If a person needs a game to force people to group up so they can be in a group, then the problem lies with the person not the game.

GW2 is what YOU make it.  Do you want to have people to group with and talk to? Go make some in-game friends.

Originally posted by just1opinion
FFS how many negative threads can one person start?  We get it....you hate the game.  Almost everything about the game bothers you.  Solution:  Quit writing about it and go play something else that you enjoy.

No one forces you to read these threads,are you ArenaNets appointed champion defender.

Really? The fanboi's are still trying to eat anyone with a negative review of this game?? This is the most antisocial MMO I have ever played.

Yes it's up to the player as well but there is almost no reason to so much as message a single person for any reason.....ever. It's worth the $60 for solo play but hardly a lasting MMO. In a month or two it will get the SWTOR treatment due to it's non existent endgame and the overall pointless feel it has.

Unfotunatly MoP is awful as well, as it brings nothing new to the table in a 8 year old game. The dungeons are the easiest they've ever been in 4 expansions and the quests had me nodding off by the 10th one.

Get ready for the MMO drought, the only thing MoP and GW 2 will manage to do in the near future is up the sales of Xbox 360's and PS3's.

The idea of getting gear in a game just to impress other players makes me sad.

I think its cool when you can show off your gear and such but thats not why i play.

Originally posted by JimmyYO

Really? The fanboi's are still trying to eat anyone with a negative review of this game?? This is the most antisocial MMO I have ever played.

Yes it's up to the player as well but there is almost no reason to so much as message a single person for any reason.....ever. It's worth the $60 for solo play but hardly a lasting MMO. In a month or two it will get the SWTOR treatment due to it's non existent endgame and the overall pointless feel it has.

Unfotunatly MoP is awful as well, as it brings nothing new to the table in a 8 year old game. The dungeons are the easiest they've ever been in 4 expansions and the quests had me nodding off by the 10th one.

Get ready for the MMO drought, the only thing MoP and GW 2 will manage to do in the near future is up the sales of Xbox 360's and PS3's.

Block them. It helps 

Originally posted by DMKano

Originally posted by Stx11

 

GW2 encourages playing with others - XP for Reviving, shared nodes, scaling content, cross-class combos. It is the first MMO I've ever played where when I see other people in the world I smile and rush towards them.

You smile and rush towards them because it benefits you the individual player - not because you're happy to see a your buddy online that you grouped with last night. Again nothing wrong with the system in GW2 - but it rewards the individual player, it is designed around the inidividual player experience, it does not give extra incentives for groups.

It is very possible for a person to feel "isolated and alone" when surrounded by other people... but in psychological terms it is viewed as a symptom of the individual.

If you've studied psyschology you know that context is KEY here - people are social animals, this is why solitary confinement is the harshest punishment. Imagine coming to a group of people, nobody is talking to eachother, but they are all working together on some project like - building a wall - but everybody is just doing it how they know - eventually the project is done, and everybody just goes their own way.

Would you feel isolated and alone?  

 

I go back to what I said before - if the "only way" you can "feel" you are "in a group" is because of a Party UI Frame, the issue is you and not the game.

There's a lot more to it and you know it:

-group buffs

-group chat

-group XP bonuses

-getting to know a group of folks because you hang out with them for a while

etc,,,,

The UI FRAME is the least important factor here - it's the other group mechanics that foster a social experience.

Amazingly all these things you mention GW2 lacks exist... in a Guild.

All kinds of Guild buffs. A place for me to "meet and greet" with people. A fantastic social experience... and GW2 (like FFXI but unlike so many other games) lets me join multiple Guilds so I can meet and hang out with all kinds of different people without leaving my other social groups.

What amazes me about your position is that you go on and on about "grouping" and "social" as if GW2 alienates it - while everything you seem to want actually does alienate solo players. GW2 is "solo friendly" but it is ALSO "group friendly" and it seems that is what you have a real issue with - even allowing people to play the game without a guild or enforced group seems like some major offense to you.

Originally posted by JimmyYO

Really? The fanboi's are still trying to eat anyone with a negative review of this game?? This is the most antisocial MMO I have ever played.

Yes it's up to the player as well but there is almost no reason to so much as message a single person for any reason.....ever. It's worth the $60 for solo play but hardly a lasting MMO. In a month or two it will get the SWTOR treatment due to it's non existent endgame and the overall pointless feel it has.

Unfotunatly MoP is awful as well, as it brings nothing new to the table in a 8 year old game. The dungeons are the easiest they've ever been in 4 expansions and the quests had me nodding off by the 10th one.

Get ready for the MMO drought, the only thing MoP and GW 2 will manage to do in the near future is up the sales of Xbox 360's and PS3's.

Generic pointless post #2986350-02.

Anyone disagreeing with your opinion/assessment is automatically a hater/fanboi, how original

GW2 removes most of the barriers to grouping, but it rarely forces you to group. Stop blaming the game for a lack of drive to be social in the game. Guilds are the answer for many loking for a more social form of play. With level scaling, all but the most self centered players have the ability to play with lower level guild mates and still have a fun time at doing so. No more need to find someone with in a level or two of you to do things with.

MMOs, of late, have actually trained players to be unsocial with each other, through mechanics that limited who you could productively play with and where you could productively play with each other, almost always amplified by loot and XP mechanics that punished you for grouping with others. It will take time for people to adjust to a more social game and some people won't want to adapt. GW2 supports people from the full spectrum of sociability.

Find a good, social guild. You can have up to four guilds at the current time, so you can afford to sample a couple with out active guild hopping.

BTW, I'm at a loss as to why the lack of inspection tools makes the game less social. Unless there is some metric by which you can be exclusionary to others based on gear, the game can't be social? Huh? What ever...

Originally posted by fiontar

GW2 removes most of the barriers to grouping, but it rarely forces you to group. Stop blaming the game for a lack of drive to be social in the game. Guilds are the answer for many loking for a more social form of play. With level scaling, all but the most self centered players have the ability to play with lower level guild mates and still have a fun time at doing so. No more need to find someone with in a level or two of you to do things with.

MMOs, of late, have actually trained players to be unsocial with each other, through mechanics that limited who you could productively play with and where you could productively play with each other, almost always amplified by loot and XP mechanics that punished you for grouping with others. It will take time for people to adjust to a more social game and some people won't want to adapt. GW2 supports people from the full spectrum of sociability.

Find a good, social guild. You can have up to four guilds at the current time, so you can afford to sample a couple with out active guild hopping.

BTW, I'm at a loss as to why the lack of inspection tools makes the game less social. Unless there is some metric by which you can be exclusionary to others based on gear, the game can't be social? Huh? What ever...

also if people aren't talking to you in this game they are obviously "playing it how they want".. people cry up and down on these forums that games should let them play how they want then when a game doesn't offer forced grouping which is basically play how the dev's want they get all up in arms. But i can say for sure if more of the game required grouping you would see 10 fold more posts about how the game doesn't let you play how so and so wants. You can see already several threads about people complaining they needed help in Orr or doing certain story quests.. again no one is ever happy like Louis CK says Everythings Amazing, yet nobody's happy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk

I really don't want to say this but it's the truth.  Guild Wars 2 feels like a solo game with grouping tacked on as an after thought.  It is to put it nicely bugged. 

Here are some examples:

I have had instances where my wife and I are grouped, she shows as being near by, the map shows her half way across the zone to the north west, she is actually standing at a way point about one quarter of the map south of me!

When going into a personal story mission, sometimes we can do it togther other times we can't.  Even when we are both following the very same story.

There are more examples, too many to list but those are the most frustrating examples I can think of right now.

i play gw2 ..as i said b4 i like it..its a meh imo nuttin great but...

i dont get what ppl are saying that it doesnt force you to be in a group...umm if you play you well know that all you do is run up to a orange circle or in range on the heart hub and wa-la ..your in a group..wether you like it yur in a group..it might not say your grouped..but yah basicly..you are..and gw2 is very anti social..many times i find my self watseing time typeing to cov. with someone..anyone ..out of chat yet its like talking to a stuffed animal lol and its getting to the point that bots are soo bad in this game that when your in a heated battle and you happen to flop down waiting for a rez or someone to run over to help you that your fighting along side with..to relise its a friggin bot so you have to release..the bots are really soo out of hand you can basicly lvl with just tagging the bots mobs and just stand there..btw i do report every bot i see...and iv reported TONS

Ok, remember we are talking about GW2...

Riddle me this; how many single player games have a subscription fee?

Guild Wars 2 is in no way a single player game. Here is a list why:

1. The shared loot and lack of kill stealing. This is a major reason simply becuase it PROMOTES teamwork. Call of Duty, Halo, etc which are obviously single player games have this, and a completely oppsite to GW2 in both community and ideals.

2. Open world. The ability to group with other people without even needing to ask. While it makes for a much mroe quiet game, the constant "someone is here to help" thinking really keeps it up team wise, and you dont have to worry about ganking like in Open World PvP games.

3.The seperation of Personal Story and World story. This seperation is hardly noticable, but let us compare it to another game like SWTOR. People were constantly doing there personal stories, becuase in truthfulness that is all there was. The lack of the ability to find out "more" or explore the world helped to bring it down, becuase everything you needed to know was in the personal story. In Guild Wars 2, the ability to go outside of the personal story and see the world and learn new stories adds another layer to the game.

4. Resing. Again, it naturally keeps people together becuase it is HELPFUL to. When you see someone in other MMOs, there is no real need to help them, and keeps it quiet. Actually, the only reason people even speak in MMOs is to ask for help. I am sure 100 people here that message, but only a couple actually come becuase they are kindhearted. In GW2, there is no need to speak to help someone else to ask for help, except if they are way far away. While Gw2 can be done solo, there is nothing holding you back from randomly helping someone, and actually oftentimes more comes out fo it.

If anyone wants to make a comparison about GW2, i would suggest it's sort of like an Arcade game.  You can be the only person playing, but then anyone can jump in at any time.

GW2 is a MMORPG where individuals are independent fully functional entities.

No one else has tools to discriminate,

But the human being loves the power to control others more than freedom...

Originally posted by odinsrath

yah i agree..plays alot like a single player game..no1 even bothers to joke / talk / kid around or be social ..at times its so mind numbing i rage and log out to play older mmo's that are more social

dont get me wronge  gw2 is a good game..but as a community its not social at all..what ever happened to groups / roles / quests / being social and working as a team ...yah gw2 is diff and good in spurts..but i also find myself logging just because of the points i listed

its good that gw2 stands out to be diff cuz its what the genra could use as its in the decline..but i WOULD NOT want every company / dev. under the sun moveing in the direction to be like them

as a core mmorpgs are about some questing /adventures /races /factions/ wars/ conflict / crafting and yes even grinding gear..with gw2 its just zerg zerg zerg with none or very little of the above but this is IMO

not only yours :)