Misadventures with Casuals

Gotta love "casuals"......

Last night in Lguk at prime time, I get an invite from a group wanting a dead-side grind in Lguk. I join: Cleric, Wiz, Necro (and myself, Chanter of course). They're at the safe hall, the place is packed.....a new pick opens zero players in it. We pick over, I IVU all of them, and move to AM.

Arch Magus is up, there's a chanter there dying to it trying to solo it. After she dies I engage it, and call for the rest of the group, as there are another few stragglers starting to pick into the camp.

The wizard starts spazzing out about he cant move (stuck in a wall sconce, and too dumb to duck out of it)

The necro is running around near Frenzy, lost, the cleric and I are killing AM with a charmed pet. As AM nears 20% hp, the wizard and necro show up with a train of mobs from Frenzy to AM and wipe us, as well as the fresh pickzoners watching us kill AM.

This is why veteran players prefer to box. Stay thirsty, my friends.

Sounds like a typical EQ dungeon misadventure. Happens all the time, over and over. Not unique to "casuals".

Jokes on you. The necro knew what he was doing all along. That "train" was actually a ruse, and once you all died he dropped group, got up from his FD and picked himself up a new robe.

Well play mr necro, well played.

LOL right, I laughed pretty hard after the shitstorm unravelled.

Good story, but unless you provide screenshots, it didn't happen. (Gotta have that proof you know!)

and, my virtual spider senses are smelling yet another pro-boxer bait thread. And, this forum really doesn't need any more of those!

You can be a casual veteran. If you play on Agnarr and are not there to make krono you are automatically a casual player. Even if you are there to make krono, you're still a casual player. If you primarily play on TLP servers, you are casual!

You had a group wipe in guk and made a thread about it...

Yep, post your recent misadventures with tardos stories here. Need a few good chuckles today

More people you teach, the more veteran they become.

Then there will be less to complain about a new player making mistakes.
At one time everyone was new or came back and the entire game setup was foreign to them and they got to relearn it.

It sounds like you did a job of herding your group and expected pugs to not get lost

He sure did.

I'm sure the intention of his post was to bait a boxer dicussion though... After everything was said, 'boxing' was his final thought.... I'm not sure how we went from wiping in Guk to why Veterans box, but man what a big topic jump.

Yep, because, IVUing them and saying "follow" on a fresh instance, with high numbers of competition inbound due to pick mechanics is not clear enough directions for a more interested in alt-tabbing out to watch netflix.

god forbid fresh blood pick up a "new" 18 year old game and make mistakes

chances are pretty good it dropped those dumb legs anyway

And the vicious cycle begins - returning/new players afraid to group because of ridicule from players above, then "vets" start complaining about no groups, and have to box, and it goes on and on.

Take a minute and explain things. Ask if anyone is new to the zone if they don't volunteer that info (I'm always up front about this if I'm new to a zone). Any group that forms up potentially could be lasting at least a couple of hours, to be effective with loot farming/exp gain. Make sure folks know where the heck they are going. PUGs can be like herding cats, it's true - but my first group on my cleric was extremely valuable because I got coached. It made me a better player. If that first group had ridiculed me and talked smack about how I was doing things I probably would have gotten pissed and refused to do PUGs.

When a new instance pops, and all camps are FFA, there is a sense of urgency to get to camp. It is not a good time to afk, space out in tardo land, alt tab to netflix, or otherwise do anything besides getting to the target camp before others do. This shouldn't have to be explained when you're sitting in an instance where everything is perma-killed during prime time, because the experience you're leaving (an overcrowded instance) is self-evident of what the new instance that just opens "will be" if you don't move your immediately.

"Yep, because, IVUing them and saying "follow" on a fresh instance, with high numbers of competition inbound due to pick mechanics is not clear enough directions "

lol wtf does that have to do with anything? You rushed as fast as you could to get to the AM so you had a shot at the SMR and you left everyone else to fend for themselves.. And you got trained by your own group and got nothing... Karma.

Leaving everyone to fend for themselves would be to not IVU them, pick over without saying anything, and solo the camp, and it wouldve led to success.

Instead, it was agreed that we would pick over, the children were IVU'd, and hand-held to follow the cleric and I to camp.

Rather, they chose to half- it, not pay attention, and get lost. Then they chose to run a train into the camp in a panic, because they somehow think the group is responsible for correcting their flagrant disregard and save them.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is, if you want me to play the game for you, why don't i just replace you with a box? That's why people box.

Running the train into you guys sounds pretty stupid of them.

With PUGs I prefer to move slow and constantly check that everyone's together when moving through a maze like Guk. Better to take it slow and safe if you don't know your groupmates IMO.

EDIT: As for the topic I've been lucky to not have any misadventures yet. Pretty much only been leveling when I see some talented players pop up on my friends list.

I'm tempted to dust off my old eMachine and see how it handles EQ so I can get a box going.

I can't say the idea is wrong.
The OP says that is why he boxes and that is understandable.

I would say that is why I don't do PUGs in Lower Smuck in particular if the camp is not already established.

Spock would say the probability of a wipe in the OPs scenario was 97.942% and he should have known better. Get to the camp you want in the crowded pick THEN pick over, it would have been far faster. May not get the camp but the odds of a wipe go way down. On you buddy sorry but that was a pretty newbie mistake.

Lower Smuck, heh

Yeah, in aftermath, I perceived that I had run into Quill in-game.

Then i thought, oh this is why all the box-hate. If people were freely able to box to avoid these guys, they wouldn't have anyone to level for them, they would just have themselves dying over and over again together.