This is a video game, you’ll never see these people, perhaps never even speak to them again in some cases, 97% of the time you don’t even need to speak to accomplish whatever you’re doing, just listen. It’s truly just performance anxiety these people have, and it’s probably because they underperformed on numerous occasions and got called out for it. Let’s be real here.

Social anxiety can be absolutely crippling. I feel my palms sweating, my heart thumping, my mouth go dry and I am literally frozen. Often I just want to run away and hide. And I’m 57. It’s me, it’s who I am and how I live. Often I have to mask it just to survive, and that masking leads to more problems as I find it exhausting. I’m also Autistic with ADHD so I have a whole host of issues surrounding social interaction and playing the cooperative side of Destiny is extremely awkward and can be a disaster if not handled properly.

For me personally its not social anxiety that keeps me from enganging with other players often, its the toxicity and randomness. You can have the greatest chill group on lfg that just has fun, respect and instantly pulls you in to have a fun 45 minute raid. Thats sadly a VERY rare 1/100 situation. Most of the times theres atleast one impatient elitist -blam!- who is stoned and brags about their awesome life accomplishments while kicking everyone with less than 500 clears of that raid and without a solo flawless crota clear. I've maybe done close to 150 raids throughout the span of D2 since 2017 and saldy only had a handful of purely awesome raid groups. THAT's the main reason i am a solo player. Trash behaving players are EVERYWHERE. (Besides the point that i dont play this game anymore these days because Bungie doesnt care about it anymore) just my 2 cents on the topic cause im bored :)

Part of it, for me at least, is the fear of messing up. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and one of my worst fears is messing something up for everyone else. I have a job so it’s not completely social anxiety cause I operate in customer support so you get used to jerks. I just don’t want to mess someone else’s raid run

pretty simple really. people want to just be accepted and supported. but, there are simply too many toxic players so why take the risk? i personally don't have the anxiety but if there are people in fireteams that are toxic (doesn't even have to be towards me), i'll leave in a heartbeat. can't stand that.

It's more of an excuse not to put themselves out there and accomplish anything. Call it what you want, at the end of the day it doesn't really matter...some people get things done and others don't. Nobody else is responsible for what you do in your life.

I think a lot of people confuse "social anxiety" for fear of messing up. After all no one wants to be the reason why they wipe, and no one wants to be yelled at for it.

When it comes to joining posts, ya never know what kind of people you’re dealing with. Things as little as tone can get you the boot. Like the time in garden’s first encounter where this guy’s accent sounded like he wanted a position that didn’t exist. After calling the position he meant twice, then he clarified and I said “Fine, whatever” in a neutral-if not slightly annoyed tone. There was silence and then a kick. Stuff like that was why I didn’t raid again till season of the deep (and RoN). It’s funny cause a few times people remarked on how quiet the group is. Well, we aren’t friends and don’t know who’s a fuse waiting to blow

Is it "social anxiety" though ?? Maybe people just avoid others in this game simply because a lot are utter oxygen thieves. People who join Nightfall's and just stand around AFK. People not playing the objective in activities, I have lost count of the times I have had to carry all the crystals in Spire because my team mates are running around shooting ads, then I die because no one is shooting the wall of enemies ahead of me for some reason. Go into any matchmade activity and there are players everywhere who seem to think it's everyone else's job to do the objective because they are doing what they want to do instead. Dares is a prime example, in legendary about half are playing the objective while the rest run around doing whatever they think it is they are doing. Every single Deep Dive .. Two of us are stood at the orb shooting the other team mate to get their attention. While they ignore us and just leap around shooting ads. Gambit .. Yeah, never mind the blockers. I'll get them. You just run around trying to get fifteen motes when all we need is four to get the Primevil. And don't shoot the two bosses so we can damage the Primevil, no you just hang around the portal waiting for an invasion window so you can kill no one and be back within ten seconds. Crucible .. People in Supremacy who do not pick up the crests. I am sure there are people who avoid raids and dungeons because they are anxious, or nervous about not being any good. But I bet there are many more who just want to avoid people who think the rest of us are there to do everything they cant be bothered with. I did a strike the other day and one player kept constantly running in front of me. When I was stationary and firing they would move in front of me. No idea why, it's a huge map and there is plenty of room for everyone. He just wanted to be where I was for some reason, the whole strike he did that. No reason for it. Some people just like to be annoying and games like Destiny are the perfect thing for it. Go on, how many times have you sat fuming because team mates cannot be bothered doing the objective, even when it's written on the screen ??, people are literally told what to do and they still can't manage to fire up enough brain cells to work it out for themselves. Maybe people are just tired of banging their head against the wall of unfathomable stupidity. I often turn the game off and go play something like Witcher, Red Dead 2 or Gran Turismo 7 after trying to get something done with people seemingly determined to do anything but. Maybe it's frustration in a lot of cases rather than anxiety.

If someone is being a jerk online in an LFG group, just answer everything they say with "So?" "OMG you blew this run, you suck" - "So?" Or, a lot of them use phrases that are unoriginal and already tired. "Hey git gud or GTFO" (I don't know if they say that or not because no one bothers me in LFG groups...) Just call them out. Ask if they have an original insult because you hear that one all the time or something. Just find a way to throw it back on them. "Hey you aren't a good teacher, explain it better" Basically get confrontational and stand up for yourself.

Too much toxic people in the game for those that can’t be bothered. Some people can ride out all the annoying people, but a lot would rather just do a hard pass.

Saw that other post and almost made me want to host Raids for anti-social forum-goers Almost

Google is your friend. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/social-anxiety-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353561

Social anxiety.... In a video game? Wow

It's a bit late to be saying this when we're 9 years in, but the earlier you get started, the better. If you couldn't do it in the past, the next best time is now. I'm no social butterfly or charismatic charmer, but I have no fear or anxiety in a game setting because I know my stuff well enough and am confident in my abilities to execute the mechanics. If I'm not comfortable with the group because they're simply not nice people, I have no problems with leaving; the clear isn't more important than having a bad experience. For the next Raid and Dungeon, I can't recommend enough that someone who is anxious about joining does it early, in the days and weeks where everyone is inexperienced. Everyone has questions, everyone will make mistakes and being vocal about something might solve a problem that others in the group had also been facing. The bad people out themselves by asking for KWTD immediately, most other people are perfectly reasonable. The sooner you get in there, the faster you'll build up confidence in the activity, and people will easily overlook whatever awkwardness you feel as long as you can hold your own. I think the same goes with speaking in a group. Sitting there in silence for a while and having people question if you even have a mic and the ability to hear them isn't going to make the first words any easier. I think the best thing you can do when you join is say hello, mention why you're there - any items you want, learning, sheer boredom - and say literally anything related to the game; maybe someone made a stupid callout in a previous Raid/Dungeon and everyone laughed, perhaps you saw the most unfashionable player to ever exist, perhaps someone in the team is using a gun that you really like but others usually don't; these are bits of dialogue that you can prepare before even joining, if needs be. People like hearing others talking about things they like, and it reaffirms their own enjoyment with the game. I hope this doesn't come across like "that's easy for you to say", but it's surprisingly easy to form bonds with other players over small things; at least, bonds that you only need to last a few hours.