I do tank PUGs. Gosh, why? Badges. I'm not that heavily geared (mixed Kara/badge gear, with some blues) and I could definitely go with saving badges for 2.4. My guild is small, I'm not on a large server, and I only recently hit 70. I feel like I need to PUG to continue to gear up and to learn.
With that said, I've had some utterly terrible experiences in PUGs. Frankly, I think it's a bit of an odd dynamic. How many times in life do you volunteer to bear the brunt of carrying 4 random people through a two hour excursion without pay?
I've tanked good PUGs. Frankly, it doesn't really bother me if a player breaks crowd control or if I'm nearing them on the damage charts. What really irritates me is that in seemingly one out of three PUGs I join, there will be one person that lacks common civility. And, due to the nature of the job, will always turn aggressive on a healer or a tank.
Just yesterday I dropped out of a Heroic Shadow Lab group after killing the first boss because some Shadow Priest started stringing off four letter expletives at me. Why? Because I pulled when he was at 50% mana. That was on top of all sorts of insults about not doing my job right by incorrectly pulling. Up until that point, we hadn't even come close to wiping; in fact, nobody had even died.
A few days ago I get the opportunity to tank Heroic Shattered Halls for a PUG. As a warrior, I consider that place a real learning ground for how to play my class, so I jumped on the opportunity. Successfully get to the first boss and down him (without wiping once! I only did it because of the great cc), and then two of the people in the PUG tell me they're done because they only needed to kill the first boss for Nightbane attunement, and 'oh, by the way will you take us through Sethekk Halls too?'
I bring up these anecdotes (few among many others I'm sure we could all relate) to highlight my larger experience: in very many pugs not only have I run into subpar players (doesn't bother me that much), but I run into lots and lots of rude people. In real life I've done charity work for crack addicts and felons, and they will treat a person to their face better than some of the people you pick up in PUGs.
So why do I put up with this crap? Oh yeah, badges. At the heroic level, since there are nearly no tank drops (suneater still won't drop for me), badges are the ONLY incentive. 4 badges for an hour to two hours of dealing with idiots. Yeah, I can definitely understand why there is an 'apparent' tank shortage for PUGs.
Tanks rely upon teamwork. They rely upon other people. If you can't trust those other people, then there's no way to establish proper team function. So why bother?
The problem is beyond sci-fi or fantasy scene. Regardless of genre, 75% of video games are bad. 20% are decent to play once to completion and maybe play a few months in a MMO setting. Maybe something in the game individually resonates with you and you are one of the few that continue to play even after your friends have quit, but most people do quit after a while, moving for better game experiences.
The last 5% of games is the real pleasure. You play once, enjoy it, and come back for more. They vault past your expectations and show us what we should have been expecting this entire time. These games are few. Regardless of genre.
Making an MMO game is difficult. I recently started a new character in Warcraft a few months ago and it took 11 days of in game play time to reach level 67 (you can check this by typing /played, in case you're curious).
11 days. The Lord of the Rings films are together 11 hours or so. All of Star Wars is 15 hours or so. And I'm not yet level 70 and have experienced none of the end game content.
To create more than 11 days worth of interactive content that will satisfy millions of people must be an extremely difficult task. Most creative content, whether it be movies, books, music, or video games, just isn't good enough to satisfy most people for very long.
Thankfully for all of us gamers, Blizzard was able to nail a 5% game in World of Warcraft and show to all game developers and corporate directors that there is a huge amount of money to be made from this product.
Is it just me, or is it strange that there is no motion? Everybody is just standing around swinging at each other. No repositioning, no switching targets, no spreading forces to watch for AoE damage...how is this going to work again?
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Where are the warriors?
Mar 7th 2008 2:25PM (WoW)With that said, I've had some utterly terrible experiences in PUGs. Frankly, I think it's a bit of an odd dynamic. How many times in life do you volunteer to bear the brunt of carrying 4 random people through a two hour excursion without pay?
I've tanked good PUGs. Frankly, it doesn't really bother me if a player breaks crowd control or if I'm nearing them on the damage charts. What really irritates me is that in seemingly one out of three PUGs I join, there will be one person that lacks common civility. And, due to the nature of the job, will always turn aggressive on a healer or a tank.
Just yesterday I dropped out of a Heroic Shadow Lab group after killing the first boss because some Shadow Priest started stringing off four letter expletives at me. Why? Because I pulled when he was at 50% mana. That was on top of all sorts of insults about not doing my job right by incorrectly pulling. Up until that point, we hadn't even come close to wiping; in fact, nobody had even died.
A few days ago I get the opportunity to tank Heroic Shattered Halls for a PUG. As a warrior, I consider that place a real learning ground for how to play my class, so I jumped on the opportunity. Successfully get to the first boss and down him (without wiping once! I only did it because of the great cc), and then two of the people in the PUG tell me they're done because they only needed to kill the first boss for Nightbane attunement, and 'oh, by the way will you take us through Sethekk Halls too?'
I bring up these anecdotes (few among many others I'm sure we could all relate) to highlight my larger experience: in very many pugs not only have I run into subpar players (doesn't bother me that much), but I run into lots and lots of rude people. In real life I've done charity work for crack addicts and felons, and they will treat a person to their face better than some of the people you pick up in PUGs.
So why do I put up with this crap? Oh yeah, badges. At the heroic level, since there are nearly no tank drops (suneater still won't drop for me), badges are the ONLY incentive. 4 badges for an hour to two hours of dealing with idiots. Yeah, I can definitely understand why there is an 'apparent' tank shortage for PUGs.
Tanks rely upon teamwork. They rely upon other people. If you can't trust those other people, then there's no way to establish proper team function. So why bother?
Building a better MMOusetrap: The age old debate
Feb 5th 2008 3:05PM (Massively)The problem is beyond sci-fi or fantasy scene. Regardless of genre, 75% of video games are bad. 20% are decent to play once to completion and maybe play a few months in a MMO setting. Maybe something in the game individually resonates with you and you are one of the few that continue to play even after your friends have quit, but most people do quit after a while, moving for better game experiences.
The last 5% of games is the real pleasure. You play once, enjoy it, and come back for more. They vault past your expectations and show us what we should have been expecting this entire time. These games are few. Regardless of genre.
Making an MMO game is difficult. I recently started a new character in Warcraft a few months ago and it took 11 days of in game play time to reach level 67 (you can check this by typing /played, in case you're curious).
11 days. The Lord of the Rings films are together 11 hours or so. All of Star Wars is 15 hours or so. And I'm not yet level 70 and have experienced none of the end game content.
To create more than 11 days worth of interactive content that will satisfy millions of people must be an extremely difficult task. Most creative content, whether it be movies, books, music, or video games, just isn't good enough to satisfy most people for very long.
Thankfully for all of us gamers, Blizzard was able to nail a 5% game in World of Warcraft and show to all game developers and corporate directors that there is a huge amount of money to be made from this product.
Warhammer Online's January video of the month contains RvR greatness
Feb 5th 2008 2:20PM (Massively)Funny post about Apple and Slashdot
Aug 18th 2005 10:36PM (TUAW.com)