Thinking of returning: Is the game still lonely?

I've always loved the world of GW2 - And I keep supporting ANet though purchasing the updates.Although, I always end up dropping away from the game for the simple fact is that is feels incredibly lonely.

This is a problem of many MMOs. The first MMOs were incredibly social. UO, WoW, CoH, etc... Partly, they forced you to walk the world and they started off as dangerous worlds. In the case of UO, you would die from other players even. The result was a lot of people interacting with one another.These days, WoW suffers the same though. The general world is a lonely trek where you see hundreds of other players but no one acknowledges one another. The thing that binds WoW community is Raids though. There is a raid level for everyone and that's where you find teamwork and some social happenings.

So my question here. Where do you find that in GW2? I've been gone for a long time and my main toon always ends up being my Ranger (which at the time I left was in a pretty low spot, still I liked the profession).

If I were to download the client and check out the world again - is there a strong community somewhere? Is in the WvW?
I'd love some good advice around this.

Not sure what you mean by lonely..if you log in most days in the human start zone there are mentors giving advice to new players, people running treks in parties and squads, people dancing and goofing off, the list goes on. Sure, certain maps are less "social" than others, but in most, if not all MMO's, you have to be social to engage, and i've found in the last five years of playing, tons of friends just by running around and helping people out or asking questions. I personally don't find GW2 lonely at all but that's been my experience. Being in an active, friendly guild will make the entire experience more enjoyable, for sure. Are you in a guild? If not, i recommend finding one (or three, or five) that you feel comfortable in and start meeting new people. Can't tell you whether WvW is active on a social level or not, but all other aspects of the game can be. (also a ranger here <3 ) Hope this helps, and have fun!

For me social interaction in this game mainly comes from my guilds. They're the people I'm usually chatting to when I play and the first people I ask for help. But there's also lots of opportunities to group up with strangers - for example a lot of PvE maps have a meta-event which cannot be completed without one or more coordinated groups. Some are easier than others (and therefore require less communication) and in all of them chat will be more focused on what needs to be done than general conversation, but it can still be an opportunity to meet people. Especially if you're there when a guild or other regular group is running it. For smaller groups there's bounties in PoF maps, raids, Fractals and dungeons (yes, some people do still do dungeons). And of course WvW and PvP require playing with other people.

There is a lot you can do solo, and you can even join a group for meta-events or WvW and just follow along without talking or really interacting with anyone else, but the opportunity is there if you want it.

Where do you find that in GW2?

You can either find communities that suit you, or you build one. With 11 million players (using ANet's numbers), and a whole slew of means to join and/or create communities of like-minded people, it's really up to you. For example, a reset meta train Discord community just recently bloomed organically. You also have the option to join up to five guilds, and therefore have the ability to be a part of multiple niche communities.

Yes, it is absolutely possible to feel lonely even in the midst of a 80-player meta event, just as it is possible to feel lonely in a city of two million. Yet the first step is as simple as a "Hello."

Yes this is still the most Asocial MMO there isyou get a couple of convos in guilds(!) chat per day, if some random rumbling on metas/cities.That is all the social aspects of GW2. Game isn't designed to be social.

@"Reyck.4508" said:I've always loved the world of GW2 - And I keep supporting ANet though purchasing the updates.Although, I always end up dropping away from the game for the simple fact is that is feels incredibly lonely.

This is a problem of many MMOs. The first MMOs were incredibly social. UO, WoW, CoH, etc... Partly, they forced you to walk the world and they started off as dangerous worlds. In the case of UO, you would die from other players even. The result was a lot of people interacting with one another.These days, WoW suffers the same though. The general world is a lonely trek where you see hundreds of other players but no one acknowledges one another. The thing that binds WoW community is Raids though. There is a raid level for everyone and that's where you find teamwork and some social happenings.

So my question here. Where do you find that in GW2? I've been gone for a long time and my main toon always ends up being my Ranger (which at the time I left was in a pretty low spot, still I liked the profession).

If I were to download the client and check out the world again - is there a strong community somewhere? Is in the WvW?

I'd love some good advice around this.

Two part:

1:

This game is still designed basically like a single-player game, the majority of content can be done:

• solo (open-world, story, most events)
• informal grouping (group events, world bosses, anything open world)
• LFG tool (Dungeons, Fractals, arguably Raids)

Meaning that if you don't want to, have no interest in, take no initiative in playing with and talking with other players you won't have to.

In this regard, yes, GW2 is still the most anti-social MMO game I've ever played. It really doesn't FORCE you in any way to group and socialize, and thus the majority of players just won't, because... path of least resistance.

2:

One the other hand this is just what you make off it. If you want to be social call out, talk to people, ask for people to group up and talk, look for guilds (and no problems with trying a guild and then say it isn't for you and try another). As in real life, being social in this game means you have to invest yourself in it.

And as such, this is a nightmare for the traditional stereotype players that are naturally shy and have trouble reaching out to people in real life, and then goes to play MMO's to try to find a place for themselves socially there (I know a few of these, and can be a bit of the same myself at times). So no, this game isn't the "holy grail" of game that forces others to reach out to you to help you be social, which honestly seem to be what a large part of MMO players want.

It is what it is. I get pretty annoyed at it at times myself. For what it is worth, I generally find NA servers to be more chatty in map-chats, but the EU servers to be largely more helpful when they actually talk.

@phs.6089 said:Yes this is still the most Asocial MMO there isyou get a couple of convos in guilds(!) chat per day, if some random rumbling on metas/cities.That is all the social aspects of GW2. Game isn't designed to be social.

Probably due to Discord, even regular farming and WvW groups communicate through Discord.

@Yamazuki.6073 said:

@"phs.6089" said:Yes this is still the most Asocial MMO there isyou get a couple of convos in guilds(!) chat per day, if some random rumbling on metas/cities.That is all the social aspects of GW2. Game isn't designed to be social.

Discord largely just plays on the same as the existing Guild-Chat, I've seen Discord taking over more of the in-game guild-chat than anything else, since it's well suited for specific "groups" that already exists. Which is what we've generally used guilds to represent in gw2. Since we can have as much as 5 guilds, people use them essentially as different chat channels, similar to the "Linkshell" system in FF14, and Discords are well suited for that role.

Discord will never really replace map-chat for example, because I don't think anyone will ever get that many random gw2 players into a discord at the same time. The majority of players still doesn't use Discord.

I guess we must be playing different games, because this game has never been lonely to me. Ever. On the other hand I've always gone out of my way to be social and I've built social networks.

There are a lot of games that require you to group and that's great if you are interested in socializing with random people. But I'm interested in socializing with people I'd want to hang out with. So my community tends to center more around guild chat than map chat, because the odds are, I'm going to have less in common with someone in map chat.

Not that I can't find people I like in map chat, but I'm just as likely to find some snarky teenager who I have nothing in common with. Why would I stop my conversation on discord with guidies I like to cultivate a random conversation in map chat? I mean I do sometimes anyway, but it's not my first choice.

Find a community you like and interact with them. That's the best way to not feel lonely in an MMO.

The community isn't going to seek you out. You have to try and actually become part of it.

Last week I was of the opinion that PoF was completely deserted. Two days in a row I've lead bounty runs of 50 people, talked more to people than I have in a few MONTHS and had the most fun in a long time outside of WvW. I know what you mean by the game feels lonely though. Grouping is rarely required, sometimes not even encouraged. Many people simply don't like talking, or feel awkward and weird when they suddenly have to. When they 'expose' themselves to others, who might judge them for not being as good at the game.

Nothing stops you from being social in GW2, just like any other MMO. It has its guilds, its instanced (or OW) grouping, its map/local chats all the usual.

If one feels the need to be "forced" from the game to be social, then they never really wanted to be social in the first place.

I think the first step to resolve this issue is to be social yourself.Sometimes I just want to come and play as a solo experience, but I've never been ignored when talking or asking to team up for some events.

The problem is that a lot of people want it to be a social experience without being social themselves. It's just not how it works.

Hey hit me up if you want someone to hang with and I’ll play with you :) add me in game and we can dungeon and stuff!

a MMO is only lonely if you want to play alone *looks at the forum posts demanding for henchmens*

lezz all go, to the green green home..

tbh its as lonely as you make it. Theres lots of ways to make it engaging

You can be social without speaking a word.

Strangers going out of their way to res you after you get downed. High level players stalking newbies to provide buffs and heals while out of sight, or jumping into a losing fight to tip the scales.

Those exist, and to be honest, that feels pretty good. It's so easy to do, hence why people do it almost unconsciously. Perhaps it's their pitfall, most players maybe Expect it to happen and be normal behaviour ? But that doesn't remove their social factor in my opinion.

@Blocki.4931 said:The community isn't going to seek you out. You have to try and actually become part of it.

Last week I was of the opinion that PoF was completely deserted. Two days in a row I've lead bounty runs of 50 people, talked more to people than I have in a few MONTHS and had the most fun in a long time outside of WvW. I know what you mean by the game feels lonely though. Grouping is rarely required, sometimes not even encouraged. Many people simply don't like talking, or feel awkward and weird when they suddenly have to. When they 'expose' themselves to others, who might judge them for not being as good at the game.

Wooot!!

NAILED IT DUDE!!

Totally got it covered. You are the champ.

As a new player my experience is probably not comparable, but in a month I met a lot of people in the game. Sure, people won't always interact on the spot, and typing in the chat is awkward in a mob infested place, but I had some funny conversations around champion spots and goofy events, and party invitations. And the Looking For Group dialog is working well - except when you want to do a dungeon for the first time in story mode and everybody bypasses the cutscenes and rushes to the next challenge.

Regarding voice chat, my wife and I use it and we invite the players we meet to join us on it because it makes getting to know each other and coordinating the team so much easier. I understand that it also makes the text chat a lonely place though. If voice was integrated into the game, maybe the experience would be radically different?

@Leo.3428 said:As a new player my experience is probably not comparable, but in a month I met a lot of people in the game. Sure, people won't always interact on the spot, and typing in the chat is awkward in a mob infested place, but I had some funny conversations around champion spots and goofy events, and party invitations. And the Looking For Group dialog is working well - except when you want to do a dungeon for the first time in story mode and everybody bypasses the cutscenes and rushes to the next challenge.

Regarding voice chat, my wife and I use it and we invite the players we meet to join us on it because it makes getting to know each other and coordinating the team so much easier. I understand that it also makes the text chat a lonely place though. If voice was integrated into the game, maybe the experience would be radically different?

Write first timer watching movies/cutsence and you should get veterans and newbies that want to do the same mate.

@Linken.6345 said:Write first timer watching movies/cutsence and you should get veterans and newbies that want to do the same mate.

This is what I did and yet some on the party would enter in exploration mode without waiting :)