How to find gaming buddies? [closed]

Question

How to find new gaming friends who are more available than occasional players?

Talking about games like MineCraft, GTA, Saint's Row, Left 4 Dead, Etc...

P.S. Don't tell me to play with my real life friends, They're not into gaming.

Answer 1

1) Find a popular/official forum for the relevant game. Usually there will be a thread for finding people to play with/to complete challenges achievements or if ok with the rules you can create a thread looking for friends.

2) Play in random games and find people that you enjoy playing with and try to strike up conversation, or ask them if they'd like to play again some time.

3) Since you mentioned minecraft I'll assume you're playing PC versions of these games. Most of those are steam games, try to find a steam group that participates in that game (many clans have them, also there are just general gaming groups). They frequently will have events or their own servers that you can become a regular on.

Generally, if you make a friend or two, they'll sometimes invite you to play with a larger group of their friends and you can make friends with all of them. It's all about getting your foot in the door.

Is this for any specific platform? I know it's very hard on Xbox360 since they added the party chat system, so you just have to be lucky to find people in public chat in that instance.

Answer 2

Finding people to play with is generally pretty easy, but finding quality people to play with is pretty hard. It's more a "social" thing than a "technology" thing as well. In general, you're going to want to find social situations (both on and offline) where you can meet new like-minded people.

Here are some "gaming/social" things that I've done personally that I've found help:

• Find and join a clan - Many clans exist for popular titles, and you'll often find people who share your interests if you join up. Even though they might be a clan centered around one game, you'll quickly find that people playing that game are into other, similar games. Clans frequently run servers for popular titles, so check out a website if it's listed in the server description.
• Ask around at work/school, or leave "hints" around - for instance, I have video game paraphernalia in my cube at work, which causes people walking by to stop and comment on it. I've joined up with several people that way through the years.
• Try to find a local game store or gaming group. Some areas have LAN parties, or local game shops, for instance. Big chain stores don't tend to work as well, but there's a couple local shops in the area that run events for gamers, where you can socialize.

These are just a sample though - how you approach the problem will depend on how you approach socializing in general. Do you prefer chat rooms? forums? email lists?

One thing I will say is I don't find that chatting up random people on servers or during games works very well - I know personally when I'm playing a game, I want to be playing the game, and not being as social. I tend to tune these people out or mute them, simply because I'd rather not be bothered when I'm trying to focus on the game.