Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Walking Manual?

Impossible! A post!

It has been some time since an update has graced the halls of "The MMO Experience", and for that I offer only my sincere apologies and blame Resident Evil 5, work, and my renewed interest in World of Warcraft. Before I get into my topic of the day, which I have spoke about on Twitter a few days past, I'm going to go ahead and give a brief update on myself!

Ahem.

Well, I got my Paladin to level 55, mostly during a sick day from work where I tried to ignore the ravaging virus that plagued me by laying in bed and playing WoW on my wife's laptop. Thanks to a new recruit in the guild I'm in, I hit that requirement to make a Death Knight. Now I've played a Death knight before,(for all of 5 minutes) but I was really interested to have the chance to take my time and explore the overpopulated, overpowered, and overrated class. From what I've read on Deathknight blogs and web pages(Too many to list here, but the foremost in my head is www.skeletonjack.com.), the introduction quests that lead you to 58 are amazing and filled with all kinds of intriguing quests, interesting tidbits of lore, and other such goodies.

Let's start with the fact I love the storyline of Warcraft, though I still believe that MMO's are a poor canvas for a storyline to be expressed. However I was quite impressed with the DeathKnight's introduction quests, and I had a blast doing them. So kudos Blizzard, you proved to this cynical gamer that quests in World of Warcraft do NOT have to be all "kill 5 rabid gorillas with chainsaws".

Now, on to actual post as well as the hopefully lively discussion!

/Casting Resurrection...

The other day, while I was playing World of Warcraft with my wife (who plays a Shadow priest), we decided to go hit up Zul'Farrak. I'm happily going as my level 51 Ret Paladin, knowing full well there isn't much there in terms of gear or exp, but I just wanted to have fun and help my wife level up. So we invited a shaman, a warlock, and another ret paladin for our misadventure.

We go into the instance, all of us talking and having fun, pulling 2-3 groups at once just because we can. However, midway through the instance, the paladin starts complaining. (Not me..the other paladin..)

" God, you're not even prot spec, you shouldn't be tanking, we don't even have a real tank. " He says to the group, even as I pulled 2 groups and he pulled 2, resulting in a close call as I tried to steal aggro from his mobs before they axe'd my wife, who was healing. I laughed, said it didn't really matter at this level, and we went about goofing off.

All of us but the paladin. (not me I said!)

He then went after my shadow priest wife..

" You're a shadow priest?!!!? ROFL! We don't even have a healer or a tank, this group is stupid, there is no way we can do this. Those spells you are using are stupid, they use too much mana!" He says as he pulls all the scarabs while we're killing toward the lizard boss. (The one who summons all the lizards...obviously.)

What was she doing? She was using Holy Nova(I think that's the name, the AOE holy spell Priests have.) on all the scarabs the other paladin pulled. Is it expensive in the mana area? Yes, but thanks to Judgement of the Wise, she and the rest of the group had almost an overabundance of mana.

It doesn't stop there.

He next gazes at the warlock.

" OMFG! You're not using your imp?! Are you retarded? Imp is the best, or succubus, Stop being a noob. "

The warlock was using his Voidwalker, in case the other paladin pulled too many and I needed an emergency backup tank to take some off me or so the warlock told me in a tell in response to that accusation. I responded he could use any pet he wanted and I wouldn't pester him to change. If this was a heroic dungeon or a raid, then I would ask him to use the "best" pet for the situation, however it wasn't..

We were just having fun.

So what did I do? Well I was tired of this paladin ruining the fun of 4 other people (While the shaman didn't get hit with any messages, she made it quite known she hated people like that.), so after the event with Bly, he was booted from the guild and placed on ignore.

What's is wrong in the makeup of the human psyche that some people are forced to try to point out that someone is doing something that isn't the most effective way of "doing things".

Yes, I wasn't a tank spec and someone that is would have been more efficient than the job I performed.

Yes, Holy nova is a very expensive spell and there are other spells more mana friendly.

Yes, A voidwalker is usually a poor choice for a group setting.

Yes, I shouldn't gleefully jump on some one's back in the parking lot and demand they take me to Undercity while out shopping.

But there are "ways" of trying to help people use more effective methods in MMOs. I once grouped with a hunter (I was on my hunter as well.), who asked if I knew how to double trap. I honestly didn't, though the process seems beyond obvious once he explained it to me. He didn't insult my intelligence, or go to mock my "newbie" hat that I was apparently wearing.

Is it an inferiority complex that makes most "assistance" from people come off as insults instead of actual help? Do people just like to swagger in their Elite world of min/max and make sure to always point out to others where their mistakes lie?

That's today's discussion kiddies. What do you think about people trying to explain how to play YOUR class?

9 comments:

  1. I think when someone does that they are trying to compensate for their own low self esteem by (a) showing off their "superior" knowledge of the game and (b) berating others for not having the "leet skills".

    I would have booted him after the second person he went after. :/

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  2. Yeah even as a min maxer myself (that I was back when I played), there were ways to nicely help people out. But if the group 'works' and are having fun (which is the point of playing anyway) then why say anything? I've ran with people like this. The irony is that 90% of the time they are A. wrong entirely with their advice or knowledge of the class they are critiquing in the first place, and/or B. are not doing THEIR job correctly either (and usually worse than the person their picking on!).

    I despise cocksure people like that. I would've as well booted him, or (if the group were somehow willing to put up with him/her) left group. No instance is that important to finish with an asshat.

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  3. Rawr.
    There's not much that bothers me more than a person who can't keep their mouth shut in that sort of a situation. If the group is doing its job (i.e. things are dying that are not group members), who cares? Sometimes half of the fun is in doing something that you "shouldn't" be able to do thanks to group makeup or what have you. The more appropriate statement: "Wow, we don't have a 'real' tank or 'real' healer and we're still kicking this place in the teeth. Good job everyone!"

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  4. It is really amazing how brazen some folks get behind their keyboards. Totally agree with Asara; it can be a ton of fun to do stuff the "wrong" way and get away with it. Sometimes it seems that folks are just pushing through to get to the next thing and along the way miss out on having any fun while they're doing it. I'd like to meet the Blizz guy who came up with /ignore and shake his hand.

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  5. I think one of the best things they did was increase the ignore list capacity. Nothing more annoying than trying to ignore someone and it say your list was full. :(

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  6. I face this problem once in a while on my priedt that i am levelling. I have healed in almost all instaces upto ZF. Its dificult to get some rock heads to understand that at such low lvls where there is a wide range of lvls in the party the specializations are not necessary. I guess these kids are just someone who are on their alt and think that the way to go is to educate everyone about how one shoild play. Else they were doing less dps than the 'tank' , and that gave way to their frustration!

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  7. Just poking to see if our dear writer is of the living :)

    ~DS of diaryofanexwowaddict.com

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  8. I'm thinking not. Hasn't been an update in nearly a month >.<

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  9. Believe it or not I am still breathing. Life has been rather insane o late so I've been rather busy. I'm currently in the midst of training at a new job, writing a book I've been wanting to do for some time, and playing world of warcraft(duh).

    I will make an update soon enough to the page, I've not forgotten about it nor you my readers. I'm actually using a computer at work during my lunch break*I work the late shift*.

    So how am I doing MMO wise? Well I just turned 80, and there shall be a post about that as well as my first experience in Occulus where NO ONE in the group had done the instance before.

    Prepare for that madness sometime this weekend. <3 all of you and I hope you and yours are doing well!

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