Guides: An Aversion to Learning

Equitas · March 2018

I'd like to start this thread off with a story. I suppose it really began a few weeks ago, but today culminated in a series of events that I can't begin to understand. I extended an open invitation to a certain group of people to help train them on ilvl 431 dungeons at a scheduled time a few days from now. I suggested they look up guides for them, and suggested places to find said guides. This apparently triggered some sort of breakdown protocol. Unnecessary hostilities were thrown around between members of the group. Some random wannabe internet gangster tried to flex his e-muscles by telling me I'm only to "speak when you're spoken to". I got told nobody would run with me if I expected flawless runs, which was something I neither said nor implied. It eventually devolved into me being accused of stealing from the guild bank by the same person who had actually stolen from the guild bank. Logs don't lie.

The point is there was a lot of unnecessary drama surrounding something so trivial, and something I had assumed was part of MMO culture. There was a lot of unwarranted level of disrespect and hostility toward someone generous enough to offer his time to help people learn. I didn't have to do this. Is the general populace of this game seriously that averted to guides? Or is this an isolated freak incident?

voidy · March 2018

Sounds like you dodged a bullet tbh. They would've probably had meltdowns during the dungeon run as well, and if your guild is cool with people smearing reputations over being told to read a guide then maybe that's not the best guild to be in youknowwhatimsayin.

ElinLove · March 2018

Not on accusations, as what I feel this is more like just a resume of it, but feels like a lot of what led to the whole cuss party is lacking. Sounds more like a snowball than tickle to explode all nukes. Don't take this into an accusation to you, that's nowhere what I mean, I just usually see these situations as a snowball instead of single blast. THO, I'll not deny that even I have made sudden blasts every now and then so it can happen indeed, but I usually do it on the form of seeing some elitist kick (like kicking a Priest out of a friggin' LFG just cause muh mystics muh DPS) or such, it blows the fuse quite quickly for me.

Back to the main part of topic (even tho that wasn't full oftopic either): I think the community is divided into 2 parts:
1: the ones who suck or not, are wiling to learn, and will read a guide for a dungeon if really needed, regardless of whether they would LIKE to read a guide or not, I'm the type that doesn't exactly like them, I always prefer to just get told the mechanics and try to learn it on practice. Usually works, sometimes not exactly (too complex to describe in chat text alone), so when it doesn't work, well... Guide it is.
2: the ones who suck or not, are not wiling to learn. They know it. They've been born knowing it and you suck for telling he should do this and that, you're not god to rule over! You're not my mom!

You seem to have met type 2. Which is quite stupid considering you were holding practice/learning runs of dungeons, people would only come to those wanting to learn it.

Basically, you either hit a bad apple rotting so badly there's flies over it and it's stinking the whole room, OR you hid something very nasty on the topic and actually told they all suck and should die! Shame on you!!!
Obvious joke on that last one but yeah, some people are very sensitive about their lack of ability it seems and will go thermonucular on you

allofspaceandtime · March 2018

just one of the many reasons I don't run in guilds and that I play the game solo. toxic people are in every server, and guilds that claim to be friendly, most of the time isn't. im not saying all are this way, but ive yet to see any that are. I will admit that I was briefly in a guild about 4 years ago that were somewhat friendly, but about a month or two later with them letting anybody and everybody in, that it became toxic really fast and they were not friendly to the female guildies. so all of us real life females in the guild left and they joined my guild. but after nerfing the level 60 dailies gold, and fashion coupon drops from lower level bams, they all left. I still see many of them in real life, and many have moved away from mmo's all together and play console games or mobile games.
point im trying to make to the op is sometimes it may be best if you just started you very own guild and explain what you want from guildies, and if they don't abide by your rules or whatever guidelines you have, then kick them. as for who can and cant take out from the guild bank, I would only trust myself.

Ves1978 · March 2018

how dare you suggest people to search for guides. elitist af

Arkacci · March 2018

This isn't an isolated incident, it's the same in every single multiplayer game ever

I been a gamer for 30 years, so i seen this plenty of times.
Some people get offended if you suggest they read a guide - they automatically assume it means they suck, or need to meet a certain standard. or they just don't like being told how to play the game - follow their own style, etc.
Most people are fairly casual, and don't want to spend any time reading guides, because they can't be bothered, they are playing for fun, and i guess reading guides and getting better, isn't fun.
I was watching this guy streaming PS4 beta, he's a nice and friendly, chatty guy, and i chatted with him a lot on twitch, but every time i made a suggestion about how he could improve, it was met with low-key hostility; like eeeh, i can't be bothered right now, it's just a beta, and everything will be erased anyway...like...what does that have to do with learning the class you're going to main, when the game launches??
He wasn't using half his brawler skills, and when i pointed that out, he just laughed and....well i appreciate you're trying to help...i guess?

Well, i guess anyone who has the mindset of wanting to improve, will read guides anyway.
Those who can't be bothered, can't be bothered, and will throw a fit, if you suggest it.
I mean if you're talking about guild people, i guess you can run a few times with them, and see who might need to read a guide, otherwise it's rarely appreciated to suggest they might need it.

ElinLove · March 2018

@Equitas ye seems my joke at the end and confusion about the general picture made it unclear.

My point on that comment is just that yes, there's two types of people: the ones who want to learn, and the ones who hate when people try to teach, and will refuse to learn. The later is quite toxic, and seems to be the type you encountered.

About the 1st part, I was just wonder how it actually turned out into such a cussfight only over a learning group, but your reply cleared it up how it turned out like this.

To be clear, the part about you implying they suck was a joke (like, I tried to clear this up on last paragraph but oh well seems it backfired), but it seems like those players took your learning runs that way, simply a bunch of whinnies.

SageWindu · March 2018

So, in my own experience with TERA's guides, the ones that are publicly available tend to be hit-or-miss. Even with Essential Mana, many of those guides are not written for the more casual player who's just looking to maximize their playtime. The (old) brawler guide, for example, assumes that the player in question always has or can get immediate access to certain resources (such as being around a mystic). Ergo, if you don't or can't follow that specific loadout, the numbers don't add up and the player will end up gimping themselves and all he/she was doing was simply following directions.

And before Essential Mana, good luck finding a guide that was not 4 years old and thus hilariously out-of-date (coughnonpvpbeserkerguidescough).

As for your specific example, I think @ElinLove brought up the major culprit: the player in question may have already prescribed to a very specific style of play and f**k you for trying to tell them otherwise, even if it's simply a precaution that some of their tactics may not work in this particular environment. Really, there are several possible factors, but given the details, erm, given, that's as much as I can say about it without rambling.

Guides: An Aversion to Learning

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