Try Guild Wars 2.

You can play basically the entire game solo if you want. It would take you years to play all the solo material. They have mass battles to take down huge bosses. You can literally join without talking to anyone. As long as you cause at least 1 hit point of damage you get the chest at the end of the battle.

You don't have to do those mass battles (meta events) if you don't want to.

My guild has a discord server but no one is required to use it. You can use the in game text chat if you want. If you want you literally don't even have to talk to anyone.

There are multi players areas, but I just spoke to someone who played for 9 years only doing player vs enemy. He just started player vs player.

If at some point you want to use discord someone will help you, but again no requirement.

Just to get the mount called skyscale (if you wanted to go nuts could be done in a week) I've been working on it for a couple months now. Like I said there is a TON to do in that game.

Game is pc only it's about eleven years old.

I don't bother communicating. I just play silently and usually mute the chat if it is toxic. Even games like overwatch worked out ok playing without communicating.

The only time I had a decent experience playing with strangers was when I found specific gaming subs or Discord communities (e.g. casual gaming, gaming dads, etc) and played in a Discord voice channel. This was actually a really good experience in games like Street fighter or Apex legends. I could do dumb shit in game and they'd be completely chill and say "it happens" and carry on to the next game. Haven't done this for the last couple of years though.

There are thousands and thousands of discord servers you can join without any invite. Try searching disboard.org to find a server for your game, or check YouTubers descriptions, many have one you can join. You're not the only person I've heard complain about discord being difficult to learn. It does get easy, especially if you can find someone to help you join a voice chat or something.

Depending on the game you might have built in chat. I have made friends with random people I gamed with, and we continued for years.

It doesnt sound dumb. Maybe its just not for you.

I play minetest online and some folks I chat with, some I dont. Its a private server so peeps dont bother others.

Big chat servers like on discord bore me because its mostly just trashtalk. Either lemmy or matrix, both are fine.

Hit me up if you wanna discuss it. Have a good one.

Warframe might be for you.

You can play everything solo, or join with random people without the need to ever talk to anyone.

After a while, if you feel like it, you can use the in-game chat, or not. You can join a clan, or not (not being in a clan has it's downside though, nothing critical except the arch wing, which must suck not having)

I tried playing PUBG with discord people and everyone ripped on me because I suck at it and I'm old and it messes up their ratio or whatever they're trying to do

Just play games you like, you can play most multiplayer games with randoms without chatting or talking. You will probably miss some fun, but it's not a big deal I assure you.

Just play the game you want to play, you're not the only one who does it without talking online (like me).

It depends on the implementation.

If there's no voice chat, text based chat participation is considered optional, and the in-game community isn't toxic, then I might get chatty.

I just use the VC feature of games, meet people and from there join a discord server with them. It's better to think of discord as mimicing friend groups, rather than gaming communities.

This is kind of embarrassing because I feel like I’m out of touch with video games but I actually have the opposite concern…

How do I play games that allow me to talk to people while playing?

I have a an iPhone, an Android tablet and a Nintendo Switch.

I know I’m limited by my devices but are there any games I could play that have that feature?

Looking more for the social aspect than the gameplay tbh.

Go to a local video game bar and play socially there.

nobody in GTA online uses their microphones.

Fighting games can be tough given the smaller community. If you are in a larger city then you might have access to a fighting game community. If not, I tend to message other players to see if they wanna play more after a ranked match. It may or may not turn into chatting but getting to play 10+ games with one person can be quite fun. If you're willing to travel, there are large events hosted for fighting games too. Most people show up to press buttons and have fun even if they lose in the tournaments.

A) discord

B) make friends with one person that does this or plays with other groups, then join them when they are playing with others

"How do people manage to play and chat online with random people?"