WoW "Pay it forward" to a better community

[Deleted]

Hello,

So for some time now I've seen posts on here and other forums about the lowering quality of the community as a whole, blaming it on different things blizzard implemented etc. but never have I really seen anyone actually thinking that there's a problem and maybe we can fix it instead of waiting for blizzard to make things back the way they were.

My own personal story when I hit max level on a character I enjoyed playing (my second one a mage) back in tbc, I really had no clue what anything was. I was around 14 at the time my english knowledge not the best and taking a long time to type and read, and not really having a clue what to do, the friends who got me playing at that point had quit the game so I was quite alone except for the few people I've met while leveling up.

Was just sitting around stormwind with a bit of dungeon gear no enchants or gold. Then I saw someone looking for people to his guild just starting up raiding in karazhan, it really sparked my interest having seen friends raiding back in AQ 40 etc and it just looked epic, so I /w him and started chatting. I was quite lucky here and he was swedish aswell so it made it a lot easier for me to talk with him, so we started talking and he fast found out I really had no clue what I was doing and how the game really worked. What he did next is what I think really made me keep playing, instead of just calling me noob and shooing me away, he talked to me and offered me to join them in their first raid, so I went and did the things he had suggested grabbing some enchants and just using every single piece of gold I had back then to fix all I could. Then later we went to kara and didn't clear it wasn't even close but there was no hard feelings, if I failed they kindly explained to me what happend so I could try and improve and we moved on.

I'm actually ashamed that I can't remember this paladins name today, because he showed me the true joy of wow.

This also made a great impression on me while playing since then, if I have the time and not had the worst of all days I try to help people out instead of bashing them, and over the years I've met some amazing people.

So what I'm thinking is what if we apply the "Pay it Forward" idea to WoW, for those of you who don't know Pay it forward basicly means that instead of asking for anything in return when helping someone out, all you ask is that they just "Pay it forward" by helping out more people and asking for the same thing again basicly creating a snowball effect were people just help eachother out to be kind and not for any kind of profit.

Now I do understand you can't be expected to give things up for free it's your time etc, but if you're actually saddened by how the community took a turn for the worse during the last few years, give this a try and let see if we can change it back to how it used to be. If you run in to people who just refuse your help don't get discouraged just ignore them and move on, try it again with the next one, helping people who actually are happy when you do feels great. It does not have to be a huge thing, something as small as just telling them were to go find what they are looking for, some general advice on how to help improve (this is somewhat hard aswell since telling someone they are doing it wrong might come across as you're bashing them for being bad and not trying to help), everything counts here.

If you took the time to read all of this I atleast hope you will consider the idea.

[razski]

Hello,

So for some time now I've seen posts on here and other forums about the lowering quality of the community as a whole, blaming it on different things blizzard implemented etc. but never have I really seen anyone actually thinking that there's a problem and maybe we can fix it instead of waiting for blizzard to make things back the way they were.

My own personal story when I hit max level on a character I enjoyed playing (my second one a mage) back in tbc, I really had no clue what anything was. I was around 14 at the time my english knowledge not the best and taking a long time to type and read, and not really having a clue what to do, the friends who got me playing at that point had quit the game so I was quite alone except for the few people I've met while leveling up.

Was just sitting around stormwind with a bit of dungeon gear no enchants or gold. Then I saw someone looking for people to his guild just starting up raiding in karazhan, it really sparked my interest having seen friends raiding back in AQ 40 etc and it just looked epic, so I /w him and started chatting. I was quite lucky here and he was swedish aswell so it made it a lot easier for me to talk with him, so we started talking and he fast found out I really had no clue what I was doing and how the game really worked. What he did next is what I think really made me keep playing, instead of just calling me noob and shooing me away, he talked to me and offered me to join them in their first raid, so I went and did the things he had suggested grabbing some enchants and just using every single piece of gold I had back then to fix all I could. Then later we went to kara and didn't clear it wasn't even close but there was no hard feelings, if I failed they kindly explained to me what happend so I could try and improve and we moved on.

I'm actually ashamed that I can't remember this paladins name today, because he showed me the true joy of wow.

This also made a great impression on me while playing since then, if I have the time and not had the worst of all days I try to help people out instead of bashing them, and over the years I've met some amazing people.

So what I'm thinking is what if we apply the "Pay it Forward" idea to WoW, for those of you who don't know Pay it forward basicly means that instead of asking for anything in return when helping someone out, all you ask is that they just "Pay it forward" by helping out more people and asking for the same thing again basicly creating a snowball effect were people just help eachother out to be kind and not for any kind of profit.

Now I do understand you can't be expected to give things up for free it's your time etc, but if you're actually saddened by how the community took a turn for the worse during the last few years, give this a try and let see if we can change it back to how it used to be. If you run in to people who just refuse your help don't get discouraged just ignore them and move on, try it again with the next one, helping people who actually are happy when you do feels great. It does not have to be a huge thing, something as small as just telling them were to go find what they are looking for, some general advice on how to help improve (this is somewhat hard aswell since telling someone they are doing it wrong might come across as you're bashing them for being bad and not trying to help), everything counts here.

If you took the time to read all of this I atleast hope you will consider the idea.

Been running a newbie mentor guild for a few years now. Try to help anyone I can when I come across someone in need. However I've not been telling them to go out and help others, because I do it for a selfish reason. The satisfaction I feel when I help someone. The pride in getting newbies into current content raids and clearing them. It's why I still play.

[Arbs]

I do the best I can, Is all I can honestly say.

[DeadmanWalking]

Its easier to call people baddies and "LoL LrN 2 PLY!" "Reroll!" than it is to help someone in a way that is not going to offend them. I joined a guild that refused to do randoms and only played togeather and I figured out why, they didn't know the ins and outs of their classes and were continuously getting disrespected by other players who called them baddies and loosers. So instead of learning what to do to up their game they shrugged it off as wow being filled with D-bags and resolved to play by themselves.

They were not using proper rotation, not enchanting/gemming at all (one player had 12 empty gem slots), their Cata talent trees were a mess and most didnt even know what a reforger did or why certain stats were more important than others. They said they were interested in raiding but they were barely pulling through regular cata dungeons.

Once someone from another guild had dusted the noob off me and showed me what I had to do to progress and I used this opportunity to pay it forward. The trick is to get someone to change how they play without insulting them. If you insult them you have lost them and they will never listen to you.

I started with the co-guild leaders and mentioned to them I wanted them to try something that would increase their dps by 25-35% and if they didn't like the results they could easily switch back. Then I gave them gems, enchants, lead them through a talent tree rebuild and suggested Noxxic.com for how to reforge their gear. Once that was done I lead them through a pug heroic dungeon specifically for gear they needed and they were both rocking out 25-35% of their regular dps and they didn't change back as they were very happy with the results and they didn't get any complaints about how much dps they were doing or any insults from other DPS.

Then they suggested the rest of the guild to try my method with me and we went on to finish regular Dragon Soul Dungeons as a guild.

Nobody ever reacts well to being insulted, if there is something they don't know they certainly won't know it after they get booted and will just think everyone else is just being a jerk. The first step in helping others to up their game is to approach them in a manner that won't insult them.

[Spraxle]

It's funny, I always did have a lot of fun helping people. In Vanilla I would run people through Deadmines, and these were people I didn't know. I was never one to give away money, but I would give tips and would rather run them through an instance then just trade them gold. Sigh... I do miss the helping people when I think about it. That was part of the reason I was always a healer, it meant I could help.

[Mission]

That depends if you have the time too commit to such a thing to do, tho there is a few noob guilds out there, where people take in new comers, inexperienced ppl and try to spend time teaching them various things.

And then there is others, who have played for yrs, or catch on mighty fast, and associate if you like with similar knowledged gamers.

Myself im busy doing my own thing, unless with guildies, raiding, challenge modes, so forth which is all guildies, except on occasions random heroics maybe 1-2 spots pug filled with LFD, other day there was a warlock in our grp, he ws doing about argg I dunno 20k dps, wouldnt even be more then that on AOE or single targets, coming near end of heroic dungeon, our guild tank says something like "hey warlock, you realise you suck right? thats some really shit dps"

And it was really bad dps, then I inspected him and realised he was in blues/greens, probably just recently dinged and was close to many first heroic dungeon based off his gear, and on a good note the tank typed in /p and instances are now /instance, so warlock never saw comment, and I said in guild chat, you realise warlock is blues/greens right ?

beside point I know... we have a great team, good guildies, you wouldnt think so from what I posted above... but sometimes well alot of the time from yrs of wow, I think ppl when they are bunched to gether with other guildies/friends, act sometimes idiotic... nfi why that is...

But myself, no, I dont really commit any time to help new comers, I dont have time, and too busy playing and using my time for me and my guild/friends to care about strangers/randoms. Thats what guides, fan sites are for... /shrug

[Drithien]

It's a nice idea. Usually when/if I help someone with something I just say "No problem" in the end, maybe I should change things a bit.