Finding The Best Community For You In Your MMO

One of the more daunting things when joining the online gaming community can be… well… the community. If you’re completely new to online games, you’ve likely heard horror stories about toxicity, griefing, cheating, and all manner of other negative interactions. To be honest, it’s those kinds of interactions that make the best videos and content.

But let’s be fair, the gaming community consists of people. And while some people can suck – and sometimes make that their life goal – I think most people try to be nice. (Succeeding might be another matter.) That said, communities are a big part of online gaming – whether it’s just having people on your friend’s list to join you in co-op or let you borrow their characters like in Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, having a set team to run raid with in Destiny 2, or joining a full-on guild in an MMORPG.

The thing is, it can sometimes be a little difficult to find the right fit. If you’re not pulled into a game by friends or just happen to know people who play the game, you’re a little on your own. Of course, there are ways to find groups. Game companies even go so far as to set up community directories to help players find each other. That means the person looking for friends may need to dig through a bunch of entries and take the time to see what sounds like a good fit for them. And, unfortunately, it may not be as good a fit as it seems, which can become discouraging.

But don’t be discouraged. It is actually possible to find your people. It may just take a little trial and error. Having floated from game to game over the past decade or so, I’ve found community in a variety of ways. In some cases, I joined the game with friends, so the community was built in. And when that community left, I left. In others, I floated around for a bit until someone invited me to a group. And sometimes, I’ve gone looking for groups that might fit my needs.

All of these options have their benefits, and all have their problems. In the case of joining with friends, if they’re the only people you play wit,h you will end up leaving the game once they get tired of it, whether you’d like to continue playing or not. Or, at least I did.

As for being invited, that can work a few ways. I’d honestly advise everyone to just ignore blind invites. That’s the ones where you’ll get an invite window without having spoken to anyone. Those typically come from groups that are trying to pad their numbers and don’t care about who they add. Granted, if you’re just looking for the technical benefits the game offers for being in a group and don’t care about interacting with people, this is fine. But if you’re looking for a community, you at least want to know about them first. That’s why guilds advertise on game sites and in chat, or use actual recruitment.

The best way I’ve found to find a community – and they don’t have to be people you’re explicitly in a guild with – is to take part in group activities where you’ll actually spend time with people and can talk with them. If you find yourself running in the same circles – RP, PvP, raids, and the like – you at least know you have something in common. This gives you a way to get to know people without the commitment of joining a guild right away. And no one’s really bothered if you end up not talking later. This method also has the benefit of building multiple groups of friends, which prevents you from having to start all over again if something happens to your primary group.

Joining a guild and making friends through it is nice in that it’s almost like insta-friends. But if, for some reason, people have issues, it can cause a lot of drama. To be fair, drama’s unavoidable when you bring people together. So, it’s a matter of whether it’s “too much” and if you want to navigate it. That said, if you feel the need to walk away, don’t feel bad about it. At the end of the day, you’re playing a game and it’s meant to be enjoyable. If you’re not enjoying it because of the people around you, go find people you do enjoy. They’re out there. It just might take some trial and error.