Sonoma has always been (and always will be) my home.
I'm a really casual player these days (0-3 hours per week), but ran my share of events in the past- so hats off to those who have been here for the long haul and still running them, and a hearty salute to the newer folks who have the drive to attempt them.
My guild is so small and inactive at this point that I log in to see that I've missed the other members even though we've logged in on the same day (sorry Miri!), and it generally ends in me running errands or going off alone.
And all I can think is: I could attend a PRE...but ack! I missed it. Followed by, I bet there's at least a few other casual folks online like me right now, who are probably cool enough to thump some monster skulls without too much worry of death, items, or gold.
There probably a lot like me, and would much rather have the company of a few friends than a good gold/arti ratio per hour. It's just that we can't find one another.
The easiest places to find other players are Luna- but under the assumption that people are all d00ds or banksitters, doesn't make it very conducive to the "pick a couple of people at random and hit a dungeon" idea. You could go to a dungeon and meet other players, but generally if they came there- they're camping a certain spawn and probably don't want company, they're on a guild/group hunt and may or may not be receptive to adding one more to crash the party bars, or they're looking for a pvp opportunity (fel), which can be really fun too, unless they came out in force!
My point is- I tend to think there are other players out there just like me, who aren't interested in joining a different guild, but just want to tag along with a few cool people without worrying about what item appeared in whom's pack.
The folks that run PRE's/events help initiate the kind of networking that allows for this, but as we know this kind of stuff takes time/resources/planning to pull off- and as regular as they are- they can't cover off-hour casual folks like me, though we still appreciate the fact that they happen.
Maybe it's just a matter of picking a currently under-used bank with the understanding that people can just randomly meet up and do things together. Maybe we meet at Tokuno, or Skara, or another such place and strike up a conversation and hit a spawn, and maybe we drop a book or two at the bank saying where we went, and at what time.
Maybe it attracts a griefer or two- but that's the risk.
I dunno, just throwing the idea out there. I tend to think there are more friendly, casual folks out there loking for a group romp than we think.
I am Jack's pointless ramble.
- Hec