Growing more frustrated with social games by the day
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contingencyplan
Posts: 3,639 Member
For a long, long time now, I have been primarily playing games that revolve around some sort of online social or competitive component. MMO and FPS, mainly. It's fun on the rare occasion when things don't turn into a big mess, but mostly it just serves to remind me why I would rather not associate with human beings in person to begin with. I've always been the type of player who takes the game too seriously to be able to enjoy playing with people who aren't intelligent, competent players who understand their role in a group, but at the same time not seriously enough to want to join an established clan/guild and all the negatives that come with that. I guess this is why I've always tried to get into games that are very complex with a steep learning curve, hoping it would attract a more mature playerbase so I can PUG without wanting to pull my hair out. Seems like no such game anymore, though.
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This is why I don't play MMOs. Ever. I'm not dedicated enough to be able to keep up with more seasoned players, because I just don't have the time to devote to playing. And I typically don't like people anyway, and it seems like for me, playing online just brings that lovely element of social anxiety into gaming. I don't need that mess.0
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I had a ♥/hate relationship with FFXI back in the day. This was before they nerfed many things, allowing people to level/skill up, albiet slowly, without the need of a party and the level 75 cap was removed. The first 10 levels, sure you can solo your EXP but after that you were forced to co-exsist and cooperate with others to gain exp, accomplish missons, quests etc. etc.
Players reputations became important. People would avoid partying with loot *kitten* and the unskilled. Word would spread around the server to avoid "Player A" . Also the bad players could not just hop to another server since it was not possible at the time. This however was also a bad thing in many ways. Depending on the time of the day and week, healer type jobs were scarce. Other players would put up with crappy players if no other healer jobs of the appropiate level range were available.
It also allowed for a closer server community. Linkshells, which is what guilds in FFXI are called, sometimes would help one another, but usually it was just a free for all. lol. I stopped as well. As impyimpyaj mentioned, I don't have the time to devote playing. I don't mind the *kitten*, they are in all games. My number 1 reason for playing was the social aspect. Teamwork, accomplishing things in party, that sorta thing. I could care less about getting virtual loot. It all requires time that I prefer spending at the gym. I miss MMO's but my health is more important.
Oh and as for FPS. I play them occasionally but I suck at them. :laugh:0 -
Part of this I have to agree with. People are too quick to point out what someone is doing wrong in a nasty way rather than in an educated way. I think as long as someone is really trying, people should be given the benefit of the doubt as long as they are not stealing loot. I've often used PUGs to help level toons therefore don't need loot. I'm just in there for the XP. The worst is when you get cranky people in there that start being all ugly over everything. I can't count the number of times I've left a pug because of bad attitudes from other people. Most of the time it's not even directed at me, I just don't like bad attitudes. It's a game, it should be for fun.0
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I've had some bad experiences with PUGs on WoW - too numerous to count but mostly stemming for elitist or just downright nasty attitudes. I have yet to Co-op on console - I'm sure they're no better.0
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I play Guild Wars 2 now. There are other people playing it, but the way it's designed that part of game is super transparent to me, I rarely even look down at the chat window. I like that I can play it by myself, sometimes people hop in and fight with me, but as soon as whatever event is going on is over, they head off on their way and I don't have to deal with them.0
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I'm like lacroyx, I like the teamwork aspect of social games a lot. And we pug all the time, its usually fine honestly. I suspect that means we're the nasty elitists, but since we can carry a bad pug through pretty much anything right now we generally don't care unless you cause a wipe. (and you know, if you're bad, but you ask to join our hard mode raiding guild, we reserve the right to tell you you aren't good enough to raid with us and that really shouldn't be a problem.)
As far as guild drama goes, we don't have any anymore. We keep our guild small, only people we personally know or have play experience with get invited, and everyone is told right up front that a main raid spot is a privilege and not a right, but that there's a more casual alt raid available for them. It works out fine for us, because we basically picked up a core of players we'd played with a lot and popped them into a little guild, then let them bring in people they knew wouldn't cause issues (and they are responsible for keeping their invites in line).
But apparently my experience is unusual, it seems like other people have more social issues in social games.0 -
Yes this was EverQuest and I for 10 years lol0
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I only play WOW, and I used to let pugs stress me out, but now I just try to have fun. Certainly, I've run dungeons with some rude people, but such is the way of the world (or internet at least). I'm not super hardcore, though, and I don't run dungeons with pugs unless I am just going along for the ride rather than trying to get a specific piece of gear.0
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I'm fortunate to belong to a really awesome guild. We aren't hardcore raiders, but everyone knows what they're doing, and we're all very receptive to feedback when learning a new class.
I don't mind pugs too much. If someone is yammering on and on about stupid stuff, I can ignore them. I don't heal pugs anymore, though. That was too stressful. I only heal my guildies.0 -
Aye...completely agreed. As a healer in WoW PUGs, I got sick of the DPS not watching their threat meters (or asking what a threat meter was...srsly?) and then getting pissed off when I couldn't keep them alive. I was accused of being a bad healer because they CONSTANTLY pulled aggro off the tank. Whatever...I have been in the same causal guild now for three great years. I learned my lesson and only heal guildies now too.I'm fortunate to belong to a really awesome guild. We aren't hardcore raiders, but everyone knows what they're doing, and we're all very receptive to feedback when learning a new class.
I don't mind pugs too much. If someone is yammering on and on about stupid stuff, I can ignore them. I don't heal pugs anymore, though. That was too stressful. I only heal my guildies.
As a DPS (my secondary toon), I can run PUGs and keep my mouth shut, after all, I need the JP.0 -
One of my favorite phrases is, "I can heal damage. I can't heal stupid."
Aye...completely agreed. As a healer in WoW PUGs, I got sick of the DPS not watching their threat meters (or asking what a threat meter was...srsly?) and then getting pissed off when I couldn't keep them alive. I was accused of being a bad healer because they CONSTANTLY pulled aggro off the tank. Whatever...I have been in the same causal guild now for three great years. I learned my lesson and only heal guildies now too.I'm fortunate to belong to a really awesome guild. We aren't hardcore raiders, but everyone knows what they're doing, and we're all very receptive to feedback when learning a new class.
I don't mind pugs too much. If someone is yammering on and on about stupid stuff, I can ignore them. I don't heal pugs anymore, though. That was too stressful. I only heal my guildies.
As a DPS (my secondary toon), I can run PUGs and keep my mouth shut, after all, I need the JP.
Tank standing in fire dies: healer's fault
DPS pulling threat dies: healer's fault
Healer with adds swarming them dies: healer's fault0 -
Love it! I am SO stealing that...One of my favorite phrases is, "I can heal damage. I can't heal stupid."0 -
Lately my problem has been Battlefield 3. It's an FPS but unlike most it's heavily team based. In order for your team to not utterly fail people need to coordinate their efforts and stick together. Problem is, without in-game VoIP, you're left to just kind of hope the people on your team are competent enough to be able to assess the situation and see what needs to be done to win the game, and enough of a team player to do it even when it means having to stop padding their stats by running around like a lone wolf looking for easy kills.0
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LOTRO has a surprisingly mature player base. You could try that. Also you could try GW2 which has no real requirement to join with anyone, but due to events etc you always feel like you are with someone.
FPS's though...good luck. Thats all teenagers and swearing.0 -
I love the way GW2 is run - the wordless cooperation is the best of both worlds to me.LOTRO has a surprisingly mature player base. You could try that. Also you could try GW2 which has no real requirement to join with anyone, but due to events etc you always feel like you are with someone.
FPS's though...good luck. Thats all teenagers and swearing.
That said, I very rarely play team-reliant games without friends on Skype. It lends both organization and humor to the game.0 -
Yep! Had a great moment in GW2 yesterday. I was wandering along and saw an npc by the road (by a pack mule). I chatted to them as they had an odd orange symbol over their head and they asked if I could help escort them to the nearest village as they were too scared to go themselves and had been waiting for a sign. I said yes and "New Event" came up on the screen and I suddenly realised I'd triggered it. Within moment, I had a dozen players run to join me and together we ploughed our way through centaurs and various wildlife. It was really good and just something I blundered into on the way to do something else that I was "supposed" to be doing.
Oh and you can join a guild that uses Mumble / teamspeak and get all the in game chatter you want.0 -
For a long, long time now, I have been primarily playing games that revolve around some sort of online social or competitive component. MMO and FPS, mainly. It's fun on the rare occasion when things don't turn into a big mess, but mostly it just serves to remind me why I would rather not associate with human beings in person to begin with. I've always been the type of player who takes the game too seriously to be able to enjoy playing with people who aren't intelligent, competent players who understand their role in a group, but at the same time not seriously enough to want to join an established clan/guild and all the negatives that come with that. I guess this is why I've always tried to get into games that are very complex with a steep learning curve, hoping it would attract a more mature playerbase so I can PUG without wanting to pull my hair out. Seems like no such game anymore, though.
I'm like this to some extent, but I have a high tolerance for honest mistakes made by fellow puggers. I actually pride myself on being able to heal through most of them.
As such, I've picked up MOP because I miss the dungeon finder. It will be fun to try monk healing to level cap. At which point I may do a few easy raids and then head back to GW2 WvW, since grinding constantly and organized guild raids are not my thing either.
What I can't stand is trolls and ninjas and VOIP (I'm incredibly outgoing in written chat and horribly shy when it comes to voice chat!). So I'll never be a 'competitive' raider or pvper in any game. It's sad, since I get team and guild invites all the time when I pvp. I must be doing something right in MMO pvp, but without being willing to constantly use voice chat, I can only go so far.
But I suck at shooters, you can keep those, I'm too old, my reflexes have slowed.0 -
Yep! Had a great moment in GW2 yesterday. I was wandering along and saw an npc by the road (by a pack mule). I chatted to them as they had an odd orange symbol over their head and they asked if I could help escort them to the nearest village as they were too scared to go themselves and had been waiting for a sign. I said yes and "New Event" came up on the screen and I suddenly realised I'd triggered it. Within moment, I had a dozen players run to join me and together we ploughed our way through centaurs and various wildlife. It was really good and just something I blundered into on the way to do something else that I was "supposed" to be doing.
Oh and you can join a guild that uses Mumble / teamspeak and get all the in game chatter you want.
I am in love with GW 2 for this very reason. It's wonderful because you can do your work alone but then the community can come together to kill something. There is no real competition which is what I always find to be what causes bad feelings. I still remember the stress of EQ raiding and having to beat other guilds to the mob when it spawned! I was one of those who cheered when they made Ragefire (cleric epic mob) spawnable!
I am looking for a guild on GW 2 though, but I need one that is super laid back and casual. I don't race my way through the game, I love to play alts, and I don't want pressure to keep up. Most of my experience is from completing zones as I go. I also don't PvP.0 -
I am looking for a guild on GW 2 though, but I need one that is super laid back and casual. I don't race my way through the game, I love to play alts, and I don't want pressure to keep up. Most of my experience is from completing zones as I go. I also don't PvP.
Which server are you on? I've got a pretty laid back guild, but we are on Crystal Desert.
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I am looking for a guild on GW 2 though, but I need one that is super laid back and casual. I don't race my way through the game, I love to play alts, and I don't want pressure to keep up. Most of my experience is from completing zones as I go. I also don't PvP.
Which server are you on? I've got a pretty laid back guild, but we are on Crystal Desert.
I'm on Hedge, which is part of what makes finding a good casual guild difficult. Most of the guilds there are trying for WvW since we are the top server at the moment (we seem to have a good population size at all times of day/night which helps). My friend actually ended up making her own guild due to the same issues so I just joined them.0
