I hate that the term "pug" has to exist in mmo's these days altogether. I miss the days where getting to know random/fellow mmo players was a large part of the mmorpg experience. Where did the sludge come from that turned the mmorpg scene into a sewer infested minigame that strongly favors nepotism and intolerance?
That's exactly what I'm trying to get to the bottom of.
At what point did "LFG" turn into PuGing. As someone mentioned my PoV is probably skewed on this a bit since I am an FFXI vet(Forced grouping to advance at all) and CoH vet(Almost all grouping is random, even for hunting Archvillains). Those are both heavy group games so not beig on a schedule didn't matter a group was generally findable.
But from the time I've been spending on the SWTOR boards lately I keep hearing people talk about grouping with strangers like one might talk about licking the floor of a NY Subway car. I just have found it amazing how much some people seem to really HATE the idea of playing with players outside of their guild.
It's kind of fascinating to me. Anyone have any thoughts on when that trend started?
I really don't mind PUGs (coming from GW1/WoW/Rift/etc. experience). I've found that they're almost always more skilled than NPCs, and if they're not, they're at least more interesting. I'm genereally the party leader, so if someone's an asshole, I boot them. If someone is leeching or just being annoying/greedy, I boot them. No problem. I make a ton of friends out of PUGs and that's often how I find my guilds. They generally seem to be quite good for the community. So yeah ^ ^
(PUGs in EVE however... no. They will steal your items, and gank you into oblivion. You have been warned)
I hate that the term "pug" has to exist in mmo's these days altogether. I miss the days where getting to know random/fellow mmo players was a large part of the mmorpg experience. Where did the sludge come from that turned the mmorpg scene into a sewer infested minigame that strongly favors nepotism and intolerance?
That's exactly what I'm trying to get to the bottom of.
At what point did "LFG" turn into PuGing. As someone mentioned my PoV is probably skewed on this a bit since I am an FFXI vet(Forced grouping to advance at all) and CoH vet(Almost all grouping is random, even for hunting Archvillains). Those are both heavy group games so not beig on a schedule didn't matter a group was generally findable.
But from the time I've been spending on the SWTOR boards lately I keep hearing people talk about grouping with strangers like one might talk about licking the floor of a NY Subway car. I just have found it amazing how much some people seem to really HATE the idea of playing with players outside of their guild.
It's kind of fascinating to me. Anyone have any thoughts on when that trend started?
And yet people are perfectly willing to join guilds full of strangers, get in vent all day with strangers, but they don't want to do randoms with strangers? That's what boggles me. But you're right, when I played AO, it wasn't like that. There were clans, and there were random teams, there was a looking for team feature in later years, which got used by many players when their clanmates weren't on or when there were major level differences, which there usually were. I don't remember anyone ever saying, "Stupid pug, I'm going to drop team and play with my clan." Instead what happened if the team had trouble or just to speed things up is everyone would ask their clan members if a lvl 220 willing to help was online, and usually one was. And this was in the last years, too, when the community had severely eroded and deteriorated. I didn't run across the subway floor licker attitude until WoW. And by the way, that's one of the most disgusting visual+tactile images I've ever read.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
I hate that the term "pug" has to exist in mmo's these days altogether. I miss the days where getting to know random/fellow mmo players was a large part of the mmorpg experience. Where did the sludge come from that turned the mmorpg scene into a sewer infested minigame that strongly favors nepotism and intolerance?
That's exactly what I'm trying to get to the bottom of.
At what point did "LFG" turn into PuGing. As someone mentioned my PoV is probably skewed on this a bit since I am an FFXI vet(Forced grouping to advance at all) and CoH vet(Almost all grouping is random, even for hunting Archvillains). Those are both heavy group games so not beig on a schedule didn't matter a group was generally findable.
But from the time I've been spending on the SWTOR boards lately I keep hearing people talk about grouping with strangers like one might talk about licking the floor of a NY Subway car. I just have found it amazing how much some people seem to really HATE the idea of playing with players outside of their guild.
It's kind of fascinating to me. Anyone have any thoughts on when that trend started?
And yet people are perfectly willing to join guilds full of strangers, get in vent all day with strangers, but they don't want to do randoms with strangers? That's what boggles me. But you're right, when I played AO, it wasn't like that. There were clans, and there were random teams, there was a looking for team feature in later years, which got used by many players when their clanmates weren't on or when there were major level differences, which there usually were. I don't remember anyone ever saying, "Stupid pug, I'm going to drop team and play with my clan." Instead what happened if the team had trouble or just to speed things up is everyone would ask their clan members if a lvl 220 willing to help was online, and usually one was. And this was in the last years, too, when the community had severely eroded and deteriorated. I didn't run across the subway floor licker attitude until WoW. And by the way, that's one of the most disgusting visual+tactile images I've ever read.
The problem most people have is that a lot of people are not even trying to learn how to play their characters. Tanks that don't know how to hold aggro, healers that don't know when or who to heal, DPS who can't stay on target. The list could go on for longer but I hate walls of text. The nice thing about running with guildies is you generally know what you're getting into with a guild run through a dungeon. This makes people more wary when looking for a PUG, especially when you have just tried to run a few with some groups that fell apart. Or with a group with a bunch of people who had no clue what they're doing. I don't know how many times I've been in groups where the tank was yelling at the caster to heal them when the healer said they'd be afk.
I hate that the term "pug" has to exist in mmo's these days altogether. I miss the days where getting to know random/fellow mmo players was a large part of the mmorpg experience. Where did the sludge come from that turned the mmorpg scene into a sewer infested minigame that strongly favors nepotism and intolerance?
That's exactly what I'm trying to get to the bottom of.
At what point did "LFG" turn into PuGing. As someone mentioned my PoV is probably skewed on this a bit since I am an FFXI vet(Forced grouping to advance at all) and CoH vet(Almost all grouping is random, even for hunting Archvillains). Those are both heavy group games so not beig on a schedule didn't matter a group was generally findable.
But from the time I've been spending on the SWTOR boards lately I keep hearing people talk about grouping with strangers like one might talk about licking the floor of a NY Subway car. I just have found it amazing how much some people seem to really HATE the idea of playing with players outside of their guild.
It's kind of fascinating to me. Anyone have any thoughts on when that trend started?
And yet people are perfectly willing to join guilds full of strangers, get in vent all day with strangers, but they don't want to do randoms with strangers? That's what boggles me. But you're right, when I played AO, it wasn't like that. There were clans, and there were random teams, there was a looking for team feature in later years, which got used by many players when their clanmates weren't on or when there were major level differences, which there usually were. I don't remember anyone ever saying, "Stupid pug, I'm going to drop team and play with my clan." Instead what happened if the team had trouble or just to speed things up is everyone would ask their clan members if a lvl 220 willing to help was online, and usually one was. And this was in the last years, too, when the community had severely eroded and deteriorated. I didn't run across the subway floor licker attitude until WoW. And by the way, that's one of the most disgusting visual+tactile images I've ever read.
The problem most people have is that a lot of people are not even trying to learn how to play their characters. Tanks that don't know how to hold aggro, healers that don't know when or who to heal, DPS who can't stay on target. The list could go on for longer but I hate walls of text. The nice thing about running with guildies is you generally know what you're getting into with a guild run through a dungeon. This makes people more wary when looking for a PUG, especially when you have just tried to run a few with some groups that fell apart. Or with a group with a bunch of people who had no clue what they're doing. I don't know how many times I've been in groups where the tank was yelling at the caster to heal them when the healer said they'd be afk.
I tended to be lucky when I used WoW's dungeon finder. Sure, I got horrible teams (healers refusing to heal being my personal least favorite), but rarely, and if I was on an alt and tanking for the first time, I'd tell my team I was new to tanking, or new to tanking on that toon, and either they'd say it was fine and let me go at my own pace, or better yet, they'd explain to me how to tank better. Usually we'd all requeue and run it again after we finally finished the first time.
Sometimes the problem was having to go after awhile, because the team would happily keep queuing up for as long as I wanted to run it, even if I blundered and wiped us the first time, I remember several times I felt guilty for leaving. It probably helped that I never waited until I got to 80, then learned to tank, though. Hm, morale of story, if you're going to pug in a game like WoW, admit when you're new, accept any helpful advice your team can give you, don't wait until max level to start learning, be nice to everyone, and roll a tank.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
1. Newbies that have no idea what they're doing and the dungeon is just an unnecessary struggle. (I prefer these to number 2)
2. A group of elitists who are focussing on nothing but breaking a record for fastest run all while staring at their damage meters and trying to find reasons to kick others out of the group.
pugs are fine when they are played with humour and friendliness. If a pug has a crap player who is good humoured then a good group of people will cope and have fun together. Idiots will stomp and complain if the run doesnt take 12 minutes without the slightest issue. Idiots that cannot change the way they play to suit the pug group are just as bad. The latter is wow through and through. Labelling people is a symptom of this 'ELITIST, NOOB' friendly i think not.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
"I tended to be lucky when I used WoW's dungeon finder. Sure, I got horrible teams (healers refusing to heal being my personal least favorite), but rarely, and if I was on an alt and tanking for the first time, I'd tell my team I was new to tanking, or new to tanking on that toon, and either they'd say it was fine and let me go at my own pace, or better yet, they'd explain to me how to tank better. Usually we'd all requeue and run it again after we finally finished the first time. "
You got very lucky compared to me.
My first group ever in McMMO set the tone for me, lol.
I tried finding a group the od fashioned way, through chat and such. The responses I got were, "Use the LFD!", "Queue UP!" etc...
So i foudn the LFD tool and queued up. Got a group, insta ported to the dungeon(which felt like a rip off, lol). When i got there I told the group, "Hi, I'm new here. Never done this befoee and might need some pointers."
"I tended to be lucky when I used WoW's dungeon finder. Sure, I got horrible teams (healers refusing to heal being my personal least favorite), but rarely, and if I was on an alt and tanking for the first time, I'd tell my team I was new to tanking, or new to tanking on that toon, and either they'd say it was fine and let me go at my own pace, or better yet, they'd explain to me how to tank better. Usually we'd all requeue and run it again after we finally finished the first time. "
You got very lucky compared to me.
My first group ever in McMMO set the tone for me, lol.
I tried finding a group the od fashioned way, through chat and such. The responses I got were, "Use the LFD!", "Queue UP!" etc...
So i foudn the LFD tool and queued up. Got a group, insta ported to the dungeon(which felt like a rip off, lol). When i got there I told the group, "Hi, I'm new here. Never done this befoee and might need some pointers."
the response, "F&&& YOU!" /boot.
Ouch. Yeah, that might've been my last dungeon finder experience, at least as a tank or healer. DPS can fake it, pre-cap, anyway. Which is probably one of the reasons randoms have a hard time finding tanks and healers in games. If someone is new to a game or a role and no one is willing to let them learn, dps is pretty much all they can play, by trial and error and reading the forums. Dungeon finder was also very new when I played WoW, I guess it could have gone downhill from there.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
Back when MMO's were designed to encourage player interaction and even dependence on one another for fun and profit (and the game mechanics were more simple) PUGs could provide a good gaming experience.
Under modern MMORPG design however, with their rush though mechanics/design/mentality they are largely an unenjoyable experience which people understandably avoid when they can.
I enjoy playing in a good PUG group in a game designed to make the experience fun, however it's been years since I've seen one of those MMORPG's.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I think pugs are ok. You get to know new ppl (sometimes) and some might even stick around in my friendlist for a long time. Crossrealming however is just a huge chunk of fail. Nobody talks, nobody cares, everyone's an internet tough guy etc... ok not always but I've found it to be rule of thumb and not the exception.
Even though I usually enjoy pugging and the faster the queue pops the better, I have to say you're right about the quality of cross realm pugs. They do tend to have more players who won't talk and don't care about anything except getting their pixels and getting out. It's an argument for one server games like EVE, if nothing else.
Yes single shard games! Way way back I remember there was some talk that SWtor might be single shard. That wont happen ofc but would've been amazing if they could pull that one off somehow =D
Doubt we'll see it any time soon. There are too many varied playstyles, PvE/PvP/RP, that don't really get along. Now maybe a game that had 3 servers, one for each. Just one Huge Open PvP server, a heavily enforced RP server, and a PvE questing server with no other options would make for a some very interesting communities.
You need a fifth option in the poll. "I lead my own pugs"
I've done this mainly in WoW doing 25 mans on an alt. Some friends, some pugs, some guild alts (allthough it started as a full pug as no one wanted to do top-tier raids with a lowly alt :P)
We cleared Naxx 25 within the gating period, we killed Yogg Saron 25 and did some hard modes, we farmed toc 25 and as a slightly more cohesive group started to form we cleared 4/5 HC 25. The group was a bit more stable once ICC was released but we still had up to 15 pugs from time to time, mostly consiting of alts of raiders and casuals (some of which were previously high end raiders and great players)
As we progressed through hard modes the once PUG had stabilized to maybe 4-5 casuals or guild alts taking the last spots and we managed to get 11/12 HC 25 man, making great progress. Some people that had been cautioously optimistic joining my first Naxx 25 run where even guildies were reluctant were still part of the group (much love to you!)
This was far from a standard pug experience but me and a couple of others put a lot of effort into finding skilled (and fun!) people to be a part of it. I am a part of a raiding guild and have been since vanilla but i still join pugs from time to time on alts allthough i much prefer to make them myself as i can inspect and approve raid members based on more than a lazy gearcheck or Ilvl.
It seems many MMOs today are largely focused on guild play and the general accessability of raids in some cases through gearing up or the raid difficulty itself results in a lot of players ready for raiding gearwise but having no clue what to do, or any motivation to ask. This is partly the fault of lazy leaders as well, not chosing to recognize a player that is willing and quick to learn over a simple gearcheck when gear is so easily attainable requiring no real skill on the players part.
I LIKE pugging most of the time. Sometimes you just end up meeting great people, having a blast and making new friends. The frustration of ending up in a bad pug getting saved for the week puts most people off to the idea which is why i mostly end up leading my own raids and do my best to keep that from happening.
Since the invention of the internet the worlds rotation has been solely propelled by English teachers rolling over in their graves.
I too LOVE PUGs. Why would I want to know exactly who I'm gonna play with and what we're gonna do, and how we're gonna do it in a fantasy word? I dunno, maybe its just that pioneer spirit, but I like meeting new people, and running into different playstyles and levels of proficiency. THAT'S where community comes from IMO. i mean the very idea of guilding seems like I'm being averaged into some organization that sees me as a means to an end, not a real group of game buds per se. Its like you join and you have to prove your loyalty by coming when beckoned in exchange for access to raid content at some point. I like friendly players, if we're cool we /friend each other and pal around when we're both on. THAT seems more in keeping with partaking in an enjoyable leisure activity than guilds do. Besides the more friends you make from PUGs the more varied the knowledge and experiences available to you.
Comments
That's exactly what I'm trying to get to the bottom of.
At what point did "LFG" turn into PuGing. As someone mentioned my PoV is probably skewed on this a bit since I am an FFXI vet(Forced grouping to advance at all) and CoH vet(Almost all grouping is random, even for hunting Archvillains). Those are both heavy group games so not beig on a schedule didn't matter a group was generally findable.
But from the time I've been spending on the SWTOR boards lately I keep hearing people talk about grouping with strangers like one might talk about licking the floor of a NY Subway car. I just have found it amazing how much some people seem to really HATE the idea of playing with players outside of their guild.
It's kind of fascinating to me. Anyone have any thoughts on when that trend started?
I really don't mind PUGs (coming from GW1/WoW/Rift/etc. experience). I've found that they're almost always more skilled than NPCs, and if they're not, they're at least more interesting. I'm genereally the party leader, so if someone's an asshole, I boot them. If someone is leeching or just being annoying/greedy, I boot them. No problem. I make a ton of friends out of PUGs and that's often how I find my guilds. They generally seem to be quite good for the community. So yeah ^ ^
(PUGs in EVE however... no. They will steal your items, and gank you into oblivion. You have been warned)
And yet people are perfectly willing to join guilds full of strangers, get in vent all day with strangers, but they don't want to do randoms with strangers? That's what boggles me. But you're right, when I played AO, it wasn't like that. There were clans, and there were random teams, there was a looking for team feature in later years, which got used by many players when their clanmates weren't on or when there were major level differences, which there usually were. I don't remember anyone ever saying, "Stupid pug, I'm going to drop team and play with my clan." Instead what happened if the team had trouble or just to speed things up is everyone would ask their clan members if a lvl 220 willing to help was online, and usually one was. And this was in the last years, too, when the community had severely eroded and deteriorated. I didn't run across the subway floor licker attitude until WoW. And by the way, that's one of the most disgusting visual+tactile images I've ever read.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
The problem most people have is that a lot of people are not even trying to learn how to play their characters. Tanks that don't know how to hold aggro, healers that don't know when or who to heal, DPS who can't stay on target. The list could go on for longer but I hate walls of text. The nice thing about running with guildies is you generally know what you're getting into with a guild run through a dungeon. This makes people more wary when looking for a PUG, especially when you have just tried to run a few with some groups that fell apart. Or with a group with a bunch of people who had no clue what they're doing. I don't know how many times I've been in groups where the tank was yelling at the caster to heal them when the healer said they'd be afk.
I tended to be lucky when I used WoW's dungeon finder. Sure, I got horrible teams (healers refusing to heal being my personal least favorite), but rarely, and if I was on an alt and tanking for the first time, I'd tell my team I was new to tanking, or new to tanking on that toon, and either they'd say it was fine and let me go at my own pace, or better yet, they'd explain to me how to tank better. Usually we'd all requeue and run it again after we finally finished the first time.
Sometimes the problem was having to go after awhile, because the team would happily keep queuing up for as long as I wanted to run it, even if I blundered and wiped us the first time, I remember several times I felt guilty for leaving. It probably helped that I never waited until I got to 80, then learned to tank, though. Hm, morale of story, if you're going to pug in a game like WoW, admit when you're new, accept any helpful advice your team can give you, don't wait until max level to start learning, be nice to everyone, and roll a tank.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
These days you get one of two pickup groups.
1. Newbies that have no idea what they're doing and the dungeon is just an unnecessary struggle. (I prefer these to number 2)
2. A group of elitists who are focussing on nothing but breaking a record for fastest run all while staring at their damage meters and trying to find reasons to kick others out of the group.
It's a joke and I refuse to do pickup groups.
pugs are fine when they are played with humour and friendliness. If a pug has a crap player who is good humoured then a good group of people will cope and have fun together. Idiots will stomp and complain if the run doesnt take 12 minutes without the slightest issue. Idiots that cannot change the way they play to suit the pug group are just as bad. The latter is wow through and through. Labelling people is a symptom of this 'ELITIST, NOOB' friendly i think not.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
"I tended to be lucky when I used WoW's dungeon finder. Sure, I got horrible teams (healers refusing to heal being my personal least favorite), but rarely, and if I was on an alt and tanking for the first time, I'd tell my team I was new to tanking, or new to tanking on that toon, and either they'd say it was fine and let me go at my own pace, or better yet, they'd explain to me how to tank better. Usually we'd all requeue and run it again after we finally finished the first time. "
You got very lucky compared to me.
My first group ever in McMMO set the tone for me, lol.
I tried finding a group the od fashioned way, through chat and such. The responses I got were, "Use the LFD!", "Queue UP!" etc...
So i foudn the LFD tool and queued up. Got a group, insta ported to the dungeon(which felt like a rip off, lol). When i got there I told the group, "Hi, I'm new here. Never done this befoee and might need some pointers."
the response, "F&&& YOU!" /boot.
Ouch. Yeah, that might've been my last dungeon finder experience, at least as a tank or healer. DPS can fake it, pre-cap, anyway. Which is probably one of the reasons randoms have a hard time finding tanks and healers in games. If someone is new to a game or a role and no one is willing to let them learn, dps is pretty much all they can play, by trial and error and reading the forums. Dungeon finder was also very new when I played WoW, I guess it could have gone downhill from there.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
Back when MMO's were designed to encourage player interaction and even dependence on one another for fun and profit (and the game mechanics were more simple) PUGs could provide a good gaming experience.
Under modern MMORPG design however, with their rush though mechanics/design/mentality they are largely an unenjoyable experience which people understandably avoid when they can.
I enjoy playing in a good PUG group in a game designed to make the experience fun, however it's been years since I've seen one of those MMORPG's.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I enjoy running pug groups, i prefer that over premade groups. You never quite know what will happen on each run.
Premade are good for farming stuff quick but not the gameplay i prefer
Agreed.
I love the uncertainty. Adds a little edge to the content when it's not been rehearsed down to a faceroll.
Yes single shard games! Way way back I remember there was some talk that SWtor might be single shard. That wont happen ofc but would've been amazing if they could pull that one off somehow =D
I'd be interested in a one server game.
Doubt we'll see it any time soon. There are too many varied playstyles, PvE/PvP/RP, that don't really get along. Now maybe a game that had 3 servers, one for each. Just one Huge Open PvP server, a heavily enforced RP server, and a PvE questing server with no other options would make for a some very interesting communities.
(only 51 votes? Come on guys, we can do better)
You need a fifth option in the poll. "I lead my own pugs"
I've done this mainly in WoW doing 25 mans on an alt. Some friends, some pugs, some guild alts (allthough it started as a full pug as no one wanted to do top-tier raids with a lowly alt :P)
We cleared Naxx 25 within the gating period, we killed Yogg Saron 25 and did some hard modes, we farmed toc 25 and as a slightly more cohesive group started to form we cleared 4/5 HC 25. The group was a bit more stable once ICC was released but we still had up to 15 pugs from time to time, mostly consiting of alts of raiders and casuals (some of which were previously high end raiders and great players)
As we progressed through hard modes the once PUG had stabilized to maybe 4-5 casuals or guild alts taking the last spots and we managed to get 11/12 HC 25 man, making great progress. Some people that had been cautioously optimistic joining my first Naxx 25 run where even guildies were reluctant were still part of the group (much love to you!)
This was far from a standard pug experience but me and a couple of others put a lot of effort into finding skilled (and fun!) people to be a part of it. I am a part of a raiding guild and have been since vanilla but i still join pugs from time to time on alts allthough i much prefer to make them myself as i can inspect and approve raid members based on more than a lazy gearcheck or Ilvl.
It seems many MMOs today are largely focused on guild play and the general accessability of raids in some cases through gearing up or the raid difficulty itself results in a lot of players ready for raiding gearwise but having no clue what to do, or any motivation to ask. This is partly the fault of lazy leaders as well, not chosing to recognize a player that is willing and quick to learn over a simple gearcheck when gear is so easily attainable requiring no real skill on the players part.
I LIKE pugging most of the time. Sometimes you just end up meeting great people, having a blast and making new friends. The frustration of ending up in a bad pug getting saved for the week puts most people off to the idea which is why i mostly end up leading my own raids and do my best to keep that from happening.
Since the invention of the internet the worlds rotation has been solely propelled by English teachers rolling over in their graves.
MMO player since Meridian 59
that makes no sense at all
Since the invention of the internet the worlds rotation has been solely propelled by English teachers rolling over in their graves.
MMO player since Meridian 59
I like Pugs, they are fun. I play MMORPGs because of the grouping game. I don't really care to do solo quests or solo mob grinding.
The only reason I want to level up is because I don't want to spend forever in the same zone with the same monsters and dungeons.
So if a Pug causes a wipe, that's part of the fun of the game for me. I don't want to do it over and over, but now and then, I don't mind.
I too LOVE PUGs. Why would I want to know exactly who I'm gonna play with and what we're gonna do, and how we're gonna do it in a fantasy word? I dunno, maybe its just that pioneer spirit, but I like meeting new people, and running into different playstyles and levels of proficiency. THAT'S where community comes from IMO. i mean the very idea of guilding seems like I'm being averaged into some organization that sees me as a means to an end, not a real group of game buds per se. Its like you join and you have to prove your loyalty by coming when beckoned in exchange for access to raid content at some point. I like friendly players, if we're cool we /friend each other and pal around when we're both on. THAT seems more in keeping with partaking in an enjoyable leisure activity than guilds do. Besides the more friends you make from PUGs the more varied the knowledge and experiences available to you.