It was overhyped prior to release - no denying that.

But taking the game as it is for face value - it's good. It's worth the box price to me, and I continue to enjoy it.

I think it deserves good press, it's a good game. I would go so far to nominate it for GOTY, but I don't know that it should necessarily win or not. Writing another book of the bible and naming it after ANet - going a bit too far.

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by stevebmbsqd

 

I get it. You like the game. I'm happy for you. I don't hate the game myself.  It is fun for what it is. The experience you are having may be different for other people based off of personality types, servers, and guilds. Apparently a lot of people feel this way since there are numerous posts on several sites. You yourself have responded to these posts on this site. All I was doing with my post was presenting my idea as to why lots of people may feel this way. Obviously there is something that is causing them to say that. One or two posts you might say they are trolls. When you have a plethora of posts, there is something more. I am not bashing the game. I am only stating why I believe people feel this way because I do too sometimes.

think you still missing the point.. the issue you are having is present in ALL these games that have come out in the last decade or so.. you are making it seem like GW2 is the only one or its way more so because of  it's "soft grouping" truth is all these games many people play with a more solo oriented mindset..  at least GW2 i'm playing most of my time with actual people talking or not unlike most other MMOs I have played recently

I do get it. I just don't agree with you. Read above. Some other people just posted on the same topic and one explains it rather eloquently. I agree that most other theme parks do have an issue when compared to older MMOs, but not to the extent that GW2 does. GW2 took it to a whole new level. Your experience is apparently a lot different than others. I don't know what else to say to you. 

Originally posted by DavisFlight

 

Saying "I know it's bad but other bad games are just as bad" isn't a very good response.

True, I actually see other players in GW2. But they act more like bots than people.

The last 7 years of themeparks catering to solo players are more or less just as bad. But SOME of those themeparks gave benefits to grouping and had a SMALL social atmosphere, whereas in GW2 it's more or less nonexistant.

And it IS a widespread opinion. Its always met with "Find a better server" or "find a guild", but neither of those two things are the reason for this phenomenon.

which is not true at all in my experience,, guess it just depends how you play the game

on a totally different subject and I'll probably get a warning for derailing the convo but honestly don't take games too seriously just enjoy and come in  with half glass full even with these discusssions.  The reason I say this is cause reccently I just went through major surgery and had major complications which cause me to stop breathing twice.   Then during my recovery I was given so much medication that I had stopped breathing again.   When I was told about this I realized life is just too short and its just not worth aruging over the small stuff.  I'd rather just enjoy whatever comes my way.   :)

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by DavisFlight

 

Saying "I know it's bad but other bad games are just as bad" isn't a very good response.

True, I actually see other players in GW2. But they act more like bots than people.

The last 7 years of themeparks catering to solo players are more or less just as bad. But SOME of those themeparks gave benefits to grouping and had a SMALL social atmosphere, whereas in GW2 it's more or less nonexistant.

And it IS a widespread opinion. Its always met with "Find a better server" or "find a guild", but neither of those two things are the reason for this phenomenon.

which is not true at all in my experience,, guess it just depends how you play the game

It is literally impossible for me to be more social than I am in GW2. The fact of the matter is that GW2's mechanics breed a solo oriented mindset in the playerbase, and makes it a LOT harder to find people that are willing to

a) communicate in local chat/through tells

b) actually group with

You say its no better or worse than themeparks of the last 8 years. I say it IS slightly worsebecause there is NO benefit to grouping, so people don't do it unless its with preexisting friends from real life or guilds..

Originally posted by Laross

on a totally different subject and I'll probably get a warning for derailing the convo but honestly don't take games too seriously just enjoy and come in  with half glass full even with these discusssions.  The reason I say this is cause reccently I just went through major surgery and had major complications which cause me to stop breathing twice.   Then during my recovery I was given so much medication that I had stopped breathing again.   When I was told about this I realized life is just too short and its just not worth aruging over the small stuff.  I'd rather just enjoy whatever comes my way.   :)

 

That means your here for a reason. ;) I hope your doing well.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by DavisFlight

 

Saying "I know it's bad but other bad games are just as bad" isn't a very good response.

True, I actually see other players in GW2. But they act more like bots than people.

The last 7 years of themeparks catering to solo players are more or less just as bad. But SOME of those themeparks gave benefits to grouping and had a SMALL social atmosphere, whereas in GW2 it's more or less nonexistant.

And it IS a widespread opinion. Its always met with "Find a better server" or "find a guild", but neither of those two things are the reason for this phenomenon.

which is not true at all in my experience,, guess it just depends how you play the game

It is literally impossible for me to be more social than I am in GW2. The fact of the matter is that GW2's mechanics breed a solo oriented mindset in the playerbase, and makes it a LOT harder to find people that are willing to

a) communicate in local chat/through tells

b) actually group with

 

You say its no better or worse than themeparks of the last 8 years. I say it IS slightly worsebecause there is NO benefit to grouping, so people don't do it unless its with preexisting friends from real life or guilds..

how is there no benefit to grouping? with grouping you finish things faster which = leveling faster.. with shared loot when grouping things die faster = more loot for you.. with groups you get to enjoy and play with the combo system a lot more as most classes only have a couple variations they can do on their own.. when grouping you can take on larger events and harder champions you could not take on alone.. really how is there no benefit to grouping?  but then again I assume you mean making a "party" and not just grouping and playing with others.. i will agree there is not much benefit to forming a party outside dungeons and WvW but there is PLENTY of benefit to playing with others

Originally posted by bcbully

One thing that is different is that while approaching or doing a quest, in the pve playfields, I don't recall getting or sending any invites. In other games it seemed to happen quite often, two, three times a day maybe. Most of the time, but not all there was a little chat going on. Sometimes times we just jived, and there was a lot.  Plenty of those people became friends.

Actually my experience in forced groups is many became jerks, not friends.

WoW for example, sure at the start of the group people seem friendly, however as the group have a few deaths people start blaming the tanks or the healers, and it is quite often the dpsers, the Glory Boys who "compete" on the dps meters, that does the whining to start it all.

Also, how often guilds in raid-centric games got broken up because people get competitive on the gear race and just want to get ahead at the expense of friendship?

Been there. Seen it all.

I'm not sure what your previous experience is, but from my experience (since the early days of MMO), seems to me that guilds in games like WoW last the shortest, and community least lasting. So I'm not sure how exactly some of you define what is considered "social" here.

For me, the term "social" implies that there are "societies" being formed, not just idle chatter and talking about life and things. Games like WoW definitely failed at that (people from guild, get what they want to the limit of the group, then breakup or leave). GW2 we see a certain degree of success (there are quite a few super-alliances in WvW) and greatest success I see is in games like SWG or DAoC.

Originally posted by aRtFuLThinG

Originally posted by bcbully

One thing that is different is that while approaching or doing a quest, in the pve playfields, I don't recall getting or sending any invites. In other games it seemed to happen quite often, two, three times a day maybe. Most of the time, but not all there was a little chat going on. Sometimes times we just jived, and there was a lot.  Plenty of those people became friends.

Actually my experience in forced groups is many became jerks, not friends.

 

WoW for example, sure at the start of the group people seem friendly, however as the group have a few deaths people start blaming the tanks or the healers, and it is quite often the dpsers, the Glory Boys who "compete" on the dps meters, that does the whining to start it all.

 

Also, how often guilds in raid-centric games got broken up because people get competitive on the gear race and just want to get ahead at the expense of friendship?

 

Been there. Seen it all.

 

I'm not sure what your previous experience is, but from my experience (since the early days of MMO), seems to me that guilds in games like WoW last the shortest, and community least lasting. So I'm not sure how exactly some of you define what is considered "social" here.

 

For me, the term "social" implies that there are "societies" being formed, not just idle chatter and talking about life and things. Games like WoW definitely failed at that (people from guild, get what they want to the limit of the group, then breakup or leave). GW2 we see a certain degree of success (there are quite a few super-alliances in WvW) and greatest success I see is in games like SWG or DAoC.

 

i agree and it was the same in not just wow but most other themepark MMOs... sandbox games obviously do this aspect much better as it has the systems in place but in GW2 case WvW is a great system for this and has been forming nicely so far and should work well once they close the damn free transfers

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by DavisFlight

 

Saying "I know it's bad but other bad games are just as bad" isn't a very good response.

True, I actually see other players in GW2. But they act more like bots than people.

The last 7 years of themeparks catering to solo players are more or less just as bad. But SOME of those themeparks gave benefits to grouping and had a SMALL social atmosphere, whereas in GW2 it's more or less nonexistant.

And it IS a widespread opinion. Its always met with "Find a better server" or "find a guild", but neither of those two things are the reason for this phenomenon.

which is not true at all in my experience,, guess it just depends how you play the game

It is literally impossible for me to be more social than I am in GW2. The fact of the matter is that GW2's mechanics breed a solo oriented mindset in the playerbase, and makes it a LOT harder to find people that are willing to

a) communicate in local chat/through tells

b) actually group with

 

You say its no better or worse than themeparks of the last 8 years. I say it IS slightly worsebecause there is NO benefit to grouping, so people don't do it unless its with preexisting friends from real life or guilds..

how is there no benefit to grouping? with grouping you finish things faster which = leveling faster.. with shared loot when grouping things die faster = more loot for you.. with groups you get to enjoy and play with the combo system a lot more as most classes only have a couple variations they can do on their own.. These are all things that you can do WITHOUT grouping just by being in the same area as another person.  when grouping you can take on larger events and harder champions you could not take on alone.. really how is there no benefit to grouping?  See above. but then again I assume you mean making a "party" Yes I mean actually grouping... kind of hard to confuse the term.  and not just grouping and playing with others.. i will agree there is not much benefit to forming a party outside dungeons and WvW but there is PLENTY of benefit to playing with others

Thank you for proving my point.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

It is literally impossible for me to be more social than I am in GW2. The fact of the matter is that GW2's mechanics breed a solo oriented mindset in the playerbase, and makes it a LOT harder to find people that are willing to

a) communicate in local chat/through tells

b) actually group with

You say its no better or worse than themeparks of the last 8 years. I say it IS slightly worsebecause there is NO benefit to grouping, so people don't do it unless its with preexisting friends from real life or guilds..

This really begs the following questions:

1) How are you playing the game? Are you doing group content like events / dungeons / pvp? Or are you sticking to hearts & personal story (which are more solo-oriented)?

2) What exactly do you consider to be a prime example of a 'social' MMO? Preferabl not only naming a game, but why you feel it's an especially social one.

However, I have to take issue with the last paragraph. No benefit to grouping? Coordination, Communication, and Survivability are 3 pretty big benefits to grouping. Aside from the obvious ones in PvP and Dungeons. There's even a LFG function in the game if you're lazy. I don't see how you can consider worse, when if you look at SWTOR, TSW, Rift, people rarely grouped up for general PvP. Perhaps the only game in recent years I can thing of that supported general PvE grouping would've been WAR, but even those only went so far. LotRO tried to do something similar, but people stopped using it after a while.

I can't speak for your experiences, but I can say from my own that I regarly (pretty much daily) get into groups w/ random strangers, in which we talk, joke, and goof off, inspite me not knowing any of them. I've made quite a few ingame friends this way, and judging by some of the posters here & some of the people I know ingame, I'd say I'm not alone on this. This game does have incentives, and supports being social. However it doesn't force you to do any of it. GW2 is not a game about forcing players to do things. While this grants a lot of freedom to some, it also means you are expected to be more responsible for your own actions, and that bothers a lot of people.

I wouldn't consider myself a socially skilled person, but by making the effort ingame to be social, I've never had trouble finding people to interact with ingame. I'm not even on one of the most popular servers either.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

how is there no benefit to grouping? with grouping you finish things faster which = leveling faster.. with shared loot when grouping things die faster = more loot for you.. with groups you get to enjoy and play with the combo system a lot more as most classes only have a couple variations they can do on their own.. These are all things that you can do WITHOUT grouping just by being in the same area as another person.  when grouping you can take on larger events and harder champions you could not take on alone.. really how is there no benefit to grouping?  See above. but then again I assume you mean making a "party" Yes I mean actually grouping... kind of hard to confuse the term.  and not just grouping and playing with others.. i will agree there is not much benefit to forming a party outside dungeons and WvW but there is PLENTY of benefit to playing with others

it is hard to confuse them because in GW2 you are always in a group with those around you.. so you can call it what you want but I play this game 80% of my time with others passively grouped. It's a hell of a lot better than most other MMOs i played recently where I played alone majority of the time because I couldn't find others around that wanted to do a quest i was trying to complete or they already had a full group

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by aRtFuLThinG

Originally posted by bcbully

One thing that is different is that while approaching or doing a quest, in the pve playfields, I don't recall getting or sending any invites. In other games it seemed to happen quite often, two, three times a day maybe. Most of the time, but not all there was a little chat going on. Sometimes times we just jived, and there was a lot.  Plenty of those people became friends.

Actually my experience in forced groups is many became jerks, not friends.

 

WoW for example, sure at the start of the group people seem friendly, however as the group have a few deaths people start blaming the tanks or the healers, and it is quite often the dpsers, the Glory Boys who "compete" on the dps meters, that does the whining to start it all.

 

Also, how often guilds in raid-centric games got broken up because people get competitive on the gear race and just want to get ahead at the expense of friendship?

 

Been there. Seen it all.

 

I'm not sure what your previous experience is, but from my experience (since the early days of MMO), seems to me that guilds in games like WoW last the shortest, and community least lasting. So I'm not sure how exactly some of you define what is considered "social" here.

 

For me, the term "social" implies that there are "societies" being formed, not just idle chatter and talking about life and things. Games like WoW definitely failed at that (people from guild, get what they want to the limit of the group, then breakup or leave). GW2 we see a certain degree of success (there are quite a few super-alliances in WvW) and greatest success I see is in games like SWG or DAoC.

 

i agree and it was the same in not just wow but most other themepark MMOs... sandbox games obviously do this aspect much better as it has the systems in place but in GW2 case WvW is a great system for this and has been forming nicely so far and should work well once they close the damn free transfers

What are you two even talking about,  and why did you choose to quote my post?

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by DavisFlight

how is there no benefit to grouping? with grouping you finish things faster which = leveling faster.. with shared loot when grouping things die faster = more loot for you.. with groups you get to enjoy and play with the combo system a lot more as most classes only have a couple variations they can do on their own.. These are all things that you can do WITHOUT grouping just by being in the same area as another person.  when grouping you can take on larger events and harder champions you could not take on alone.. really how is there no benefit to grouping?  See above. but then again I assume you mean making a "party" Yes I mean actually grouping... kind of hard to confuse the term.  and not just grouping and playing with others.. i will agree there is not much benefit to forming a party outside dungeons and WvW but there is PLENTY of benefit to playing with others

it is hard to confuse them because in GW2 you are always in a group with those around you.. so you can call it what you want but I play this game 80% of my time with others passively grouped. It's a hell of a lot better than most other MMOs i played recently where I played alone majority of the time because I couldn't find others around that wanted to do a quest i was trying to complete or they already had a full group

I've already said, numerous times, that that is a partial improvement over the norm, actually being able to play with the people around you.

The PROBLEM, the one we all keep talking about that the handful of ardent GW2 fans try to pretend isn't there, is that none of those people you're soft grouping with communicate or group with you. They act like bots. In many of the DEs there are bots out there fighting with you and I honest to God couldn't tell the players from the bots most of the time. Actually that's not true, bots talk a lot more than players do. And that's sad.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

 

I've already said, numerous times, that that is a partial improvement over the norm, actually being able to play with the people around you.

The PROBLEM, the one we all keep talking about that the handful of ardent GW2 fans try to pretend isn't there, is that none of those people you're soft grouping with communicate or group with you. They act like bots. In many of the DEs there are bots out there fighting with you and I honest to God couldn't tell the players from the bots most of the time. Actually that's not true, bots talk a lot more than players do. And that's sad.

anyone who has played this game can easily tell a bot from a real player.. not to mention for those who actually played the game most all bots run in groups all looking exactly the same so its pretty impossible to not differntiate between them. Also how are you supposed to talk DURING a fight in an action based game unless on voice chat? GW2 is not a slow paced game where you can sit and chat about the next attack or sit a dps things down while a tank sits and holds aggro so yuo can chat things up... but it does do what a MMO IMHO should do and thats bring people together.

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by DavisFlight

 

I've already said, numerous times, that that is a partial improvement over the norm, actually being able to play with the people around you.

The PROBLEM, the one we all keep talking about that the handful of ardent GW2 fans try to pretend isn't there, is that none of those people you're soft grouping with communicate or group with you. They act like bots. In many of the DEs there are bots out there fighting with you and I honest to God couldn't tell the players from the bots most of the time. Actually that's not true, bots talk a lot more than players do. And that's sad.

anyone who has played this game can easily tell a bot from a real player.. not to mention for those who actually played the game most all bots run in groups all looking exactly the same so its pretty impossible to not differntiate between them. Also how are you supposed to talk DURING a fight in an action based game unless on voice chat? GW2 is not a slow paced game where you can sit and chat about the next attack or sit a dps things down while a tank sits and holds aggro so yuo can chat things up... but it does do what a MMO IMHO should do and thats bring people together.

It brings people to the same place but it does not bring them together. Everyone is fighting in the same spot, but solo. And how do you talk during events? Easily. You type between combat, there are usually long pauses, but it seems no one even bothers to try to communicate or form groups. They all just, as I and many have said, fight solo, but in the same spot.

And bots do in fact act almost the same as players, except bots use chat more often.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

I've already said, numerous times, that that is a partial improvement over the norm, actually being able to play with the people around you.

The PROBLEM, the one we all keep talking about that the handful of ardent GW2 fans try to pretend isn't there, is that none of those people you're soft grouping with communicate or group with you. They act like bots. In many of the DEs there are bots out there fighting with you and I honest to God couldn't tell the players from the bots most of the time. Actually that's not true, bots talk a lot more than players do. And that's sad.

You keep parroting this problem, but maybe you should stop to consider that some of us aren't having that same experience you swear is plaguing the game?

I've stated multiple times now that (on my server at least) people are always talking. People are doing everything from joking, to calling for backup on events, to asking for help for quests or elite mobs, to relaying strategy, to asking questions, etc. etc. etc. This may not happen quite as much in the starter areas anymore, but most of the players aren't in the starter areas anymore.

I can't speak for your own personal experience, but I can speak for mine. And when I'm logged into the game, I'm hard pressed to find an area where noone is talking. I have had a few cases where that happened, during off-peak hours, because my server has very few oceanic players. That might even be your problem, If you're playing on a server without a strong representation for your timezone. Who knows. All I can say is that people are generally very sociable in this game from my experience. They enjoy interacting with others a lot, and they do it often.

People may not send random invites to you as often as other games, but I'd be lying if I said I don't get into random groups often.

Originally posted by aesperus

Originally posted by DavisFlight

I've already said, numerous times, that that is a partial improvement over the norm, actually being able to play with the people around you.

The PROBLEM, the one we all keep talking about that the handful of ardent GW2 fans try to pretend isn't there, is that none of those people you're soft grouping with communicate or group with you. They act like bots. In many of the DEs there are bots out there fighting with you and I honest to God couldn't tell the players from the bots most of the time. Actually that's not true, bots talk a lot more than players do. And that's sad.

You keep parroting this problem, but maybe you should stop to consider that some of us aren't having that same experience you swear is plaguing the game?

I've stated multiple times now that (on my server at least) people are always talking. People are doing everything from joking, to calling for backup on events, to asking for help for quests or elite mobs, to relaying strategy, to asking questions, etc. etc. etc. This may not happen quite as much in the starter areas anymore, but most of the players aren't in the starter areas anymore.

I can't speak for your own personal experience, but I can speak for mine. And when I'm logged into the game, I'm hard pressed to find an area where noone is talking. I have had a few cases where that happened, during off-peak hours, because my server has very few oceanic players. That might even be your problem, If you're playing on a server without a strong representation for your timezone. Who knows. All I can say is that people are generally very sociable in this game from my experience. They enjoy interacting with others a lot, and they do it often.

People may not send random invites to you as often as other games, but I'd be lying if I said I don't get into random groups often.

I like how grouping works in the game.  I've found that if you're friendly and helpful in game people reciprocate in kind.  My experience more closely resembles yours.

I guess some people really like chatting, but that's not what I'm interested in.  I don't mind that there isn't a lot of chat in /say, but I do have short conversations with people now and then.  I also noticed people say hi or wave as they pass by.  They also typically say thanks when you help them out.  Overall the community on Stormbluff is really nice.

I did find people in WvW last night (I'm on Stormbluff Isle) were really cool.  Even under fire players would join up to help rez others from the downed state.  It wasn't selfish play at all.  That really was a refreshing surprise from the pvp ass-hattery I experienced in RIFT and AoC.  This was the coolest pvp crowd I've played with since Lineage.

So I don't really care if people don't like the game and go on and on and on about it.  I've found a game that I really like and people that I really like to play it with.