Absolutely not.  These "is GW2 the first to do this" threads are grasping at straws and really adding to the over-hype nonsense.

Some examples to backup my claim of NO:

1) UO removed open PK to make the environment less hostile

2) Later MMOs removed ability to kill steal, thus less hostile environments.

3) Vanguard encourage people to Harvest together as it would produce items for all parties.

4) WAR introduced PGs to give a community type quest system

5) SWG relied a lot on community-driven events such as elections, towns building, etc.

6) SWTOR rewarded groups via social points.

7) There are other MMOs that actually increase the EXP given by the larger the group size.

So, a resounding NO.  Also, remember, whatever community you experienced was during BETA and most MMOs at beta have awesome communites. Usually at launch it nosedives.

Originally posted by Praetalus

Originally posted by Jagarid

Just curious, but did you actually take the time to talk to people before you invited them to group?

90% of the group invites I get from people (in any MMO) are blind invites, without a single word spoken to me.   No way I will ever accept one.   I don't particularly care to share a "social" experience with someone who isn't even social enough to communicate with actual words when requesting to hangout with me, you know? 

Yes, I did. Rarely received a response, but when I did people said that they were just trying to get through them as they had done them before. It was my first time, but I could tell that others were possibly just going through the motions to get out of the starting area. Like I said, I rarely play any game where people want to group at low levels as, lets face it... shit is usually easy. I just wanted  a group because I was an elementalist and thought a melee folk could help out. 

 

I'm not trying to trash the game, like I said, I just didn't find it as "friendly" as some of you are making it out. Honestly, the most friendly game I've played lately, even at low levels has been champions online..lol.

Just a thought, but people do play differently in a BWE than they do when the game is live. I had little interest in joining a guild or grouping with others during my limited weekend playtime so I could focus on completing the goals I'd set for myself (like testing Professions, or gathering to test out crafting). But when the game is "live" and I'm playing on a Server I plan to be my long-term home with people I hope to be my long-term community my goals change as will how I react to group invites.

Originally posted by immodium

Originally posted by Jagarid

Originally posted by immodium

You really shouldn't need to converse before sending a party invite. If both parties are doing the same DE why would you need to talk?

You don't need to be in a party I believe so why send the invite? Maybe to actually be sociable?

From my experience it's mostly the solo players that don't accept invites.

So..not communicating is sociable now?  Mmm...okay....

I guess we see things very differently.  

I see no reason to "group" with a person that has no interest in actual communication, which for me, is a core part of being social.  I actually consider it pretty rude to invite someone without talking to them first.  

To me a blind invite is akin to some stranger running up to me on the street, tapping me on the shoulder and grabbing my arm to get me to go with them, all without saying a word.   It is not really relevant that where they are trying to drag me might be where I was already going....it is not a friendly way of inviting me along.

Well, sending a party invite is a form communicating. I don't see the need in stating the obvious before sending a party invite if both members are doing the same thing.

I can see where your coming from though if your just chilling in a rest zone. But if your out and about questing, doing the same thing why do you need to chat before hand?

I couldn't imagine two vikings passing pleasantries while bashing a common foe before agreeing to party up. :)

That's the way I see it, too.  If you're in an area that's for a very specific quest(s), I don't mind if someone sends an invite, unless they send it when I'm in combat.  However, if I'm running through town and I get an invite out of the blue, I think that's kinda rude, too.

That's one thing I can say about TSW's quests; in most cases, it's pretty clear what quest you're on based on where you are; the Jack O' Lantern line comes to mind, particularly.

Originally posted by everland

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

---

Originally posted by everland

---

Originally posted by sojobo69

---

Originally posted by Xiaoki Judging by this forum: NO. GW2 only encourages a friendly atmosphere when everyone agrees that GW2 is perfect in every way.

---

^^^^ this 100% the second someone says anything neg in chat watch the chat fire up....

---

 

 

People play the game because they like it.

 

If I was playing a race game at arcade, having fun with my friends, and suddenly some guy would stand next to us and talk "what a c**p game, why you play it, it sucks", we would just think "what a jerk, why did he even come here?", and then just kick him out of the arcade. Unfortunately, in mmo's you can't do that, no wonder people get angry.

I go to arcade to play games, not criticize, or discuss about them. I login to mmo to play it, not criticize it or discuss about it, forums like this one are for that.

---

"and then just kick him out of the arcade"

 

So, someone doesnt like the game you like so you respond with physical violence? Really?!

And actually think you are justified in this? That has got to be the WORST response I can think of.

Is this the GW2 community?

What's wrong with you? Don't you understand situation I presented? A guy comes up to me and my firends at arcade and is picking a fight. Disturbing us. You can either call the arcade owner to throw him out, or do it yourself. Only some kind of drunk looking for trouble would do that in real life (in mmos its diffrerent). What do you do with a guy that is obviously just looking for trouble? You defend. No normal guy will come to you at arcade and talk bad about the game you play, this only happens in mmo's, so it's hard to explain.

You people read what you want to see.

"Is this the GW2 community".. hmm.. am I community? I'm one guy?..... I am tiny % of fans on this forum, which are tiny % of all fans of the game. If you don't like the game because I'm to violent.... I wonder how many other nice things in life you miss because of other people...

The guy isn't even insulting you. If anything he's picking a fight with the game, not you. :)

Originally posted by immodium

Well, sending a party invite is a form communicating. I don't see the need in stating the obvious before sending a party invite if both members are doing the same thing.

 I can see where your coming from though if your just chilling in a rest zone. But if your out and about questing, doing the same thing why do you need to chat before hand?

I couldn't imagine two vikings passing pleasantries while bashing a common foe before agreeing to party up. :)

You know, I have been playing MMOs for a really, really, really long time....and I never thought about it that way.

You actually make valid points.   I honestly have always refused the invites because, as I said above, I considered them as "rude"...  but looking at it from your perspective, perhaps that is not always the case.   You have successfully convinced me to consider each blind invite individually rather than refusing them out-of-hand for rudeness.

Congrats, it isn't easy to convince this old dog to see things differently, and you just did.

Originally posted by Nephaerius
RaiderZ has even taken some of GW2's mechanics.  Yesterday during the beta test for RaiderZ I happened upon another player fighting a boss mob.  I helped him finish the enemy off and then I got credit for my quest too even though he had tagged the mob first and we weren't in a party together.  Good times.  Hope these ideas catch on more.

To answer the OP question,nope GW2 is not the first MMO to encourage a freiendly atmosphere,you can find this as far back in games like eq.

Secondly, RaiderZ has not taken some of GW2 mechanics,more like GW2 has taken some of RaideZ mechanics,after all RaiderZ has been in development longer than GW2.

Work began on GW2 in 2007 

RaiderZ 2006

Now,i like GW2 as much as the next person but i also think RaiderZ is very good as well,to be honest the combat is right up their with GW2 imo,especially the class system.

Some GW2 fans need to stop getting carried away.Yes, GW2 is a fab game but all these "is gw2 the first" threads our over the top.

Originally posted by keithian
During one of the earlier beta's, I actually had a case where I saw someone fighting in one of the starter areas (outside Divinity Reach). I decided to join in as it was part of an event. She said "go find your own things to kill". I said, b%$#h, you are in the wrong game then lol.

I expect we will see a lot of this come the 28th when people who have not already played the game get into it.

It's a paradigm shift and many players are not going to be aware of it.

They will learn, eventually.

Originally posted by grimal

Absolutely not.  These "is GW2 the first to do this" thing threads are grasping at strars and really adding to the over-hype nonsense.

 

Some examples to backup my claim of NO:

1) UO removed open PK to make the environment less hostile

2) Later MMOs removed ability to kill steal, thus less hostile environments.

3) Vanguard encourage people to Harvest together as it would produce items for all parties.

4) WAR introduced PGs to give a community type quest system

5) SWG relied a lot on community-driven events such as elections, towns building, etc.

6) SWTOR rewarded groups via social points.

7) There are other MMOs that actually increase the EXP given by the larger the group size.

 

So, a resounding NO.  Also, remember, whatever community you experienced was during BETA and most MMOs at beta have awesome communites. Usually at launch it nosedives.

 

I agree with the red part.

As to the OP's idea:

I appreciate that GW is getting rid of certain elements of the game which may harm the peace and balance in the community. I believe that it may seem to be a valid reason for the community to be friendly. However, I would not be too optimistic since you are still bound with a random sample of people playing on your realm. Intolerant people will still be intolerant, rude people will still be rude and well...a**holes will still be...

Originally posted by Jagarid

Originally posted by Robsolf

TSW was built this way regarding mob sharing(you get credit for the mob, but the first person to attack gets the loot), and LotRO plans to allow for shared credit at least in some areas, once RoR releases.

It's a welcome change in my book.  Mob lock was originally intended to stop kill stealing and ninja looting, while letting everyone have their own loot was deemed "unrealistic".  I wonder how long it'll take for some uninformed MMO vets to pick up on that and stop CAPPING at everyone for "stealing their mobs"...

If Turbine is smart, they'll move their whole system to this ASAP.

In TSW though the mob experience gets divided amongst the participants. 

I thought it was a really cool feature in that game too, until a few hours into it when I helped someone take down a named MOB at the end of a quest chain (at the airport in Kingsmouth).  The dude sent such a stream of curses at me via both whispers and   over the general chat channel that my ears turned red!   I also didn't know about the xp being divided but when I told him that, he just said a few more strings of curses....

I agree that its a good system, but unfortunately the way it was implimented in TSW doesn't compare to GW2.  THey just changed the issue from "mob stealing" to "XP stealing".    :-/

Ah... I didn't even know about the XP sharing! 

Still, a pretty lame thing for that guy to get all unglued about.  Imagine Buffy getting in Willow's grill for going after the same vamp...

They should change that, then.  Everybody should get full XP so long as they contribute X amount of damage or player healing/buffing.  For it to be "exploitable", it really depends on how much mob XP factors into your overall advancement.  I don't recall it being much in TSW.

Originally posted by Jagarid

Originally posted by keithian
During one of the earlier beta's, I actually had a case where I saw someone fighting in one of the starter areas (outside Divinity Reach). I decided to join in as it was part of an event. She said "go find your own things to kill". I said, b%$#h, you are in the wrong game then lol.

I expect we will see a lot of this come the 28th when people who have not already played the game get into it.

It's a paradigm shift and many players are not going to be aware of it.

They will learn, eventually.

I sure hope so. I never understand why people would prefer to be left alone in a game that encourages being social.

Originally posted by Kniknax

I realised recently that during my time in GW2 I had not get annoyed or pissed off by another player during PVE playtime at all (I didn't try PVP to my shame), which is (sad to say) pretty usual for me in most games. This got me to thinking about whether ArenaNet were actively trying to create a real friendly and fair environment within the game - which is probably a first.

Most if not all MMO's I have played have gameplay mechanics that allow for all sorts of annoyances - from players running in and stealing the freshly popped quest NPC, to the tank having the wrong gear for a dungeon and not telling you, to the level 80 running into town and killing all the quest NPCs, to being ganked by a guy 30 levels higher than you whilst out questing (repeatedly).

However, Guild Wars 2 has things to counter all of these - so they just dont ever happen. They have everyone getting a quest update who helped kill to the NPC, to removing the gear grind and making it skill based, to making everyone in an area the same level. In fact almost every annoyance in most MMO's seem to be countered by Guild Wars.

I can't think of another MMO that seems to do this - but I may be wrong (excluding Hello Kitty Online and Clone Wars - although I'm not so sure about Hello Kitty, it always looked a bit evil).

You have not been into the arse-hole dungeon, have you?  This is the WvWvW dungeon located underneath the Eternal Battlegrounds.   Besides being able to stop the other servers from progression by deploying annoying traps that can stop and even kill them.  Well, you can you said traps against your allies as well.   This means that essentially you can kill other people on your server.

Many times during BWE#3, I killed dozens of people on my server as well as people from other servers just by setting the traps on them as they ran through specific areas.  I also had this done to me over and over again by allies and enemies alike.   Worse yet is when an enemy "acts" like an ally allowing you to get to a certain point, only to use a knockback to throw you off a cliff and kill you by way of fall damage.

Originally posted by grimal

Absolutely not.  These "is GW2 the first to do this" thing threads are grasping at strars and really adding to the over-hype nonsense.

 

Some examples to backup my claim of NO:

1) UO removed open PK to make the environment less hostile

2) Later MMOs removed ability to kill steal, thus less hostile environments.

3) Vanguard encourage people to Harvest together as it would produce items for all parties.

4) WAR introduced PGs to give a community type quest system

5) SWG relied a lot on community-driven events such as elections, towns building, etc.

6) SWTOR rewarded groups via social points.

7) There are other MMOs that actually increase the EXP given by the larger the group size.

 

So, a resounding NO.  Also, remember, whatever community you experienced was during BETA and most MMOs at beta have awesome communites. Usually at launch it nosedives.

Hmm...

It is unquestionably true that GW2 is far from the first game to implement features to encourage a good community, but it can be argued that it has never been done better, more thoroughly, or as holistically as it is being done in GW2.

Does it truly bother you that GW2 happens to be a well-designed game with a lot of mechanics and features implemented to facilitate certain types of emergent gameplay?

It's fine if you don't like the game, or their choices, but why so much hate towards people who appreciate them?

Originally posted by Stx11

Originally posted by Praetalus

Originally posted by Jagarid

Just curious, but did you actually take the time to talk to people before you invited them to group?

90% of the group invites I get from people (in any MMO) are blind invites, without a single word spoken to me.   No way I will ever accept one.   I don't particularly care to share a "social" experience with someone who isn't even social enough to communicate with actual words when requesting to hangout with me, you know? 

Yes, I did. Rarely received a response, but when I did people said that they were just trying to get through them as they had done them before. It was my first time, but I could tell that others were possibly just going through the motions to get out of the starting area. Like I said, I rarely play any game where people want to group at low levels as, lets face it... shit is usually easy. I just wanted  a group because I was an elementalist and thought a melee folk could help out. 

 

I'm not trying to trash the game, like I said, I just didn't find it as "friendly" as some of you are making it out. Honestly, the most friendly game I've played lately, even at low levels has been champions online..lol.

Just a thought, but people do play differently in a BWE than they do when the game is live. I had little interest in joining a guild or grouping with others during my limited weekend playtime so I could focus on completing the goals I'd set for myself (like testing Professions, or gathering to test out crafting). But when the game is "live" and I'm playing on a Server I plan to be my long-term home with people I hope to be my long-term community my goals change as will how I react to group invites.

I agree with you here. Most people seemed to just be rushing around and like I said, it was my first, but there had been many before, so I'm sure that a lot of people had done the stuff before. I am a bit of a social butterfly when I play these games. I love to talk, love to group and play with others... else, I'd just play something like Skyrim..lol. 

Overall, I did have a shitton of fun in beta, even alone and can't wait to log in this weekend. Like you said, I'm sure once it's live and all the new folks are in, I'll have no issues grouping and talking it up!

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

 That has got to be the WORST response I can think of.

 

I know right? 

He could have played that conversation in so Many ways but that has got to be one of the most fucking idiotic responses he could have come up with. More people like him in the game and this will be a new WoW 2.0 community started at circa 2012.

FYI, GW2 isnt the "first" to be doing shared credits on kills. Im no mmo "veteran" that some people like to tout like a resume over such forums but Lotro has aspects of shared kills with players who arent grouped up in the pvmp metagame. On the creep side this almost translates to leveling up on xp on other people's killtags as long as you contribute on killing the player to some degree.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

---

Originally posted by everland

---

Originally posted by sojobo69

---

Originally posted by Xiaoki Judging by this forum: NO. GW2 only encourages a friendly atmosphere when everyone agrees that GW2 is perfect in every way.

---

^^^^ this 100% the second someone says anything neg in chat watch the chat fire up....

---

 

 

People play the game because they like it.

 

If I was playing a race game at arcade, having fun with my friends, and suddenly some guy would stand next to us and talk "what a c**p game, why you play it, it sucks", we would just think "what a jerk, why did he even come here?", and then just kick him out of the arcade. Unfortunately, in mmo's you can't do that, no wonder people get angry.

I go to arcade to play games, not criticize, or discuss about them. I login to mmo to play it, not criticize it or discuss about it, forums like this one are for that.

---

"and then just kick him out of the arcade"

 

So, someone doesnt like the game you like so you respond with physical violence? Really?!

And actually think you are justified in this? That has got to be the WORST response I can think of.

Is this the GW2 community?

This site in no way represents the GW2 community.

Originally posted by Stx11

Does it truly bother you that GW2 happens to be a well-designed game with a lot of mechanics and features implemented to facilitate certain types of emergent gameplay?

It's fine if you don't like the game, or their choices, but why so much hate towards people who appreciate them?

????  So let me get this straight....the OP makes a lofty claim, I counter it with evidence and suddenly I am a hater?

Originally posted by Siphaed

You have not been into the arse-hole dungeon, have you?  This is the WvWvW dungeon located underneath the Eternal Battlegrounds.   Besides being able to stop the other servers from progression by deploying annoying traps that can stop and even kill them.  Well, you can you said traps against your allies as well.   This means that essentially you can kill other people on your server.

Many times during BWE#3, I killed dozens of people on my server as well as people from other servers just by setting the traps on them as they ran through specific areas.  I also had this done to me over and over again by allies and enemies alike.   Worse yet is when an enemy "acts" like an ally allowing you to get to a certain point, only to use a knockback to throw you off a cliff and kill you by way of fall damage.

Honestly that sounds like more good design to me!

WvW is "the place" for ganking/griefing and that dungeon is "the place" to take that behavior to the extremes.

I'd much rather have a place like that in game for the people who enjoy that to go and have their fun than for them to try to find it "out in the world" where such behavior isn't necessarily consentual.