Do you prefer to down content or raid with people you get along with?

[katta]

My friend and I are both 18 year olds who just graduated like 6 months ago, and the rest of the raid team is either 30+ year olds or 15 year olds. It's hard to find things in common with the others, and I don't find myself talking with them unless necessary, which I don't think is healthy for a team.

What would you do?

Age has nothing to do with getting along with people.

You can have plenty of things in common that dont involve age. Sports,VIDEO GAMES,music,tv shows.

Sounds like to me you dont want to try and be friends with them because they are not the same age as you. Just because someones 40 doesnt mean they only listen to opera and watch the news as is someone who is 15 doesnt mean they just care about dolls and linken logs.

[Deleted]

prefer a healthy combo.

i cant stand raiding with people who i do not like so.
however raiding with people i do like but wiping agian and agian on some low tier encounter isnt something i could handle either.

so yes a healthy combo of progress and nice people too raid with.

[Deleted]

Cant really enjoy myself if you wipe constantly on an easy boss for several hours. Killing bosses > raiding with people who only know over the internet. Outside world is for friends, couldnt care less for people I've never seen in real life.

We arent best friends exactly, talking about our deepest emotions or whatnot... this doesnt exclude that you can get along with them, on your way to the top. As comrades rather than friends.

[Hyve]

Not to hard to ask for both I think.

[Maxilian]

Everyone would like both... but that´s the best possible outcome, but at the same time that´s the outcome that not many people have, IMO stay with the people you get along with, try to get another raiding group, and the age difference doesn't matter, i have a couple of friends who i speak all day in SW (Yeah... normally we just hang around a place talking stupid things and doing nothing), I´m 18, one of my friends is a 33 year old woman with 1 child, another one is 22 year old guy and the last one is a 15 year old boy... and we really enjoy talking, we all like to do old raids and, sometimes, just to fool around and talk about life :P

[Nairobi]

Another vote for "both, sort of" here. While I am definitely progression oriented and have a thick skin, raiding with irritating people gets old quickly. If people are just quiet/withdrawn, it's equally as bad, IMO. On the flipside, raiding with a group of people that you may be best of friends with can be fun, but can become toxic if progression stalls and/or the blame game starts. Having arguments over a video game that flow into RL isn't really healthy.

I have some RL friends that play, but I refuse to raid with them because I know we play on different levels and for different reasons. If I was to raid with them, we'd be screaming at each other, and that's no fun for anyone. Luckily, my GF is actually a very talented healer, so we play/raid together (/phew), otherwise this game would be far more fragmented for us. However, she was not always considered top-notch. I actually opted to do 10LK heroic progression without her (she SAID she didn't care, so I believed that...silly me), and what a shit-storm ensued. I ended up dialing back raiding in favor of a more happy home-life, but I missed it and kinda resented having to make that choice. Basically, this little diatribe is to say that balance is key, and choosing black or white will likely get you in trouble with someone.

Personally, I raid 25m HC content because of what I've learned. In 25s, I am FAR more likely to have a lively, fun vent/gchat atmosphere. I am more likely to have ppl that I get along with and have similar iterests with. Conversely, there are likely more people that I DON'T know/care for/agree with, but the good mostly outweighs the bad. Progress is decent (7/12H on 25), but the "good group" of us tends to grow increasingly frustrated when progression stalls, knowing that the dead weight is holding us back. Recently, this led us to raid 10man for a week over the holidays where we picked up 3 new heroic kills. And actually, that was great for us AND for the guild. We kinda "scratched that itch" (and re-asserted that we don't suck), and we got some more gear into the guild as well as some strats to take back to the 25 mainraid.

I love talking with and hanging out with the 25 people on the roster for the most part, and the amount of diversity in the guild is great (ppl from all over US, UK/Europe, Aus, Jamaica, etc all in a US guild), AND our progress isn't bad. Are there people that I don't like/want to raid with? Sure, a few. Could we be further in HC progression? Sure, a couple bosses. But dropping to 10 would alienate a lot of the people that I enjoy talking with, and I don't want to give up those relationships that have been cultivated over the past few years just to jockey for 3-4 more heroic kills on farm.

And that's what I've learned.

[Redpanda]

I like to strike a medium. You're not going be bff with everyone in your raid, in 10s its a little more volatile everyone needs to at the very least tolerate each other. While in 25s you can always mute a few people in voice chat and get away with it. When I did 25s there where 4 people that I had muted through out t11 and t12 heroic content, rest of the raid was fine to me.

[Rezhial]

In the 7 or however many years it's been, I have been in both "fun teams" and "progression teams". At this point I would have to say I much more prefer to kill bosses at a faster pace than essentially hanging out in vent.

[anaxie]

Uh why not both?

also why not zoidberg?

[Halicia]

Uh why not both?

Can't have both. When two guildies have an unresolvable disagreement, and one has better numbers, which gets kicked ?

Personally, I expect more of my guild then I am willing to put up in PUGs, but thats because I don't have to raid with those guys in the future, and when I join a PUG, its because I want to down bosses, not actually hang out with these people.

[Deleted]

Prefer both combined, have a healthy environment in the group which kind of serves as a source of motivation to the group, where as if they where assholes to each others they would not give it their all.

[Callimonk]

In my world, it should never be one or the other. I have left guilds if I felt I wasn't a fit - luckily, I'm apparently easy to get along with (and am a very laid back person), so it's only been an issue a total of one time that the social atmosphere of a guild has made me miserable.

On the other hand, most guilds I've been in have had a 0 drama tolerance policy, which is something I prefer. Doesn't matter if you're the best in your world at your class - if you cause drama, you're holding us back and you're out (or muted). It's that simple. One person is not going to carry a raid, but one person can easily sink a raid.

Actually, I kind of hate the myth that all top guilds are assholes - while they certainly can be, not all are the same, and I think it's a pretty common myth that a top guild can't care about their players (every single one I've been in has cared about them, and has been willing to try to work with schedules where they can, within reason - 9-24 other people shouldn't have to be "held back" over one person).

Now, that said, I think that top end players can have a tendency to be elitist jerks, but not all of them (I know I can be pretty elitist at times around my signif other without meaning to - but I've learned to dial it back a bit. He's still working through normal modes, whereas my guild is 12/16 (me personally, 11/16 - darn holidays!) HM cleared. I think it's really kept me grounded). Many I've encountered have proven to be incredibly friendly - provided you show a willingness to improve. They don't like feeling used or feeling like you just want to waste their time; they have already received that in the past from more people than they can count. And honestly? One of my longest lasting friendships is with a person from Juggernaut (yes, THAT Juggernaut, from WotLK) - he was an officer before they disbanded and is absolutely one of the nicest people I've met. I can rightly say that HM raiding has actually lead me to some pretty lasting friendships.

And, to be honest - we all have at least one thing in common, don't we? At least one game, that is Plus, I know that most people in top guilds continue playing not just for progression, but because of the lasting friendships that they have made in the game.

Though, honestly, I think recently the most joy I've gotten in the game - outside of raiding - has been to help people. Whether it's people who play my class or are working on a boss, it's a nice feeling when they tell me they followed my advice and their DPS went up 20K and their guild finally got that kill they were working on. Maybe it just fans my ego, but really - I just like to be able to nerd out and have a willing audience. I tend to be pretty liberal about who I give my bnet tag to, for that reason.

So - in short - I chose to not sacrifice the social or the progression side of raiding.

[Ceece]

There's plenty of raiding guilds out there, but ideally downing content != raiding with people you can't stand. I would have to be very close with people to enjoy raiding with them. If I'm not enjoying myself, I'll go elsewhere. Not saying guild hopping is the thing to do, even though you're playing a game. The fact that you're paying access to play on your own time, you have the right to do what you please. However, if you're raiding with a group, you're on everybodys' time when raiding. I'm sure you'll find a decent guild, OP. It takes time.

[Senen]

People. Definitely, people.

I have the skill level, the motivation and the time to raid on heroic content. I would really like my guildies to aim for 16/16hm but we are more likely to aim for 16/16nm (currently 8/16nm), with only two raids by weeks and players with very differents skill/involvement.
Each time my guild is on vacation (christmas, summer holidays, etc), I raid with a guild far more advanced on the content than we are and I can raid with more assiduity and against a more difficult content. I really like it and I miss it each time I stop raiding with them. I would definitely love to raid like this all the time.

I know I could join them anytime or even try to apply to an even better guild and I thought about it several times.
Yet, I'm well too attached to my guild and guildies and I won't leave them. I play this game to play with people I really enjoy and I'm not wiiling to abandon that for all the heroic content in the world (of warcraft.)

Edit: Sorry, I answered to the title not to your first message. But I suppose you can easily understand my opinion on your problem. Playing with people you like is important. To me, it is the most important thing in raiding. Combining the two is, obviously, the best to do.

[Gandrake]

Depends on how much they get on my nerves if I had to choose between progression and people to play with.

[Minoan]

I was raiding in a 10ppl that was too weak for the moment(the beginning of the Firelands tbh), and all of us were weak both in terms of gear(having 0 experience in t11 but progressing in t12 because it was EASIER, all problems were geared and people'd), we started on w3 of the content and before nerf hits us we hit 2 heroics only. But sitting on Ryo and killing him brilliantly once for 140+ pulls, my god, we were happier only later on lootship HM T13. We were like a family,tbh. We were travelling to each other inbetween contents, having a parties and knowing each other's private life a bit(habits etc).

On t13 when our comp was finally fullfilled of non-critter raiders and people that really love and respect each other, gosh, that time was probably the only moment I prefer virtual life instead of real. And we rushed that content and finished from nowhere to one of the top10 of the realm(6|8 before nerf hits, 140 pulls on ship, 100 pulls on HIS back). Selling Sinestra Achievement and all mounts from Cataclysm(2 from metachievements, 2 from HM Rag and DWing), joking each other on how we were trying to kill Shannox HM for 100 pulls, dealing 17k DPS each.
That 10man broke up 3 days before Pandaria. Without any chance of finding anything to raid, I just left to one of the top of my country's servers, playing Rdruid in 25man. 12|14 HM, but playing alone, by class I perform and really dislike at the same time. Stopped playing for now, because both me and my Girlfriend with whom we were together longer than I remember that game, decided to raid only together(actually LFR or help our casual friends) and pay more time for each other IRL(more movies, restaurants e.t.s..)
We are missing that 10ppl so much.

People>Progress

because when people are respecting each other, they are really motivated to make progress.
When top players are stuck inside of the top25 hating each other, these guilds are usually not exist after the one or two tier expansions.

[PBitt]

Both. But if I had to pick one or the other, I'd pick the progress...I simply wouldn't play if I 'hated' it. I play this game solely to progression raid, I have fun by overcoming challenges in a game and doing so with others at around my pace means more to me than a social get-together. I've met some cool people on WoW over the years, don't get me wrong, but If I really, really wanted to hang and make friends, I would be doing something else, most likely out in the real world. As I said, I would strongly prefer both, but even if I wanted to play a game with friends to just goof off, WoW is not a very good candidate on my list, there are plenty of better options.

[Raxxed]

I have both. But if I had to choose, progression.

[Hakto]

I've done a mixture of both since MC.

Downing content in good time is important to me, but not at the expense of having fun.

I've left guilds over a difference in ethos before and would do so again.

If you are not enjoying yourself, why bother with a game?

Saying that I would struggle to have fun while failing to clear normal mode content for months, so I guess a mixture of both is the answer for me, what mixture exactly is the million dollar question isn't it

---------- Post added 2013-01-09 at 03:25 AM ----------

In the 7 or however many years it's been, I have been in both "fun teams" and "progression teams". At this point I would have to say I much more prefer to kill bosses at a faster pace than essentially hanging out in vent.

No offence, but at this time 9/16 heroic is hardly considered 'faster' pace.

Personally though I prefer being at that exact same position in progression without putting up with some of the people that exist in this game.