I'm afraid I have to disagree. AOR never had the punishment toward solo/Pug players that the Devs of RoR are implementing.GamesBond wrote: ↑Sat Apr 17, 2021 5:27 pm
The game rewards you for teaming up, it's advised everywhere and in any game mode. It also punishes you if you solo play and that's how it is, it's just how a PvP game is. Weekend SCs will remain open to everyone. Now whether you want to team up and increase your winning chance and rewards, or queue solo and get defeated often due to lack of organization, is up to you. The game itself and the social programs have facilitated communication and grouping for everyone, there's no way you'd miss a group/guild if you actually wanted to join.
Back in the day of "live" and back in the earlier years of RoR, pugs were the much needed "filler" of a realms' success. These days, as server pop has dwindled from it's highs of +2000 I see more and more players that prefer not to join groups for whatever reason. The Dev team should really take this into consideration and realize that the game needs to be enjoyable to any and all that take the time to log on.
During AOR the "punishment" for running solo was that you didn't get the renown pops from WB heals and kills and you stood the chance of being flattened by premades, but it seems that there is actually a depreciated renown gain for solo players in ROR. Zone flips are less if solo, or in a small group (I regularly run in a group of 2). Kills have been rewarded with 1 RP, it all makes it less rewarding to even log on and play.
Last night, at about 11pm PST there were over 120 order on and no public WBs. Some tried to gather a WB only to have it half full, meaning a large percentage of players at the time didn't want to group up. You can't blame players that don't want to join a WB that is fail or when pop percentage is such that you're only going to run into a zerg that's going to mow you down. But we still need these players in game to make a "healthy" well rounded community for all players.
I have always stood up for the Pugs because I've realized this is where new players exist. Those that are new to their toons, unsure of how to spec, what rotations to have and with little knowledge of how their class fits into the society of playing on a team, they need to be able to participate, enjoy and receive enough rewards to keep their interest in the game. If not, population dwindles and sooner or later the game will be nothing but elites gathered together in a zone bashing heads until one dominates.
I recently got a friend, a player of AOR for over 5 years, to try RoR. He enjoyed it, UNTIL he hit lvl 16 and was thrust into battles with geared RR80 in uber-organized warbands. He tried to join only to be auto-band kicked because he was too low level (yes, even with his bolster) or because his DPS wasn't needed. I've experienced the same and it's really divisive, makes the game intolerable and creates the thought in the player that "I'm just not wanted". So a pug is born. Then there's the nasty habit of calling out players by name and trashing them because they aren't the best player. All of this only creates feelings of resentment, "why am I even trying" and performance anxiety, it destroys the game for them.
I could go on but I'll just leave it right here and wait for hopefully a productive conversation to commence. Or, I'll just watch as I'm trashed for expressing my thoughts and watch the game die just a little bit more.
