What is a "bad player" to you?

[Arrhin]

Well, this degraded nicely, and as predicted on page 1...

[AxlStream]

Well, this degraded nicely, and as predicted on page 1...

I am a prophet!

[Lilseph]

In my experience, it is always the people who yell elitism and screech the word 'toxic' so often that are terrible players. I just finished my final Tank mount and have done this by doing almost exclusively normal mode SB content (raids). I just expect the basics. But the amount of people who do not even understand the basics of their class, present almost every run. No shirks, no Diversions, terrible DPS, insane amounts of overhealing, there are just so many people in this game, at level 70 and experienced that have such a poor playstyle that it's actually quite sad. For me, a bad player has nothing to do with ridiculous fluff like "being toxic" or "not seeing that this game is for fun". That is a behavioural "issue". A bad player is someone who progressed levels on their class but does not take out the time to hit the striking dummy for a bit, to take 10 minutes to look at a guide video, to not even read tooltips, don't come prepared to raids and generally waste the time of all other people involved. And there are plenty of these people.

I actually agree with this take of what a bad player is. I personally think that it's quite common to mix behavioural issues with one's skill. I've met very nasty players, that would talk others down, they are super narcissistic, but they are very skillful, know the game from A to Z, have all the existing content down. I don't disregard their level of skill because of their attitude. While I wouldn't like to be paired up with these players, it has nothing to do with what a "Bad player" is, imo. As the example I posted earlier, a football player, no matter how cocky he is, if they get wins for their teams, beat goal records and bring trophies home... yeah, they are a good player. If we don't like them as a person, that's a different story.

[AppleJinx]

Oh damn a ffxiv player is really asking this? Someone hasn't been paying attention.

[Kalise]

No i mean the asian domino game that came from domian

Mahjong?

You know that's a real game right? That's existed since 500 BC and has been very popular in Asia since its inception?

[van_arn]

A bad player is someone that doesn't know the absolute basics of their role, doesn't want to know them, doesn't want to be told how to do better, yet queues for content anyway. They're a waste of everyone's time.

There are plenty of ways to be a bad person in addition to the above, but the above is the purest definition of a bad player I can provide.

Good or bad player is separate from good or bad person.

[Seraph522]

I actually agree with this take of what a bad player is. I personally think that it's quite common to mix behavioural issues with one's skill. I've met very nasty players, that would talk others down, they are super narcissistic, but they are very skillful, know the game from A to Z, have all the existing content down. I don't disregard their level of skill because of their attitude. While I wouldn't like to be paired up with these players, it has nothing to do with what a "Bad player" is, imo. As the example I posted earlier, a football player, no matter how cocky he is, if they get wins for their teams, beat goal records and bring trophies home... yeah, they are a good player. If we don't like them as a person, that's a different story.

I think the analogy only partially works, though. That football player will run into issues if their cockiness is dragging the rest of the team down, after all, and really good football players usually are going pro in some form, meaning they won't be paired up with players of wildly varying skill levels like what can happen in this game. Even if a player is highly skilled at this game and does amazing, I'd still consider them a bad player if they actively harass or abuse other players, as that can lead to those players not working with them or leaving the game outright.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Someone who's not respecting their teammates, ignoring mechanics, don't know their class AND - and that's the most important part - is NOT willing to learn and improve themself.

[Selova]

Are you really offend over a opinion?

And idc if they can clear all content in 48 hours with no deaths its disrespectful 2 ff

In series you should respect the series by playing all i literally didn't know what dark souls was till last year and when i found out i did research bought all games.

Y because it is respectful 2 both the series and the old fans...

It's hard to fathom people like this actually exist. You're literally telling people to go through 15 40+ hour single player games because they are somehow disrespecting the franchise. The only this disrespectful here is your assault on the english language.

[Barraind]

I've found theres 4 major sub-types of "bad players". Each has their own reasons for being bad, and some wont stay bad.


The Inexperienced Player

This player isnt well-versed on specific mechanics or intricacies. This could be because they are brand new to the game, brand new to the fight or brand new to the mechanics.

Hell, I've done a few primals once or twice. I would probably look absolutely awful at them until I remember exactly wtf is going on.

This kind can learn, and ends up either graduating out of bad player, or turning into one of the other kinds of bad players.

The Distracted Player

This player has kids that scream. A lot. Or kids that are playing around and get stuck in the dryer. Or they have to chase after the kids to stop spraying febreeze in each others mouths. Or the kids got stuck between the wall and the couch. Or they're stuck in a hamper. Or their house is sick and their dog is on fire.

These are real stories, except that last one, which is also a real story, but for a different reason. This happened in progression raiding in EQ and WoW. I had a ventrilo speech hotkey that asked "Countdown is imminent, are your kids drinking febreeze?".

Kids and progression raiding dont go well together.

Are they good? Maybe when they arent distracted. They can certainly also be not so very good when not distracted. I raided with someone who was fantastic until it was one of those nights he had to watch the kids. He was then auto-benched unless we absolutely needed him, because he was absolutely terrible (and shouldnt have been trying to raid anyway...)


The Purposefully Clueless Player
The Legitimately Bad Player
Theres a lot of overlap between these two, but they differ by mindset.

The Purposefully clueless Player KNOWS when they fuck up. they know when they should be doing something they arent. They know when they arent doing something they should. They just dont care. Its not their problem.


Melding doesnt do anything for me, so I'm not going to bother.

I looked up rotations and i dont like how they work, so im going to hit this combo a lot and you can adjust for my inability to play properly.

You dont pay my sub.



The legitimately bad player doesnt or cant understand. They dont have any idea how to prepare for upcoming abilities, or that a mob with a pull-in followed by a run away or run in closer will require a different action on each of those follow-ups. They cant grasp, no matter how many times you tell them, that they have to esuna debuffs in higher floors of HoH, or look away from eyeballs staring at you (unless they have ?'s sometimes).

A legitimately bad player will do the same content over and over and over and never learn how or why they are failing.

A purposefully clueless player will tell you they dont need to be bothered to learn, because of reasons that make sense only to them.