Pugs vs. Guild Groups

My rant about tanking the other week generated a surprising number of responses from fellow bloggers such as Yeebo or Bhagpuss. (I guess complaining about those gosh-darn irresponsible damage dealers is one of those golden oldies when it comes to blogging topics.) One thing that kind of amused me about Telwyn's response was that he assumed that I was complaining about pugs when my beef in this particular case had in fact been with guildies. Pugs just have such a bad reputation that they get blamed for all ills! I still enjoy pugging though, even if I've been doing most of my recent runs in full guild groups. Both styles of grouping have their own unique appeals really.

To start off, I do want to say that I can fully understand why pugging can be stressful - in my experience this is usually the case when you feel you don't have any choice but to pug, e.g. because you "have to" do a piece of group content to progress the story and have no friends or guild to help you through it. This is not how I'm experiencing pugging in SWTOR though - I always have options and know the content well; so opting into a pug run is pretty much always a conscious choice.

As Bhagpuss helped me pinpoint in a comment to a previous post about pugs, they are simply an enjoyable way of people watching. I've never been a huge fan of reality TV, but I do understand its appeal, and pugging works in a similar way, only in a slightly less mundane environment and with more interactivity. This isn't to say that I don't want my pug runs to be successful, but ultimately my primary motivation is to be entertained, and groups behaving in weird and interesting ways can be immensely entertaining even if they aren't actually very good at playing the game.

Pugging is also a great way of connecting with the wider server community. I know people like to say that things like server community aren't really a thing anymore these days, and I acknowledge that features like mega servers and automated group finders have made it harder to get a clear picture of a server's larger social structures, but they do still exist and you can absolutely still make connections if you try. I thought it was interesting that while levelling Nautalie the Shadow purely through flashpoint pugs, I met several people with whom I could have easily struck up a friendship if I had been "looking for love" so to speak and one particular pug hero even offered me a guild invite. I wasn't looking because I already have enough people to worry about in my life right now, but there is still something about testing the wider waters every so often that I find deeply satisfying.

Going fishing in the wider pool of players is also a great way of learning new tactics for content. Sure, guildies can teach each other new tricks too, but if everyone just ran with the same group of people all the time, they'd rarely learn anything new. Observing how other players handle certain trash pulls or boss fights in random groups is a major factor in spreading and sharing knowledge, and I always enjoy seeing people come up with strange new ways of avoiding to kill trash mobs (even if I often disapprove and don't necessarily strive to emulate those particular "tricks").

Finally, another thing I like about pugs is that the stakes often feel lower to me than in guild groups. This goes back to what I said at the beginning about having choices. It's a common refrain that automated group finders result in people not caring about their groups, and while I do think that's generally a bad thing and would never encourage anyone to treat their pug mates badly or to drop group at the drop of a hat, there is something to be said for not feeling pressured to stay in a bad situation with strangers. Guildies may well be more forgiving of mistakes, but you'll still have to deal with the memory of a bad run the next time you log in, because you will see all those people again.

Or to use a less dramatic-sounding example: I am not great at playing damage dealers, which in guild groups often makes me feel a bit bad because so many of my guildies are extremely good at it and I feel like I'm dragging the rest of them down when I play dps myself. I actually kind of prefer to take those characters into pug runs as there's less of an expectation there that you'll put out great numbers - nobody is likely to know or care as long as you manage to kill the boss.

Of course, the pug run's major weakness most of the time is the lack of unity of purpose. Sure, sometimes you'll get a group that just so happens to gel very well, but that's serendipity and definitely not the norm. This is where groups of friends or guildies shine as they'll usually be clear from the beginning about what the goal is, whether it's a quick random run for the daily reward or teaching a new player the ropes.

That aside though, premade groups are often as much about the people as anything else - which is funny actually, considering that I said the primary purpose of pugs is people watching for me, so I guess the social aspect wins out either way. In a group of friends it's more about spending time with people you like though, with the instance run mostly just providing a context for hanging out.

Ultimately the point is that they both have their place in the way I play, even if I may favour one over the other at particular times. It just comes down to what I'm looking for at the time.