[Elia]

you can train crafting skills at the merc camp... in an environment where most offensive actions have been blocked aka safezone

Hm... okay, try training Blacksmithy in the Mercenary Camp.

what I'm saying is the merc camp contributes to an overall anti-social vibe on the server where players have less incentive to create social relationships with others. I'm defining "social relationship" in a very vague way as any time a player engages in another activity with another player.

No. When you don't have the necessity of going to the Mercenary Camp, you'll join the guild, babe. Or you'll stay alone and play solo. The Mercenary Camp doesn't imply any limits to social relationship. People are the only ones who limit it themselves. And people (usually) never join a guild in the beginning of their game path. And they really don't need it - so they train in the Mercenary Camp. Deal with they way the staff makes the game playable.

p.s. those who want to sparring in the guildhouse like you want, they will, believe me. Nothing stops them, really. But Mercenary Camp is a great bunch of work, and I think if you'd create such a location, you woundn't want to remove it.