Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Just a sec...

When I put myself into the LFG channel, this means that within five minutes or so (just a quick trip to the vendor, and I'll even hearthstone to one if I'm not near a town), I will be ready for summons. Most of the other folks I've encountered seem to have very different philosophies. Unless I'm a mid-instance replacement or the 5th addition to the group, I'd say that 9 times out of 10 I'm one of the poor saps standing there by the summoning stone, scowling at one or more of the following comments, usually beginning "Just a sec..."

1) "I just leveled so I want to go train first."

Ok, this is really annoying. Although training seems like a speedy thing to the person doing it, that 15-20 minutes during which you deliberate on which talent tree to put your gold into is like forever to those people standing there waiting for you. Sometimes I wonder if I'm waiting for the person to train in every profession they have, check their auctions, and reorganize their bank space before they are ready to be summoned. Times slips by when you're actually doing something in the game (boy, does it ever), but to those waiting for you, it's much longer than a "sec."

2) "I just need to turn in this quest first."

Once I was standing by the summoning stone at RFK with my group, waiting for the last guy to "just turn in this one quest," and we watched him fly over our heads, back and forth, at least three times, between Thousand Needles and wherever he was turning in his quests. I'm sure it was one of those Fed Ex chain quests where you rack up some experience just by delivering letters back and forth. We kept asking him if he was ready for summoning, and he kept saying, "lol almost." Dude, we are not lol-ing. In fact, it took us so long to get this group going, that partway through the instance, someone had to leave and so we had to go back out and get a fifth. When we ran out to summon him, this Fed Ex guy said, "hey I leveled, do you mind if I go train real quick?" The leader of the group said, "NO," to my relief, but then said, "jk sure go ahead." "Please, no," I said. "Let's continue." Not kidding!

3) "Just need to finish this quest and I'll be right there."

I know how it is. You're sure that next murloc you kill is going to drop that last eye the witch doctor asked you to collect for him. You've spent the last hour killing them, so just one more... one more... ok, the next one... I'm so close... certainly the next one will... no, just one more... (do none of these have eyes?) I've stayed up hours past my bedtime to finish a collection quest like this, and it always takes longer than you think it will. Plus, you're never done when you collect the last item because your reward is to go turn it in. Just stop before you even type that sentence. It's not going to be quick.

4) "I need to fly around and pick up all the quests first."

Ha! I don't think so.

5) "Can I just finish this BG first?"

I'm not kidding, someone actually asked if they could finish running the battleground they were in, and the leader of our group said it was fine. We did the usual ritual by the summoning stone while we waited... buffing, rebuffing, dancing, telling jokes, clucking like chickens, falling asleep, etc, while we watched this person's health drop all the way to nothing and then spike up again as they were healed. We saw them die a few times, get their body, repeat... arrrrgh. I can't even believe we waited for this person.

It takes so long to finally get a group in the first place, and then all the time wasting. Gah!

So, why do I wait for any of these people? *Sigh* I really like running instances, and it takes us sooo long to get that fifth person, that I may as well wait 15 more minutes because it could be another hour or more before the next group of five is gathered, and then another round of "Just a sec..."

Some of this time wasting may be over soon, thanks to my guild. I was a little slow to take advantage of our guild website for organizing instance runs, but some of the newer folks have been more assertive, so I'm starting to join their groups. I imagine some of the level 70 folks that have started playing their alts might join us in these runs as well. I'm really looking forward to it!

I won't stop pugging anytime soon though (despite all the complaining). In fact, stay tuned for info about a companion blog, coming soon...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My pet peeve is when everyone expects a summon, and your the only one who heads over standing there waiting for a summon.

Yeck. That annoys me.

Sometimes at the lower levels i've found on my pally that it can take AGES finding people. So often once you get that 5 man, everyone just accepts people are in a BG, or people have to finish a quest.
Sadly I know people that join BG's while they are waiting for a group just so they can rackup some honour instend of standing around.

I personally am usually at the summoning stone within 5 minutes of an invite. Thats not waiting for a summon. Thats AT the stone.
I have water, I have 100% durability, I have all my gear I need.

Nothing worse than "Can i go get arrows plz", "Can I have some water plz", "OMG my armours red".

Don't worry Ess. At 70 there are a lot more organized people, and so many that if someone mucks you around you just boot em.

In my news lately - my pallys pretty much become my main, and i've been pugging hard to, living with all the fun things you have!

What level are your characters now?

Bunnyfer said...

OK, why would you put yourself in LFG, then go to the battlegrounds. I was looking for people last night, and 4 of the ppl in LFG were in various BG's. So they did not get extended an invite.

Anonymous said...

I think some people feel that its acceptable to do so.

When I join LFG I usually quest while im waiting for a group. No point standing around.

That said when the group is formed, I'm at the stone within 5 minutes.