Gisli
11-09-2008, 10:47 AM
Groups in MMOs are a necessity. In Warhammer, many people are complaining that they can't level up because they can't find a group. Others have reached 40, and complain that they can't do dungeons like Bastion Stairs because they can't find a group. A lot of people don't seem to understand why shouting for a group in whatever channels they can think of (guild, alliance, open zone) doesn't seem to get them anywhere. Hopefully this guide will help to explain why this approach doesn't work well, and how to be successful.
The first thing to deal with is a psychological barrier that some people have. Get this: Nobody owes you anything. You are not entitled to a group. Not from your guild, and certainly not from anybody else. If you can't get past this basic fact, you are doomed. Occasionally you can get into a group through pity. But not too often. The fundamental reason why anybody gets into a group is because they bring something to the table. Think opportunity, not entitlement. Opportunity works. Entitlement does not.
Now what about that shouting "Looking for group!" There are two reasons why this is rarely successful. First off, do the math. Think it through: Most of the time, an existing group is not looking for people. Either they are full, or they at least have what they need to operate. So they either can't help you, or won't be paying attention to your request. Any given group only has narrow windows in time when they need a person. And if they need someone, they are probably advertising. So if you didn't see anything in your guild chat or alliance chat about a group looking for someone, the odds are high they don't need anyone right now. You asking doesn't change that fact. From a simple probabilistic point of view, the odds that any group within range of your voice actually needs you during some random 15-minute period is vanishingly small.
The second reason why "Looking for group!" doesn't work well is because its actually a dis-incentive to invite you, for reasons that hopefully will make sense as you read the rest of this guide. Basically, what you are saying is: "Hey everyone, I know I'm a putz that doesn't have any real friends that I can count on, but will somebody please take pity on me anyway and get me into their group, because that's easier for me than doing real work? Thanks!"
If you have gotten to this point and you don't believe what I've been saying, then consider this. You know there are successful people in this game. People who leveled to 40. People who are constantly in good groups. Now ask yourself: Do you see them yelling for a group? NO YOU DO NOT. Successful people rarely are shouting out for a group. If you see them making any public noise at all, its invariably a focused request for something specific, probably as an information check to make sure that they aren't treading on anybody's toes when they get a group of their own going. (Note that you will see some people often calling out with invitations to a group. This is a case of providing opportunity to others. Some successful people do this a lot, while some take less public approaches.)
So now you might be thinking "This is silly. If I can't ask for a group, then how do I get a group?" There are three parts to this. (1) Be available. (2) Work your network. (3) Do it yourself.
The most fundamental concept to getting a group is this: Its not about now. Its about all of your past history, and laying the groundwork.
(1) Be available. Getting a group starts at the character collection screen. Make sure you pick a name that is easy to type, easy to remember, and ideally, easy to pronounce. (That last is so that when some people are talking in vent, and someone says to the group leader "Hey, get that guy!" that the group leader can actually type it.) If your name is hard to deal with, then that's a disincentive for people to bother with you. And the goal here is to make it easy for people to group you, not hard.
Next rule: Never be /hidden or /anon. That makes you hard to find, and hard to check out. Remember: Your goal is to get into a group. You do that by making it easy on people who might group you, not hard. If I'm going to group somebody, I usually want to know what I'm getting. I want to know what guild they are in, what their class is, what their level is. I might want to be able to see where they are. I can't do any of this if you are hiding from me. What's more, I personally have bias against people who are /anon, and so will likely skip you out of principle if I can find somebody else. I can't count the number of times when a person in a DAOC battlegroup shouted "looking for group" where I did a /who, found they were anon, and went on to the next person.
Another part of "be available" is to keep your ears open, and be flexible. Often opportunities do come across the guild, alliance, or open channels. Be ready to take them even if its not exactly what you want right now. And don't give a hard time to people who are making opportunities just because they aren't giving you perfection. Remember: You aren't entitled.
Also: Get vent. Get appropriate add-ons that let you be effective. If you make it hard for people to interact with you, and if you can't perform as well as the next person, what right do you have to expect that you get to take a spot away from another person who is better prepared? You aren't entitled.
(2) Work your network. Successful MMO players establish a network of specific friends that they can count on to do things with them. You should be actively building your network all the time. That doesn't mean "get into a big guild and all your problems are solved because there's your network." Being in a big guild makes it easier to build your personal network, but it doesn't do the work for you. No, you need a list of specific individuals that you interact with on a regular basis. People that you can get along with, have similar interests, similar play times, similar leveling rates, etc. You need to look out for them (by getting them into your groups, and so on) if you expect them to look out for you in turn and get you into their groups. Yup, all this takes work. MMOs are social games. The strength of your personal network is a pretty good definition for how good you are at playing an MMO. The social network is a major reason why successful people are not out there yelling in open channels for a group. Because they have been privately working their network, and scoring.
(3) Do it yourself. Time to do some math again. In Warhammer, a group has at most six people. That means one person in six has to be making groups. Actually, its more than that, because many leveling groups don't even want six people. The biggest bottleneck in any MMO is always leadership. And especially, small-scale leadership like group building... because so much of that is needed.
Much of the time, there just won't be a group available to get into. Your friends might be busy, or not online. Your guild's not doing anything organized right now. And so on. But there are nearly always people available to do stuff, if you cast the net broadly enough and provide an opportunity that they are interested in. So if you want a group to do something, much of the time you need to organize it yourself. How hard this is depends on what you want to do. If you are 30 and you want to level, then you just need a couple of people of compatible level and classes who can agree on where to go. That's not so hard. If you want a built group for scenarios, that is a bit more challenging, since you need six people of the right combination of classes, levels, and ability to work together. But if you are diligent, and polite in how you go about it, you should be able to get that to work out. Remember though: While just shouting in guild/alliance might get you a couple of responses, mostly you will need to be tracking people down and sending private tells to get their attention.
Of course, if you want to do the third boss in Bastion Stair, then you need to get six people of the right balance and progression. Obviously that is harder because there are so many constraints involved. The more complicated the thing you want to do, the more effort you have to put into it. This brings us to the realm of semi-persistent groups. This is closely related to your social network. Now, a few people play highly desired classes at the right time, like a high-level tank during peak hours. Such people might get constant tells asking them to come join a dungeon group. Life is easy for them, at least in terms of getting a group. But most of us don't have that luxury. Most of us need to get into some sort of regular arrangement with a collection of people that semi-regularly works together to form dungeon groups, or scenario groups, or whatever. This is an extension of that all-important personal social network that I mentioned before. Obviously this is something beyond the spur of the moment. It takes planning and regularity. If you aren't willing or able to plan and be on some regular schedule, then you need to accept up front that you probably won't get to do the type of activities that require organized groups.
All of this takes some work, a good attitude, and a willingness to compromise. Its not so simple as hoping that someone will come along and solve your problems for you. What separates successful people from frustrated people is the understanding that life does take work, because you really do need to take care of it yourself. Grouping is like that, too.
The first thing to deal with is a psychological barrier that some people have. Get this: Nobody owes you anything. You are not entitled to a group. Not from your guild, and certainly not from anybody else. If you can't get past this basic fact, you are doomed. Occasionally you can get into a group through pity. But not too often. The fundamental reason why anybody gets into a group is because they bring something to the table. Think opportunity, not entitlement. Opportunity works. Entitlement does not.
Now what about that shouting "Looking for group!" There are two reasons why this is rarely successful. First off, do the math. Think it through: Most of the time, an existing group is not looking for people. Either they are full, or they at least have what they need to operate. So they either can't help you, or won't be paying attention to your request. Any given group only has narrow windows in time when they need a person. And if they need someone, they are probably advertising. So if you didn't see anything in your guild chat or alliance chat about a group looking for someone, the odds are high they don't need anyone right now. You asking doesn't change that fact. From a simple probabilistic point of view, the odds that any group within range of your voice actually needs you during some random 15-minute period is vanishingly small.
The second reason why "Looking for group!" doesn't work well is because its actually a dis-incentive to invite you, for reasons that hopefully will make sense as you read the rest of this guide. Basically, what you are saying is: "Hey everyone, I know I'm a putz that doesn't have any real friends that I can count on, but will somebody please take pity on me anyway and get me into their group, because that's easier for me than doing real work? Thanks!"
If you have gotten to this point and you don't believe what I've been saying, then consider this. You know there are successful people in this game. People who leveled to 40. People who are constantly in good groups. Now ask yourself: Do you see them yelling for a group? NO YOU DO NOT. Successful people rarely are shouting out for a group. If you see them making any public noise at all, its invariably a focused request for something specific, probably as an information check to make sure that they aren't treading on anybody's toes when they get a group of their own going. (Note that you will see some people often calling out with invitations to a group. This is a case of providing opportunity to others. Some successful people do this a lot, while some take less public approaches.)
So now you might be thinking "This is silly. If I can't ask for a group, then how do I get a group?" There are three parts to this. (1) Be available. (2) Work your network. (3) Do it yourself.
The most fundamental concept to getting a group is this: Its not about now. Its about all of your past history, and laying the groundwork.
(1) Be available. Getting a group starts at the character collection screen. Make sure you pick a name that is easy to type, easy to remember, and ideally, easy to pronounce. (That last is so that when some people are talking in vent, and someone says to the group leader "Hey, get that guy!" that the group leader can actually type it.) If your name is hard to deal with, then that's a disincentive for people to bother with you. And the goal here is to make it easy for people to group you, not hard.
Next rule: Never be /hidden or /anon. That makes you hard to find, and hard to check out. Remember: Your goal is to get into a group. You do that by making it easy on people who might group you, not hard. If I'm going to group somebody, I usually want to know what I'm getting. I want to know what guild they are in, what their class is, what their level is. I might want to be able to see where they are. I can't do any of this if you are hiding from me. What's more, I personally have bias against people who are /anon, and so will likely skip you out of principle if I can find somebody else. I can't count the number of times when a person in a DAOC battlegroup shouted "looking for group" where I did a /who, found they were anon, and went on to the next person.
Another part of "be available" is to keep your ears open, and be flexible. Often opportunities do come across the guild, alliance, or open channels. Be ready to take them even if its not exactly what you want right now. And don't give a hard time to people who are making opportunities just because they aren't giving you perfection. Remember: You aren't entitled.
Also: Get vent. Get appropriate add-ons that let you be effective. If you make it hard for people to interact with you, and if you can't perform as well as the next person, what right do you have to expect that you get to take a spot away from another person who is better prepared? You aren't entitled.
(2) Work your network. Successful MMO players establish a network of specific friends that they can count on to do things with them. You should be actively building your network all the time. That doesn't mean "get into a big guild and all your problems are solved because there's your network." Being in a big guild makes it easier to build your personal network, but it doesn't do the work for you. No, you need a list of specific individuals that you interact with on a regular basis. People that you can get along with, have similar interests, similar play times, similar leveling rates, etc. You need to look out for them (by getting them into your groups, and so on) if you expect them to look out for you in turn and get you into their groups. Yup, all this takes work. MMOs are social games. The strength of your personal network is a pretty good definition for how good you are at playing an MMO. The social network is a major reason why successful people are not out there yelling in open channels for a group. Because they have been privately working their network, and scoring.
(3) Do it yourself. Time to do some math again. In Warhammer, a group has at most six people. That means one person in six has to be making groups. Actually, its more than that, because many leveling groups don't even want six people. The biggest bottleneck in any MMO is always leadership. And especially, small-scale leadership like group building... because so much of that is needed.
Much of the time, there just won't be a group available to get into. Your friends might be busy, or not online. Your guild's not doing anything organized right now. And so on. But there are nearly always people available to do stuff, if you cast the net broadly enough and provide an opportunity that they are interested in. So if you want a group to do something, much of the time you need to organize it yourself. How hard this is depends on what you want to do. If you are 30 and you want to level, then you just need a couple of people of compatible level and classes who can agree on where to go. That's not so hard. If you want a built group for scenarios, that is a bit more challenging, since you need six people of the right combination of classes, levels, and ability to work together. But if you are diligent, and polite in how you go about it, you should be able to get that to work out. Remember though: While just shouting in guild/alliance might get you a couple of responses, mostly you will need to be tracking people down and sending private tells to get their attention.
Of course, if you want to do the third boss in Bastion Stair, then you need to get six people of the right balance and progression. Obviously that is harder because there are so many constraints involved. The more complicated the thing you want to do, the more effort you have to put into it. This brings us to the realm of semi-persistent groups. This is closely related to your social network. Now, a few people play highly desired classes at the right time, like a high-level tank during peak hours. Such people might get constant tells asking them to come join a dungeon group. Life is easy for them, at least in terms of getting a group. But most of us don't have that luxury. Most of us need to get into some sort of regular arrangement with a collection of people that semi-regularly works together to form dungeon groups, or scenario groups, or whatever. This is an extension of that all-important personal social network that I mentioned before. Obviously this is something beyond the spur of the moment. It takes planning and regularity. If you aren't willing or able to plan and be on some regular schedule, then you need to accept up front that you probably won't get to do the type of activities that require organized groups.
All of this takes some work, a good attitude, and a willingness to compromise. Its not so simple as hoping that someone will come along and solve your problems for you. What separates successful people from frustrated people is the understanding that life does take work, because you really do need to take care of it yourself. Grouping is like that, too.