Do you give unsolicited advice?

[blue4333]

Topic as per title!

 

I always right click --> info people randomly whether in teams or just hanging out in the City/Isles. Snooping around in their power choices and io sets was something that I did.

 

I was wondering if it was considered okay to give advice on power choices? I saw a Mastermind without their pet upgrade powers and I was going to /tell and give them a headsup but I didn't.

 

Is there a right place and right time to give unsolicited advice or is it a bad idea in general?

[Primantis]

I generally only give advice if asked. Either directly or indirectly.

If a Brute is running around with no toggles, I assume its a challenge build or something and just roll with it. The game is pretty easy, people don't have to have bleeding edge meta builds.


If one is super eager to give out advice then I recommend politely messaging the person first and asking if they are open to build or play style suggestions.

[The_Warpact]

If some stranger gave me a random tell, giving "advice" on how to do my build I'd tell him to jog on.

Perhaps people should pay attention to their sandbox and not intrude upon others by being rude and creepy by stalking on them, there's enough of it in the world.

[cranebump]

Unsolicited advice. Oh, does that seem like a bad idea. How do most people react to anything out of the blue that begins with “You should...” 

 

I’d wait for someone to ask. My assumption is, after all, that people are playing the character they want to play. Not everyone is a min-maxer.

[SuperPlyx]

I think before any advice or suggestions you should ask one simple question, How long have you been playing? The answer to that will go a long way on how to proceed 

[TheOtherTed]

Nope, I never give unsolicited advice.  1) Because I'm the last person you should take advice from, for many, many reasons, and 2) because different people prioritize different things for different reasons.

 

As an example of the latter, back when I still had the energy to run a Kinetics defender, I slotted Transfusion with 1 Acc, 2 Heal, 2 Recharge, and (I think) 1 End Red.  All SOs (well before IOs), and the character was in the early-mid 20's.  I was also heavily invested in the Leadership pool partly for RP reasons, and partly because it was fun, end drain notwithstanding.  My goal with Transfusion was to focus on end-sustainable heals-over-time, then swap out the End Red for another Heal once I got Transference.

 

A "very helpful" person on a team remarked to me that his Kin could put out much more healing per activation and asked me how I was slotted.  I told him, at which point he "helpfully" pointed out exactly how he thought I was gimping myself (yep, he used the G-word).  I said, "I was going for HOT, but thanks for the tip."  Said person decided to be more "helpful" by pointing out how his slotting could save more lives (though no one had come close to faceplanting in the 3 missions we ran together) and a few other things that suggested he really, really liked to talk about his own understanding of the game.

 

I shrugged my shoulders, stuck with my plan, and had no complaints about healing for the next 20+ levels.  I don't know if I teamed with that guy again, but, much as your eyes glaze over when someone talks at you about something you're just not interested in, I think my brain may have glazed over any subsequent interactions with him.

 

Short story - don't give unsolicited advice unless you want the recipient to completely forget about you.

[KaizenSoze]

I only give unsolicited compliments.

[Cancrusher]

1 hour ago, blue4333 said:

Topic as per title!

 

I always right click --> info people randomly whether in teams or just hanging out in the City/Isles. Snooping around in their power choices and io sets was something that I did.

 

I was wondering if it was considered okay to give advice on power choices? I saw a Mastermind without their pet upgrade powers and I was going to /tell and give them a headsup but I didn't.

 

Is there a right place and right time to give unsolicited advice or is it a bad idea in general?

 

Probably best to avoid unsolicited advice, although I'm also a "snooper", tbh.  Mostly to read bios, but also just to satisfy my curiosity about how people build their characters.

 

The thing is, a fair number of people (myself, included) deliberately make non-optimal choices when making characters, either to lean into a certain concept to get in the right RP headspace, or just to try working a non-standard build to see if you can meet the challenge of making it work (even though you know it will be much more difficult to play that the traditional power selections).

 

JMO, though.  Others may feel differently.

[Yomo Kimyata]

18 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

I only give unsolicited compliments.

 

That is very nice of you!

[Shred Monkey]

It's all in the delivery, really.  You don't walk up to someone and say, "when you wear that shirt tucked in, it makes you look fat."  However, you might say something like, "that's a cool shirt!  I usually wear mine untucked because my girlfriend says it makes me look thinner."  

 

Or to put it in game context... you could say, "That's a cool costume and concept, but my girlfriend says defenders suck."

 

 

Edited February 3, 2022 by Shred Monkey

[Albion]

Never, it is annoying to receive it so I will not subject others to it, everyone has their view, and many like to stick with it, now, if you engage with someone in conversation during a run, get to know their approach, and are 100% sure you can improve their experience with a couple pointers, go ahead, anything besides that is being a nosy know it all, not to mention a large percentage of our population thinks they know all the ins and outs and has no clue in reality (or the social skills to convey it without sounding like an ass) which I am an absolute example of.

[Albion]

15 minutes ago, Shred Monkey said:

It's all in the delivery, really.  You don't walk up to someone and say, "when you wear that shirt tucked in, it makes you look fat."  However, you might say something like, "that's a cool shirt!  I usually wear mine untucked because my girlfriend says it makes me look thinner."  

 

Or to put it in game context... you could say, "That's a cool costume and concept, but my girlfriend says defenders suck."

 

 

Well your girlfriend sucks too!

[Ukase]

I usually only present my sage wisdom on the market, or badge acquiring details. And then, only in the help channel. From time to time, I'll see someone in the SG present a dilemma about wanting X, but only having enough inf to get 1/3 of X, or something like that. Then I simply DM them my very long, detailed methods for acquiring 300X while they sleep. 


Sometimes, I'll see someone give what they think is the right or optimal answer, but it's not presented in a way that lets a newer player understand all the nuances at play. Like the old "Shard vs Thread" controversy. Then I'll chime in with more information, always being sure that they understand that the RNG can only do so much. Back on live, it was more commonly known that an ITF would get you an Ancient Nictus Fragment - and you'd forgo merits and such to get the component. (some wouldn't, they'd grab the merits and let the shards drop when they drop) Run the right TFs in pursuit of those components (MSR for the Gr'ai matter, Lady Gray for Hero 1 DNA component) and you can fill the alpha sooner than later. 
But that's a whole other topic. 

Or, I'll see someone suggest using merits for recipes to maximize inf - which is simply bad advice, as it's not true. Granted, there are occasional circumstances when the price of certain Winter-Os may exceed the revenue from selling 300 converters acquired from the 100 reward merits you'd spend on the aforementioned Winter-O. But, given the volume of cheaper winter packs in circulation, that circumstance isn't likely to be the case for another year. 

In those cases, I simply can't help myself. I have to be helpful and share the math. 

[SeraphimKensai]

I will preface this with the fact that I'm kind of a dick, but I try not to be, and maybe that goes back to how I was raised or that I'm a combat vet from an era before sensitivity cards and safe spaces, but I understand that there's people out there that like their water wings well into adulthood (I jest).

 

I was brought up to praise publicly and criticize privately. That said if I'm not teaming with you, I don't care how bad your build maybe. If I'm teaming with you, chances are I'm too busy to pay attention to your play styles, I mean I'm often carrying the team as I usually play the ABCO's (Always Be Completing Objectives) of CoH, while watching Netflix or a hockey game or something.

 

However if your play style becomes detrimental to the team that we share, or I notice some completely outlandish choices, I might send you a whisper to engage in consent for feedback (and usually people are okay with that, I don't sugar coat anything, but I try not to be a dick either), as over the years I've probably played your same powersets to 50, perhaps not the same exact build, but I'm pretty well versed with the game having played since Beta in 2004.

 

Otherwise I have my individual pet peeves, like anyone and the biggest ones I have in the game comes into play when I'm forming a Speed TF or a max difficulty TF, if you don't know the minimum level or how to get there, or if you're not going to assist with the ABCO's, then don't waste your and my time, I do not want to be your mule for XP/influence/merits, you can put your big boy pants on and manage your own character on your time.

 

That said I also often run fairly casual TFs and such as well where I have no problem putting on my Coach Costume and holding someone's hand through a TF, as I understand that there are still new people coming to the game. I might give you a few wiki links for the TF so you can read through or tell you about any weird mechanics so you get the jist of them.

 

 

[Snarky]

i do not give "unsolicited advice"   i have been known to answer a question, sometimes even getting the details correct in my response.

 

recently had an SG member apologize to me.  i was like "what for?"  they were like "you were right about this thing and i thought you were wrong and blew you off"  meh.  i am an ugly old bag of misery and am often a bit off on my details.  no harm, no foul.  honestly i did not even notice the event 

 

sometimes, when the right tone of whine creeps into game chat or the message boards, i will dispense pearls of wisdom. this might be considered unsolicited advice, to the ignorant, yet it a response to a quest for information. even if the person posting has no idea what they really need advice on when you get as old as me you understand these idiots need to be thrown a rope.  if they choose to try to make a boat out of the thing there is not much you could have done.  it's a rope you idiots!

Edited February 3, 2022 by Snarky

[JasperStone]

no.

But i do give random compliments for really cool costumes, names and or bios.

[A Cat]

I know giving unsolicited advice usually just pisses people off, so I do it all the time for fun. 

[srmalloy]

3 hours ago, Primantis said:

If a Brute is running around with no toggles, I assume its a challenge build or something and just roll with it. The game is pretty easy, people don't have to have bleeding edge meta builds.

On the occasions when I do peek, and find an oddball build, if I'm feeling particularly curious, I might send a tell asking "That's an odd build you have; are you doing it as a personal challenge, or have you found something strange in the mechanics that you're exploring?" If they're doing it as a challenge, that's their choice, but if they've found something different to explore, learning about it expands my understanding of the game. And I certainly don't know everything there is to know about it...

[Luminara]

Nobody likes a busybody.

[UltraAlt]

4 hours ago, blue4333 said:

I was wondering if it was considered okay to give advice on power choices? I saw a Mastermind without their pet upgrade powers and I was going to /tell and give them a headsup but I didn't.

 

Is there a right place and right time to give unsolicited advice or is it a bad idea in general?

 

I generally let players learn from their mistakes and try to answer questions in the /help channel.

 

I suggest refraining from saying something unless they are falling in battle a lot.

 

I would expect some feedback from the other side before offering any more "advice".

 

Everyone is exploring the game at different levels. No telling when it someone that doesn't know something or if they are just exploring a different game path for some reason.

 

I agree that upgrading pets is pretty basic and essential. At the same time, I don't know if I've always picked that as soon as it was a new power choice during leveling.

[arcane]

If it’s a friend AND it’s a highly questionable build choice, maybe. Leave strangers alone, you don’t know what they know. 🙂

[MrAxe]

I wouldn't do it as there's a chance it would annoy people. Also you've no idea if that build is their main, solo or weird experimental build. So odd choices may not be odd to them.

 

I know having things pointed out would annoy me, if it happened repeatedly that is.

[Without_Pause]

Only in the case of if a player is really struggling and even then that's a maybe. There are people on this forum who actively admit to making subpar builds. 

[Oklahoman]

6 hours ago, blue4333 said:

Topic as per title!

 

I never give unsolicited advice. And BTW your post may get more traction if you don't begin it with some kind of recursive subroutine.

[gamingglen]

... all the time, especially to youngsters:  Get off my lawn!  😉  

 

(but seriously folks...  Get off my lawn!) 😄😄 

 

Oh, you mean in game?  Naw.