Thursday, January 5, 2012

Realms in Randoms

Anyone that has had a great deal of experience with the LFD and LFR will surely have come to some conclusions about certain realms.  All those conclusions are not exactly representative of the realms themselves, it is just the luck, or lack thereof, of who you run into from those realms.

In my experience I have only ran into one realm I would classify as horrible.  Not just in the players ability that come from it but the players themselves.  I tend to forget about bad players, it happens, but bad people, those I remember.

I've only put four people on ignore while using the LFD/LFR system.  While I might complain about some people I meet in randoms I usually would not even waste the 2.3 seconds it might take to add them to ignore because I know I will never run into them again anyway.

The four people that have actually got me to the point where I did ignore them all happened to come from the same server.  Coilfang, US.  How is it even remotely possible that in a random world with millions of players where I rarely if ever see the same person twice that the only four people that have pushed me to the point where wasting that 2.3 seconds to put them on ignore became actually worthwhile are from the same server?

The people were put on ignore not because they where bad players.  Not even because they where rude players, I've seen 100s of those and never ignored any of them.  They where put on ignore because they were completely and totally disruptive.  They seemed to be in the dungeons for the sole purpose of griefing other people.

I can deal with a lot of things I do not like.  DPS pulling 3K.  Healers that have never healed before meaning lots of wipes.  Tanks with aggro issues.  All these things I can deal with.  Everyone has to learn and I am not a complete jerk about it.  I let them learn.  So the dungeon will take an extra 10 or 15 minutes.  No big deal.  So I have a repair bill, it is not like I've never died before.

I can even deal with the jerks that think they are gods gift to the game.  The ones that are better then you no matter what.  They always say I am x/x heroic on my main so I know what I am talking about and then start to insult everyone in the group.  They always have an alt that is the class you are playing and can play your class ten thousand times better then you ever can. 

These people do not bother me as much as they do some.  I see it for what it truly is.  They have serious self esteem problems and this makes them feel better.  I feel sorry for people that have to brag how great they are to people they don't know and will never see again.  I also never believe a word they say because I know a few top class players and they would never talk like that.  From my experience running into top of the game players in randoms added to the few I know I can say without a shadow of a doubt, most actually good players are decent people and they do not rub it in other random peoples faces.

So what makes me ignore four people.  They are not bad, they are not braggarts, they are not new and learning, they are not serial DCers, they are not any of the normal stuff you might hear people complain about.  They are the true dregs of the warcraft community.  The people that play the game for the sole purpose of making the life of everyone around them as miserable as possible. 

Is it just a coincidence that they all came from Coilfang or is that server really that bad?  Being I do not have any characters on that server I can not say anything from actual experience but I can speak from what I have seen in randoms and in randoms there is no other server that I have ever seen with such horrible people.  Not players, people.

We all come to some conclusions about servers based on the people we meet in randoms.  We are all probably completely wrong being it is just the luck of the draw and maybe you have some bad luck but that does not change the fact you create some preconceptions about servers because of those people.

Some things I have noticed, again, only from the people I have ran into.  Nothing I say actually means it is true about the servers, it just means it is true about the people I ran into from those servers.

Coilfang -  If you ever thought it was impossible to wish personal injury upon a person because of a game, run with people from coilfang.  It is the only server in all of wow that can turn a normally relaxed person into someone that would want to reach through the screen and strangle someone to death.

Gnomeregan -  While you might dread guild groups you should be happy if you get a guild group from here.  People from Gnomeregan have been the best guild group people I have ever met in game.  Most guild groups are hit or miss but I've ended up in many Gnomeregan guild groups that needed one fill in and they where all extremely pleasant.  While not always great players they all seem to be great people and I will gladly run with great people all day long.

Alterac Mountains - Talking about hit or miss, this server is it.  Some of the best players I have ever randomed with came from here.  Some of the worst players I have ever randomed with came from here.  One would with think that with so many good players they would rub off on the bad players a bit but that just does not seem to be the way.  People from AM are never decent, average, or good players.  They are either great, or they suck, there is no in between.

Doomhammer - Seems to be a server that is decent all around.  It is rare I ever run into a bad player from there if ever. I can't really recall one.  It is also rare I ever run into an exceptional player from there.  They seem to be a pretty well rounded decent server from the representatives I have seen.  If anything it is a testament to the server that they even come to mind when I've never seen anyone stand out good or bad in either way.

Icecrown - Perhaps all us hunters should thank Frostheim over at Warcraft Hunters Union for making hunters look good.  Every hunter I have ever run into from there seems to have a least a working grasp of their class, no huntards running around there.  Sadly it can not be said for any other class from that server.  Every time I have had a non hunter from icecrown in a random group they are usually someone I would like to forget.

Mal'Ganis - Have you ever met someone that you could only describe as having their head up their ass?  Well, if the people in randoms are any indicator that would mean that person probably plays there.  All the ones I have run into are the best players in the game.  Just ask them, they will tell you.  They seem to be people that are quick to insult anyone else because they are so great of course.  When it comes to social skills, this servers representatives are really lacking.

Thrall -  What Icecrown is to hunters it seems Thrall is to melee DPS.  Not sure who is to thank for that one but if you see someone from Thrall in your random and they are melee get ready to be rocked.  While I can understand the icecrown reasoning because of frostheim I can not understand this.  BTW, melee goes along with tanking.  Thrall tanks seem to be fantastic.  Sad thing the same can't be said for their healers or ranged DPS.

That is basically all I have that popped into mind at the moment.  If your server is one of the ones I mentioned please do not be offended or prideful based on what I said about it.  My sampling is only a very small sampling and is in no way an indicator of the actual server or people on it.

When it comes to my very own server...  I think I would rather group with people from coilfang sometimes.

Maybe I should check out the good people of Gnomeregan and start a character there.

3 comments:

  1. Weird, I thought battlegroups were a thing of the past, but I have never grouped with people from any of those servers.

    On our side of things it seems that every time we end up with a jerk it is someone from Sargeras... I simply ignore people that start to grief others or kick and have not kept track mentally if they all belonged to the same server.

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  2. I presume the system works the same as in Europe, which is basically it first tries to Group you with people from your own server, then with people from your Battlegroup and then finally with the Region.

    I can imagine this to be less obvious in the US as it is in Europe, as with PvP it means you will end up fighting other language servers (ie 'English' Realms vs German Realms, vs. French Realms etc. You never fight with people from those Realms in the same team, however).

    As for Realms havign a certain 'flavor' : as far as end-game PvE is concerned, many consider Hakkar-EU and Crushridge-EU (both sporting loads of Italians) to be pretty much 'Jersey Shore in WoW'.

    While they certainly tend to be talkative, I never noticed them to be significantly worse than other Realms as far as PvP is concerned

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  3. It first struck me as odd that players from certain relms behave in a certain way, but I suppose it makes sense from a social grouping perspective. Perople in differant cities behave slightly differant from each other, even if they're from the same country - country to country the differance is even greater of course. We're all still human, by and large we all get up, kiss the wife goodbye and go to work of a day, yet what is concidered polite and acceptable in Brazil certainly wouldnt in Japan. A sociologist -which I am far from being - could write up a lovley report on WoW relm behaviour patterns and being the geek that I am, I might enjoy reading it.

    I hear on some relms bidding on drops is the norm - thankfully I've not run into that personally, some griefing is every day and on most, thank the maker they are polite and normal. I play Anachronos EU, I'd love to hear it if anyone has an opinion on my server :)

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