These days it seems like MMORPG players are so against any kind of failure that it shocks me. If a group wipes once everyone splits angrily and you’re left wondering what happened. Raids that don’t go “fast enough” or “far enough” are touted as extreme failures and everyone starts looking for other options. At one point did MMORPGs switch from games where failure was not usual but did happen to games where any failure what so ever is considered completely unacceptable? Is this a product of MMORPGs or the player base? How do we learn to deal with failure if we simply refuse to ever face it?
I come from the first generation of MMORPG raiders. I’ve long since learned that to learn to do any dungeon or raid you will die repeatedly over and over again. Things will go wrong, people will make mistakes, and you will die. This is actually something I don’t mind. As long as we’re learning and getting closer to killing a mob I’m glad to die over and over again. The major problem I have is that doing this makes it impossible to bring a “non-guildy” or new recruit who hasn’t yet bought into the culture of the guild to learning experiences. As a guild leader that can be extremely frustrating and I thought it would make a handy tip!
The next time you’re in a group and it isn’t going perfectly consider that everyone hasn’t learned every encounter. They also haven’t earned all the gear that is necessary yet. These things take time and at some point someone is going to have to practice!
(Sorry the tip is late. I’m on travel again and we’re pretty busy!)
All characters are © 2007 - 2012
Good tip, particularly the implication that people should be more willing to work with ignorant players (not jerks, not willfully stupid, just unknowing).
I also want to point out that this is one of the things that can make PvP so hard for some; if a player thinks of death as a “failure,” they’re going to very quickly become extremely frustrated with PvP. That was my problem at first, but once I had a few people explain to me that I was being stupid (and rightly so), then I learned to like PvP a little more. You will die if you PvP. There are no exceptions. It will happen, so roll with it, rez, and enjoy.
I can see why it makes things hard to work with non-guildies but I don’t see why it should be a problem with new guild members.
So far (fortunately) it hasn’t come up in Rift, the people in my guild are extraordinarily stubborn. (Spent most of last night wiping on the first boss in AP – it was actually me and the other very experienced Experts runner who suggested giving up and our newer folks who insisted we keep trying).
But I don’t think I’d be very tolerant of someone who unilaterally decided to give up early on in a raid. I did see this in WoW, one wipe and someone “had to get up early tomorrow”. I think I’d be inclined to gkick. Simply because raiding as an activity doesn’t work if your guild has people who feel they only need to come to farm content.