Last night, our paladin/shaman duo was running through The Barrens and as we passed by a Tauren standing on the road, I buffed him. "Wait," he said, and started chasing after us. "Wait up," he said. So, we stopped. "U want 2 do rapor horns." Hm. "And stolen sliver." "get lots xp." My husband responded, kind of pretending he didn't know what quests he was talking about at first, hoping that if the guy thought we were idiots, he wouldn't want to group with us. Turns out that this Tauren was not that discriminating (in addition to being illiterate), so he kept describing the quests to us in his broken chatspeak. We weren't thrilled about the idea of joining up with this guy, but finally relented after a few minutes since we needed the quests anyway. I invited him to the group and started heading toward the quest area. "Folo" he said.
We followed him a bit, but he was meandering so much that husband decided to take the lead instead, since he definitely knew where we were supposed to go. He said that if we went to the bridge and then followed the dry riverbed east, it would take us right to the raptors. The Tauren followed until we got to an area for a different quest, the one where you have to put the feathers in the different colored nests. He ran off the road and started attacking the raptors. "Come" he said over and over. Wrong quest, dude. Then, "help." He was level 13, and the raptor was level 17, I think, and he was getting his ass handed to him in a major way. We helped kill the raptor, but he died anyway. I resurrected him, and told him that this was not the quest we agreed on before, and that neither of us had this quest. "Help" he said, and charged in to get another raptor. Gah.
As my husband helped him with the kill, I nicely explained that this was the last raptor in this spot that we would help him kill. If he cared to join us for the raptor horns and stolen silver in the other area, he could follow, but if he stayed and attacked another one here, we were leaving him behind. Almost immediately, he went after another raptor. I removed him from the group. "Help." "Come help." I don't think so. Good luck. We made our way toward the nearest oasis to kill some centaurs and take care of the seed quest.
He did manage to get away from it, but then something else started attacking him. We disappeared into the oasis, and lost him.
Ok, a few problems...
1) I'm starting to get used to this type of person's inability to spell, but I hate it when people order me around. "Come." I don't think so. I am not a dog. Say "please" and I will be much more receptive. (This was one of the same issues I had with the paladin I described in my previous post.) Even "plz" would show good intent.
2) We agreed to help with specific quests. These quests were orange for us, and he was several levels below us, so I can only imagine they were red for him. What the hell was he doing running off and initiating a totally different quest of an even higher level? I suppose it's possible he just wanted to collect the horns of these raptors, but there'd be plenty more in the other area where the stolen silver was.
3) He told us to follow, and he had no idea where he was going. Maybe this is our fault for feigning cluelessness when he first approached us, but come on...
4) He was not listening. Not that someone in a group with me has to do what I say, but if you disagree, perhaps do so verbally? Acknowledge me? Seems like most problems in pugs would be solved if people spent more time listening to each other. Some of the biggest frustrations I've had in pugs were with my priest, when I needed to stop for mana. "Please wait while I drink -- I'm out of mana," I'd have to repeat myself over and over, as I watched the tank go run into another group of mobs. Very annoying.
5) We are associated with a guild. This isn't a problem, except for in a situation like this where we find ourselves having to hold back quite a bit. I don't think this particular kid would remember our names, much less the name of our guild (nor could he probably spell any of this), but I'm ever conscious of how I am representing my guild when I encounter other players. It means that I don't tell people off when they're being jerky or a pest or whatever. I really want to call people out when they're barking out orders like that though. If we're in the middle of a fight and there's no time for please, then fine, but when you approach me for help in a non-combat situation, politeness will get you further.
All of this probably makes me sound like a cranky old lady. Maybe this is how kids out there in the Barrens interact with each other all day long, and I'm just from a different generation. I think there's still room for pleases and thank-yous in the virtual world; just because we're not sitting face to face doesn't mean we shouldn't show each other some respect.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sit on the front porch with the hose and threaten to spray kids who run through my yard. *creaks her bones* "Please get off my lawn." *squiiiirt*
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6 comments:
I completely understand where you are coming from. I had an almost identical experience in STV. Some bouncy kid wanted me to help him with a quest we both shared. As we were headed to the site, he flagged PvP (I am on a PvE server) and went after some dwarf. "Help me kill this guy.", he says. I told him we were doing the quest or nothing. After he "asked" me again, I disbanded the group.
It MUST be a kid thing.
P.S. I found your blog through BRK.
I have had that happen to me. Only it was to help someone find the weaponsmith in Org. from TB. We fly there, get tothe Weaponsmith and then it is he needs this trainer. we go get that trainer. than it's he needs this...after the third time he said he needed to get to some place in the eastern lands and wanted me to take him there. gave him directions and said that's how you do it. actually said "no you take me" and at that point I said, no you are on your own now. I got a skull on my head for my troubles.
and yeah, found this through brk. like it. now bookmarked.
PLEASE tell me you're on Stormrage so we can group! LOL. Oh wait. If you were in the Barrens, you're a hordie. *sniff* I don't care, my Draenei would group with you any day! Better to help an honorable horde than assist an arrogant alliance. :-)
I'm with you ... I so hate this kind of player. Then again, I'm a cranky old lady too. Most in my guild call me mom. My favorite is, when entering a lowbie zone on your high level, getting DEMANDS for help. Hmmm. Go do your homework, kidlet.
Hey, thanks for the comments!
@frankl
That reminds me of the person in my last entry who made the decision for the group that we would be run through the instance by her level 70 friend rather than actually play through the instance ourselves. Such ego and self-centeredness. If they want to do it, why in the world wouldn't everyone else in the group?
@dag
Ack, that's another type of person that drives me crazy. We had a level 40ish person in our guild for a while who, if she couldn't complete a quest the first time, would always ask for someone to walk her through it. I wondered how in the world she managed to get to that level, except that, again, this must be the new culture. There must be plenty of folks willing to walk other people through entire stages of the game, otherwise, why would they ask such a thing? (In this case, the person was asking for materials that the quest was asking them to farm, and this person wasn't high enough level to farm the items yet. I guess from their point of view, I must be a chump for waiting until I was the correct level for the quest and farming all the items myself.) Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to help people, particularly if I know it's something confusing or hard to find, but if someone's not even trying, forget it.
@Diana Sioux
Hehe, it's nice to meet another "cranky old lady"! I have a Dranei shaman on Stormrage (my sole character there from my days with The Amazon Basin). Should I find myself playing there, I'll definitely look you up!
My horde-side guild has an age requirement -- makes for a very nice environment. The crankiest part of me sometimes wishes there were realms with age requirements, though I'm sure something like that would be very difficult to enforce.
Great article, Ess, and a fun blog! Found you through BRK too. :)
Hmmm...PUGging must be the topic of the week...and a lot of good, varying perspectives.
Couldn't agree more on the spelling. I'm sorry typing isn't taught in high school anymore (at least, that's my guess...), although all three of my sons type faster and better than I do (they're well past high school, too).
I could understand if someone has a disability or something along those lines (we had a dyslexic in our guild for quite awhile--very literate in verbal speech, but not a great communicator typing). Maybe a macro that says "Sorry for my less than perfect typing; it's not something I can help. Hope you understand." and go from there.
Thanks, Kestrel! :)
I agree -- I'd be more tolerant of it if I knew the person had dyslexia, or something similar.
I think many of the blatant spelling errors must be text message slang. Sometimes the line between slang and unintentional error gets hazy, however. When we first started playing, we wondered if "rouge" really was an accepted and totally intended way of spelling "rogue" in the WoW community. Or, is that word so rampantly misspelled that kids, seeing "rouge" over and over, start using that spelling themselves thinking it's correct?
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