Oh, good luck on that. I hope you get the position and execute the job with devotion.
Ah yes, the “comfort zone” 
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I do work too, got promoted and I’m fine. I’m by myself which could be odd, but I’m fine. I relax, I go on with my life.
Congratulations on the promotion though! 
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introvert people work better by themselves, unless they find people which match them perfectly.
i’m also perfectly happy alone
ty to you both for the kind words 
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The comfort zone is dangerous.
Most people with SA realise it is impairing them in some fashion.
The way to begin to overcome that isn’t by enabling the SA and trying to create a functional world where it isn’t a burden anymore, because the rest of the world doesn’t work that way, and communication and interaction is one of the greatest strengths humans possess (arguably what led us to dominance).
So yeah, I would never ever agree (I work in psychological related professions) that a suitable way to “deal” with social anxiety is by having other people change their preferences or behaviours to suit the sufferer, or by warping situations so their SA isn’t an issue, because that only buries the problem until the “next situation” comes up.
At some point you need to actually address the issue. The only exception to this is the individual who suffers from it, but has no desire to ever put themselves in new situations and so is happy to have “a limited selection of controlled situations” be the essential makeup of their life. Whilst I can respect their right to pursue that, I wouldn’t agree that it’s a lifestyle I’d support or I would think lends itself to enriching them or helping them grow, in the contrary I’d say it does the opposite.
All good therapies that deal with phobias work on a premise that eventually you need to move from the comfort zone and into the “pressure zone”, ideally in a gradual and controlled manner over a period of time. The solution is to reidentify the situation (social) as one that is not harmful or hostile, which you can’t do if you’re enabling the person to continue to avoiding it. In a way it just affirms their phobia and arguably makes it harder to bring them back from it.
Mileage varies. But in my experience I have never heard of a patient who feels their quality of life has improved to the same degree as someone “cured” of their phobia, through them simply avoiding situations where their phobia is triggered. This is key: the person still suffers from the phobia, they still have the anxiety and thoughts it brings, they simply aren’t being exposed to the triggering factor but that doesn’t mean they don’t suffer at all. That’s not how mental illness works. The idea that someone with social anxiety doesn’t experience any mental distress simply because they never put themselves in those situations isn’t one borne out in reality: because the hypotheticals their phobia causes them to ponder and comprehend they miss out on, causes exactly that and is precisely why phobias often correlate with depression.
Its a good idea and one I hope they do look at implementing. Guild Wars did this with the henchmen system back in 2005 and it worked great and people still play that now.
There are many reasons people don’t want to pug and after seeing and experiencing many bad ones myself over the years I don’t blame them, I no longer bother doing dungeons/raids meaning I miss out on storylines class rewards etc as I just don’t need the toxicity and its not just me I know a few others that have joined raids, instances and got pure abuse because they didn’t know a route ,had low DPS or even had the audacity to ask a question in a supposedly “Social” game. Guess what they no longer do group content either.
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i think that is why i recovered, i was put into the ‘pressure zone’ head first, until that point SA or the idea of it was something which held me back massively.
it was not until i found myself confronting it head on that i saw how silly i was being by staying away from certain scenarios.
after that one moment when i had the fight or flight response and picked fight… i have no issues of that kind anymore and have achieved so much in the space of 6 months than i would of ever achieved in 5 years with SA over my head.
That’s why I said people with anxiety should start slowly with activities that involve few people and improve on that.
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In the PoA, you are not playing your own character, your own class. You are operating a vehicle.
Vehicle combat is never compelling.
I doubt it would be Jaina or Anduin or Thrall or Baine or anyone tied to the lore and with an established pesonality though, to avoid conflicting with the mainline story - it should be from a selection of random characters with their own abilities and personalities. FWIW, I liked Archmage Modera from the Class Hall in Legion - she was a right little Evil-Overlord-in-Training. 
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I think that this would be pretty nice for older expansion content for the lore/experience (with story mode i.e. level sync’d, no rewards like exp or loot).
If it was implemented for max level content I’m not sure I would agree, simply because running through match made groups it feels like you are playing with AI anyway as people dont really speak ^^.
But if it was, i think that it should follow story mode as in NPCs RP walking, chatting and takes long enough that the advantage of match made would be the clear time.
Again either loot could be ommited or limited loot from the normal dungeon/lfr loot tables.
Everyone telling the OP to play other games, you need to realise if hes playing for story/lore then he isn’t going to get the WoW story from another game. He may be really interested in parts of it or invested in the singple player story that continues in the grouped content.
I am not against anything like this as long as it doesnt de-incentivise players to pick the match made option.
I wouldnt like this for any difficulty higher than normal dungeon or LFR though.
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will say my work colleges think im a lil strange, as i rarely speak to them and just get on with my tasks… some of the girls love it cause of the mystery lol … but im just not that social anyway even without social anxiety.
it takes people to connect with me on a very deep level in order for me to fully open up to them in a real world scenario.
Yes sorry I was agreeing and elaborating rather than contending 
.
And @Twiggz, this is precisely it isn’t it? The noting of how much one can accomplish when overcome, which you can’t see when suffering from the disorder. The amount of lost opportunities that individual experience when self-treating (see: enabling) their SA is outrageously high. Romance opportunities, promotions, new friendships, chance encounters, lucky breaks, all totally lost as potentials.
Yea I think a lot of people mistake SA for stuff like being introverted. They’re not the same.
Someone preferring to be asocial as a preference but not finding any impairments to their life as a result of their engagement with other people (impairment is not the same as irritation) is not a social anxiety disorder sufferer.
You can only be diagnosed with SA if your avoidance/response to social situations is actively causing you distress and mental harm as a result. Which can’t be true if one opts to be alone “out of preference” due to it agreeing with them.
The introvert doesn’t have to be alone, but prefers to be.
The SA individual feels they have to be alone, but they don’t really want to be, they feel coerced into it.
They’re very different.
as a introvert i still strive to have company, i do not avoid it outright , i’m just very aware of the type of people i get close to…
if i’m talking to someone i share little connection with i will answer in very brief but tot he point sentences.
however if i talk to someone who shares a connection i go very deep and complex with details because i feel more naturally like i’m talking to someone equal to me who understands whatever subject we are talking about.
speaking for myself, introverted people do not dislike people or social interactions… we just do not go out looking for it.
Multiplayer just indicates that many ppl play it. Nowhere is it listed as “forced grping required”
Solo players like op and myself are rising.
I like the player driving economy (ah) but I prefer to play solo.
Imo there should be a solo and duo/trio options for everything.
I would love to slow and in my osn paste solo or duo current content dungeons and raids. But for some reason i need to wait an expansion or two
/shrug
I know there are alot of players who would love this but also alot who want their precious stuff only avalible for grping
I think all should be able to play the way they want…
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There’s lot of different theories about extroversion and introversion and what it is that they each grant the individual.
The general idea though is the preferred “situation” grants them freedom from stress and anxiety which is why they prefer it.
The introvert feels free when alone, so doesn’t seek out interaction forcefully because for them it is a mentally exhausting situation where they may struggle to balance the demands of the situation with their (typically) elaborate mental monologue. When alone they can enjoy this uninterrupted.
Conversely extroverts thrive on focusing on the here and now of the social interaction and making that their entire focus. When isolated they experience the same burdens the introvert does when in a social situation because typically their energy is focused on other people and without them around they can experience boredom or simple forms of longing (or even just knowledge of the idea they’d be having more fun if X and Y were here with them).
It doesn’t mean either sucks in the opposite situation at all, it simply means they don’t tend to find it “relaxing” in the way the other does, but they can still be very good at it.
I’m introverted by nature myself but my work is a cross of independent work and work that has me delivering and teaching to groups of 30 plus adults, and if my superiors are to be believed, apparently my social skills and general rapport building with others are some of the best they’ve seen in the post.
The fact remains however that for me, following up a day like that by going out to a busy pub just isn’t how I need to “unwind” from that day. I could do it, and I could be amazing at it, but it wouldn’t “heal” me or comfort me in the same way burying my nose in a book quietly at home would.
yeah i can completely agree there on the pub front, not my thing either lol not really relaxing at all…
i prefer music personally to unwind and relax after a overly stressful day.
i have found myself in group scenarios before making the first moves in front of everyone… which would seem out of character for a introvert… but the reasoning was well thought out…
i mainly did that to inspire and relax other people in the room to make it easier for them afterwards.
I also made that point that maybe it should just not have any rewards and be a tourist mode.
Seems sensible.
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Can i be just alone while playing when i want?
I don’t like this idea, if there is something i don’t like is to have someone following me around in the world without my permission that isn’t a pet.
I intentionally turned AI companions off in Legion because i couldn’t stand it.
I just like the idea of being a lonely adventurer that want to explore the world on it’s own pace.
Also, it would be indeed a programming hell, with so many bugs in the game i rather have Blizzard working to make the game work better than putting programmers to make AI companions for players with debatable tastes.
You can run old and legacy content for lore reasons on your own, you don’t need Blizzard putting resources into developing something that the game don’t need.
Indeed. Introverts can have very strong social skills (and extroverts can be very creative and imaginative without others around). Like yourself, I’m often first to talk (I have to be as a lecturer) and I speak with confidence, humour and openness. When socialising I’m actually very gregarious indeed and I actually really enjoy it. I couldn’t do it all day however.
This is why (looping back to OP now as enough derailing lol) I stand behind the idea that rather than people “defining themselves as being incapable of being social so they will make sure they can’t be capable of it” I would advise they try to operate around their comfort zone to demystify whatever stereotypes they have around it.
And also if done for reasons of “Social Anxiety” realising that it’s pretty much universally agreed by professionals in the “business” that actively seeking ways to enable you to function with your phobia is considered maladaptive and is never going to be something encouraged as being “ultimately the best option” when compared with activities which may allow one to get over their phobia or work on it.
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You’re confusing other people’s personal feelings of wanting to do something that they would enjoy with your own personal of feelings of not wanting other people to do something that they would enjoy because you wouldn’t enjoy it.
That seems pretty selfish to me. It would be like me saying other people shouldn’t be allowed to play, or watch, football because I don’t enjoy it. It would be like me saying other people shouldn’t be allowed to go out to bars because I don’t enjoy it.
And on the topic of going out, I know there are plenty of players who don’t enjoy socialising in real life. Should Blizz cancel WoW altogether because those people are antisocial and shouldn’t be given an alternative to socialising in the real world?
And over the last several years, WoW has been moving more towards having challenging content that players can complete individually (mage tower, horrific visions, torghast). They’ve recognised that people want solo challenges and they’ve seen the sense in providing them.
This is an old game, it’s been around for a lot of years, and it has to evolve to suit what players want or it will die. If you try to force people to be social when they don’t enjoy being social, they will just go elsewhere to find solo activities.
Making solo options available, but the rewards less than for social activities would be encouraging grouping. Not making solo options available at all is forcing it.
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