Last night I hit 60 with my Priest, very happy to have the flying skill for her. The lovely road from 1-60 has ended and it was a fun adventure. I've never had the chance to fly over Stormwind and it's a lovely sight to behold. I suppose I could have bought flying for my 62 shaman but I rarely ever play her. Dire is 63 already with the hunter and I have some catching up to do. Our little alts are growing up ;)
One thing I've noticed is, as I crawled closer to 60, is that tanks seemed to get ruder and ruder. Everyone always likes to say how abused tanks and healers are but really everyone has the power to be a jerk or a decent person, even tanks and healers. I can't help but think of pampered babies crying and pitching fits when I see tanks yell at a dps for something silly and threaten to leave a group. Oh noes, not you, the CRAPTASTIC TANK! We couldn't replace such a rude player! I think we'll opt to wait it out instead of putting up with your ego. My mana bar won't miss you one bit and my eyes need a break from all the caps forming bad words.
It's simple to ask someone something nicely before hulking out. You can't go around thinking everyone is a jerk and deserves to be treated like garbage. Last night we had a tank state "I AM LEAVING IF YOU DEATH GRIP ONE MORE TIME", he could have asked nicely, those were his first words to the group. The dps DK was actually a nice fellow- maybe a bit new to the class. He even apologized! The tank didn't consider he was a much bigger jerk: not waiting on me, the healer, to drink and pulling whole rooms at a time, draining my whole mana bar for no reason except to pretend he was some special, awesome tank, ignoring when I needed to drink or requesting to.The jerk left us on a bad pull he caused, thinking we'd wipe but nobody died even when he left the group in the middle of it all. I suppose he got his panties in a wad and chickened out.
Our second tank was just as bad, calling people by class, instead of name, and TALKING IN CAPS BECAUSE HE MUSTA' BEEN SO STRESSED OUT BY OUR GREAT GROUP. Seriously we had a good group for the most part, I WAS IN IT! Maybe he forgot his caps was on, I almost asked him. I feared the caps lock would take it's wrath out on me, lol. This is not in every group but I have noticed it more and more as the levels accumulate.
It's not just tanks that get abused, it's dps and healers as well. When I hear tanks complain about the abuse and the queues I sort of chuckle. I've taken quite a lot of abuse from tanks and dps alike. It's anyone who can act in a way to make the whole experience horrible. If you're so fed up where you must treat everyone in such a way to begin with, perhaps it's you that needs an adjustment and/or a break?
My point is that in WoTLK people were just as rude and tanks were still to be found, healers were still to be found and queues were higher for DPS but not outrageously so. What is wrong now? I think it's the content that is very stressful on groups as a whole. Tanking and healing have had the mechanics changed also and maybe people move on to DPS to have a more relaxing time. Or perhaps the whole guild grouping objective that was aimed for was a success?
Whatever it is I know that everyone in any role has the choice to be a decent person about things and no matter what special role you think you fill there is no reason to treat other people like trash. A little compassion sometimes goes a long ways. There will be days people can't be reasoned with, just make sure you're not that person! I'm not picking on tanks I'm pointing out the player behind the toon! I got a little sidetracked here but I think I projected the thoughts I had in mind. Just remember there is a human being behind those pixels.
-kaozz
What? You mean that all the other PC's in the group aren't just computer generated companions? LOL Grats on 60 btw. I really enjoyed the 1-60 content in wow, but the 61-80 content I could have lived without. Hope you are having more good pugs than bad these days.
ReplyDeleteHehe, I know!
ReplyDeleteThanks, yes the 61-80 content is a bit stale but I am looking forward to hitting the Cataclysm content so I try to keep that in mind!
Most pugs are pretty nice, just had a few that really made me think of how they could have been different if people just tried a little to be nice.
I think the only reason people encounter more rude dps is because that's what you have the most in dungeons and raids. I've ran into my fair share of rude tanks (and the occasional rude healer). I didn't see them as much since I mainly healed in the last two expansions.
ReplyDeleteI believe one of the reasons we're seeing more rude behavior is because people aren't being held accountable for their actions. Blizzard should be doing more, but the community was fairly good at calling out rude players.
Before LFD, if you acted like a jerk, and you would get called out on the realm forums and you would get talked about in your local trade and general chat. It was fairly effective.
Naturally once LFD was available this was a welcome change by those who wanted to act like jerks. Forget about calling people out on the official forums. Blizzard in has removed the ability to call people out on their official forums. If you try that now, your post will get removed when a moderator sees it, and you might get banned.
It's a catch with LFD. People think they can act anonymous but it is still so nice to get a group really easily!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, there is more dps and we see more of them acting rudely because there is just a bigger percentage.
It was a bit easier with forming groups to remember who not to group with but on a server with so many people one tends to lose track sometimes. At one point I had a list of people I would not group with haha.
In EQ we had 'The Shitlist' a server forum with a specific area to post up players who really, well, acted shitty. Nobody wanted on the shitlist and I think it did help, to a point, to keep people in check.
Oh how times have changed!
"It's simple to ask someone something nicely before hulking out."
ReplyDeleteYou, Mrs. Kaozz, have won precisely 1 Awesome this day. For that statement, was awesome ^_^
While I'm not elitist or, uh, what's the term? Entitled! XD I'm not entitled, but I still agree with the musings of the warrior writer on wow.joystiq:
"There are tanks that are constantly upset, and then there are the tanks that have being doing dungeons for less than two weeks."
I can fully feel for any tank, healer, or even dps that is at wit's end from lack of respect of fellow gamers abusing utility skills just for the sake of higher damage. This does not allow the tank or anyone else to hulk out, as you put it so awesomely :D
Over all, I've played every spec. From what I've seen since LFD was brought in with 3.3; people are dumb. Painfully so. There are those who go out of their way to be jerks no matter what, and nothing can change that. Spec or otherwise, the player is rotten, not the class.
The one thing I will say in favor of tanks and healers specifically, is this one post on the matter on mmo champion. A DPS said it was unfair for tanks/healers to get special loot while the dps did not. Only a handful went out of their way to say "but if we get faster queue times, I don't care." Or the even more quip-based "How about you roll a tank and queue for the rest of us? ;)"
Almost all of them whined about it, even though it was that greedy mindset that caused the tank shortage in the first place.
"You queue times are instant. I don't get extra stuff for doing dps. Shut up and tank." (I'm not even paraphrasing.)
And that is precisely why I have such a short fuse in the first place. Because I *know* people out there are jerks, want to be jerks, and can get away with it because of the anonymous nature of LFD.
Back to your hulking out comment, I do make the effort to try and ask. As I left off leveling up a new toon with the Misses, I did have newbies who did not know doing blank at blank was a bad idea. But, when we meet up with a guy who is going out of their way to grief, we can't kick them *all* instantly. Most DPS do not even notice there is a jerk in the group with them unless the guy is super-obnoxious (LIKE MR. CAPSLOCK!)
So then what options do we have? Drop group? That means the group we leave now has to wait for a new tank and healer (good luck on the queue time for that one, guys) because of that one jerk, AND me and Misses got like what, 15-30-60 minute debuff? Because of that *one* jerk who will continue being a jerk after we left group? Only the jerk wins in that case, why are the victims getting punished?
It's either "Shut up and tank" or "shut up, stop playing the game for an hour, then shut up and tank again." Thus you have, let's say 'grumpy' support classes. At that point, any little thing causes them the flare up and burn out like a violent super nova.
"Hey, I got an off-spec so I was gonna need on that plate chest piec--"
[Low, rumbling thunder growing into a crescendo of fury]
"...rrrrrrRRRRRAAAAAAGE!"
So how's that for a puzzle!
-People that are jerks will continue to be jerks.
-That behavior infects everyone around them, as there is little you can do to avoid it once it appears.
-There is no accountability, thus nothing to keep jerks in check.
At that point you have two options. Quit tanking and healing, or carry on. Many, many *have* quit. (Thus the outrageous queue times.) Those that stick around are so battered by this point, that they are like a leaky gas-powered oven. One little moment of friction...
Poof.
(PS. Proud to say out of that whole dealy, the only word spell check tells me I got wrong was "crescendo." Sweet ^_^)