Grouping vs soloing
Jul. 29th, 2007 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alpharaposaI was remembering some of my experiences in Philmont, prompted by a thoughtful post by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
collinsmom.
One of the things you run into when playing MMORPGs are the people who solo a lot. They play by themselves, and they get used to it. Then, you get together for a dungeon/instance/raid or a group quest and they continue to act like they do when they're by themselves. And it doesn't work. The group falls apart or wipes or whatever, and people feel bad about it, and solemnly swear off pick-up groups for the rest of their lives.
Funny thing is, this happens in real life, too.
When you go backpacking in the mountains, it's important to remember that the goal isn't to get to the next place on the map. It's to get everybody to the next place on the map. There are lots of people out there who, for various reason, have a solo mentality. They do a lot of things on their own. Some of them go backpacking on their own. Some of them are just independent types. They have habits ingrained in them from all that time spent doing it by themselves, for themselves. It's not necessarily the wrong way to act- when you're by yourself. But when they get in a group, bad things happen. In order to successfully accomplish the big goal, you have to change what you do and how you do it. You have to adjust for the fact that you're in a group. If you can do that, then the whole group succeeds, and you all go home with nifty new stuff and good feelings. If you can't, then even if you manage to muddle through and succeed, there's bad feelings all around.
Of course, grouping in MMORPGS is something that doesn't take up too much time. Even if you're having a bad day, it's only for a few hours at worst. At the end, you turn off the computer and go about your business. But working with a group in real life is different. If you go backpacking in the mountains, you're talking about more than a week of practicing a different set of skills and attitudes than normal. It's hard. Even for people who do it a lot, you still get grumpy and have problems crop up. (Usually on the third day. Third day's the worst.)
That doesn't mean it isn't worth it. And it doesn't mean it's okay to take out your frustrations on the rest of the group. You're still a group. Until you all make it out of the wilderness, you're stuck with each other. The journey isn't over until everybody makes it back home.
And, if you manage to have a good group, where everybody figures out how to do the 'group' thing right, it'll be one of the best experiences you have. It'll be fun, even with the frustrations and setbacks, and it'll be a lot easier than it would have been alone.
collinsmom.One of the things you run into when playing MMORPGs are the people who solo a lot. They play by themselves, and they get used to it. Then, you get together for a dungeon/instance/raid or a group quest and they continue to act like they do when they're by themselves. And it doesn't work. The group falls apart or wipes or whatever, and people feel bad about it, and solemnly swear off pick-up groups for the rest of their lives.
Funny thing is, this happens in real life, too.
When you go backpacking in the mountains, it's important to remember that the goal isn't to get to the next place on the map. It's to get everybody to the next place on the map. There are lots of people out there who, for various reason, have a solo mentality. They do a lot of things on their own. Some of them go backpacking on their own. Some of them are just independent types. They have habits ingrained in them from all that time spent doing it by themselves, for themselves. It's not necessarily the wrong way to act- when you're by yourself. But when they get in a group, bad things happen. In order to successfully accomplish the big goal, you have to change what you do and how you do it. You have to adjust for the fact that you're in a group. If you can do that, then the whole group succeeds, and you all go home with nifty new stuff and good feelings. If you can't, then even if you manage to muddle through and succeed, there's bad feelings all around.
Of course, grouping in MMORPGS is something that doesn't take up too much time. Even if you're having a bad day, it's only for a few hours at worst. At the end, you turn off the computer and go about your business. But working with a group in real life is different. If you go backpacking in the mountains, you're talking about more than a week of practicing a different set of skills and attitudes than normal. It's hard. Even for people who do it a lot, you still get grumpy and have problems crop up. (Usually on the third day. Third day's the worst.)
That doesn't mean it isn't worth it. And it doesn't mean it's okay to take out your frustrations on the rest of the group. You're still a group. Until you all make it out of the wilderness, you're stuck with each other. The journey isn't over until everybody makes it back home.
And, if you manage to have a good group, where everybody figures out how to do the 'group' thing right, it'll be one of the best experiences you have. It'll be fun, even with the frustrations and setbacks, and it'll be a lot easier than it would have been alone.
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-30 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-30 05:24 pm (UTC)Solo-types always want to run ahead whenever they're ready. In MMORPGs, they'll pull monsters and start killing them without waiting to make sure the healer has mana, or go click on a quest object without making sure that everybody's ready for the event it starts. In backpacking, these people charge up the trail, leaving the rest of the group behind. This is dangerous behavior, and means that one part of the group can get injured or lost without the other part. It also causes bad feelings as slower people struggle to keep up, while the faster ones resent having to slow down and stick together.
Communication is another essential. Groups for one quest (so everybody can loot the guy instead of waiting for a respawn) isn't that big a deal, but in longer groups and in backpacking, you need to have a designated leader and everybody needs to know what's being accomplished. This is true when trying to finish quests in an instance that require a boss people sometimes skip, and this is true when figuring out which camp you're going to go to tonight and which supper you're going to eat tonight.
For WoW specifically, I recommend Ten Ton Hammer's grouping guide (http://wow.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=500) for some food for thought. It doesn't detail everything, but it gives you the basics.
I ! wanna go back! to Philmont!
Date: 2007-07-31 01:43 am (UTC)