Practicing social skills in online games

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So since I have no way of meeting people in real life, I was thinking it may be at least somewhat helpful to try to practice talking to people in online games. I've played a few MMOs but anytime I've played any of them I've always been 100% solo which kind of defeats the purpose of the game and many of them are designed to discourage that by having content that require groups.

I've always wanted to try to meet some people and make friends in these games but whenever I login I realize I haven't the faintest idea how to meet anyone in these games! In a couple of games they have tools to help form parties like a tool to assign you to a random dungeon with a party that has one or more openings but I've noticed whenever I try this nobody talks to anyone in the party! I've tried joining guilds a couple of time from those advertising in the local chat but it always ended up being a recruitment drive that got maybe a 100 players and then the guild dies shortly afterward with never a single group formed.

I'm not really sure how people manage to form successful long running groups in games. I'm really looking for people to spend time with longer term rather than just a spontaneous group just for the day. How do I do this?

A couple of times I've had random party invites while I was playing solo but since they were so unexpected I always panic and logout. I think random invites are supposed to be considered poor form but maybe I should've accepted?

Anyone had any success trying to be more social using online games, especially MMORPGs?

I dunno dogg I play video games as an excuse to entirely lose myself in something that doesn't involve other people whatsoever.

I played Call of Duty online, usually with some of my undergrad friends, a few years ago and it was nice to talk to them in the process and all that, but man I couldn't imagine talking to anyone random in that context.

The first thing I did every time I played was mute the voices of everyone I didn't know

Hmm. I'm not sure if playing games helps with social skills because the focus is very different than in social settings. Your primary focus is on the game usually and doesn't leave a ton of room for personal interaction. It can help to some extent, but I think it's better to meet people face to face than on a game thing. That's the way I see it anyway..lol

I see it as any interaction with other people is better than none. I've no one to talk to at all in real life. I'm thinking the fact that you're in the game helps because it provides a natural topic to talk about which really relieves the pressure of having to figure out small talk or the awkward silences I always run trying to do real life conversation because I can't think of a topic or what to add to the conversation.

I think it could help if you don't expect people to be too interested. They are mostly there for the game, after all.

I know some guilds advertise on the main website or message board of a game, too.

I surely had to learn to be more social while playing World of Warcraft.
During a few years of my life the only "social" contact i had was through it.