What PvE multiplayer

As in, what? Run them through most missions, give them the cash, etc? =\

Playing with others has always been a mixed bag for me.

I prefer, it, really, if the player is reasonably intelligent about how they approach things, at least try to be IC a little bit, and are not offended if we try something and wipe.

I hate it when the person is a total moron and does and says stupid stuff, or gets bent out of shape if we fail against a superior foe and leaves the party.

My heroes and henchies do not give me grief.

Hero's and henchman killed the game
There would be a lot more people playing without the hero's and henchmen that is for sure at least in the non elite area's

I am at fault for this too as I never play with real people anymore. It's to much of a hastle

I doubt that's not the only problem with alot of people these days, although it's probably a part of it. Sometimes I give people a runthrough of shit so they understand basic skill etc, although in-game it's incredibly hard to do so when it's a mixture of show and tell if you know what I mean.

Try to have a full party of humans in every instance you want and come back to tell me that. Even back in '05 that wouldn't be possible for even 70% of the time you play unless you have a massive branch of friends. You shouldn't be limited to just playing with humans or don't play at all. Keep in mind I'm talking entirely about henchmen here.

When I'm doing missions, I always ask for PUGs for 5 minutes. Sometimes you meet nice people, sometimes total jerks. But it's always funnier to play with people than H/H.

I PUG every chance I get and only H/H when I have too.
I like conversation, whether good or bad.
If I find that a PUG I have joined is having difficulty I will ask questions and give advice where needed. If we fail then we should try again. Very rarely will I leave a PUG.
So, yes I PUG and enjoy every minute of it.

I just think it ruins one's gaming experience when rushed through everything. When I started my first character, I was rushed to Lion's Arch and Droknar's Forge and given max armor. Then everything was ass-backward for me. Now with three campaigns and an expansion, it is even more important for players to progress through the game naturally. There were so many times when I failed miserably at challenging quests and missions with real people, but then as a last resort I tried heroes and henchmen and eventually made it through.

Not really these days, usually H/H and guidies.

I tried pugging last week and I nearly pulled my hair out. It was terrible.
Never again.

Leading CoF runs is sort of like pugging, I guess. Certainly I think some of my customers are there for the social aspect as much as anything.

Same here now

No, it was entirely possible, because I did it in 2007. All-human PUG groups for 12 Protector titles. Few problems accomplishing it and great fun pursuing it.

Prior to that I PUGged all the time to accomplish any activity I wished to do, by choice, because it was fun. Revisionist history is prevalent these days. Back in Factions and prior, dont forget that PUGs were commonplace, and reasonably successful if you recruited and joined with some sense of discretion.

A few months after GWEN came out, it got harder and harder to find people to play with. I guess with no more future releases for the original GW, most of the people left playing are players who grind for titles. Since a lot of people who grind on titles are too busy working on their own titles, it really reduced the amount of time for me to play with others. Because of that, I pretty much stopped playing. For me, solo time was kind of a "stand by" time or "preparing" to play with others (like acquire skills, create builds, get infused, map towns, etc.). Unfortunately, with so little chance of playing with other players, my solo time ended up being pointless.

I still log on once in a while and the first I do is still try to see if anybody needs help. I do that for both alliance and PUG. So I guess you can say I still do play with other players.

Occasionally, yes. And it's often even (shock, horror) fun!

Hahaha... oh, wait. That's actually not funny at all. Speak for yourself, please.
kthx

Same here and I agree - I like playing with people most of the time over h/h. I do most quests and such with h/h and it can get pretty dull. Missions I usually try to find people. That can make things more interesting (or makes you go insane :P). But yes, sometimes the h/h are better than playing with jerks. lol.

I have played with a few PUGs lately, as well as old guildies and friends (when we get together at someone's house and play together, for example). Of course, it is mostly H/H, but there are still people out there who are willing to construct a good team and who are willing to take and give constructive criticism. Frankly, I think that in light of GW2 (which I am sure a lot of people are waiting for, to the detriment of the current GW) the only thing that will inspire more people to play together would be more content. More Realms of the Gods, dungeons, whatever. People will band together when new, hard areas demand it. That will most likely not happen, so I think that the current state of the game will dominate until GW2 comes out.

Last time I PuGed out of boredom, I had a guy running a monk hero with 12 Fire Magic and Fireball because, and I quote, "I don't have a good elite for him".

So I stick to guildies/alliance mates now.

I'm really at a loss as to what I can do in this game now that Costume Brawl is gone, so I thought of doing some PvE, vanquished one area and found it ridiculously tedious.

Is it really so much better with 8 people who probably have different ideas as to how to handle a problem, and some of which are almost certainly terrible at the game?

Besides, where are these people?

I PvE with heroes and henchmen only on the rare occasions that I do play.

game isnt dead. other wise people wouldnt even play pvp.
yeah most pugs are fail thats why we got h/h BUT if the person leading the pug doesnt have and idea of what he is doing i suggest leave the team. if YOU are the team leader and at least you know what to do :

-1 be patience (you and your pug team)
-2 make sure every one on the team follows YOUR orders
-3 make sure they dont have crap builds
-4 help fixing their builds (even if you need to explain why this skill is good)
-5 when rdy advise to follow you and only YOU
-6 tell them to dont kill anything ANYTHING unless you call the target
-7 if they cant follow the rules or fix their builds simple.. /kick

if people follow this i think pugs would start working a lil better. if people cant stand fail pugs then dont event try then just go h/h and have fun by your self

k thnx

/catchbreath

AI > PUG Intelligence

It's a Coop conundrum that ANET CAN fix, although NOT elegantly... Without ANET making SOME type of change, I believe that the PvE community MUST find it's own IN-GAME solution to the extreme difficulty in PUG formation (particularly for HM). We all know that the party window is HIGHLY useful in PUG formation IF players are logged into the same server, in the EXACT same town @ the EXACT same time for the EXACT same purpose.

OBSERVATION: Clearly, It's common knowledge that if U wanna SELL/BUY something with the largest audience in prophecies U head to LA or Ascalon, in Factions its Kaineng or Shing Jea, in NF is Kamadan.
WHAT IF it were common knowledge that to form any PUG, players went to THOSE same specific towns to form the group & then after team forms, MAP to the starting town?

I recommend facilitating NEW common knowledge that ANET can implement/advertise EASILY with just a login message btw... Note that ANET has already created "staging areas" which are specific towns for certain PUGS to form more frequently/easily (elite areas in particular).

GWEN-
To more efficiently form EoTN PUG's, place UR PUG ad in EoTN to form your team there, then MAP travel to starting point for mission

Prophecies-
To more efficiently form Prophecies PUG's, place UR PUG ad in LA to form your team there, then MAP travel to starting point for mission

Factions-
To more efficiently form FACTION PUG's, place UR PUG ad in Kaineng to form your team there, then MAP travel to starting point for mission

Nightfall-
To more efficiently form NF PUG's, place UR PUG ad in Sunspear Sanctuary to form your team there, then MAP travel to starting point for mission

If this overcrowds the towns/outposts mentioned, then ANET should pick others. There are many towns/outposts in ALL games with VERY little traffic on a REGULAR basis. ANET has these statistics!!! ANET controls the rules by which we all play, they can create incentives for us all to change our behavior...

I joined a PUG for the first time in ages about 2 weeks ago. The MM boosting his health over 700 while using Blood of the Master was entirely worth it. Other than for laughs, I generally choose to ignore opportunities to fail randomly for no good reason. Anet making those opportunities more convenient wouldn't change anything.

Yes, there is a small group of us who PvE together often.

Other than that it's mostly H&H (or 600/Hero). Occasionally I will PUG just for grins - PUGging's not so bad if you really don't care what happens.

Let me add, though, that I don't H&H because "PUGs are bad", it's also because I don't often see anyone doing the same things I'm doing.