Is gw2 really a great community?

[Dreadshow.9320]

I've seen better and worst. It's under average.

[Dreadshow.9320]

@aswedishtiger.7320 said:This game or FFXIV have easily the best MMORPG communities. No other MMORPG even comes to a close 3rd

Marvel Heroes community was light years above this one to bad the game was canned by Disney.

[Raizel.8175]

No.

The GW2-community is your average MMORPG-community - it certainly isn't any better than the community of other titles.

GW2 just encases its players in a comfort-bubble in story- and open-world-content by removing any kind of conflict. Performance does not matter, teaming up does not matter, etc. pp. You simply can play like a bot in these gamemodes without anyone caring. This leads to escalations in gamemodes where people have to carry their weight though. In PvP, WvW, raids and fractals, the community can be exponentially more toxic than in other titles.

Conflict is very important. Stuff like shared nodes and participation are fine, everything else isn't. The lack of conflict also leads to the lack of coherence which in return results in bad game design. GW2 totally misses the healthy balance in that regard.

[MattDu.7123]

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[Reverielle.3972]

It's not great, and it's not terrible. It's certainly on the better side of average that is certain.A friend I were just talking the other day how the community has changed a bit over the years, and sadly not for the better. But that is the way of things I guess...

[Raizel.8175]

@MattDu.7123 said:

@"Raizel.8175" said:

GW2 just encases its players in a comfort-bubble in story- and open-world-content by removing any kind of conflict.

In PvP, WvW, raids and fractals, the community can be exponentially more toxic than in other titles.

Conflict is very important.

Just to get the facts right, conflict is important.PvP, WvW, raids and fractals community can be exponentially more toxic than the comfort-bubble in story- and open-world-contentSo we should make the story and open-world-content have more conflict so it can be toxic as well.

Even it out so everyone has to share in the misery. Thanks, but no thanks

Sorry, but that's just nonsense, especially considering that there are already cracks in the comfort-bubble whenever an individuals personal gain is affected. Just look how unreasonable toxic the map-chat in maps like Auric Basin can get when people screw with the meta-event. Then there are also events like Palawadan where I constantly ask myself why I'm rezzing people when they won't return the favor (because they won't get loot from champions which die in 2-3 seconds that way of course).

Like I've said, shared nodes and shared participation are fine to prevent killstealing and node-camping. What's wrong are boon- and healsharing for people who aren't in your party/squad (which undermines team-building which is essential to MMORPGs), the reward-structures (I'm getting gold in events while being afk just because my pet is attacking random enemies which is fairly ridiculous) or even the reward-balance itself (stuff like RIBA/CF or Istan shouldn't be that rewarding; considering factors like coordination and preparation, events like TT should award the player with ~25 gold in comparison). Another issue is of course the lack of (difficulty) diversity in open-world-content as tool for more coherence between open-world- and story-content on one side and stuff like fractals and raids on the other side.

What's baffling is that people always want to see the negative effects of "conflict" without seeing the positive effects. Conflict is an essential factor for community-building which GW2 largely lacks due to being too single-player-focused. It is ok to prevent conflicts where there's no need for conflict (like the aforementioned shared nodes or shared participation); it is not however where conflict is absolutely essential and that essential conflict is basically missing in open-world-content. Yes, the game may appear a little bit more toxic that way, but - to be honest here - it would just lift the veil of illusion which all the "We have the best community"-talk and open-world-game-design essentially is.

[Alga.6498]

In-game: most of it are positive and friendly, there is always keyboard warriors here and there.Always kind souls if you ask something in the map chat- as they replies back, etc.

Forums: No. Dramamakers with no lives (sitting on the forums 24/7) and flaming as there is no tomorrow.

[Skotlex.7580]

Whether people are kind to others or not depends on a few more factors than just being innately so.

Being exposed to external pressure (such as the drive to success) usually causes people to tense up, and be less forgiving of themselves and others. If this pressure is upheld for a significant amount of time (as it would be if one were a PvP player for multiple hours), then that drives people to be more unforgiving and selfish. And the opposite is true, if the game is just a "happy park" with no risk of failure, people will be mostly stress-free (at least from the in game influence) and be more willing to just spend time doing "whatever" (such as going out of their way to help others), at the cost of it being easier to get bored.

To have a healthy degree of challenge, it's better to not be constantly exposed to it, or to have the cost of failure not be that great. In that sense I feel GW2 open world does things right. Allowing varying levels of challenge available lets people engage at will, at whatever tier they feel more comfortable. It's getting closed up in highly competitive modes that will drive out the worst in people.

Granted, I would prefer if they would slightly improve the scaling difficulty of most (non meta) events. I feel like the challenge is just right up to five or so people, but when champions melt in seconds when scaled up for a zerg of a few dozens, that's when any semblance of challenge goes our the window.

[segman.3560]

It's nothing special. In whatever direction.

[MauChann.3081]

There's always rotten apples in every community, but overall in every mmo that I have played, I'd consider gw2 one of the least toxic. Ofcourse there will always be people I disagree with, or find toxic, but the majority is very nice and accepting and that overpowers the bad imo.

[MattDu.7123]

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[Agent Noun.7350]

Honestly, I don't know that I'd say GW2's community is any better or worse than most other MMOs. On the whole, I've found that people stop to help out, answer questions, etc. about as often in GW2 as they do in most other MMOs I've played (which is to say, a pretty decent amount). Map chat is garbage, but it beats WoW's trade chat, which is garbage but also the garbage is on fire and likes to spout 12-year-old memes.

[MrWubzy.3587]

Every community in any part of the world will have its good apples and rotten cores, and GW2 is no different. I've seen some of the nicest people willing to teleport people through jumping puzzles step-by-step and even offer advice on top of it but, on the other hand, I've seen somebody talk down to someone just because they were playing Scrapper during Vinewrath. In my experience the community is largely helpful and kind, so take that with however many grains of salt you wish.

[jinxykat.6519]

I can only speak from my own personal experience playing the game the last three years. It is more cooperative than competitive and that's where you'll find the most glaring differences in player behavior. In raids and WvW players are more prone to wanting your gear/rotations/skill/build to be a certain way. In PvE situations such as world bosses, i've found people are much more relaxed. That is to be expected in most MMO's, but in comparison to some others i've played the community is far less toxic and i've met some truly wonderful people on my journey through Tyria. Also, i will cross half a map if i see a little blue skull icon, okay? i'M A RES-A-HOLIC. please do not blip away right as i reach you. :D

[timetopat.7921]

The community is good, not perfect but we are people so nobody is. I like map chat and find it usually helpful, the guilds ive joined have also been nice . I’m straight but there was a very friendly lgbt guild that accepted everyone if they were cool and not an ass. I was surprised by the lack of comments when people saw my guild tag compared to wow.

I recently tried the new wow expansion and got to max level. I can safely say I didn’t miss map, dungeon , or bg chat. Unless you are winning in a one sided fist fight bg chat is just garbage. Map chat is 14 year old memes that are so unfunny they arnt even ironically funny.

This isn’t to dump on wow, it’s a good game, but just not for me.

The thing you also have to consider is the competitive scene in even friendly games can have their share of jerks. My old eso guild was amazed at the bad luck I had in dungeons where I had more than enough champion points but people were still snobby because I didn’t have max points. And that is a game that is considered to have a good community

[Gehenna.3625]

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:Last night in Dry Top, a newcomer asked how to get geodes, and someone told him the best way was killing the giant, and that he'd get 10x the geodes if he soloed it. Naturally I refuted this, and the guy got a bit sniffy about 'It was just a joke.'

But this is kind of a rare thing to see here, in general everyone in map chat is civil and helpful, sometimes to the point where three or four people are yelling out the same helpful advice at once. The previous game I played was also cooperative, and the chat was frequently full of squabbling, reportable offensive comments, accusations of botting, and so much filter evasion that you didn't dare post a screenshot anywhere without blacking out the chat panel.

Whenever I do Dragon Stand there's always at least one of those guys that has to pull the Alt F4 joke. Considering how DS works that's a pretty douchy thing to do.

[Scarlett.1605]

Is GW2 Community great? Yes, yes it is!

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

@"SkyShroud.2865" said:I always see people say how great the community is but personally, to me is just so-so? I always think people oversell or overhype it.

Gw2 is not a puny game with puny population so I always thought it is natural to have "many" helpful people and logically speaking, the proportion (in percentage) of helpful people isn't that much different from any other games.

What is your thoughts?

its fine outside of PvP. In PVP we're condensed misery and salt.

[Dante.1763]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:Last night in Dry Top, a newcomer asked how to get geodes, and someone told him the best way was killing the giant, and that he'd get 10x the geodes if he soloed it. Naturally I refuted this, and the guy got a bit sniffy about 'It was just a joke.'

But this is kind of a rare thing to see here, in general everyone in map chat is civil and helpful, sometimes to the point where three or four people are yelling out the same helpful advice at once. The previous game I played was also cooperative, and the chat was frequently full of squabbling, reportable offensive comments, accusations of botting, and so much filter evasion that you didn't dare post a screenshot anywhere without blacking out the chat panel.

Whenever I do Dragon Stand there's always at least one of those guys that has to pull the Alt F4 joke. Considering how DS works that's a pretty douchy thing to do.

I want to know how people still fall for that!!! o_O

[starlinvf.1358]

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

@"SkyShroud.2865" said:I always see people say how great the community is but personally, to me is just so-so? I always think people oversell or overhype it.

Gw2 is not a puny game with puny population so I always thought it is natural to have "many" helpful people and logically speaking, the proportion (in percentage) of helpful people isn't that much different from any other games.

What is your thoughts?

its fine outside of PvP. In PVP we're condensed misery and salt.

PvP is fundamentally powered by a Sodium Chloride, and some atomic research centers have been trying to study PvP players in an attempt to design better MSRs (Molten Salt reactors). The biggest hurdle is distilling player egos into SMUG fuel (Salty, Miserable, Underranked, and Gud).

[Patchwreck.2357]

@"SkyShroud.2865" said:I always see people say how great the community is but personally, to me is just so-so? I always think people oversell or overhype it.

Gw2 is not a puny game with puny population so I always thought it is natural to have "many" helpful people and logically speaking, the proportion (in percentage) of helpful people isn't that much different from any other games.

What is your thoughts?

It seems like I have met more good people in this game than in most but it has the same number of toxic people as all other games. I guess its like if you have a room full of your regular mix of people and then you walk into a room with 4 more good people than the previous room they will shine brighter making it seem like you're not in a room full of the same old garbage. I have had to leave a few guilds here because they had a lot of those people though and in my old age I have no time to waste on them.

[Eudaimonia.8695]

The community at launch and until ~2014 was the best in any mmorpg. Seriously. If you weren't here during that time you'll probably call bullshit on this but if you were you'll know I'm right.

Since they've introduced megaservers in 2014 and server linking in 2016 for World vs World , it deteriorated a lot in my opinion.

Not hating on the game, just what I've observed over the years.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I've seen better, but I've also seen FAR worse. A few months after launch, the dungeons forum was such a cesspool that the developers refused to go in there. This has given me a unique hatred for elitists here, because they demonstrated a degree of antisocial terribleness that I've only seen in the darkest corners of Capcom and Sega forums.

[Cobrakon.3108]

The loot system not being "first to tag gets the loot" is part of the formula that helps create a more helpful environment in the community. With the amount of collections and other "to do lists" people often join up together to get these things done or people help out because in this game a guide can be indispensable. I'd even go as far as to say that end game playing involves a good amount of helping others. Instead of saying that Gw2 has an abnormal amount of saintly people I think it has more to do with Anet creating a game that promotes helping others.

[Deimos.4263]

It feels like the community aspect as a whole has been decreasing. There are certainly good communities within the game but map chat seems to get worse on a daily basis.