"Everyone's so open and friendly" is a lie

[Solowing]

I dragged a friend back into the game earlier after I heard about the free login campaign. We've never played together but he played before I did and he used to try to get me into the game.

It should've been great but before I could get home from classes so that we could play together someone griefed him while out was out gathering by dragging a bunch of mobs onto him to kill him as he was collecting.

We messed around later but he hasn't been logging in any time that I'm not logged in. He says the community reminds him of WoW and he's sad to see the game go this way.

As somebody whos played Wow from Early Wrath- Pandaria. Im shocked to hear how bad the toxicity has gotten. I loved the social element because i felt i could be myself in WoW. Just login and create my own adventures but having chats about random topics that come to mind. But the Overton window has shifted and the list of "socially acceptable" things to talk about is more a narrow band. When i login i feel like i have to walk on eggshells or stick with a list of easily digestible simple topics that lack any substance.