LOOKING FOR GROUUUP

It's no wonder gamers nowadays mostly make new acquaintances through online gaming. Old school players like me have developed a very specific taste, so it's uncommon when people we know in real life actually want to play the same stuff we do.

I like motorsport racing, not car racing. Real time strategy with base building with some micro, not turn-based or macro-focused games. 2D beat'em'ups, not 1v1 fighters. Theme park MMORPGs with dungeons and active open world pvp, not sandbox or pve-only or instanced pvp.

As frustrating as it sounds, I just have to accept most of my friends just don't want to play the same games I do. Eventually we had to stop trying because it would only lead into small but annoying conflicts.

Ideally, even if it sounds hard, we have to make as many gaming acquaintances as we can over different communities so there's always those one to three people who'll be willing to play along.

It's so hard to be a non-mainstream gamer! Fortnite or League of Legends addicts never want to try anything else. My Discord game servers list has started to grow, so I can quickly ask in many chat channels “who wants to join me?”

But I'll be damned if I'm looking for group to try a buy-to-play game. Noone wants to spend cash on that option or go through the trouble of pirating it to test it out because they could be playing something else. The sheer variety gets in the way of actually playing anything.

So here's my breakthrough: find a YouTuber or twitch influencer who plays games similar to your personal taste. Get into their Discord community and make some friends. Currently, that's the easiest way to get into a party.