PUGs = Pick Up Groups = Random strangers forming a group.
Yet it's a good question. PUGs are made up of other players, which is to say all of us. The people who well and truly suck shouldn't be as common as those who have at least an average skill at playing the game. Seriously, MMOs are about as dumb as anything can get.
So what is it about a PUG that just fracking sucks?
Clearly my evening in Aion didn't go so well. Our PUG's tank kept switching targets, he refused to mark (he told everyone else to do it), the archer decided to pull a couple of times (oh nice add thx), and sleep kept getting broke. It was a disaster that ended predictably in everyone getting killed.
Does a PUG simply boil down to ego? Is the complete lack of co-operation some form of primitive need to try to take control of a group? It's really not that difficult for everyone to work together, and yet there are complete failures such as the one that I experienced this evening.
I'm quite curious about the psychology and social dynamics behind the dreaded PUG, but that's just how nerdy I roll.
edit: I should mention that not all PUGs go this way. Perhaps it's simply that we remember the worse experiences and everything else isn't worth remembering because it goes the way that we expect.
There's a lot of things going on in PUGs. The only reason I can see why people are how you say they are is that they aren't all in the same mind-set and its tough to express that in groups. i.e. you are there to do a serious instance, but your group-mates might be I dunno... drinking with friends, half-asleep, cooking, doing laundry, whatever... It's a lame excuse, but we've all done it.
Sun Oct 25 2009 10:16PMThose are good points actually, and I should have mentioned that this doesn't happen in all PUGs. I'll edit that in.
PUGs have a bad reputation in general, but the reality may be that most PUGs work out just fine and we remember the worse of them. Experiences like the one that I had don't help.. :)
Mon Oct 26 2009 12:59AMCause if you pull on their collar to hard their eyes pop out.... duh.
Seriously, because most gamers now days have very little since of communication skills.... joys of being spoon fed their whole lives.
Tue Oct 27 2009 3:15AMMMORPG.com writes:
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