06-01-2011, 11:23 PM
Kaden Wrote:The "lol" was unnecessary. I do apologize for that, but how is "u mad?" less flamebaiting than anything I've said?. Otherwise, though, there aren't any points to address in your post. Either I prove I played WoW to an extent that you're satisfied with or I'm just turning this into something it's not. Since I already made a statement that I have sufficient experience to be able to comment on this topic and you didn't believe it, why should I do so again? Best-case scenario, I waste time restating something I've already stated and, worst-case scenario, you continue to not believe me. Either way, nothing to address there.
Your PUG experience has apparently been radically different than mine. Think grouping with new people who play and act in various different from what you're used to is an integral part of the game.
You've said that you had to PUG or you couldn't be with your guild. Now you have to guild or you can't raid. That's no better. It forces people into doing something that they weren't actually forced to before (no, the argument "but the rest of my guild out-geared me" is not a valid argument to me; that's you choosing to be with a guild that imposes more stringent standards than you can keep up with, not the game making that choice for you).
You can continue to say I'm trying to tear you apart, or flamebait or that I'm just looking foolish, but the fact is that you've been very inconsistent with your own stance. You started with factual statements about how PUGing was an abomination and then back-peddled to just stating your opinion to make it look like I'm being overly-aggressive in my side of the argument.
I have not held a single negative emotion towards you as a person during this conversation, though I know I tend to be overly-blunt and that, in turn, is regularly misconstrued as rudeness. I enjoy talking about game design philosophies and decisions and Blizzard is making a bad one.
I admit the u mad part was not needed, but that's why I put the just kidding right after. I thought it was needed as a joke, although I knew it would detract from the conversation.
The thing is, even if I hate it, you CAN still PUG. If you don't want to join with a guild, you can PUG that very same raid with other people. Hell, most of the time Baradin Hold is run, it is Pugged (or at least a few members). Baradin Hold is equal to the one boss raid from wotlk. It's name escapes me.
Virtually the only thing it made you unable to do was to raid with your guild, then pug the same version of a raid on a lower or higher man difficulty. Which, while we can debate if it's a bad design on Blizzards part, makes complete sense from a business perspective. Bored players = people who move on to play other games. If you can entice people longer with content then they can continue to come out with said content within the same periods as before, with happier players.
My experience with Pugs is mixed. More often then not I don't join them simply because of a fear (a fear that has been proven way to many times), of failure because of a newbie. Now I understand this isn't fair, as we all were new at some point, but when your sitting down for hours to complete content you've done dozens of times before, you want it to be as smooth as possible. However, I will contend I have met some cool people this way, as well.
But I still hold to the fact that it removes a form of server unity that is found in guilds. If you have to do everything with guilds, it makes you want to work that much harder for the guild. It's sort of a hive mind, and it's exciting to see people put all their effort into a guild, instead of just themselves. Pugging is the other way around.