Posted 30 November 2012 - 06:43 PM
I should've kept an exact count of how many matches I've played since June. Let's say a ballpark of over 5,000 matches now. Being generous, I'd say around 100 of the pubbies I've played with over that time have been good, useful or capable players.
Most of my matches have been in premade groups, but I've done my fair share of straight PUG drops too if I'm testing something new and just want to drop real fast and see how it works, or if there aren't any openings in any of our groups. I'd say around 10% of my overall drops have been PUG drops. In the last 8 PUG drops I've done, I'm 0 and 8. Every single time I've been the leader in damage, kills and experience on my team. Every single time I've ranked higher than two to four of the winning team's players. In all but one drop, I've gotten the only kills for the entire team. Now, don't get me wrong here: I am not bragging by any means. I was not a hulking beast in these matches, I was just the only player who did anything at all on my team. In those last 8, I only dropped in my regular mech once, because I just needed 15GXP to unlock a module. The rest were all testing mechs I've never played before, and I still did more than the entirety of my team. Again, it's important to reiterate: It is not because I am that good, it's because they were that bad.
Here's an average match these days. Our group of 4 figure out where each other are, find our wingmen and start moving towards our objective. One of us usually says over the chat that we're a 4 person on comms and what we're planning on doing. 1 of our players has already suicided, another is sitting there AFK for the entire match. The other two will either blindly charge straight ahead or follow whatever mech is in front of them. If the mech in front of them is the other pubbie, they will most likely plow straight into the enemy and attack different targets, while the enemy rips them apart. If the mech in front of them was one of us, they will move with us until they see an enemy mech, at which point they will charge straight to their death, guns a' blazin'. Within two to five minutes, depending on mech speed and map size, we're immediately 4v8 (or 6 or 7, depending on how many of the enemy's pubbies have suicided, gone AFK, or were in a Commando that came streaking directly at us and died instantly).
Since Phase One of this matchmaking garbage, there has been only THREE times that I have been surprised by PUGs who have been effective players. This is something I have kept an exact count of. These three matches had a combined total of seven players (2, 3 and 2) who were good and useful teammates.
So the answer here is that yes, PUGs suck. No matter how you slice it, PUGs suck. There's no argument here to be had.
They might not all mean to, and there truly are some people in PUGs who really are trying and really aren't that bad, but they most certainly are the minority. I don't blame all of them for sucking, just the suicide farmers and AFKers. There's a learning curve here and new players are coming in every single day. Without a real tutorial or training mode for new players it's to be expected.
If I were just coming into this game for the first time and didn't know anything about anything, I would be one incredibly frustrated player. I'd really have to be a fan of the franchise to not give up on it within a week. The best thing a new player could do is find a group to game with. The fun will come from playing with those people, learning things from your teammates, and having a good time despite the entire desk being stacked against you having that good time. Hopefully your teammates won't encourage you to suicide farm, even though it is by far the only sane way to grind through the pure sucky garbage this game is for new players who haven't bought any MC. I report every single suicide farmer I see, but I totally understand why they're doing it. I'm really lucky that I was able to get in on the Founders program and didn't have to grind C-bills to get the mech I wanted. If my only choice was between a miserable playing experience for around 30-50 matches or suicide farming, I'd choose a third option: uninstall and delete.
2
kapinga, on 30 November 2012 - 03:05 PM, said:
have fun being bad we'll be good and be laughing at you.
