Play The Game Tonight

"Wow. You guys suck."

That was the parting message from our healer last night in Wailing Caverns.

I joined a dungeon crawl already in progress, which is always sort of odd. After I joined, we had one player finish the first boss, then apologize and leave because of the time. We replaced them, powered on, then lost one player in the party to a disconnect and wiped trying to four-man a tough pull. We were pretty much fumbling our way through a confusing instance without much direction or purpose, killing whatever we happened to stumble across.

Into which comes Mr. Healer. One tough pull, one wipe, and it's "Wow, you guys suck" and poof, no more healer.

Yeah. Stay classy, dude.

I'll be honest - I sympathize with the attitude, if not with the way it was expressed. We did suck. I was tanking again, and playing fumble-fingers with my abilities. There was another pally in the party who pretty obviously was just in the group to run around and kill things. The gnome rogue had some pretty amusing bellyaching about how the druids in the instance kept putting him to sleep. We really had no idea where we were going, what we were doing, where the bosses were, or anything else.

Basically, we were just having fun screwing around, playing a video game together.

I realize that some people who play WoW might have an issue with that, but I also find it ironic that someone would have a problem with a bunch of people playing a game. I mean, there's a reason it's called play. In this instance, I wasn't too horribly concerned with downing the bosses. After all - I don't need the loot, I don't need the achievements, I don't really care about much at all. I was more than happy to just bop around and, you know, play for a bit.

Mr. Healer obviously didn't feel the same way. He didn't know who we were. Didn't bother to ask. Didn't bother to offer any direction or suggestions. Didn't bother to talk to us, except to tell us that we sucked.

Noob tank? Check. New guy on a WoW trial account? Check. Couple of other players who, based on their chat, were probably younger than my venerable mumblety-mumblety years? Check. Lack of heirloom items and gear that is pretty much indicative of either casual or first-time players? Check.

Jerk healer with an attitude? Check.

I can't help but imagine Mr. Healer joining a pick-up football game in the park, and after the first play, looking around at his fellow players and going "Wow. You guys suck." and walking off the field.

What can you do in that situation, really, but shrug your shoulders, find another player for your pickup game, and then go back to having fun? You know, the point of playing your game?

Well, I guess you could do something else. You could hop on your blog the next day, and jot a note for all the jerks out there - be they tanks, healers, or dps - who think that they're too good to play a game with you, and let them know...

"Wow. You guys suck."