This game has serious free-rider problems and it's getting worse. A suggestion.

[Awha]

What about people who think they get to be the arbiter for perfect strangers on when they are ready/willing to play outside their comfort zone? If you like to test your limits, that's fine. You don't get to decide for anyone else.

Isn't that life though expecting one to conform to the overall group?

[Nethereal]

What about people who think they get to be the arbiter for perfect strangers on when they are ready/willing to play outside their comfort zone? If you like to test your limits, that's fine. You don't get to decide for anyone else.

I'm fine with that if you communicate that to me or the group.
What I'm not fine with are other strangers making assumptions and speaking on behalf of said stranger when they're right there perfectly able to communicate and they have either said nothing, stayed the same way they were, or shifted in a certain direction in terms of gameplay.

Especially ones that hold it against you the entire time you're there, like one simple question has somehow ruined the entire run.
A simple "No." or "K" would do me just fine but you don't get to get all uppity and upset on someone's behalf because of a simple question like, "Can you pull bigger?" "Do you mind If I give you advice {t}?"
People like the above are honestly why I don't bother communicating with pugs unless absolutely necessary.

[TaleraRistain]

I'm fine with that if you communicate that to me or the group.
What I'm not fine with are other strangers making assumptions and speaking on behalf of said stranger when they're right there perfectly able to communicate and they have either said nothing, stayed the same way they were, or shifted in a certain direction in terms of gameplay.

Especially ones that hold it against you the entire time you're there, like one simple question has somehow ruined the entire run.
A simple "No." or "K" would do me just fine but you don't get to get all uppity and upset on someone's behalf because of a simple question like, "Can you pull bigger?" "Do you mind If I give you advice {t}?"
People like the above are honestly why I don't bother communicating with pugs unless absolutely necessary.

Why do you think random mooks you let the game match you with owe you an explanation for not doing something you want?

[Nethereal]

Why do you think random mooks you let the game match you with owe you an explanation for not doing something you want?

My bad for expecting basic respect or any form of communication outside of social cues provided by emotes in content we mutually agreed to do together via queue.
Simply taking the extra few seconds to type "No." or "No thank you." or "K." or "Nah fam." are obviously too radical for our times.
I'll retreat back to my bunker now where I keep all the tinfoil and all the canned food. Sorry.

[KageTokage]

Honestly, I'm just happy if a player is making use of their entire kit available to them at their current level.

I've run into a lot of people who are content to basically never use any of their OGCD actions at all even at level 80.

[Jijifli]

Why do you think random mooks you let the game match you with owe you an explanation for not doing something you want?

Square's prohibited activities state you can't just go afk in a fight for no reason.

If you're doing that, which is what this post originally even directed at, you're literally breaking ToS. It's not what I want I think here, that's literally what Square told you to do lol.

[Vahlnir]

Square's prohibited activities state you can't just go afk in a fight for no reason.

If you're doing that, which is what this post originally even directed at, you're literally breaking ToS. It's not what I want I think here, that's literally what Square told you to do lol.

As far as this sort of thing goes it is very, very difficult to prove intent. If I have to get up and take care of something in the middle of a boss fight or some other type of content it's for a reason. Sometimes I have the time to say "brb", sometimes I don't. The group is free to kick me if they want, but I accept that as a potential consequence. When you gotta go, you gotta go. It's really that simple. They could think I'm trolling, and that is a fair assumption. I wouldn't blame them. It's the internet. There's trolls everywhere. But without proof of why someone seemingly got up and walked out it's very difficult to prove to a GM unless the guilty party specifically states their intent. I'm not defending these sort of people, mind you. Just saying it's a bit more complicated than some may realize.

[Wavaryen]

My bad for expecting basic respect or any form of communication outside of social cues provided by emotes in content we mutually agreed to do together via queue.
Simply taking the extra few seconds to type "No." or "No thank you." or "K." or "Nah fam." are obviously too radical for our times.
I'll retreat back to my bunker now where I keep all the tinfoil and all the canned food. Sorry.

But I don't see it is as respect thing? You join a pug group. Nothing in the rules says people have to give up privacy. If the group is not up to your standards. You can leave and get another one. Nothing needs to be said, heck I've done it before, and even wished them good luck. and let them know that I just did not have time to finish and for that I'm sorry. I don't expect people to be the same as me, but I do it because it is my normal. The people in the pug group are not your friends. Just strangers using each other to progress for the day. Nothing more. As I said before. Just because others play the game, you don't got to be mindful or care. All you got to do is follow the rules of the game. In a pug settings nothing about the rules says that I got to meet the other players standards, or say anything to them.

[Jijifli]

As far as this sort of thing goes it is very, very difficult to prove intent. If I have to get up and take care of something in the middle of a boss fight or some other type of content it's for a reason. Sometimes I have the time to say "brb", sometimes I don't. The group is free to kick me if they want, but I accept that as a potential consequence. When you gotta go, you gotta go. It's really that simple. They could think I'm trolling, and that is a fair assumption. I wouldn't blame them. It's the internet. There's trolls everywhere. But without proof of why someone seemingly got up and walked out it's very difficult to prove to a GM unless the guilty party specifically states their intent. I'm not defending these sort of people, mind you. Just saying it's a bit more complicated than some may realize.

Generally, if it's an actual situation, there's 2 factors that, to me, are helping to show that.

The first, is you aren't doing it repeatedly. Of course you probably could have done it in the one we did together, but if that's actually the only situation, then no report will ever argue any weight. You'd have to be doing it repeatedly for any chance of that, and I'm sure GM's (if I had to give any hope) are capable of checking that kind of factor, at least purely off of report counts.

The second, and I really need to stress this, there are ways of stating your intent without "stating" it, aka without a chat message. If we zone in, and the second something is pulled you run into the wall and kill yourself, then refuse any raises, I don't think there's much need of admitting it in chat, because the action itself admitted it. There's a difference between someone clearly just stopping anything entirely, which could easily be someone having an emergency, and someone (like that guy in e12 I had) who actively goes out of his way to put himself out of the fight.

But, yes, intent is sometimes hard to tell.

[BaconBits]

The only advice I give to sproot healers is that cure 1/benefic 1/physick ARE the emergency heals and should only be used if everything has gone to hell in a hand basket and they have no other options left. Teaching them to actively utilize their ogcds and instant casts, watching them steadily let a tank's health drop before hitting them with a well timed ogcd heal, seeing a healer go from being too afraid to run into an enemy horde to burning everyone's retinas with holy spam or vigorously slapping the ground. That's the kind of stuff I live for.

As for other players doing whacky stuff like maintaining 200% uptime on Succor/Medica 2/Aspected Helios while also putting single target regens on everyone in the party, or a monk spamming bootshine on the boss's flank, I just deem em a lost cause. Especially if they're level 60 and up. It's like, the higher level someone is, the more confident they are that they're doing everything right when in actuality... It's best just to not engage those types and hope to God you don't encounter them in PF.