I haven't added 1 friend since I started Legion

[Deleted]

It's not untrue, it's fact.
It was entirely possible and happened all the time that people joined groups, uttered no more than what was necessary, and left without having made friends. Remember, OUR behaviour, shaped the game.

You can't complete every aspect of the game without help now either, outside of the basic content aimed at the lowest common denominator. The game never forced people to make friends, nor did it start forcing people to NOT make friends. That is also fact.

Joining cesspool guilds, only partaking in the lowest possible content through automated grouping tools, and then bitching about it on forums as if the game turned these people into social rejects, is just retarded on a whole new level.

You CAN complete the final raid in this game without saying a word. It matters not that its the easiest difficulty. Saying that groups happened means nothing, there was simply no way you could have completed the all the raids in Vanilla without a guild. Of course the game never forced you to make friends but if you wanted to get anywhere you did have to group, you did have to communicate and that's a good start to making friends. Today, its a single player game for a lot of people.

[Al Gorefiend]

It's that stupid Addon that spams Guild invites. Forms huge antisocial guilds full of people coming and going. I blame that more than anything.

[Queen of Hamsters]

You CAN complete the final raid in this game without saying a word. It matters not that its the easiest difficulty. Saying that groups happened means nothing, there was simply no way you could have completed the all the raids in Vanilla without a guild. Of course the game never forced you to make friends but if you wanted to get anywhere you did have to group, you did have to communicate and that's a good start to making friends. Today, its a single player game for a lot of people.

As the OP demonstrates, being in a guild =/= making friends. And 40-man raiding was a cesspool to many, with guilds booting 20+ people at the drop of a hat as soon as raid size decreased to be rid of the people they'd only invited to pad the roster. And people were able to see THE HIGHEST TIER of bosses go down back then despite being of what we'd call LFR-quality today.

Sorry, wanna accomplish something of note? Still need a guild/organized team. Still doesn't mean you'll make friends though, since that's up to you and ALWAYS was.

[Wild]

Don't think I've ever added anyone as a friend. Had loads of people add me though cos I'm a pro healer.

This 10chars

[Hotsforyou]

This is the problem with LFG/LFR. There is no longer a need to develop relationships in the game to get things done. Press a button, pop in and out of said dungeon and raid and never have to communicate with anyone to complete it. LFR and LFG are hands down the worst things they have ever put into the game.

[Halicia]

LFR and LFG are hands down the worst things they have ever put into the game.

with the exception of the playerbase.

[Siraeyou]

I've actually been more socially active in Legion than I have been in WoW in the longest time. I've found some really great people to play with and we all have a blast fucking around clearing raid content and other activities outside of raid times.

[Blamblam41]

I haven't made a friend in WoW since MoP so... I don't know what to tell you?

Then again, I'm one of those people that only adds people to my friends list that are actually friends, not Johnny Rando from my 243rd Maw of Souls.

[TheWorkingTitle]

That is untrue. There was no way you could complete every aspect of the game in the past without help and that meant talking to other people. Now days groups are made for you and the difficulty reduced accordingly.

QTF. The person you're talking to is a habitual liar. He didn't even play then, so how in the hell would he even know?

[Blamblam41]

This is the problem with LFG/LFR. There is no longer a need to develop relationships in the game to get things done. Press a button, pop in and out of said dungeon and raid and never have to communicate with anyone to complete it. LFR and LFG are hands down the worst things they have ever put into the game.

And forcing people into relationships just to get through some pixels isn't something Blizzard or the vast majority of the community is interested in doing anymore.

And again, nobody is stopping you from communicating. This idea that you need to be forced to do something for it to have structure is kind of ass backwards.

[Sharby]

90% of the adds for me this xpac have been people from successful high-level M+ pugs.

Thing is, they never talk to me again afterwards which makes me wonder why they even added me to begin with.

[Planetdune]

I have been playing WoW since vanilla and I got one person on my friendlist. My girlfriend.

[callipygoustp]

I don't get how you can play a mmorpg and not occasionally reach out to other players. I'm far from the most social person in the world but I'll randomly throw out questions/comments to people I don't know just to see whats up: love that mount, nice use of your CDs during that boss, slick move getting out of fire back there, nice dps, nice hps, what the hell are you doing in here considering your gear, etc etc. Made a lot of friends in pugs (pvp and pve) with those kinds of basic questions/comments.

Edit:
I shouldn't have said "I don't get it". Some people like to play solo, or as the guy above me, Planetdune, mentioned, with one person (in his case his girlfriend). Certainly nothing wrong with that.

What I don't get is when people talk about the lack of social interaction in the game when they themselves don't try engaging other players. It just is not that difficult to reach out to another player. If you want social interaction, be social.

[Deleted]

i no longer play wow, but i am a solo player in ffxiv & tbh, i prefer it that way.

[Donald Hellscream]

I don't think I've added anyone outside my guild since Wrath of the Lich King and I am totally fine with that as the majority of people I meet in pugs really aren't people I have any interest in interacting with any further.

[oplawlz]

I haven't added anyone since cata.

[frogger237]

Added 3 people in Legion and I don't think I have added anyone else since Wrath.

[ComputerNerd]

I can't speak for others, but I have added friends.
The game offers more opportunities to interact with players, but too many are more determined than ever to place walls and barriers in the way to restrict that more than ever.
That is the fault of players only.

[Autoriot]

Added many due to m+, though quite a few I never end up running with again

This exactly. After tanking a smooth, high m+, sometimes there is an invite from someone. I usually accept it, but when that person and I don't talk or group for the next few weeks I end up removing them.

Removed lots of old WoW-only friends who no longer play and whom I only talked to in WoW and that's it. Added a few people, but mostly Discord is the better place to socialize. One channel for RL friends to keep in touch, one for guildies seems to do the trick.

[ID811717]

Added many due to m+, though quite a few I never end up running with again

This. I just counted 69 new friends I added due to high M+, over 8 months that I spent playing Legion this far. I think roughly half of these friendships were initiated by me, and half by the other players. (I never blindly throw battle.net invites to other people because I don't want them to accept due to social pressure. I prefer to write my battle tag in chat and suggest they add me any time in future for more M+ runs.)

Needless to say, it would be impossible to play (or at least interact) with 69+ people at once. Out of them all, I am in regular contact with around 10 people. Two of them are good friends and we might stay in touch in next expansions. And ~8 others are people who are nice acquaintances but are likely to disappear once our in-game interests diverge.