Warning signs when forming a farming PUG

This is meant mostly as a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the things that will cause me to seroiusly think about leaving or boot a player from a farming PUG in SF/UW/desert/etc. It's not an angry rant by any means. It's just that after countless horrible farming PUG runs I've come up with a series of red-light indicators that help insure a bit more success.

(Alas, since it's spring break time here in the U.S. even these aren't failsafe, but they will help avoiding idiots.)

1. Any player that has a name with a reference to how much pot he/she smokes. Keywords here: Toke/Tokage/Blazin/Ganja/Spliff/Tokin/Smokin/Dooby/Doobage etc. You get the picture. Don't ask me why, but warriors seem to favor this type of reference. My personal experience is that these individuals are self centered and will cause the group to wipe by either being greedy or careless.

2. Any player that uses "leet" speak in their name. Worst offenders: Names with "teh" "pwn" "lol" "rofl". If you put a z at the end then multiply by 2x the horibble behavior you're likely to encounter. If there's a "zer" at the end of these words then multiply by 4x. If multiple leet words appear... well don't say I didn't warn you. Same experience as for #1.

3. Any player that has "Godly" in their name. That's just too much self esteem for me. Likely this guy will either rant/whine the whole time if somebody makes a mistake. He'll scream for heals or bitch if he's the monk when someone gets out of range. Just not worth the aggravation. He's probably capable, but there are better team players out there.

4a. Any monk that slow loads right after we zone into the map (especially on a small team). Sure, sure... it could be that they're on a modem, but I don't want a monk on a modem healing me. That's split second stuff and if you're lagging through your modem then you're gonna wipe the team. Some members can get away with being on modem, but monks can't.
4b. Okay, they've never been there before. Not a big deal, but I usually ask up front. That way I (and the rest of the team) can adjust tactics and suggest skills for the new person. If they are too insecure or smug to let us know then they shouldn't be on the team.

5. People that ask if we can detour and do some other thing. No! We grouped to farm a specific area, not go running for some BS thing. Get henchies for your detour.

6. Someone in the group tries to sell you the green items he/she has using the team chat channel. If I want sales spam I'll go to Drok's/Ascalon. Besides, I probably already have the item you're trying to sell me.

7. A player that announces he/she is taking a skill that either unnecessary or utterly useless/wrong for the farming situation. Said player is advised by the rest of the group that the skill is bad and still refuses to change it. Ego... a bad sign.

I still can't spot the guy who will suddenly go AFK. That seems to affect all player types equally.

The real solution... join a farming guild and go with people you trust. Or make friends with people you've found to be good and farm with them.

I'd love to hear other people's lists.

Cheers!

anyone who types 'gogogogogo'...normally makes me quit the team instantly.


I am on a very short fuse these days

That's a good one...

Another related one is a the guy who can't be bothered to type "ready" or even "1" when the leader asks if people are ready. Or the team member/leader that runs out before asking if everyone is ready.

i concur



"gogogogogogo" and "heal wtf!!" crawls up my spine


like i dont $%$# know to heal you... if you werent runnning out of range i might have gotten that heal in..

1. If one of the player is about 15 level below the henchies.
2. If the monk tries to open trade with you, and says "wo mai wu chi, 5k ok?"
3. "Anyone done this before?"

4. "If anyone gets a (insert green item here), can i have it?

People with minions below level 18, SS's without shivers, people who use firestorm, warriors that try to join your group when you asked for a different profession.

Have you monked on a modem?

sometimes i dont bring shivers with my necro. if you know how to use sv its not really needed. but i farm with the same group most of the time.

Well the "gogogogogogogo" got mentioned but that one is a sign for me. Also people with the weird names. I like grouping with people with interesting fantacy names like example... Saria Stormbringer or Issac Horath.. ok maybe those are horrible names but it means someone took thought in their character. Someone with a name like Teh Hotnezz or Simply Stunning, Mr Stud... or what not.

I have been in groups with some weird names and had success...

Just don't see what is wrong with 'gogogogogo', if everyone is ready to go. If people played Battlefield 1942, 'gogogogogo' is the audio responding to one of the commands.

"is everyone ready? lets dance in" will be pretty funny.

^^

Was in an FA group today w/ a monk on a modem. Warrior got way low on health and monk missed the heal. Barrel dropped and we wiped shortly afterwards.

To answer your question: no, my monk as with all my characters is run through a DSL connection.

Hey! I'm a decent-good Echo SS for FoW, but my char name is Fear Teh Yakslapper. I haven't done it all that much, so I'm not a pro or whatever... but I know what I'm doing, and I'm nice/polite and I'll have fun so long as I don't have an elementalist *****ing at me for a BR every 3 seconds. >.>

Well my rules aren't hard and fast, but I'd be suspicious of "teh" in your name at first. If you hit any of my other rules then I'd probably leave/boot. I just go with the numbers. I'm there to farm and I want to do it as fast and efficiently as possible.

Yea, I can completely understand being wary of people with names like mine... depending on how they act/ask to join/talk to the group. As soon as I join, I always say "hey" to everyone and start asking what builds the other necros are running. I just try to be friendly (overall) and get along with everyone, but it doesn't always work out that way (damn elementalists not using energy management...)

I'm leery of warriors with the name 'Lord _____.' They always seem to be run by prepubescent larvae, and are usually just a tad bit incompetent for my exacting standards.

People who don't have common skills give me pause, though I pretty much always keep them in the group (if they're nice, and they generally have been). Actually, the people that say -hey, I don't have that, lemme run to ember real quick- are a-ok in my book. It's you crazy bastards who say you're going to a trainer, but do the skill quest instead!

But my number one enemy is the silent one. Silence may be golden, but it doesn't help anyone farm greens.

I concur to most everything above, especially the "gogogo" sign and the Godly in the name indication. I also watch to how quickly they respond to utterly simple questions.
Another indicator for me would be terrible spelling/grammar (stuff worse than minor mispells, quick type mistakes like "taht", using "their" instead of "they're", I do this sometimes )
Another would have to be the: ALL CAPS PWNZOR CREW LF MONK AND THEN WE GO!! All caps = instant boot if i'm leader or instant threat to leave if the group leader doesn't kick.
Anyone with Legolas in their name often raises a brow for me, but it doesn't instantly mean they're bad.
People with X's seperating parts of their names are often scammers or noob warriors, "X Master Axer X" or something like that. This is along the same lines as people who totally mispell some name they're referencing to because someone had already taken the name: "Gandolff The Graey" or crap like that.
And of course, noticing this during the Factions preview event, I am now adding to my boot list any assassin with a name referencing to Naruto, or anyone whose name combines the names of two anime characters/themes: Hitokiri Goku, Sasuke Battousai, nonesense like that that makes you wanna puke on the keys.
EDIT: I also concur with the utterly silent ones. Silence is evil.

Now I'm going to disagree on your 3rd point. Example being when I was going through the game for the first time, I'd enter a mission not knowing what to expect. Asking a simple "anyone done this mission before?" does not imply I'm going to be the downfall of the group. I have asked the question before and stated that this was my first time for that mission. I have yet to have been kicked from a group. But there is always a first. Now that I have beat the game. I do the missions with other characters and only ask "anyone know the bonus?"

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I am a very good tank, thankyouverymuch. And what's this aggro bubble everyone keeps talking about?

My 2 cents: the "gogogo" REALLY REALLY gets under my skin for some reason ... either you can spare the 2 minutes before a mission/PvP/whatever else to plan strategy, or you can go play in traffic. PPPPPP = Proper Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance, take it to heart.

Quiters...

ok man, what the hell are you talking about..? so i guess if someone doesnt have the exact same sense of humor as you THEY HAVE TO SUCK ASS AT GW? how many times have you gotten beat up in high school? someone with "pwn" or "dooby" in their name doesnt mean they cant play. My characters name is Stomp Zor... i guess i am a greedy bastard who just loves to yell at everyone.
This whole dang thread people are saying how they dont party with people because of their name or the way they talk... WHO CARES IF SOMEONE HAS AN X IN THEIR NAME. try not sterotyping people who arent exactly like you, and maybe you'll find a fun group...