It is probably 2 things mainly that stem from one problem and it is the constant lack of attention downtime .
One is , as you Mentioned the speed of the game and everyone rushing everywhere .
All abilities , all cast times , all quests , all content is designed for the gogo mentality instant gratification . I mean you can literally level from 1 to 80 in a few hours , by spamming dungeons and never talking to anyone .
Anyone remember the infamous Barrens Chat . Not many do probably and it was just the general chat of the Barrens zone in vanilla on every server .
The general chat was filled with people talking trash , cracking jokes , complaining . You could sit in Crossroads and find groups of people that just sat there doing nothing but talk .
Why was this zone special ? Because the zone was so endlessly huge and slow that you literally got bored walking trough it and just started to chat with people in the meantime. I mean you had no mount and had to physically walk and do all those grindy quests from one side to another . What else could you do but talk smack on the channel while running trough that endless field .
But this will not work nowadays , because you have the second problem .
Too much ready content that can fill the boringness with something . Most people literally watch streams and videos , read their social platform , or do whatever else , while playing wow even now .
Remember in 2005 when WoW came out . The chances are that you PC could barely handle the game . Let alone open a browser to watch a video . Plus there weren’t this many to watch to begin with . Streaming was not invented .
And even if it was , you probably ran the chance that sharing your connection with your family , would mean that you barely even had enough internet bandwidth to play the game . Remember people complaining that their roommate was downloading “adult content” and the internet lagged .
Now you don’t have that . The moment people get bored , they open a browser or their phone to do something else . So wow has to compete for their attention , making the game faster with 0 downtime .
But when there is 0 downtime , there is no time to speak as well . So people don’t speak at all . And here you are . no socialization .
People are so desperate in trying to avoid boredom , that in the process they turn off their brain and just grind like machines 24/7 , being fed useless content . Have you seen those people in the subway ,with dead eyes, flicking from one post to another in TikTok or some other media ?
There is no place to talk to them even i you meet them face to face , let alone in game . They are literally somewhere far away , with their brains put on autopilot .
Socialization is not dying just in the game . it is dying everywhere . The whole current internet system is making people sick with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and no one even notices it .
Hell I know I broke an unspoken rule with this post : " Don’t write more than 3 sentences if you want someone to read it 
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this was in the city Boralus though, was there to do an achiev with 2 friends and someone else was there for warfronts so we ended up chatting a bit. And they also ended up getting the achievment we did 
