No matter where I go in social media, I hear people saying that they don’t feel an amount of community in the Warcraft Community. Dead guilds, not knowing how to find people to do an activity with, being afraid to engage other players, missing raid team members, and every other complaint you’ve heard in your lifetime.
I want to feel badly for these people trapped in a cycle of LFRs and LFGs, all alone in CRZs and Merged Realms. It sounds like a series of horrible diseases written out that way. “You’ve got clinical LFR. There’s no cure.” Someone call Dr. House.
But honestly? I can’t. I see people who took what was at face value within the game and never ventured any further than what was offered within the community. I see a lack of personal responsibility. You have to get out of your shell if you want to get the things you keep carping about.
Why? Blizzard can build you an MMORPG. They can give you the massively, and when the masses fail to interact they can give you artificial environments like Looking for Raid, and Looking for Group; and, yes, LFR and LFG are also convenience measures, but they’re not meant to be a one and only thing. However, if you want real, honest connections, that’s actually on you, the masses. A developer cannot handhold you into having friendships, guilds and talking to people, and having a sense of belonging.
Out of the frame are 20 other people doing Garrison bosses. Context.
The only thing I’ve learned over the past 11 years is that the Blizzard community is so entirely vast, worldwide and willing to accept people that the idea of people being adrift and alone shocks me. It’s not hard to join it, but it is hard to simply ignore it.
For every Reddit thread with lonely people complaining they can’t raid or they’re in an empty guild, there are 10 more people saying the same thing. If all of those people made friends, or organized themselves, they would have new friends. It’s much the same on twitter or other social media. Many people don’t utilize their realm forums which are still being used.
Worst of all, I see people on the very platforms I use to connect with people saying they’re alone. All they have to do is stretch their hand out a little and say they’d like to join. Or that they’re looking for help.
But also, make friends in your LFRs, and LFGs. Go in and be the most friendly person. Exchange Battle Tags with great people in your random groups. Look for a guild that is active and fits your personality. If your server is dead say fuck it and re-roll on a fun new realm and try a new guild or three. Try OpenRaid and meet some guilds that will take you along. (Hint, even my guild does this!)
Basically: Get out of your own rut and stop waiting for Blizzard to save you if you want to keep playing.
You’re in charge of your online friendships. If some of my friends take a break from the game, I have the ability to make more friends always, there’s not a cap on friendship. Yes, I wish content came out sooner, but I can endlessly enjoy the same content with a multitude of people always. If you think Legion will bring back all of your friends, toss that expectation right the hell out the window now. An expansion is only a possible band-aid on your friends who vanished before. Maybe they’ll come back, but wouldn’t it be better to make friends who are here now rather than wait until maybe September? The Blues aren’t Friendship Travel Agents.
And if you’re angry that you’re lonely, and want to be stupid about it: Sure! Blame the Garrisons. Blame the Dailies. Blame the long raids. Blame the Farms. Blame the Class Order Halls before you’ve even fucking touched them. However, let’s be fucking realistic, if you’re playing alone with all the tools out there to find friends, it’s a fault and choice of your own.
Maybe 100% less of this in the Garrison, yeah?
So, what are you going to do about it if you’re unhappy?
Great post, I agree 100%. People want to blame Blizzard for playing alone or “ruining the social experience,” but really, they just don’t want to admit that they’ve grown up, changed as a person, and are probably less outgoing than they used to me.
If you started in Vanilla, you are 12 years older than you were when you started the game. If you haven’t changed in 12 years, there are probably larger issues at play than garrisons.
Wolfytot 
