State of the game

This isn't a rant as much as just a small report on a conversation I got to witness while Bounty Hunting in Metropolis yesterday.

Now as the conversation went on I realized that the majority of the participants were in their teens and fairly new to the game so keep all that in mind.

On to the conversation:

A player came on shout and posted "I am going to try defeating CC one more time and see what I get" that started things off and after 1 or 2 more posts it became clear that our "hero" was trying to get himself a Captain Cold hood and was defeating Captain Cold (from the Rogue Bounty list) to try and obtain it.

Now here's where it gets really interesting.. So several of us, myself included, try to explain that he is attacking the WRONG version of Capt Cold and needs to head over to Stryker's Island and run the alert. it quickly becomes apparent that not one of these guys has a clue where Stryker's Island is or how to access an ALERT.

Now once again let me STRESS we are talking mostly teenagers still in High School or possibly early college years. Now I realize not everyone is a computer genius but these days what teenagers does not possess at least basic computer skills.. I mean come on they are PLAYING a gaming console/computer game. I am 61 years old and retired from the military.. Back when I was in High School there was no such thing as a computer class while my daughters were taking classes on computers in Kindergarten.

All that said.. it took ME exactly 1-2 minutes after I logged out of the game to pull up google, type in Captain Cold Hood and find a 4 minute long video on U Tube that showed exactly where, how and who to defeat to get the hood. So they not only don't know how to play the game they are not even interested enough to spend FIVE minutes? to research something about it?

Oh and while I can not confirm it because I didn't bother to ask.. The guy trying desperately to get that HOOD was attacking and defeating a CR 76 Rogue solo so can we assume he probably used his FREE upgrade to Cr100 to get strong enough to be soling a Rogue and still have no clue how to even read a map of Metropolis?

LOL god help us when they all hit end game

Hahahaha...so spot on!!
My thoughts exactly - it is just sad how things have become lately

For all you know they could have been 6-7years old, you're assuming their age.

Honestly people like that have been around since I started back in 2014, and likely before that as well. I was in troll role until I was level 40'sh without any troll gear or troll abilities, I was told by other players to get out of troll role because I wasn't a troll. It wasn't really even something I was thinking about until that point, I was just having fun playing the game and I'd be willing to bet many others fit that same bill as well.

Players have to actually want to learn in order to be at least decent at the game and get a good idea of where this is or that is, how to use this or that, etc, etc.

Also, consider trolls, people messing others not controllers. Many times I have seen people ask questions only to get strait up wrong answers by others, either because they are trolling them or just think that is the case. Many players likely take that information at face value and use it thinking it is the way this or that should be done.

Unfortunately/fortunately it falls to those of us that don't mind helping with what we can to help make those players that are currently uninformed and or inexperienced in the game, be better informed and better experienced.

It's a minefield to try to help, as well.

You could get the standard "You can't tell me what to do, #@&*%$", or the "hey thanks for you help - I did not know that."

TBH I am more hesitant than ever to even ask anymore.

I remember a time when the "state of the game"-threads had OPs spreading over the first two or three posts and were just a part of a series of "state of the game"-threads. Even the forum's gotten worse nowadays.

However, the state of the game can be defined way shorter even.

1) "Welcome to your new favourite online casino."

and

2) "I'm Jack Emmert and your perception is wrong!"

Well During the course of their "discussions" at least two mentioned being age 17 and 19 .. Now were they telling the truth or just trying to SOUND more mature to the one female involved in the exchange? I have no clue but we can assume they were young and allow me to relate a story from my personal life that REALLY made me feel old...

My Ex wife and I both worked for the military and i arrived at home one day and found an 8 X11 piece of paper with a detailed break down of how to use Word Access to create databases and construct reports. I turned to her and asked if she could print me off a copy so i could have it as a reference at work since we'd just recently picked up access and this would be a great help.

THAT'S when i was informed "I didn't bring that home from work. That's your daughter's home work." The daughter in question was in 5th grade at the time LOL No where near even a teen and already taking classes on stuff daddy had just barely seen at WORK.

Oh and considering the flirting going on with the girl... I'd say AT least the guys were a BIT older than 7 LOL

Awesome!

To those saying it's probably just a kid. My 10 year old knows where to farm the flash boots and do so. He remakes alts all the time.

Exactly .. He's closing in of 20 now but when My brother used to visit with my nephew.... I'd turn the boy lose on my lap top to fix anything wrong with it. I was in my 50s He was about 12? These days they all start learning about computers in kindergarten and they all KNOW more about them than we do GOD I FEEL OLD NOW lol

Yup, which is why I tend to stick to helping those that are actually reaching out for help. Those players that quickly take an aggressive tone over asking them question about their performance, I rarely go out of my way to continue that conversation with them as they likely don't really care to learn how to play the game properly anyway.

yeah the big thing is they actually have to want to listen to you and learn and that gets rarer all the time. Like I said three of us spoke up and told the guy he needed to do the Stryker's Alert and one even went into detail about the hood dropping during the second boss battle against the rogues (including Capt Cold) . They were not even listening to us and by the time I was done in Metropolis, IRONICALLY having just defeated Captain Cold, one of them said I think you need to do some t3 alert.. Hey at least they had the tier right.

Yeah, members in my league like to jump right into kicking someone from the group if they're not following mechanics or performing their roles, but lately, I've been pretty brutal with them. Now, they don't kick people when I'm in the group until they've tried to communicate with the person. Sometimes it just takes telling a player something to improve the game for everyone haha

lol i know exactly what you are talking about, i had a cr 100 come to me begging for an aura i had on and i told him " i have it collected as part of my styles so i can't give it to you", he thought i was refusing to give it to him so i tried explaining gain.. he still didn't get it and called me selfish lol, i sure hope these new players put in some effort to at least put the time to research how to perform tasks the right way and learn how they work in the game.

That's actually close to prejudice. Yes, they grow up with all the tech toys being normal, but also just the ones interested in things working actually care about the how. Many of them do not care at all, neither hardware nor software nor security-wise, and considering how important google and facebook are for US industries nowadays, it's a bless for the moneymakers that those kids do not care about data security and collection of personal data or permanent surveillance at all.

To put that in your time: remember opening your grandpa's old clock and tearing it apart gear by gear to get a glimpse at time or how time works or at least how that clock works? No? Maybe the kid next door did. Point is: when depicting the 50ies/60ies and even 70ies, those kids opening clocks were often used as stereotypes of the "curious" and "interested" kid. Some kids at that time really took apart clocks; many did not. Same principle. Good thing your nephew is/was among the interested ones

Oh man , they already have and I can assure you that as a support role player it's tragic and awful to behold.

I see.

I think there's just stupid people in every age bracket, I think most people are generally quite competent it's just you take note when you see the "exceptionally stupid"

He probably wanted the hood so he can wear that same style that all of the ps people wear who duel in the middle of the WT. The CC hood with the spiked hair clipping through it with the gadgeteer chest and legs with pouches on the sides and lastly the logistic officer variant boots I must see at minimum 10 people a day with that exact style. And god help us is right. Fortunately i dont think i will be around when these people hit end game.

Trust me my MAIN is a CR 189 DPS/ CR 188 Troll and more often that not i am trolling the raids.. I am aware they are already there

Well I wasn't trying to be prejudice against anyone and TRUST me I am 100% sure we have a lot of older players that have no clue what is going on either. But the point was they ARE in game. Now one would think they'd have at least a mild curiosity about how the game worked and let's face it there are 80 and 90 year old folks out there that know how to use google these days.

Hey I've been playing Super Hero games for years and way back when I was still on City of Heroes there was a 12 year old in my Super Group (COH version of a league) that was better than almost anyone else in the group at playing the game. But see SHE liked the game, took an interest and learned how to play it and play it well. What we are seeing more and more of in this game these days are a group of players that want/expect to be carried from tier to tier and really don't even bother to learn anything. And let's make things even clearer. City Of Heroes didn't have the huge pile of U tube videos available for a player to learn the game. COH didn't even have an official WIKI page... it had one the players themselves created and that 12 year old i mentioned learned the game by sitting at a computer and READING articles on her roles not watching a 10 minute video.

So its not a question of being curious enough to learn how to use a computer.. i the game is the clock in this scenario and we have players that don't even care how it ticks.

I stopped asking if any wanted help and now I just tell them, " You should visit the Forums, there are some great guides there that will improve your knowledge of your power-set."

Personally I would still like to see some content where those of us who are game vets can be paired with players willing to learn from us. Something where they can't pass a certain level until they pass our content "forcing" players to learn will never happen but give something those who willingly queue into can learn from would benefit this community.

Yeah I know, I read the posts in my thread about it, some of you are still part of this problem.