listen to people during guild missions but that's about it. As an introvert, talking makes me exhausted so I prefer text chat.

[Adrianna.3092]

what are these "friends" you speak of? i have never heard of such a thing... are they edible? seeing as i have none of these "friend" things i will have to say that i am not very "social"

[crepuscular.9047]

too much of GW2 contents are a 1 man army, would like to see Anet have a 'Dark Soul event week', buff up all the mobs to the point that you need a 10men raid squad to kill a rabbit at Wayfarer, that would teach the newbies what it means to be 'social' in an MMO means

[Lilyanna.9361]

I'm talking all the time.

 

Guild chat.

Voice chat.

Discord.

 

I might be two of these three things at the same time LMAO. To be fair, I'm a roleplayer when I'm not hardcore pvping or pveing, so the social aspect kinda was always stuck to me. I always try to invite people to be social, even my heavily introverted guildies. But even I can get exhausted after cackling on VC or Guild Chat for like five hours.

[Raseus.2543]

Chatting? I am very social

Playing? Well I like to play at my own speed, that's why I never really do world completion with others or run fractals, heck if I can and need to do a fractal I run them solo, it is just more relaxed for me doing things I want the way I want.

 

[Luthan.5236]

I play it as a single player game. With trying to avoid talking too much. Talking costs time and I have a lot to catch up after my long break. Now if I were in "end game" (finished all main contend and at the point where I'd have to grind harder to obtain stuff and playing WvW/PvE as "end game") I'd chat more I guess. Won't be the case for a few more months or about a year or so.

 

Since I don't play dungeons/raids (too much having to alter my playstyle to fin in the group and playing optimized builds cause they play for efficincy, not for fun) I enjoy the open world PvE - and helping out every now and then. Even though I don't have a mesmer to do porting for others I occasionallly rez others and/or help out on smaller events where some new player might have gotten killed or old player was doing it while doing some heart for map completion nearby. (I do main Tyria world completion on my other chars which aren't main - still char 2 to 8 left cause I made one char for each class.)

 

That's all nice and fun. Sometimes for achievements some bigger/coordinated stuff where I join for TTT an organized run.

 

All fine and possible and it is "social" even though I don't chat much. Too lazy to type the "ty" even when gettign rezzed. (And not everyon does it - only a few.) I just rez others back to help. And it is fine. I don't expect anything as well. Helping and getting helped sometimes doesn't require much talking/chatting if you know what to do.

 

Back then end of 2013 when I played actively and had all main contend (except grindy stuff lige ascended and legendary) finished I found WvW to be fun to chat while sitting somewhere and mentioning the enemy movements every now and then.

[ricky markham.1689]

i tend to roleplay a bit when im in major cities so i chat up other characters

[Danikat.8537]

I'll usually talk to my guilds whenever I'm online (although I'm really bad at remember to say hi when I first log in) and I'll play ungrouped with whoever happens to be doing the same stuff I am. I'll rarely play in a group for more than a specific activity just because I can't commit to being online for long periods of time.

 

Sometimes I'll join in conversations in map chat, or reply to questions and sometimes I'll talk to people in say chat, but it really depends how I'm feeling at the time. Sometimes I'm just feeling grumpy and miserable and probably shouldn't be online at all but I want to get something done in GW2. (Although sometimes I realise I'm just killing time and should just go to bed.)

 

Only things I'll always ignore are total strangers sending me guild or group invites without ever saying a word. "Never volunteer without knowing what you're agreeing to" is one of the few rules I always stick to. Sometimes I might ask why they want to be in a party, but even then it's about 50/50 whether they answer or not.

[DietPepsi.4371]

I'd say I'm one of the more social people in-game. I regularly respond to questions and join in on conversations in map chat. I have longer conversations with players often too. If a player is willing to impromptu team up (i.e for an achievement, or they are low level) I'll socialise with them during, and once were done we say our thanks and go on our merry ways. I also whisper players if I want to compliment their character design. Since PvE (I don't sPVP or WvW) is a co-op environment I like to take any opportunity I can to make it a friendly and social experience for myself and the people around me; makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. =3

[Aru.4156]

I'm not too social but I guess I talk a small bit?

 

I tey to keep my manners in check and thank people who are rezzing me in the middle of a fight (a bit hard as I haven't got chat controls down yet and want to thank them in "say" and not "map" so it might take me a bit but I'll still thank them). And of course thank people who rezzed me when I've died from a random mob group or cliff fall. Other places I say thanks would be to the mesmers who port people for dailies or just in general.

 

Recently I've started getting into the habit to compliment and ask players via whisper what outfit or armors they have on as many people look damn good and I'm curious what they mixed and matched to create their look. Same with mount colors.

 

Besides that, I have a few people I just happened to talk to and hit it off well so we whisper and party occassionally.

[jonatanen.1568]

im probably one of the less social social players, i dont talk much in groups or parties i join, but i have a little bit of interaktion with my guild and i try to help people who needs some advise, sometimes i fall for some interaction that i cant help but join, and i must sadly admit that i sometimes but rarely get a little snarky when people in instaces like fractals start to vent on me or other players but insist on only doing a boss or area a certain way and no other possibility is an option.

[whoeverxwins.1279]

Depends what I'm doing. I play with a friend and we chat on Discord, but when I'm playing solo, I tend to stay off it because the chatter tends to make it hard for me to hear the NPCs and cinematics. I'll chat in squads and map chat, especially when waiting on a meta to start. I do run in squads quite a bit, either with the guild or just from LFG during large map events. So I suppose I'm social enough.

[Vayne.8563]

I'm more social in my guild that map chat. Very often I'm on discord with people so it's hard to reply to map chat at the same time. I'm not great a multi-tasking. But if I see someone asking for help or asking questions I'll often try to answer. I've always been relatively social.

[Doo Lally.8594]

My end game of choice is WvW. The chat is generally insipid, immature nonsense from teenage boys with fluctuating hormone levels and/or basement-dwelling man-childs who have low self esteem. I tend not to contribute unless it's a call out for help or I've had one too many Whisky's to drink. I rarely go into Discord as it's another level of nonsense up the scale. Generally I only talk to guildies on voice or a raid guild that I have past (good) experience with.

 

My block list gives definition to the word 'Infinite'.

[sitarskee.5738]

I liked having friends in old MMOs and it felt really good. In GW2 I find it harder to build a good and lasting relationship and I don't know why. Maybe it is just me.

In another MMO I played there was 1 main city in which 95% of people met to trade, duel and such. In GW2 there is no trading between players and no fun dueling wherever and whenever you want. For me personally, those may be the reasons I don't really socialize in GW2.

[Warkind.6745]

Sometimes WvW team chat is the only entertainment I get in that game mode.