Minipost: Are Garrisons antisocial?

One of the biggest complaints about Garrisons is that though they are great, they are very antisocial. I've heard complaints about how everyone spends time in their Garrisons, when they used to bum around in the big cities (eg. outside the gates of Orgrimmar, or on the steps at Shrine).

"You can still do that," others said.  Which is true, but unless everyone is doing it, hanging around in an empty city is less productive, so you might as well just hang in your Garrison.

I think people underestimate the social aspect of Warspear.  And whatever the Alliance version is called.  Warspear is only a portal away from your Garrison, and there are always people there, hanging around the Auction House or waiting for an Ashran/BG/Arena/LFR queue to pop.  There are always lots of people in Warspear.  And it's a quick hearth back to the Garrison if you want to be OCD and get your missions as soon as they complete.  So if you want to, just hang there!

What I thought would be cool was a guild hangout - which would be another instance portal from the Garrison.  Unfortunately, from a technical point of view that would have to be an instance or something, and I can imagine it would cause more problems rather than solve any.  It would be kinda neat if you had a guild bank and bank there, repairs, Guild vendors and maybe it would be cool if we could have guild monuments or trophies for achievements we've done.  In reality though, would you need a place like that?  We have guild chat, so you don't really need to all hang out in one room - a lot of the time you don't really want to just hang around doing nothing anyway, well I certainly don't.  And if you wanted to all hang out and do something, you could form a raid and have everyone move to the leader's Garrison - something I have seen my guildies doing on multiple occasions. I think also that guildies want to see what other people on the server are talking about, and hanging around in a public place was good for that.

However, and I loathe to say it, that there is the general/trade chat, which you can see in your Garrison when you're in there.  I personally found that very similar to just hanging around on the steps of the Shrine.  So you can always find out what's going on in the world by reading that crap information.

It's nice how people are always dropping their Blingtrons outside the Garrison so everyone can click it.  People are still yearning for the interactions, and I don't really think that Garrisons have isolated us from everyone - there are ways to get out and about and be social, but now there's places we can just chill out and relax and do our little chores without worrying who you're going to bump into when you're still trying out the half-baked transmog.

Comments

  1. Are Garrisons antisocial? Yes, I think so.

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    1. You can still talk to people whilst in your Garrison!

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  2. Everything is antisocial if you decide it will be. Especially gaming ^^

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    1. Anything can be antisocial - but also, anything can be social, right Godmother? :D

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  3. Hmmm...as I've said it's just hard being an altaholic. I wish there were two main garrisons, or enough room in one to have all my characters, or perhaps five. Hanging out aside in a city always felt kind of artificial anyway, unless you're on a RP server/situation. I would love more garrison invasions, and choose to try them solo or invite a buddy to help. Things like that may be the only way to "invite" folks to help with your garrison in a genuine game-way. If they want to increase the social aspect, give reasons to go to each other's garrisons, or more reasons. Good post and food for thought as always Ms. Navi!

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    1. I am sure there will be some universal apoplexy if the paradox of all my alts being in one place, online at the same time came to pass. However, just the thought that I have alts to put in one place at one time is a paradox in itself.

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  4. "We have guild chat, so you don't really need to all hang out in one room - a lot of the time you don't really want to just hang around doing nothing anyway, well I certainly don't."

    This is how I feel. There's guild chat and usually people are hanging out in Mumble talking. I don't really see how us being present in a WoW city versus the garrison would really change anything. Hell, often we're in different games anyway.

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    1. I feel like in my Garrison rather than standing around doing nothing, chatting, I can do my mine whilst chatting in guild about something. Though, I would probably be out doing archaeology or fishing if I wasn't hanging around in my garrison doing chores. And vent is great, you can be in different games and still chat to your friends in game.

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  5. They don't seem antisocial to me, you have the option to have people over and you still have all of your chat options. An offline garrison mode where you had access to your garrison without anyone seeing you online would be antisocial (and awesome!) Anything in game is antisocial if you want it to be. I can choose to farm something with a group, or solo. Run old raids for transmog with a group or solo.

    A guild space would be cool but we have guild chat and why do we need a space to hang out while idling? We should be organising fun times instead of standing around!

    The next patch will give more reasons for friends to visit your garrison with quests and summonable bosses. Maybe it will seem less antisocial then.

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    1. Maybe hanging around in other people's garrisons wouldn't be so bad if I could do my own garrison chores but I can't. Just standing around in a friend's garrison doing nothing except talking and emoting, when i could be in my own garrison, talking and doing work orders or missions or cleaning up my bank seems much more useful, The fun part about being in the game is the talking, not so much the standing next to each other so it looks like we're doing something together.

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