pick-up-group
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Anti-Aliased: Yu rack disriprine pt. 2
CasualLolz player, meet OMGHARDCOREBBQ player The last part of odd group dynamics comes from how much our genre has grown since the days of EverQuest and Final Fantasy XI. Back in the days pre-Warcraft, the MMO community was a small group of gamers who, for the most part, had the same play styles. If you didn't like the genre, you probably didn't play the games. The games presented their basic dynamics to the player very quickly, and people who didn't like how the game was going had the chance to drop out at level 10 or earlier. That's not how the community is today. Thanks to the rampant success of Warcraft, friends are inviting non-MMO friends. People who haven't even touched a game before Warcraft are picking up MMOs. They jump in, do their soloing, fall in love with those dynamics instead of being immediately introduced to party dynamics, and then enter into parties with explosive consequences. It's then, at this late point in the game, when they realize that they don't want to be with other people. They don't want to re-learn everything because they feel that they have mastered what the game is all about. Then you have the player that has played the older games, who does know what to expect, and who runs his endgame content with an iron fist. Do one thing wrong and he screams at you, because in the "olden days" doing one thing wrong netted you extreme penalties and raid wipes. Putting these two people into the same group is not going to work. Yet, this occurs every day in Warcraft and other MMOs because of how huge the genre has become. Some people come because they want to have some easy fun, but then they falter when they get to the content that is obviously targeted towards people who have been in the genre for some time. The people who have been in the genre can't stand the people who are there for the casual soloing because they act too loosely in raids. Yet, it's not all that bad For how much we moan and complain about pick-up groups, you'd think the sky was falling. Sure, the rate of failure in grouping is much higher than it use to be, but that's the way it's going to become. The bright side to all of this is the very same sentence I used at the beginning of the article -- grouping is all about having experience grouping. As the newcomers and old players adjust to the new ways MMOs work, they will become more experienced. The fail wipes of today will become the successes of tomorrow, as long as players learn to stick with it and take the good with the bad. Failure will never disappear from online MMOs. It's a necessary game mechanic that can't be removed, no matter how much we try to minimize penalties. Just remember to learn from the mistakes you witness -- you'll be a better player because of it. Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who thinks people might like to play with other people in MMOGs, but is probably totally wrong. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.
Insider Trader: Who keeps the shards?
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.In the Burning Crusade, an Enchanter's job in a raid or dungeon was to disenchant the boss drops that no one wanted into Large Prismatic Shards, and the entire group would roll for them. This was considered the standard, and was the fairest way to divide up the loot. Instead of rolling on the bind on pick-up items that were not wanted, in order to sell them to a vendor for profit or to help pay for the repair bill, they were turned into something more useful. Prismatics sold for more at auction than a vendor would pay, and the shards could be saved for when the characters needed something enchanted. All of this changed in Wrath of the Lich King. Suddenly, many Enchanters were acting like anyone who expected to roll for shards were selfish and clueless, and it has since become the norm for the Enchanter to keep all of the shards. This week, I'll be discussing the reasons behind the change, and reassessing just how fair the change really is.
WoW Rookie: Playing in a group
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.You're madly in love with your new character. You've polished off the early zones and boast a couple of handfuls of talent points. Your professions are coming along nicely, and you've been spending a little time poking around on various WoW web sites to learn more about your class and the game. Yet you're still feeling a little insecure around other players. Shouldn't you be running instances with groups by now? How are you supposed to know what to do? If groping towards grouping leaves you feeling a little intimidated – we've got your back. How to get into a group, what to do once you're in one, and how to conduct yourself (and what to expect from others) to make lasting friends who'll want to group up again and again ... after the break.
Breakfast Topic: Calling it quits
If you've ever played in a group or run a dungeon, then you know the nuisance and frustration of playing in a bad group. I'm sure most of us have been there -- a dungeon run that seems a never-ending string of wipes, a PVP group that's unable to stick together long enough to accomplish any objectives, and the inevitable repair bills that arise from a group of players that doesn't quite mesh. At this point in my healing career, I practically never group with people I don't know. Too many things can go wrong and any rewards that might come from running an instance aren't worth the sanity that would be lost by trudging onward after the fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth wipe. (And even sticking with people you know doesn't always lead you to pain-free groups -- I'll just say that Loken and I are never on friendly terms.) But a thousand complants about bad group experiences aside, when you're unfortunate enough to find yourself in a bad group, how do you know when to cut your losses and call it quits? Do you flee at the first sign of trouble? Hang in until the group leader calls it quits? Or do you have some other breaking point?
Hi, my name is mandy*
Do you ever stop to think about the other players in WoW? The game attracts a wide range of folks, but odds are good many of them are remarkably similar to you in many ways. Sometimes it's hard to remember that there is a living being behind those pixels. Someone who is excited by triumphs and aggravated by mistakes. Oddly enough, we don't always treat them as real people.Take for instance one of the PUGs I did this evening. Within 10 minutes of joining the group, the Hunter typed a vulgar joke in party chat. At this point I saw four options four options for dealing with it:
Resurrection etiquette
No matter what you do in the World of Warcraft, you risk stepping into a sludge pool of drama. From arguments about class mechanics to heated discussions with trolls, to distribution of loot, it is impossible to avoid conflict. In my personal gaming experience, I would have to say that most of the time I become upset, angry, annoyed or feel the need to take a time out, it is because I chose to run a dungeon with a pick-up group. Whether I'm tanking or healing, I inevitably run into people who seem to have no regard for other players. As an example, I have a strong policy about my resurrection ability. I feel that if you die, whether from a stupid mistake of your own or a legitimate reason, you deserve to be resurrected. On the other hand, if the entire party wipes, and no one had a soulstone or self-resurrection available, I believe everyone should run. Sure, if you have to hit the washroom or someone comes to the door, I'll run with everyone else and pick you up after, and that's no problem.
Forum post of the day: I need that for my PvP set
I'm sure at some point in time we've all seen epic looting nightmares. More than once I've been hoping for a drop in an instance only to have another party member beat me on a need roll. Usually, though it's something they actually do need, at least as much as I do. Sometimes ninja looting is even an accident, but other times it is not. Avirisa of Mannoroth is a might miffed that she was outrolled for a Commendation of Kael'Thas ... to a Hunter... for PvP. As a tank, she said he was running the instance to acquire that drop. Most responded that this behavior is part of what gives Hunters a bad name in the game (Huntard). Some blamed the original poster for inviting not only a Hunter, but a Night Elf Hunter to the group.
When to kick
Sometimes as tank, you're asked to be party leader in order to mark targets for CC, establish a kill order, and so on. One of the problems of this position is, at times, you're forced to use it to remove problem members of a party, especially when it's a pick up group. I don't do all that many PuG's for this and other reasons, but Monday I made an exception on my tauren warrior for an old friend who has just started playing again. She wanted to finally finish Black Morass for her (now unnecessary) Karazhan key, and I decided that completing content instead of skipping it warranted some help. Plus, like I said, she's a friend, and a good player. We formed up a group... myself as tank, her as hunter DPS, another old friend as priest healing, a warlock to help with both main and add DPS thanks to those wonderful DoTs, and a fury warrior to be main add killer.Unfortunately, the fury warrior came with enough baggage to crush ten porters.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: PuGgit!
Last week, WoW Insider saw a post by some guy about why tanks don't PuG.This week, I'm writing a post exhorting you warriors out there to PuG. Run pick up groups as tanks, DPS, hey, if people really want you to run around trying to keep them up with bandages then go nuts. Why am I telling you this? Well, it fits into my current crazy plan to stave off WoW burnout. Playing a warrior can be a lot of fun, but it takes a certain mindset to do it and frankly, if all you're doing is tanking raids and grinding on quests, you're in danger of falling into a rut. You don't even have to be tanking raids for this to happen... soloing your warrior in Dustwallow Marsh can be just as much an example of staying in your comfort zone. Do you make up excuses why you can't run Zul'Farrak just to grind away on quests in the deserts of Tanaris instead? Does the very idea of running Uldaman make you break out in a cold sweat? Then you should run Uldaman.Like most classes in WoW, warriors at say level 12 running Ragefire Chasm or level 15 braving Deadmines are hardly the same as a level 70 warrior running Sunwell Plateau, but the path to the latter leads right through the former. You can read the forums, talk to other warriors, listen to long winded self appointed expert bloggers, or cruise the theorycrafting sites every waking moment, but as helpful as all these things can be you can learn more from doing than from all of them combined, if you pay attention and are willing to accept that you will screw up, groups will wipe, blame will be cast your way and sometimes it actually was your fault. If you can endure this and learn from it, you'll become a better tank or DPS. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that's why these various instances are there. BFD isn't just there to get you Strike of the Hydra, it's there so you can learn how things like aggro management, crowd control, and tanking actually work.
Forum post of the day: Dreadful DPS declarations
The biggest frustration in a MMORPG is probably getting ganked at most inopportune moments. The next biggest aggravation has got to be playing with pick-up-groups. Sometimes we get lucky in choosing random players to instance with, but we've all got horror stories of out worst experiences with PUGs. Ihaveaplan of Altarac Mountains started a thread for players to list 200 things you don't want to hear from your DPS. The original poster's initial complaint was the Warlock who left the group because the tank was fighting multiple mobs. Some other gems from this thread include: Bizzerk of Laughing Skull, "Does anyone have damage meters?" Zazzi of Kirin Tor, "Do any of you have another weapon? My sword broke." Groxikor of Daggerspine, "I'm pretty good with bandages, can I heal?" Misada of Dark Iron, "Hey guys, can someone resummon me, had to hearth to repair my gear." Ovelita of Ner'zhul, "We don't need a healer. We have a shadow priest."
Forum Post of the Day: PUG Player Archetypes
Once Patch 2.4 goes live, we will most likely be able to queue up for all of the major battlegrounds as premades. There will always be PUGs, since even the three battlegrounds that allow premade groups to play have them. Sideways of Korgath posted a thread on the official forums on the most annoying PUG player archetypes. The original list included: The Aloof - This guy appears to be guarding a flag or, but the chickens at the farm in AB are actually doing a better job. It's hard to say whether he's AFK, chatting in vent, or just didn't get enough sleep last night, but a guy caps the flag behind him and he doesn't even notice. If he's in gulch and the enemy flag carrier runs by, he just keeps on doing whatever it is he's doing as if nothing happened. The ADD - This type of player just can't live with less than continuous action. The concept of defending a flag is foreign and distasteful to him. Therefore if he is defending something and no enemies show up within 30 seconds, he moves on despite the fact that he is leaving the flag unguarded for a friendly neighborhood rogue to ninja. The Instance Mob - This type of player makes you swear aggro generation applied to players. He simply cannot understand why he hasn't been able to kill anything despite the fact that he put forth his best damage attacks against the protection specced shield wearing warrior that had 2 priests, a paladin, and a druid healing him. Much like I expect Rend Blackhand or Nefarian would, he attributes his ineffectiveness to inferior gear.
Who's afraid of the big, bad P.U.G.?
We've all experienced it. There you are sitting in your favorite MMOG when suddenly you're "blessed" with a quest or mission that you simply can't handle alone. Your mind races, beads of sweat form on your brow, and a zing of panic rifles up your spine. You realize you have no choice but to enter... The P.U.G. Zone.For those of you unfamiliar with the term, P.U.G. is the acronym for Pick Up Group. It might as well stand for "Insta-death." More often then not when you're forced to form a group consisting of unknown players it usually ends in multiple deaths, and failure of said mission. If that weren't bad enough there's also a part of you that truly wants to make a good impression on your new found teammates. Thankfully there are many sites (like Massively, Ten Ton Hammer, etc.) dedicated to helping players deal with issues just like this.
A message to those that ask me to group
Dear PUG Members,Recently you've asked me to group with you. This is cool, and I appreciate being wanted. It gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling inside. The same warm and fuzzy feeling you get after you've killed a million boars and are holding the Sword of a Thousand Truths. However, if you don't mind, could we go over a few dos and don'ts?Here's what you should do: Do ask nicely if I have time to join your group. Do look to see if I'm using the LFG tool. If I'm not, I probably don't want to group. Do offer me at least 100 gold to run you through the Stockades. The two gold you're putting forth does not make up for the time it's going to take me to run you through. Do talk in English or some other real language. I'll even accept Klingon. Leet speak is not a language. Do ask if everyone is ready before MDing the boss to me. Do use Omen or KTM. Do use something more than auto-attack. Here's what you should NOT do:
MMOGology: Group dynamics
Leading a group in a dungeon instance can often feel like herding cats, especially if you're playing with a pick-up-group (PUG). Unlike a guild group you don't have the luxury of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the other players. PUGs also tend to have more members with less experience running the instance. Many instances I've run in World of Warcraft have involved at least one of the following situations: The huntard claims he must be the official puller and then won't shed the aggro to let the main tank do his job. The healer blows all his mana on the soft targets that shouldn't have aggro. The priest or warlock freaks out and fears off the mobs who flee to their comrades in waiting, join forces, and eat the reckless noobs stumbling through their dungeon. No matter how good a player you are personally, you can't save a group from the four other morons that make up your party. Maybe once or twice you'll get off a group saving heal, or manage to get the aggro back onto yourself if you're a tank. Nine times out of ten, though, when the same craziness happens on the next pull, it's a wipe. So imagine my surprise when I joined up a with a group of total noobs to run the Blackrock Depths instance in WoW, and managed to finish most of my quests and take down nearly all the bosses with only one wipe. This was a group of extremely inexperienced players. Besides myself, only one other person there had even run the instance before. Because we were both on alts that hadn't seen this content in a long time, neither of us really remembered the details. So how can a group succeed when it doesn't have experience? How could this be possible when I'd run the same instance with veterans and higher level characters with less success?
The ins and outs of PuGs
So, you have your consumables, you've donned your good gear, and you've got two hours until you need to log. Why aren't you in Shadow Labs? Sure, there was that hunter who said he'd go but then his mom called. Your friend said maybe, if they decide not to do their guild's Kara run tonight. A Mage joined your group, and left wordlessly after two minutes. The joys of the PuG begin even before you've effectively made a "pick-up group". There has been speculation about the difficulties of even acquiring a PuG, let alone working in one to the successful completion of a dungeon or 5-man quest. There are several guides to leading your PuG to victory, but sometimes, I think we'd all settle for engaging in one that doesn't turn into an all-out brawl. To this effect, Kestrel recently posted Ten Commandments for Casual Groups, in which the ten most important rules for working as a team with unknown players, and leaving the experience feeling - dare we hope - pleasant, are explored. The ten rules are not only basic etiquette, but also the ones that are quite commonly broken, and end up causing the most chaos. For the experienced player, these rules are nothing new, although a good brush-up is therapeutic (that's right, "Ninjabobfive", even Kestrel thinks you need to L2P!) It also makes a great gift for the n00b nearest you! I would also like to draw attention to Ratshag's comment; most players are willing to forgive even the biggest blunder causing the longest corpse-run in history, as long as the player who transgressed fesses up immediately.
Officers' Quarters: Reinforcements
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.According to the latest additions to the patch 2.3 notes, obtaining all the available bag slots for your guild bank will cost you exactly 16,111 gold. So it's no wonder people are concerned about recruiting these days (though in fairness I received the e-mail below prior to any guild bank info going public). But seriously, somebody has to cough up all that cash . . .Hi! I have read through your officer's quarters blog since day one and have enjoyed a lot of helpful information from each episode. I know you have touched on guild recruitment in the past, but I think it was a more direct response to a, in my opinion, small demographic of Wow guilds. I am the recruitment officer for a guild (shameless plug incoming: <Malleum Majorem> Lightning's Blade server -- www.malleum.com) and we are working VERY hard to get our second Kara group running in order to get into 25-man content. The biggest problem we are having is getting people to join. I think every guild, aside from the huge "everybody knows they are the best" guilds, has this same issue. We work hard to get people into the guild that share the same goals and philosophies. I have been broadcasting in the recruitment channel for weeks and it seems I get 1-2 people a week who ask questions. We consistently do all of Kara (except Illhoof and Nightbane, still earning those) every week. Do you have any fresh ideas or inner thoughts that can help me and my fellow recruiters around Azeroth get the numbers needed for progression? Thanks eternally :)-Evean<Malleum Majorem>
WoW Moviewatch: Can't PuG KZ
Apparently you can't PuG Karazhan -- which is to say you can't successfully raid "KZ" with a Pick-Up-Group of random players -- but that doesn't stop Nyhm, who, in the spirit of Weird Al, brings us another of his own lip-synced machinima music videos about World of Warcraft-related acronyms (his first one was OP). He's picked up quite a bit of notoriety since his first music video, and he even has a commercial in this one. He also uncovers the mystery of the secret origin of the draenei.Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
Forum post of the day: 500 ways to help your PUG win
I know -- you don't like PUGs. I don't like them either. But sometimes your guildmates and friends just aren't online and this is the only time you have to do an instance run. So sometimes, PUGs are a necessary evil. And while this thread hasn't quite made it to 500 suggestions (or even close) and it has the same trolls as every other thread, there's some good advice to be found there. The most insightful hint may come from Tseric, however, who recommends:Clearly define targeting and kill order/progression. It can turn any rag tag band into a functional unit!All I've got to say is functional units ftw.
LFM ZG PST
Sometimes, bored players suggest crazy things. Yesterday's madness was a random pick-up-group expedition to Zul'Gurub; twenty bored players venturing into (mostly) uncharted territory for kicks and giggles. I joined simply to see what on earth this group would be capable of, in one of those "well, why not?" moments. The problem with such a group is its very nature -- advertised on the LFG channel, it contained many players who had never been in Zul'Gurub (or even a 20-man raid) before, and who were generally unprepared. No soul shards, reagents, potions or bandages; these brave adventurers had but the (low-durability) clothes on their backs.
Late Breakfast Topic: PUG-ing in WoW
I'm sure we've all played in PUGs - that's "pick up groups," for the uninitiated - before. When attacking dungeons or battlegrounds, you'll always end up grouped with people you don't know. For me, the type of group I end up in makes all the difference between enjoying and not enjoying the game. Unfortunately, though, bad pick up groups seem much more common than good - but even then, they're a necessary evil that you may just have to tolerate until you manage to complete whatever mutual objective brought you together in the first place. So what do you do when you encounter an obstacle that you can't get past on your own? Hit the local looking for group channel for a PUG? Wait until you can get a group of friends together? Or just wait until you're high enough level to do it on your own?
