178 replies to this topic

[DjPush]

No

[Alexander of Macedon]

You try to do well and win but aren't good at the game? You're not a potato. You run a non-meta build? You're not a potato.

You're a potato if you're an oblivious moron who'd be called out for trolling if it wasn't obvious that you're not thinking.

The 200 damage mark is used so often because it's basically the threshold of minimum competence. Just about any build in the game can do 200 damage without too much trouble unless you're intentionally running something like 2x MG or 1x SL. Even if your reflexes are ****, you make a lot of bad decisions, your build is questionable, you should still be able to pull out 200ish damage even if you don't do much and die early.

That's your starting point for improvement. When I first started playing MWO I worked to make sure I did at least that much, and gradually pushed my damage up as much as I could without impacting my ability to do other jobs relevant to whatever I was piloting. If I got below 200 damage back then, I knew that I had ****** up and thought back about what I could have done differently. And y'know what? I consistently improved. Now my minimum acceptable standard for myself is higher because I know I can do better than 200 consistently, but I also know that not everyone can.

That's the difference between a new player or a mediocre player and a potato. A new player is still learning the game and can't be expected to carry hard, but is still trying to win. A mediocre player for one reason or another doesn't perform very well (and if it's a behavioral thing rather than physical limitation should probably be thinking about what they're doing right and wrong), but is still trying to win. A potato is ******* around and perfectly content to spoil the match for 23 other people because they want to play a game that MWO isn't.

I'd rather have an AFK player than a potato because you know from the start that you're at a disadvantage and an AFK player can't block you when you step out to take a shot, FF you because you bumped shoulders with them, or stand in the middle of half the team's lane of fire until they die then complain about not having any help.

[RussianWolf]

Antares102, on 14 December 2016 - 06:15 AM, said:

Absolute nonsense !
So you want to tell me since you entered the MWO tutorial or whatever was around when
you started you have not learnt or improved ANYTHING? Not how to steer your mech, not how to run around on new maps, not how to play all the new mechs, not how to do anything beyond moving forward anf backward.. and even that required a certain amount of learning

What you more likely want to tell me is that you dont want to learn and improve beyond a certain point because you are content with whatever skill you have.
And dont give me the "for fun" bullsh1t... if for some strange reason from now on you will only face EMP guys and the highest damage you will ever do is 10 then you either improve beyond your comfort zone or you wont have any fun at all.
Do you know how hard it is for somebody to always being forced to carry potatoes?
You play for fun and thereby ruining somebody else game experience which is winning=fun.

And BTW.. the "playing for fun" crowd are the first to call "cheater" as soon as somebody else is consistently better than them.

comments and attitudes like this almost make me want to return to the game and play my stock mechs just to piss them off more.

I've played with EMP guys, even 1v1ed with Twinky. what's your point?

If you want a section for only the winning=fun people, have fun with long wait times. Me personally, I don't give a rat's *** about you having fun, I don't play the game (when I play the game, been over 3 months since I have logged a match now) for you. Your attitude and those like you are the main reason for that too.

[Ovion]

The Unstoppable Puggernaut, on 14 December 2016 - 01:14 AM, said:

Folks,

I formally demand we stop calling useless players "potatoes", potatoes are actually useful, tasty, nutritious (based on a BBC documentary).

Spoiler

Here's some examples of how a potato can be useful:
http://mentalfloss.c...o-with-a-potato

I am opening this thread to discuss a new name for this league of player.

This comes from a match yesterday where I had a nubbsticle in a hunchback IIC decide to ram me up the *** so I couldn't retreat and forced me to tank for nothing. Then the bright minded muppet finally charges past in front of me and I have to pull back an alpha shot just cause he wanted to see who I was shooting at. He then worked out he bit off more than he can chew and finally started using the jumpjets to hide back into the shadows.

Almost each match I seem to find people who think they can hang onto my mech for cover, then ditch me when I actually might need em.

Potatoes may be tasty, nutritious and useful.....

But how well will it do piloting a mech?

It's the wrong tool for the task.
Playing like a Potato rather than a Pilot.

So IMO, Potato is fine.

Widowmaker1981, on 14 December 2016 - 02:33 AM, said:

What would you prefer?

Gentlemen of questionable skill?

Ha, I quite like that... GoQs.
Might make a decent group / clan name...

I might have to steal that for something sometime. xD

[Ovion]

Alexander of Macedon, on 17 December 2016 - 12:54 PM, said:

Spoiler

You try to do well and win but aren't good at the game? You're not a potato. You run a non-meta build? You're not a potato.

You're a potato if you're an oblivious moron who'd be called out for trolling if it wasn't obvious that you're not thinking.

The 200 damage mark is used so often because it's basically the threshold of minimum competence. Just about any build in the game can do 200 damage without too much trouble unless you're intentionally running something like 2x MG or 1x SL. Even if your reflexes are ****, you make a lot of bad decisions, your build is questionable, you should still be able to pull out 200ish damage even if you don't do much and die early.

Spoiler

That's your starting point for improvement. When I first started playing MWO I worked to make sure I did at least that much, and gradually pushed my damage up as much as I could without impacting my ability to do other jobs relevant to whatever I was piloting. If I got below 200 damage back then, I knew that I had ****** up and thought back about what I could have done differently. And y'know what? I consistently improved. Now my minimum acceptable standard for myself is higher because I know I can do better than 200 consistently, but I also know that not everyone can.

That's the difference between a new player or a mediocre player and a potato. A new player is still learning the game and can't be expected to carry hard, but is still trying to win. A mediocre player for one reason or another doesn't perform very well (and if it's a behavioral thing rather than physical limitation should probably be thinking about what they're doing right and wrong), but is still trying to win. A potato is ******* around and perfectly content to spoil the match for 23 other people because they want to play a game that MWO isn't.

I'd rather have an AFK player than a potato because you know from the start that you're at a disadvantage and an AFK player can't block you when you step out to take a shot, FF you because you bumped shoulders with them, or stand in the middle of half the team's lane of fire until they die then complain about not having any help.

I find a flat 200 to be.. a poor judge honestly.

I find a scaling system of Tonnage x better.

So a good baseline for 'performance' would be Tonnage x3, and the rough average you should be aiming for is Tonnage x5-6, and 'good' would be Tonnage x10+.
So in a Locust, you should be pulling at least 60, preferably 100-120 for a minimum, and ideally 200+.
But for an Atlas / Kodiak, the minimum should really be 300, preferably 500-600, and ideally 1000+.

[Reza Malin]

627, on 14 December 2016 - 02:03 AM, said:

I find it disgusting how people with this elitist attitude talk down on people who are not on their skill level.

It is insulting and really bad sportsmanship. It is the same mindset that leads people in school bullying and mobbing other kids because they can't run as fast as them or whatever.

The best part is how, if one of these "non-potatoes" was in the room with one of these players they perceive as beneath them, i guarantee 99% of them would not have the balls to say anything derogatory towards them, even if they had just taken a massive shite all over their lawn.

Even better, most likely no one would give a rat's testicle if they did speak because half of them are probably complete gimps anyway, which is probably the reason they need "superiority" in a video game to feel special about themselves.

This is what society is becoming, a load of faceless and mindless sociopaths, living behind and through computer/phone/tablet screens.

Edited by Reza Malin, 17 December 2016 - 03:40 PM.

[MechWarrior5152251]

My backup video card is a potato. I assume the last 2 years of patches have added a lot of bloat and FUBAR subroutines because my GTS 250 card is no longer able to run the game.

[JadePanther]

POTATO is as POTATO does.. thats what mama always used to say..

[Dex Spero]

The Unstoppable Puggernaut, on 14 December 2016 - 03:00 AM, said:

I am anti-bullying

Really? Appealing to a group of people to invent a new derogatory term intended to make somebody else feel shame doesn't sound like bullying to you? Especially when the driving force behind the appeal is to mitigate your own feelings of frustration? A group of people who are good at something pointing at somebody else and using words to shame them for not being as good sounds like Bullying 101 to me.

The Unstoppable Puggernaut, on 14 December 2016 - 03:00 AM, said:

I raised a post about people blocking and using as shields but this seems to strike a cord with you.

Yep. That's the topic: people playing selfishly and poorly. Its one of my biggest frustrations, too. I feel you. You didn't strike a cord because of the topic. You struck a cord by introducing your topic by inviting people to participate in a shiny new twist on public shaming, something MWO has more then enough of. That's going to strike a cord with a few people.

The Unstoppable Puggernaut, on 14 December 2016 - 03:00 AM, said:

It's just common sense.

Herein lies the problem. It is not common sense, because:
1) there is no such thing as common sense; what seems obvious to one individual or even a small group may not be obvious to someone else
2) The fact that there continues to be people who perform these irritating actions (ramming others from behind, block shots, block retreats, etc.) is evidence to the fact that your knowledge of how to play is not, in fact, common to every player

But if you want we can pretend that "common sense" is a valid argument. So I will say it is "commen sense" that "noob" (and its many forms) and "potato" and any other similar term are derogatory by nature and are used in an attempt to shame, humiliate or degrade someone and therefore it is "common sense" that they should never be used. I would also say it is "common sense" that any attempt to change people's behaviour through the use of shame or degradation is doomed to fail so there is no point in coming up with another word. I would say it is "common sense" that the development of a special lingo or jargon that you can use to degrade other people should not be allowed. Finally, I would say that it is "common sense" that anyone who uses derogatory language to vent their frustration or anger has obviously failed to develop healthy anger management habits, and that anyone who invites/requires others to join in on the act is someone who has markedly low self-esteem.

But many forumites disagree with my opinion, so I guess my "common sense" isn't as common as I think. Maybe we should just not accept common sense as an argument and focus on helping people have fun and figure out where to stand to avoid blocking our retreats or blocking our shots In the end, I agree with your point about selfish game play, about poor game play, about ignoring objectives. And I share your frustration. My vote for a new word is "new player" if they are new, and "selfish player" if they are playing selfishly.

Edited by Dex Spero, 17 December 2016 - 03:57 PM.

[Dex Spero]

Metal Militia, on 14 December 2016 - 05:57 AM, said:

I thought the MechWarrior and BT player base was known to be helpful to new players or players who don't understand the games. So much for that idea. While people standing 300m behind the circle in domination and sniping uselessly drives me bonkers, I have to say this type of attitude is just wrong.

ice trey, on 14 December 2016 - 06:11 AM, said:

MWO isn't the BT player base. PGI intentionally targeted the eSports community, instead.
Even going so far as to shirk the "Sim" moniker in favor of "Shooter".
Better likelihood of finding it in the HBS forums.

Toxicity here has been rampant since before Coolant Flush and 3rd person.

Likewise the forums aren't MWO. Not even by a long shot. There are plenty of players in the game who understand what "respecting others" means. Don't judge MWO by the forums

[Deathlike]

To the OP, lol no.

I will say it's a real waste of time discussing it in game. Here... it's probably better to mention it. Some people will know who they are... others will refuse to acknowledge it altogether. All in all, it's all in the derp you do or don't put out.

Tristan Winter, on 14 December 2016 - 06:37 AM, said:

Also, it would be nice if one could check a box to only be matched up against players from the same tier. So MM would start putting together matches for people who have time to wait 5-10 minutes for a match, just for the sake of getting into a pure Tier 1, pure Tier 2 or pure Tier 4 match, for example.

I'm sure there's a logical reason that the MM isn't even doing actual Tier matching/averaging (hint: it's the literal wait time).

At that point, that points/suggests to bigger issues like... population.

[JadePanther]

that moment when u think your engaging the enemy team with 6-8 mates.. only to turn around and realize they all turned and ran away after a single light mech.

yep you've been potato'd..

at least shout some monty python and clap coconuts together as you flee from the face of the enemy..

[Dex Spero]

JadePanther, on 17 December 2016 - 04:55 PM, said:

at least shout some monty python and clap coconuts together as you flee from the face of the enemy..

I confess (despite my strong anti-bullying stance) that if the players started singing a chorus of "Brave Sir Robin ran away" I'd probably come down off my high horse and join in.

[JadePanther]

i love the stuff i get into sometimes..

Potatos .. What the hell are you doing way over there..
Me kills XXX, YYY, ZZZ
me to myself.. killin stuff what does it look like

[jss78]

I dunno. All I see here is that we're calling people names for being bad in a video game. Take a step back and consider that simple fact. This is some of the most ludicrous stuff I've ever seen.

[Kynesis]

Those hard fought matches that come down to a couple of old wizards waving light sabres at each other are pretty painful to watch.
I'm going to try to appreciate them for the comedy value.

I've played in more than a few matches with people who were a few biscuits short and still managed to win - I honestly wonder just how many of them there are out there.

There must be some way to better balance the game so that people of approximate proficiency are matched more frequently, even with a tiny player base.

The reverse problem is also an issue - potato impostors (great players being mixed in with a bunch of much less proficient players) sucks just as much (for the team who lacks or randomly loses their carry early)... which now that I think about it probably happens quite a lot.

Edited by Kynesis, 17 December 2016 - 06:50 PM.

[Zergling]

Ovion, on 17 December 2016 - 02:59 PM, said:

I find a flat 200 to be.. a poor judge honestly.

I find a scaling system of Tonnage x better.

So a good baseline for 'performance' would be Tonnage x3, and the rough average you should be aiming for is Tonnage x5-6, and 'good' would be Tonnage x10+.
So in a Locust, you should be pulling at least 60, preferably 100-120 for a minimum, and ideally 200+.
But for an Atlas / Kodiak, the minimum should really be 300, preferably 500-600, and ideally 1000+.

Tonnage doesn't make anywhere near that much difference in damage output and scores.


Go look at the average match scores on the leaderboards here.

For Season 4, the per weight class averages were:
Lights = 166
Mediums = 200
Heavies = 211
Assaults = 229

With average damage being roughly 1.5 times match score, the average damage per weight class is therefore:
Lights = 249
Mediums = 300
Heavies = 316
Assaults = 343

So roughly, the average damage for lights is 250, mediums and heavies is 300, assaults is 350.

Edited by Zergling, 17 December 2016 - 08:51 PM.

[VorpalAnvil]

[Puppy Monkey Baby]

I think what this is is simply human nature at its worst.

The urge to blame someone else for being the first person dead, or for getting "steamrolled", or - and this happens to me a lot - when someone decides it's a great idea to walk in front of your weapons as you're firing them....

The honest fact of the matter is that we can't totally control the outcome of any match. Yes, we'd like to win, but honestly there can only be one side that wins. All of the planning, strategizing, positioning, etc only goes so far. The enemy can outgun you, out-tactic you, and just plain get lucky.


The people who act superior to others and freak out over VOIP or regular chat because they died from 200 missiles raining on them really need to relax. It's a game.

People are going to make mistakes. I make them all the time. And sometimes I just get outsmarted. They zigged and I should have zagged. Oh well.



I'll be in my Viper dying horribly as I try to engage a Marauder IIC or something...

[Wil McCullough]

Dex Spero, on 17 December 2016 - 03:54 PM, said:

Really? Appealing to a group of people to invent a new derogatory term intended to make somebody else feel shame doesn't sound like bullying to you?
Snip.

Nope it doesn't. New players are newbs. Potatoes are potatoes.

Potatoes are potatoes because they act in a way that they knownis detrimental to the team because they find it fun. They're the guys running around in pristine direwolves capping despite repeated voice and typed requests not to. They're the guys who hide far away from the fight on purpose so they can vulture kills at the end. Potato is a more polite word for "troll" or "griefer".

The community came up with a more humorous term for such players. Though if you want, we can go back to calling these players exactly what they are - griefers or trolls. Both of which are reportable offences according to pgi.