Why do so many players gate themselves out of progress?

[ItachiZaku]

Social anxiety, mostly. And a crippling fear of screwing up.

Being the only healer, one bad rogue who can't 1v1 someone in a tower or whatever, he's the only one that keeps dying... you think you failed cuz you couldn't save everyone every time. Someone loses internet conn just as fire is thrown on them...

After you understand that as a healer, people are still going to die, it's easier to deal with. Just this morning, was the only healer in an IA in Rift, one of those odd level quirks where the end boss was actually really tough, obviously only healer, no one die in a massive movement needed mechanic with a shit load of adds (how some of these are zzz and others are this tough is beyond me) and no one died. We zone into the next and most of the people in the raid were thanking me, praising me. That little bit goes a long way.

Everyone screws up. It's a game. Shit happens. Die a few times. Learn. Get better. Don't take it so seriously.

[Eazy]

I don't expect getting loot, titles or mounts from mythic raid bosses when I don't do mythic raids or buy a carry. I don't expect to get any pvp rewards if I don't do pvp.

What I expect is, when the devs tell us that you will be able to see the story in LFR, that they stick to it. In the current situation, they cheat us regarding the artefact questline, because we cannot do the quests in LFR. But I consider my artefact questline story, and lore, and thus I am very angry about that decision. I could finish the mythic dungeons perfectly fine, but farming 30 quest items without a raid guild is nigh impossible for me. If these things would drop 100% off every boss, I probably could manage that eventually with pugs. But if things stay as they are, I cannot calculate the amount of weeks and the amount of lost hours with searching for groups, and thus don't even think about starting.

Okay, the arguments you provided are fine and I respect them. They should do it. (let LFR players do the quest/see the lore)

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

Lol, this is just not true.. like at all..

I'm playing a spriest, and I can not tell you how often, that I get declined for a group, only for said group to continue to look for players..



Yeah, I do, and eventually you do end up finding a group, even if you have to take those with the lowest ilvl requirements..
But to claim, that people don't specifically decline people of low ilvl and specific classes, is just moronic rambling.

Not what I was trying to say at all. I did list "accepted someone with a higher I-level than you" as one of the possibilities. My point was, it's not like they know you personally and were rejecting you because you're bad. So you shouldn't take it personally. And while they may be looking for a specific class to compliment their group (maybe they need heroism or someone with an AoE stun), it's just as likely to be any of those other reasons I mentioned. Most of the time it boils down to more people applying than they had room for, and they clicked on one that wasn't you. That's very different from them looking at your b-net profile or warcraft logs and deciding you weren't good enough.

- - - Updated - - -

this one is a severe issue with blizzards design. if a group fills while youre signed up for it, it says you got declined. With this stupid design people think they got declined when they didnt, the group just filled.

YES! How much nicer would it be to get a message saying "Group has filled" instead of "You were declined"? Blizz should really change this.

[Xtrm]

As someone who has diagnosed social and general anxiety disorder, I hate seeing the excuse that "oh I get anxious in dungeons or raids with people". It seems like this "excuse" has been picked up by the community because they don't want to be judged for screwed up mechanics or doing bad, which is not the same as social anxiety. That's just a lack of confidence in yourself playing your character.

[Saffa]

Social anxiety, mostly. And a crippling fear of screwing up.

Kind of a tragic irony, reall: being anxious about interacting with others when playing an MMO...

Also the knowledge you are not good enough. I am 65. My hands do not work very well and I am losing the sight in one of my eyes. How can I join any group knowing I just cannot perform well enough. I do quest, pet battle and do old raids with a good friend who makes allowances for my lack of speed. Three quarters through SoO now and quite pleased with my effort - not died or got lost yet but MoP was my favourite expansion and eyesight was better back then so I did LFR and was high enough in dps not to be too embarrassed. I got 40 odd alts to 100 in WoD, all classes, and loved garrisons, but found by then dungeons, even normal ones, were a death fest for me so I just stopped doing them. I do not want to be carried in a guild so I keep myself to myself most of the time. After almost 9 years playing I am not ready to give up WoW just yet.

[TITAN308]

LFG really shines a light on who has social problems in real life.

People are literally freaking out over video game characters.

Sure there are exceptions to the rule like the previous poster, but outside of that these people strike me as bizarre.

[arcaneshot]

I don't expect getting loot, titles or mounts from mythic raid bosses when I don't do mythic raids or buy a carry. I don't expect to get any pvp rewards if I don't do pvp.

What I expect is, when the devs tell us that you will be able to see the story in LFR, that they stick to it. In the current situation, they cheat us regarding the artefact questline, because we cannot do the quests in LFR. But I consider my artefact questline story, and lore, and thus I am very angry about that decision..

You're not actually missing anything storywise. There isn't any actual lore content locked behind it.