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Ask Massively: Emergency soccer practice
Today's Ask Massively question comes to us from a reader named Chris, who has had it up to here with you quitters! Yes, you, guy who just AFKed out of Warsong Gulch! After playing my fifth consecutive round of SMITE with an AFK player, I am fed up. AFKer, quitters, or whatever you want to call them -- they suck. Why is it unreasonable to expect gamers to commit to finishing a simple (even possibly enjoyable) 30-minute activity? Why can't they stay in their seat and just freakin' click some buttons? Leaving doesn't cost the quitter anything, but it certainly sucks for the team you leave short-handed. If this were a little league baseball game, we wouldn't say, "It's just a game, so you go ahead and eat pizza with your buddies instead of playing with us." And why can't game companies find a way to make this problem go away? Reporting systems are just a small step away from absolutely useless! I know that real-world stuff happens. The doorbell rings, the power goes out, or the kids set the kitchen on fire. But AFK rates seem way too high for just that. Gamers seem to conveniently forget what it really means to finish what they started. And if you can't do it for a simple game, how in the hell will you do it when it is something truly hard? Unfortunately, I know this problem well. In my guild, we call it "emergency soccer practice," an actual reason someone once gave us for quitting a dungeon group.
The Daily Grind: What excuse do you use to get out of dungeon runs?
It happens to the best and most well-intentioned of us. There we are, deep in the thick of instanced battle, and we need to go. We have to go. For whatever reason, this dungeon run isn't working out and it's time to bail. Maybe the group is frustrating you 10 ways from Sunday. Maybe you've wiped so many times that it's a foregone conclusion that a victory is never going to happen. Maybe a teammate is irking you and you've broken two fingers from throttling your monitor in frustration. Maybe you're just exhausted and ready for some shuteye. Whatever the situation, what is your go-to excuse to extricate yourself from a dungeon run or raid? Do you tell the honest truth or go for the easy lie? Do you have a ready-made excuse lined up, such as the infamous "Oops electrical storm crashed my computer!"? It's OK -- we've all been there. Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
