How can 'noobs' improve if we are insulted every time we ask a question?

[Pistol Whip Sam]

Hey MMO posters,

I am fairly new to these forums, so i wanted to say hi. Hi. I have a slight dilemma that i dont know what to do.

A friend of mine asked me to come play WoW with him, and I signed up for the game when the company was giving it for $30 dollars. I also signed up for the recruit a friend program with my buddy playing WoW. He is in a high end raiding guild, but he promised me he would level up with me a few of his characters to help me get a character leveled to 85 to do stuff.

Well I am now 85, and i am a shadow priest, and every time i ask someone for advice in game, even if i whisper them (usually really geared priests who obviously know how to dps well) they usually reply back with insulting and bad comments. I don't know why someone would insult another person just asking for advice and help to improve? Things like "gtfo nub play another game" and i whisper again and it says in red "this person is ignoring you".

Is this normal behavior? Do people really act like this when someone needs help? When I ask a general question about the game, or a priest specific question in the general city channel, someone will almost always say, "are you serious?" or something like "how bad are you?" I even got "you should just kill yourself now because you are helpless"

This is really turning me off to playing this game Even some people in my guild will insult me for asking a question.

Anyone notice this? What should I do?

[Resentful]

Oh yeah that's normal behavior for sure, People expect you to pretty much know about the game via EJ and such etc which isn't really hard to do. 5 mins of your time and your g2g really. For myself I don't usually give advice either unless It's really somewhat ''short'' in most cases I give them the link to EJ or any other helpful site really due to the fact I'm not going to explain how to do things while you can read it your self with better thoughts.

[Zf]

Honestly? The same way I did 6 years ago. Trial and error. Just don't rely on people to feed you the entire game. There is nothing you can't learn about this game from a simple 1 min google search.

[Pendulous]

I wouldn't whisper random people. That's a little rude I think. However, if you're in a big raiding guild, you should have no trouble asking your fellow guildies for advice. That's kinda what they're there for. If they're the ones acting like it, sounds like you might need to find a new guild, friend or not.

[Deleted]

i personally always whisper an answer to random people's questions i see on the trade channel whenever someone asks something. i didnt even know such sites as elitistjerks etc while i was new to the game :3

[Tanker]

I have always had very good luck with asking for assistance in 2 methods. First is a class forum, like MMO has here. If you go in there, search for threads related to your questions, find some answers, then start a new thread asking for more info, or other questions, you will tend to get very good responses. Good questions are ones that are not made totally clear in your class sticky.

Secondly, I know which guilds are the advanced raiding guilds on my realm, and thus have high quality players. /who <guild> and find the class i want to ask about. /w <player> excuse me, but I am new to <class> and wanted to ask you a couple questions about <topic>. When you have a few moments, could you explain <topic> to me a little?

You run the risk of getting a bad reply, but along with a raiding reputation, most guilds also have a "social" reputation. Avoid the jerk guilds. Ask the nice guilds.

I realise the underlying intent of your post is "why are players jerks?", but I think you know that answer already. Just consider it confirmed.

[avengingbt]

Read the dps threads on mmo-champion and EJ and providing you follow them correctly you'll be able to out dps 95% of the people you meet in LFD/LFR.

There's not really any excuse to be low on dps with all the information available on the internet nowadays, it's just laziness.

If you have difficult questions that are not answered by the guides you could always make a thread for it in the priest section and I suspect that people will answer it, but if you're asking stupid questions that could be answered by spending some time reading through a guide then nobody is going to spend the time to help you.

[toeknee]

Ah the wonderful WoW community. The only place where your told to fuck off when trying to start a illegitimate discussion about being told to fuck off.

[Suikoden]

Hey MMO posters,

I am fairly new to these forums, so i wanted to say hi. Hi. I have a slight dilemma that i dont know what to do.

A friend of mine asked me to come play WoW with him, and I signed up for the game when the company was giving it for $30 dollars. I also signed up for the recruit a friend program with my buddy playing WoW. He is in a high end raiding guild, but he promised me he would level up with me a few of his characters to help me get a character leveled to 85 to do stuff.

Well I am now 85, and i am a shadow priest, and every time i ask someone for advice in game, even if i whisper them (usually really geared priests who obviously know how to dps well) they usually reply back with insulting and bad comments. I don't know why someone would insult another person just asking for advice and help to improve? Things like "gtfo nub play another game" and i whisper again and it says in red "this person is ignoring you".

Is this normal behavior? Do people really act like this when someone needs help? When I ask a general question about the game, or a priest specific question in the general city channel, someone will almost always say, "are you serious?" or something like "how bad are you?" I even got "you should just kill yourself now because you are helpless"

This is really turning me off to playing this game Even some people in my guild will insult me for asking a question.

Anyone notice this? What should I do?

Unfortunately the majority of players are lacking in maturity. So essentially being a new player and aiming to play seriously is kind of like boot camp. One can either put up with all the insults and find that small glitter of help or simply throw your convictions to the way side.

For your convenience though there are guides on this site that will properly guide you in what you need to know. Also the people that lurk on the class specific forums generally don't mind helping people. Hopefully you can get on your feet and play awesomely.

[Pistol Whip Sam]

Honestly? The same way I did 6 years ago. Trial and error. Just don't rely on people to feed you the entire game. There is nothing you can't learn about this game from a simple 1 min google search.

So while learning the game, you NEVER asked a person playing the same game as you a question on anything? The way you are suggesting to learn the game is like going back to the caveman era trying to invent the wheel.

I would expect if someone knows the answer to a simple question, people would have the decency and good manners to be polite and answer, or do as the poster above stated by giving a link to a website to learn about the game.

And what is EJ?

[dd614]

Welcome to the WoW community, where being a nice person gets you spat upon.

[neccowafer]

Hey MMO posters,

I am fairly new to these forums, so i wanted to say hi. Hi. I have a slight dilemma that i dont know what to do.

A friend of mine asked me to come play WoW with him, and I signed up for the game when the company was giving it for $30 dollars. I also signed up for the recruit a friend program with my buddy playing WoW. He is in a high end raiding guild, but he promised me he would level up with me a few of his characters to help me get a character leveled to 85 to do stuff.

Well I am now 85, and i am a shadow priest, and every time i ask someone for advice in game, even if i whisper them (usually really geared priests who obviously know how to dps well) they usually reply back with insulting and bad comments. I don't know why someone would insult another person just asking for advice and help to improve? Things like "gtfo nub play another game" and i whisper again and it says in red "this person is ignoring you".

Is this normal behavior? Do people really act like this when someone needs help? When I ask a general question about the game, or a priest specific question in the general city channel, someone will almost always say, "are you serious?" or something like "how bad are you?" I even got "you should just kill yourself now because you are helpless"

This is really turning me off to playing this game Even some people in my guild will insult me for asking a question.

Anyone notice this? What should I do?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1764409092

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...%28by-Kilee%29

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...prove-Your-DPS

http://elitistjerks.com/f77/t124358-...e_4_3_updated/


Try asking questions to people only when:

1. Being specific... "What is the hit cap for casters?" etc will usually get much better responses than "What is the entire stat priority for shadow priests?" The shorter the answer to the question needs to be, the more likely you will get a good answer. The more explaining someone has to do, the less likely they are to actually do it.

2. You're sure you've already done what you realistically can to find the answer yourself. "Where is...?" questions can usually be answered by an NPC town guard. Basic spriest info is online, and while a close friend might take the time to help you out, most people probably won't. Don't be helpless.

3. You have said more than 5 words to this person before, other than this question. Most people who are "really geared" and in a good guild are busy most of the time or otherwise don't want to be bothered. They might be on vent with a bunch of friends or maybe, because they appear to know how to play well, they get asked the same questions all the time by other people who then continue to harrass them every time they need to know if a pimple on their butt looks infected or not. You might not be planning on friending them and bothering them for every tiny request, but some people do. I remember I helped out a warlock in my guild a few times, I really babysat him telling him what gem, what to spec, rotation, everything, because I just wanted bosses to die, not because I was too tight with him or anything. For the next YEAR he continued to whisper me every time he got a piece of gear asking what to gem/chant it and stuff, even when I was no longer in the guild.

[Siri]

While their behavior definitely isn't good it stems from the issue that a lot of people ask the same questions over and over when they could get in-depth information from online sources. It is easy to get the impression that people just want the answers handed to them instead of being interested in doing actual work to improve. In general this is not the case but you really would be better off by reading at http://www.elitistjerks.com
It's a good idea because that way you not only get answers to your questions but you'll likely also pick up good information that you didn't even think about asking about. Just make sure you read the original post and the few most recent pages before you ask questions since they're fairly strict about posting over there.

[Facepalmer3]

Yep does not surprise me in the slightest. I think the most effective way is to Google something like " Shadow Priest Guide" maybe even put the current patch after it like "4.2" and there will be tons of guides. People love making them and there are resources. Fact of the matter is, those people you have whispered are probably just jaded and don't want to be bothered.

[Yoshimiko]

There's stickies everywhere. There's options to talk to people in chat. If questions arise that you are incapable of answering with google, post a topic - as long as it seems like you were attempting to find an answer elsewhere, and did proper research ahead of time, and have the things to properly request help(such as logs, armory, etc) - the mmo-c community is generally very accepting of new questions.

What we do not enjoy are people who avoid stickies, refuse to go to places like EJ, clearly have little interest in workign to better themselves - but rather would like us to do all the leg work for them. Even then, once you get past the (generally) negative remarks, you'll usually find somebody offering help - whether it be through linking you to sites you should read(like EJ, or the stickies), or through direct advice in a condescending mater.

[PHsname]

It really depends on the server you're on. Mine tends to troll people asking for advice, but there's generally no direct insults thrown around.

Anyone who ever asks me for advice randomly gets answers and more time from me than I should give, but I know of a lot who'd rather just ignore or pretend to be afk...

Oh well.

To be honest, it's best to do as much reading outside the game as possible, then ask players specific and detailed questions in a conversational setting, rather than sending uninvited whispers and whatnot.

[Blockygame]

Yeah, there are more nice people in our community than you might realize, the negative ones you need not pay any thought... just pity them (/pity). Whispering someone might not be the way to go unless you're just looking for something or wanting quick advice, I wouldn't expect someone to go hard on any lengthy information though, but it can happen, never be afraid to ask, ever.

[Deleted]

This is exactly the same thing in all games, not only in wow, not only in mmorpg.
I mean, in League Of Legend this is the same. For example, Viktor was new, I played him after 1 hour of release, and I sucked. I have been insulted.
Same thing everywhere.

[Sand Person]

http://www.noxxic.com/

this is an alternative to ej. i find myself still without answers on ej. too wishywashy imho.

[Realist Phill]

You just have to be lucky enough to find a decent human being (1 in 100), who'll try their best to help you out and answer any questions you might have. If your that unlucky though your best off just doing what everyone else here is suggesting, google it.

---------- Post added 2012-01-06 at 11:02 AM ----------

http://www.noxxic.com/

this is an alternative to ej. i find myself still without answers on ej. too wishywashy imho.

Nice website