Why people are bad at the game, and why they never learn to play it.

[AllenThyl]

It comes off as rather disingenuous when the discussion turns to comparing people who are being AFK to people who are not performing at an optional level. They are not equivalent.

It's only "disingenuous" because you are a raging contrarian. The context of this discussion is the video linked in the OP, which lists behavior like cure1 fishing healers and dps not using aoes in dungeons. But you probably didn't even bother skimming the video, just coming in here to pick some fight however you can for the updoots or something. And yes, these behaviors are equivalent, because they are essentially dismissive of the other people's interest just to get personal rewards. It's like showing up to a double badminton match without a racket and with no intention to move. And while that is a perfectly legal way to play Badminton within the framework of the rules, the other 3 might not see this kind of behavior as conducive to their version of a "fun badminton experience".

However, in a collaborative game, especially in one with random parties, pre-formed parties, and multiple levels of content difficulty, with multiple types of players, all with varied interests- it comes off as vastly overly simplistic to see that there is one single, common tolerated view amongst all players of what is acceptable in all of these situations.

If someone queues for a combat duty, the completion of the combat duty should be their interest in the first place. People who aren't interested in completing the combat duty should not be queuing for said combat duty in the first place. The fact that this kind of behavior is normalized pretty much ONLY within the video game context is completely asinine. It's video game addiction, nothing else. People need help and therapy to get their addiction under control, not being carried through content they don't want to engage with in the first place.

With respect to the people who they are completing it with them - well- they either don't mind doing the slight bit more extra, don't mind if a dungeon takes 2 minutes or 5 minutes more, or want to help them.

And there we have it, the real reason no amount game design will ever improve the skill of people not even doing the bare minimum to pull at least some of their weight: The enabler community. As I said, practically every learning opportunity is either passively or actively wasted.

These topics always infuriate me because it always boils down to, every single time...elitism and the idea that one cannot have their fun in savage, extreme, and ultimate content as long as somewhere out there, some slacker (read, majority of the playerbase) is having fun engaging in content that isn't up to those standards.

All discussion so far has been explicitly framed with regards to people not even doing the bare minimum like using AoE in a dungeon as dps. But hey, good for you to ignore all that and to stick it to those dang elitists! Gotta collect all them updoots or something.