DDO seems too serious now.

[balagorn]

Strang title, but hear me out. I'm more or less a casual DDo Player ,I've been playing online since the game was launched practically, and was a PnP player for many ,many years before that. Playing the online game was always fun and I always hit the log out button with a smile on face.

Last year I kinda took a break from DDo, life got busy and i didn't really have time to get online every night and play. After things settled down i decided to get back to the action.

When i returned i was struck immeditly on how difficult it was to get a good party together. People either didn't want to group with me because i didn't want to every quest on super Hard Epic elite or because I am kinda of a noob to alot of the changes in the DDO world, Some party members would get down right nasty about things.I've even been denied joining a party and I was like ***? I take all comers because this is supposed to be fun and everyone should have a chance to have fun(whatever your level,blah,blah). I am slowly began NOT likeing to group with others and have started spending all kinds of money on hierlings(which is a waste) because they can't even help you in many situations.

Last night was the ultimate slap down for me. I formed the party to have fun(like Pnp was,like old DDo used to be) and my party allowed me to get stranded in a part of the dungeon and never came back for me! I pleaded for some to go and open the door so I could pass and help them out, and well nobody did. I would never do that to anyone and i thought it was straight up bogus. Then they all died at the very end, I suspect because they were short handed..lol

So I'm kinda wondering Since when did players here get so competitive and demanding of other players? How come this doesn't seem fun to me anymore? Is it a standard practice to just say "screw you Newb" Like what happened to me last night?

It's all about Favor now. And running through dungeons 7 times as hard as you can possibly stand(which the whole party seems to die before the quest is through 90% of the time)which is no fun to me.

Hmmmmm...don't mean to seem overly critical ,but the atmospere just seems to have changed for me.

[hobgoblins]

It could have to do with the time of day you are playing.
Night is filled with more adult minded people, so at night
people are more friendly and social.

Children play in the day and ,imho , many have not learned or care
that human beings are on the other end of the internet connection.

[Quetzacoala]

Children play in the day and ,imho , many have not learned or care
that human beings are on the other end of the internet connection.

True... but there are just as many adults who are the same way. Do not try to pin it all on us

[Phemt81]

Sorry you are experiencing this. You didn't find your old friends/guildies now that you are back?

The point is, that doing quests at elite gives you through 150% xp bonus. This way levelling is much faster and thus... fun for most players.

For the favor thing, well, i guess that's for the crisis and lack of money to spend in a game, maybe.

Mind if i ask your server? What level was your toon?

[Bacab]

It could have to do with the time of day you are playing.
Night is filled with more adult minded people, so at night
people are more friendly and social.

Children play in the day and ,imho , many have not learned or care
that human beings are on the other end of the internet connection.

Also a LOT of Australians play at night. They seem pretty laid back to me.

I work graveyard shift at a Hospital, so on my days off...I tend to play at night with Australians.

PLUS their accents are awesome on voice chat.

[MsEricka]

Or you could look at it another way.

They did all the work and let you pike so you could catch up on reading the forums til the quest was done.

[Vint]

OP I do understand you situation, but many including myself have ran WW a million times, and just want to zerg to get the xp and move on. This is fun to me. It changes from person to person, but I would recommend getting into a guild of like minded people.

A couple of years ago I would tell you to put up an LFM with the "way you want the group to go" in the comment section, but here of late it is apparent that people can't read LFM's. There are good pugs out there, but it just takes that one toolbox that wants to have fun his way and ruins it for the party.

[Phoenix-daBard]

Yeah pugs are bad these days. Just put something like "just for fun, no zerg, all welcome" in your LFMs. Basically the only kind I will hit.

[Kadran]

I ran into the same problem when I returned to ddo after my break. Most of my guild has left the game and have not returned. Most of my best ddo friends no longer play. I'm forced to use pugs a lot. Sometimes they are great, and everything goes smooth. But for every smooth run there is at least 1 ugly one.

The ugly ones come in many forms. Poor players unable to complete a quest/challenge. Rude people harassing others. Arrogant people that have to link their uber gear and tell you how much of a newb you are. Etc.

Since my ddo play time has been dramatically cut back due to real life, I have stopped playing all but 1 character (graype). This way, I will have all the best gear devoted to one toon. I will have recognition in pugs, as people will continually see me on the same character. I spent some time at cap collecting twink gear, named items, raid loot, etc.

Now I only play graype, and continually tr him. I'm on my 4th life right now at level 12, and throw up lfms the "old way." I take the first 5 that want to come along because i'm confident in my skill, build, and gear that even w/ a sub-optimal group we will succeed and everyone should enjoy themselves.

If you're on ghallanda, look for me on graype. I'll be glad to group with you and go any speed you'd like. I'd even play another character if you're lower or higher level than I am. Good luck in your questing and I hope you find a way to enjoy the game again.

[Oakianus]

I definitely agree with Phoenix - putting something in your LFM that makes it obvious what you're looking for should help quite a lot.

The bravery bonus has definitely got a lot of people running at-level Elite quests, which does lead to a lot of people being kind of jerks and then getting in over their head, neither of which is a particularly good thing.

That said, I don't think that DDO is nearly as srs biz as all that, and you seem to have just had a bad streak of luck. There are some elitist types who would let you rot down there, but I know that myself and a lot of my friends in the game are not those folks. Unless you've been a specific burden on the party and done stupid things that will get us all killed, I'll never leave someone behind.

[issiana]

Also a LOT of Australians play at night. They seem pretty laid back to me.

I work graveyard shift at a Hospital, so on my days off...I tend to play at night with Australians.

PLUS their accents are awesome on voice chat.

Oh.. OK... i'll bite....... and it'll hurt, but I can take it.. just hope my Aussie neighbours can take the jib... cause i know i can take it back



Laid back isn't quite correct...

You do realize that Australia is a jail colony of Great Britain, and as such is filled to the brim with all sorts of undesirables... so it stands to reason that the OP actually ran with said convict colonists from Australia as that is the only way to explain such harsh inhumane treatment of another human.

Now being as i live in the enlightened country of New Zealand, which is unlucky enough to be Australia's neighbor, I'm well versed to said convicts antics. in fact we are so enlightened that we have taken to shipping our deadbeats over there along with Britain.

After all one of our old Prime Minister's, Sir Robert Muldoon, said it perfectly "New Zealanders leaving New Zealand for Australia raise the IQ of both countries"















*disclaimer*......... its trans tasman jib's - something Aussie's and Kiwi's having being doing for decades - nothing personnel so take the humour and return in kind

[Oakianus]

It's so cute that Australia has a Canada, too. :P

[Arnhelm]

I've seen a lot of this too, since the Elite/Hard streak changes. Sad to see so many people wanting to get xp in lieu of having fun. Just my opinion...

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Personally, I must admit that I never entered a PUG so far because of this "eliticist" behaviour.

I still feel like a newbie here (and I most definitively am to MMOs), and I always fear that I might be doing something wrong.

"Having fun" would be the way I'd prefer, personally.

So now I'm soloing everything, because I can't decide whether I'd really fit into any PUG [level 8 Ranger, level 4 Wizard].

Besides, is there any tutorial on how to create a PUG for those who would want to do it for the first time ?

[DogMania]

Oh.. OK... i'll bite....... and it'll hurt, but I can take it.. just hope my Aussie neighbours can take the jib... cause i know i can take it back



Laid back isn't quite correct...

You do realize that Australia is a jail colony of Great Britain,

Correction WAS

[Galeria]

The thing about pugs is that anyone is invited. And anyone shows up.

Kids, grown men who think belching in the microphone is h-y-s-t-e-r-i-c-a-l, people who get lost constantly, people who leave the mic open with a sniffly nose, people who insist on stopping to pick up every collectible and people who race for the end to see how fast they can run it.

It's part of being a massively multiplayer game. Massive amounts of people, most of whom are not playing your way.

The thing is, it's up to you to find people who play the same way you do. It's not up to the game to enforce casual roleplaying anymore than it's up to the game to require everyone to zerg elite.

Guilds, friends lists... it takes time to build up a decent roster of people who play like you. Expecting it to "just happen" isn't really realistic, you know?

Just today I've seen several "Role playing" LFMs up and a few "no zergs". Start with those.

I think one of the biggest changes is True Reincarnation, though. Lots of people now want to zoom through "this life" as fast as possible to get the past life and move on to the next. Going slow and helping people out is a waste of time when you have to get to 20 again, fast.

[balagorn]

Everyone made good points. Funny I can't pike, I need to be in the thick of it or isn't playing D&D to me. I think maybe I haven't been specific enough about who I want in my group ,and i will definitly change that. I also think that ..yeah i am probably starting to play with more serious players because I'm getting into the higher levels now...I'm level 9. I'm just hopeing I hook up with some friends soon, I hate playing with jerks.
Someone asked what server I'm on....Kyber.

Also too kinda interesting, seems average wait time to fill a group seems to be about 20-30 mins for me, it used to take like 10 minutes, and we were in the dungeon. Seems now half the time I get to play this game a night is spent, waiting for my group to fill. Anyone else experienceing this?

Edit: What's a pug?

I love to solo dungeons to tho...I will actually stop to ACTUALLY soak up the scenery. I've flown through dungeons before with a group and ya know what I couldn't go back solo and actually know where i was going or what i was doing. Kinda sad really.

[MeliCat]

It's so cute that Australia has a Canada, too. :P

Yes yes we do.

I've seen a lot of this too, since the Elite/Hard streak changes. Sad to see so many people wanting to get xp in lieu of having fun. Just my opinion...

And I think this is possibly the core of it.

And the longer DDO goes on, the bigger the separation between the casual/new and those are potential SRS BSNS players. Solutions? Well being friendly and fun but cheerful in your lfm could help as suggested to set the expectations. Maybe you just lucked out with a bunch of jerks (sounds like it in this case), but maybe people are becoming more impatient with >4mill xp to get. Your case of being a more casual player is not unusual. There must be more done to help newer and more casual players.

[sebastianosmith]

You do realize that Australia is a jail colony of Great Britain, and as such is filled to the brim with all sorts of undesirables... so it stands to reason that the OP actually ran with said convict colonists from Australia as that is the only way to explain such harsh inhumane treatment of another human.

Now being as i live in the enlightened country of New Zealand, which is unlucky enough to be Australia's neighbor, I'm well versed to said convicts antics. in fact we are so enlightened that we have taken to shipping our deadbeats over there along with Britain.

After all one of our old Prime Minister's, Sir Robert Muldoon, said it perfectly "New Zealanders leaving New Zealand for Australia raise the IQ of both countries"

Oh, you Kiwis! Ever since Mr. Jackson made the rest of the world notice you're a country you've all been insufferable.

Sorry about the earthquake last year (anniversary coming up). Christchurch is a nice place.

Pour me a shandy, ya Wally! (How do you people drink that swill?)

[Phoenix-daBard]

Also too kinda interesting, seems average wait time to fill a group seems to be about 20-30 mins for me, it used to take like 10 minutes, and we were in the dungeon. Seems now half the time I get to play this game a night is spent, waiting for my group to fill. Anyone else experienceing this?

Add "IP" or "shortmanning" to your LFM and enter the quest as soon as you are ready. There is no need to wait for a full group.

Edit: What's a pug?

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