So, a bit about me before post, I started playing around 20 years ago after a work mate said i should try wow. I haven’t looked back since then done Raids pvp and everything in-between. Some of my best moments have been jumping on old school Ventrilo and now disc chewing the cud while we get bosses down or Gank in pvp.
Yet i notice a disturbing trend that wow is to a degree becoming more anti-social and others don’t want to interact.
After a 1.5 year break my few friends i had left decided to create a Keys community discord starting with only 6 players we have swelled our ranks to around 85 so far.
Despite this i notice a huge number of players even in good keys are reluctant to be social, half the fun is making friends and having a laugh even on those bad days of bricking a key.
When did we become so anti-social, that people don’t want to make friends and have a laugh?
Considering the daily posts of how toxic mythic plus is,i find it irnoic so many players dont want to join discords make new friends etc,ive seen wow friends become wives,girlfriends,boyfriends etc and yet people are scared to make friends it seems.
It a very sad life in wow now that people think solo play is the only way or your afraid to make friends hopefully people get over their fears and jump in and make lasting friendships.Take care all:)
People haven’t forgotten anything in that regard. They simply live in 2025 not 2005.
Most of us already have social circles that we prefer over randoms and most people prefer to communicate over Discord with their friends.
What’s sad is people who want to live in the past and passive-aggressively try to blame the rest of the world for not doing so too 
Leave me alone
Edit and britney
Even my pencil and paper game has become a little muted of late.
Unimportant. Let’s get into the meat of things.
Some may be in Discord? Some may be focusing on their gameplay? I don’t have much time to type when I’m healing something or trying to figure out where things went wrong to fix it for the next pull.
Others may have a kiddo in their lap, or this is their downtime to chill without talking after work. We don’t really know. Some even have anxiety issues. Others make sure they don’t talk in chat so that they don’t say something that’s mean, because they know they will if tempted.
People are allowed to play how they want.
With how toxic this community is Solo play is the way to go.
Instance content is forced socialization and opposite of what an MMO is. Glorified lobby game.
If you like it, cool but stop acting like it’s an integral part of an MMO when it’s the exact opposite. Reducing your world to 5 or 20 people is not “Massive”. MMOs are about all of us sharing a persistent world and having a direct impact on each other. Whether we choose to be social or not is irrelevant because our mutual existence in the same world impacts each other… except when you’re in an instance.
Back in 2005 when people chose to behave like clowns to such an extent that everyone wanted options to bypass required social interactions so they could better choose who they interact with. 20 years of refining that leads us to now.
edit:
And I don’t mind it, myself. I have plenty of social interaction in the game. I just don’t have to deal with an endless parade of grandiose toolboxes now.
Too many scammers / weirdo ppl ruined the social aspect imo
I’m not more antisocial. I’m as antisocial as I ever was.
And I stopped reading.
The social aspects have evolved outside of the game in other platforms like discord. Because people rather talk than type.
Good day.
No, wow is a Singleplayer game. The other players only exist to help me with my goals!
/Sarcasm
But plenty of folks playing think this way.
I’m good… You don’t have to feel sad for me because I prefer playing solo these days. You should rejoice in your community and be happy like me. I get enough interaction on the forums.
People have become less social in general. Not just in game.
Don’t know, the past seems more lovely than what the future holds.
Most people don’t want to sit around waiting for everyone else’s schedules to line up with theirs for them to get to play the game anymore. When you HAD to have that, you did it because it was your only option… But when you don’t have to do that, why would you? That’s why Random Dungeon Finder was such a smashing success versus spamming pugs.
They’d rather just receive the instant gratification of click play, and getting to play.
I used to log into Vent and would have a group invite waiting for me as I zoned into the game.
That was every single day almost, I’d be talking to people all day and all night.
I spent half my day in AV with Guildies just talking bs, I miss it.
Game is better with friends, if you have any, I no longer do.
You know kids used to ride bikes and play outside, now everyone is on phones and tablets, i hope you understand that things change specially after 20 years
Those of us who even want to make friends online have better avenues for that than trying to do it through a 20-year-old UI. It’s that simple.
Random PUGs aren’t talking to you in keys either because (a) they’re already socializing with their friends out of game or (b) they’re not socializing at all.
Or to put it more succinctly:
I often see people trying to sound intellectual misusing the term “instant gratification.” What they’re describing is actually convenience, not instant gratification.
Take email or instant messaging, for example. People use them over writing letters because they’re simply more convenient—that’s called progress. Sure, there’s a niche group of people who still enjoy writing letters to pen pals, but for the most part, that form of communication is effectively dead. And it’s not because of “instant gratification,” but because more efficient and practical methods have replaced it.