Worst party experience thus far

[Prince_Myshkin]

I recently hit 50 and went into Castrum Meridianum for my story line quest. The only other experience I have had with an eight man party is with the giant guildhest. So far 4-mans have generally gone well. People communicate and try to coordinate on fights. I have had some rage quits, but that is to be expected when you play a game with a lot of children who can't regulate negative emotions yet.

Today in Castrum was a totally different experience. To begin with, the main tank starts pulling as soon as people arrive in party. He did not wait for buffs or any communication. He then proceeds to pull 2-3 groups of NPCs at the time without marking anything. I ask if we could please mark targets and he then randomly assigns marks to the group. Immediately following this I am told by a DPS in the group to skip the cutscenes and watch them after the dungeon in my inn.

I reply that I really don't want to do that as I am new to the dungeon and actually want to enjoy the game. I am told that I must be a selfish WoW f*cker. This seriously makes no sense to me, because HE is the one who is asking people to not enjoy the story in order that he finishes the dungeon faster. Also, WoW players/dungeon finder PUGs are infamous for not communicating, rushing through the dungeon, being rude, etc. How am I doing that?

We ended up wiping once but clearing the dungeon nonetheless. The main tank was decked in blues that I don't even know where the come from, and his HP was around 2k above mine. Once he realized that I had not done the dungeon before and needed explanations, he explained the fights which was nice (and should be expected). He seemed to know how to play PLD well, but he didn't work with group until asked and his arrogance seemed to get in the way of his performance as he lost aggro on single targets multiple times. He also somehow railed to repair his armor before the fight. At the end of the fight he told us all to remember his name.

This gets at a very peculiar feature of human psychology which unfortunately shows its ugly head regularly in online games: people play games to win, where winning = ending the game. Why do we want to stop playing? It makes no sense. Don't we think games are for the purpose of enjoyment? Does all enjoyment occur when you have completed everything in the game? I really don't want to play with people like this. It ruins my experience. I play to enjoy the experience. I also enjoy accomplishing things in the game, but only if I enjoy the process as well.

This is a strong hint for me to find a good Free Company and play with people who are prosocial, and not these ADD kids on Ritalin that want to drive through content as fast as humanly possible, only to quit the game in a few weeks to move onto the next. I hear some of the community saying to wait a couple weeks until these kids quit and move on (I'm using kids facetiously, I'm sure most of them are in their twenties or older), but I don't think we can bank on that. New immature players will come forth and dominate the community if we don't stop them. Social norms (like ragequiting, being rude, not coordinating, etc.) reinforce themselves the more they are performed. So I suppose that the only solution is for those who actually care about playing in a prosocial community should speak up (and kick these idiots out of the group).

In any case, /endrant. Any thoughts or similar experiences? Is this game doomed to idiocy? Should SE start administering more Ritalin to the player base?

[Prince_Myshkin]

edited to bypass character limit

[Prince_Myshkin]

edited to bypass character limit

[Prince_Myshkin]

edited to bypass character limit

[Prince_Myshkin]

edited to bypass character limit

[LilSmalls]

I have this to look forward to tonight. Any tips on how to tank this fight, or how the fight goes? I'll be a PLD too.

[megaman]

You can edit your original post to get around the 1000 character limit, and fit all of that into the OP. And although I haven't progressed far enough in the story to experience people telling me to skip, no talking, etc. I think you're right and that we should speak up. If you want to watch the story then watch it; you're paying for your subscription fee. Everybody has different play styles which is fine but if its somebody's first time clearing content then the impatient kids can wait for you. You should enjoy the game how you like to play, and not have to be pressured into skipping stuff because someone can't wait 5 minutes for you to watch a cs. And to everyone who says just get a static group if you want to watch cs, I could say the same to you. Get a group of friends if you want to skip the story; I'm paying to enjoy it.

[xbiggixx]

Don't worry most of these kind of people will be gone when the wow patch is out.

[Sygmaelle]

Yesterday I had one of the worst party experience I ever had in years. 4 Ifrit HM groups, all ended up on arguing over pretty much anything, the most laughable one was a guy writtin in CAPS and insultin people because you know, they die at their first attempt.

One of these groups had an insane convo about limit break been resetted or not, and all of them just disbanded after 2 tries.

People in this game, at 50 so far, are plain retards

[Prince_Myshkin]

You can edit your original post to get around the 1000 character limit, and fit all of that into the OP. And although I haven't progressed far enough in the story to experience people telling me to skip, no talking, etc. I think you're right and that we should speak up. If you want to watch the story then watch it; you're paying for your subscription fee. Everybody has different play styles which is fine but if its somebody's first time clearing content then the impatient kids can wait for you. You should enjoy the game how you like to play, and not have to be pressured into skipping stuff because someone can't wait 5 minutes for you to watch a cs. And to everyone who says just get a static group if you want to watch cs, I could say the same to you. Get a group of friends if you want to skip the story; I'm paying to enjoy it.

Well said, and thanks for letting me know how to get past character limit.

I did have a good experience in the Praetorium tonight. We wiped several times on one of the last bosses and everyone was getting frustrated. Finally we made it and only had less than 8 mins on the final boss. We ended up completing it within only a couple minutes left. This was one of the most stressful and fun experiences I've had in an MMO.

We'll see how HM primals are, but if people have to farm them over and over, I'm sure the PUGs won't be all that fun.