Kincaide
Legend
Note: This thread is specific in its focus, so do not post any replies about how the bracket is beyond help in general. If you do, I will flag your post as off-topic and trolling.
Noobs.
We all know them, we've seen then in our battlegrounds, and many of us can't stand them. They come in to our battlegrounds, all undergeared and not knowing what to do with the flag, fighting on roads, and some of us are tempted to vote them out of the BG. Its bad enough with the (24/enchant/fotm/whatever your favorite rant is), but now we have to play with NOOBS as well? What is a die-hard PVPer to do?
But wait.
I happened to be thinking about this just now, and a few realizations came to me. Let's think about who those "noobs" really are. They are not just other starter edition accounts. They are starter edition accounts being played by someone with an interest in PVP. That is a very important point that I think gets overlooked. There are likely thousands of F2P accounts who never step into a battlegrounds because they have no interest in PVP. Those that do, at least have some motivation to succeed at PVP, or else they wouldn't bother queueing. So you have people who may at this moment be clueless and undergeared, but they want to improve.
Second point, even if you remove them from this particular BG, they're not removed from the larger F2P "community". They will still queue, and you'll still see them because they are F2P, just like you. You're only delaying the inevitable by kicking them out. If you -have- to have someone in your fraternity, it's in your interest to at least do as much as you can to help them become competent.
Third and final point, even with all the desire to be at your level they may have, many of them simply lack the knowledge of how to get there. I still get asked where I got a particular piece of gear. Each one of us, at some point in the past, existed in a place before we knew about TI and all its great resources. Before I found TI, I searched for best gear on WoWhead... and it's possible some new players don't even know about WoWhead!
So: They are interested in PVP, they want to get better, they aren't going away and they lack information. This is where we come in. If you really want to make a difference in our bracket, do your part to bring everyone around you up, rather than push them down. If you're already as good as you can get, then team improvement only comes from improving your teammates. Anyone who has played team sports innately knows that this is true.
Will every one of them respond and grow to be awesome? No! Will there always be people who just don't possess the desire or baseline skill to become good? Yes! Is that reason enough to reject all newbies? I would argue that it is not. I will not name names, but I can think of quite a few people in the community who started out as total noobs who were given a push in the right direction by veterans bothering to take the time to help them. Even if only a small percentage become stars, then you've still helped increase the number of stars.
So, what can YOU do to bring the total level of competence up? I'd like to turn it over to discuss different macros you use, or conversations you've had, or even personal stories of how someone helped you become the rock star you are now. Some of you will think that all of this is pointless, and that's fine, I'm not bothered by what you think. Just as you can't convert every noob into a star, you can't convert every veteran into a mentor. But if I can reach even a few of you to start trying to make a difference, all this typing will have been worth it.
Noobs.
We all know them, we've seen then in our battlegrounds, and many of us can't stand them. They come in to our battlegrounds, all undergeared and not knowing what to do with the flag, fighting on roads, and some of us are tempted to vote them out of the BG. Its bad enough with the (24/enchant/fotm/whatever your favorite rant is), but now we have to play with NOOBS as well? What is a die-hard PVPer to do?
But wait.
I happened to be thinking about this just now, and a few realizations came to me. Let's think about who those "noobs" really are. They are not just other starter edition accounts. They are starter edition accounts being played by someone with an interest in PVP. That is a very important point that I think gets overlooked. There are likely thousands of F2P accounts who never step into a battlegrounds because they have no interest in PVP. Those that do, at least have some motivation to succeed at PVP, or else they wouldn't bother queueing. So you have people who may at this moment be clueless and undergeared, but they want to improve.
Second point, even if you remove them from this particular BG, they're not removed from the larger F2P "community". They will still queue, and you'll still see them because they are F2P, just like you. You're only delaying the inevitable by kicking them out. If you -have- to have someone in your fraternity, it's in your interest to at least do as much as you can to help them become competent.
Third and final point, even with all the desire to be at your level they may have, many of them simply lack the knowledge of how to get there. I still get asked where I got a particular piece of gear. Each one of us, at some point in the past, existed in a place before we knew about TI and all its great resources. Before I found TI, I searched for best gear on WoWhead... and it's possible some new players don't even know about WoWhead!
So: They are interested in PVP, they want to get better, they aren't going away and they lack information. This is where we come in. If you really want to make a difference in our bracket, do your part to bring everyone around you up, rather than push them down. If you're already as good as you can get, then team improvement only comes from improving your teammates. Anyone who has played team sports innately knows that this is true.
Will every one of them respond and grow to be awesome? No! Will there always be people who just don't possess the desire or baseline skill to become good? Yes! Is that reason enough to reject all newbies? I would argue that it is not. I will not name names, but I can think of quite a few people in the community who started out as total noobs who were given a push in the right direction by veterans bothering to take the time to help them. Even if only a small percentage become stars, then you've still helped increase the number of stars.
So, what can YOU do to bring the total level of competence up? I'd like to turn it over to discuss different macros you use, or conversations you've had, or even personal stories of how someone helped you become the rock star you are now. Some of you will think that all of this is pointless, and that's fine, I'm not bothered by what you think. Just as you can't convert every noob into a star, you can't convert every veteran into a mentor. But if I can reach even a few of you to start trying to make a difference, all this typing will have been worth it.
!
