The Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #66: Is a good team or a bad team more fun for you?

[DougGraves]

Do you like a well tuned machine working together to take down your foes?

 

Or do you prefer chaos that you need to deal with to defeat your foes, save your team mates, or just survive?

 

When organized does it become routine and confining?

 

When chaotic is it just frustrating?

[Perfidy]

I don't think I've ever wanted or appreciated chaos - unless you consider dodging pink patches in Apex TF or the Thunder-strikes from Tyrant as chaotic. To me, it's like a dance of sorts, with a rhythm to discover and embrace. But those types of situations aside, I don't like it when any of my teammates get defeated. It makes me feel as if I fell short and failed them somehow, even if they did do something silly or insane to cause it. It can also slow progress as sometimes, particularly on pugs, the teammate will hit the hospital and take several minutes to return. 

And yet, when I'm the guy that uses Judgement a split second after a teammate, it often makes me wonder why I'm teamed up - until we face the AV, then I remember. 

I like an efficient team, but it's not THAT much fun when there's a player (or two) who is/are SO fast, and SO efficient that they've killed the boss in the end room before I even get there. Not that I need to be there, but I want to feel like I've done my part, if that makes any sense. 

I think my best teaming experiences are when we kill/defeat the npcs that are in the way, with everyone sticking together. 

[StarseedWarrior]

A mix of both, allot of us like a challenge and want to be able to have our ats pushed to the limit to see how we can help our teams.

[Spaghetti Betty]

In normal content, I prefer bad teams because it means I can be perfectly content doing whatever I want!

 

In Advanced content, I prefer good teams because it means I can be perfectly content doing whatever I want!

[rolandgrey]

I guess it depends on the definition of "bad team."

 

If it's a team of folks who are just learning, but tend to teamwipe, then it's just teething troubles.  You talk, you joke, you reassess, you try again.  That can be fun.

 

However, if it's folks who are rude, or don't listen to advice or instructions, or they say mean things (even when told to stop), then that's not fun.  Even trolls don't like teaming with trolls.

 

As for teaming with a good team...  Who WOULDN'T want to team with a good team?  Or is this subjective, too?  Like, some people like to get on a good farm.  Others like to get on a good team that works together and pummels its way through groups of enemies.  Some like to take on massive challenges, some like to settle into a Raid routine.  There's all sorts of flavors of "good" teams.  I guess if it's what you're in the mood for, then it's fun.  On the other hand, if you wind up on a team that's not scratching your itch, they may be impressive, but they'll be agitating you at every turn, too.

 

To answer the more pointed questions, however...  I like both.  I like a team that can work together like a well-oiled machine and wipe out enemy spawns like they were a special ops crew taking down a target.  But when things go to pot, you didn't notice a spawn was too close or an ambush just spawns right on top of you while all of your characters are waiting for their greatest hits to recharge, then it's fun zipping about and struggling to survive.  I feel a player should always be ready for both scenarios, but I don't really favor either.  Steamrolling foes can get tedious and can engender bad attitudes, even if you're advancing well.  Frenetic chaos can be exhausting if it carries on too long.

 

As the sayings go, you can have too much of a good thing, and variety is the spice of life!

[Snarky]

it depends on content.  on a badge run or during tough (especially long) sessions were a few mistakes can ruin it?  people that play better than me

 

for regular content, bank missions, short task forces?  mostly chaos is funny.  but not if it brings progress to a glacial crawl.  so, teeter totter balance of stupid but keep getting things done is hilarious

[A Cat]

If it's "chore" content for me, I would like a good team to get done with it. But otherwise I generally prefer a lower performance team since it's fun to deal with random disasters. This can of course be taken too far. 

[Water]

You're going to have to define what a "good team" and what a "bad team" is to get a response out of me.

[cranebump]

I prefer teams that actually feel like teams, rather than 5-6 companions and a 2-3 soloists. That said, if there’s some good banter and things are lighthearted, everything is pretty much “good,” regardless (well…for me, anyway).

[Troo]

7 hours ago, DougGraves said:

The Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #66: Is a good team or a bad team more fun for you?

 

Fantastic topic!

 

[MonteCarla]

Great topic!

 

A bad team can be fun.

I play all-Corrupter and all-Defender task forces on a weekly basis, and we just waltz through, clicking buttons and chatting and maybe I get to fire off a heal on mission #3 or something. And I love that.

 

But at the same time, a team of random's with sub-optimal powerset synergy can be really fun in a "OMG I can't believe we're managing this" kind of way. Especially when we get into the swing of things a few missions in.

 

So I think my favourite is a bad team that's figured out how to be good? 🙂

[NotsoevilDM]

For Task Forces and the like, I prefer a team that has at least a clue about what we are trying to do, mostly because I don't! 

 

When teaming up with the SG, anything goes as long as we are having fun.

[Clave Dark 5]

I think when it's nothing but steamrolling it gets old awfully quickly.  But outright incompetence is also annoying.

 

Fine with beginners, I took a blind invite the other day from a newbie tooling around an AE mission he'd made with just random foes scattered all over an Atlas outside map.  No story, just foes, and at level 13; my toon was 50 but *shrug* so he, I, and a few others cleared it (with a couple of deaths).  I don't need to hide behind expensive IOs and incarnate powers to have fun. 

 

I just now logged off from a redside team which was gloriously good, enough so that we did occasionally bite off more than we could chew, which resulted in some grand chaos of what to focus on: holds vs. attacks?  Heal now or fire off a debuff?  All that sort of thing.  Yeah, I even died a few times on my squishy Dom, but it was still fun as all get out.

[Seed22]

17 hours ago, DougGraves said:

Do you like a well tuned machine working together to take down your foes?

 

Or do you prefer chaos that you need to deal with to defeat your foes, save your team mates, or just survive?

 

When organized does it become routine and confining?

 

When chaotic is it just frustrating?

Well tuned machine. Im not a kid anymore and don’t have time for bullshit. I’m on a team to try and get whatever it is we’re doing done, collect my merits, make a few jokes and bounce. 
 

I’m not here to slog through a Manti on +4 because they think that difficulty will make for interesting “teamwork” while they bring an SO’ed toon that has to be hard carried by the rest of the team while also complaining about not everyone sticking together to hard carry them. 

[DougGraves]

11 hours ago, Snarky said:

for regular content, bank missions, short task forces?  mostly chaos is funny.  but not if it brings progress to a glacial crawl.  so, teeter totter balance of stupid but keep getting things done is hilarious

 

Bank missions are the one place I hate bad teams - if we are doing sides.

 

I have seen so many teams break up doing bank missions.  People just wander around confused and dying.  You can't do the side missions because not enough  people gather to do them.  Eventually everyone just gets frustrated and people quit.

[WuTang]

I think a little struggle and a few rethinks on strategy makes for a good run. Nobody likes endless wipes but they can be a good laugh.

 

I just got Combat Teleport and was itching to give it a thorough test drive the other day....I'm still not sure how the elite boss saw me.

[ZemX]

5 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

I have seen so many teams break up doing bank missions.  People just wander around confused and dying.  You can't do the side missions because not enough  people gather to do them.  Eventually everyone just gets frustrated and people quit.

 

Had this happen just last night.  And this wasn't a team that was all over the place in the rest of the missions but then we swung into a Safeguard where the lead wanted to do all the sides in PI and then clear the map and... there must have been three sub-groups at least at different corners of the map at any given time.   When I finally realized nobody was following me (the tank) I decided to try following the team lead.  That helped.  Eventually a few more glommed on and we had a working sub-group able to tackle sides but there were still stragglers fighting and dying who knows where else on the map.   And it probably wasn't a case of vengeful soloists.  They probably were having trouble following the erratic path we were tracing hither an yon around the map as those of us with Vidiotmaps installed went around nailing key-giver groups and then door side missions.

 

I put that down to the fact most PuG radio teams seem to skip banks like 90% of the time. They just want to farm regular radio missions where it's easy to follow through an office or sewer map.  People get out into the open map and just lose their minds. 🤪

 

Wouldn't trade it for anything though.  It's not good vs. bad team.  It's random vs. predictable.  I prefer random.  Surprise me, Paragon City!

[lemming]

Depends on the flavor of bad.

 

They can be quite entertaining.  Occasionally when my friends and I are on discord while on a bad team, the discussion is the fun part.  Sometimes you take on the challenge of "Can we prevent that player from constantly face planting?"  The answer is almost always "No"

 

A nice efficient team is good as well.

 

It's all good as long as you're having fun.

[UltraAlt]

On 2/8/2024 at 5:37 PM, DougGraves said:

Do you like a well tuned machine working together to take down your foes?

 

I like being on a team and seeing a PuG start out a bit rough and then people figuring out how to work with one another.

 

On 2/8/2024 at 5:37 PM, DougGraves said:

Or do you prefer chaos that you need to deal with to defeat your foes, save your team mates, or just survive?

 

I've been on some of these. It's fun to try to pull some player's fat-out-of-the-fire a couple of times, but, after that, sometimes they seem like they are using you as crutch, and it gets old fast.

 

On 2/8/2024 at 5:37 PM, DougGraves said:

When organized does it become routine and confining?

 

The only time it gets routine and confining to me is when a tank or brute is on the team and the expect everyone else to chase them or when several group members complain about knockback.

 

On 2/8/2024 at 5:37 PM, DougGraves said:

When chaotic is it just frustrating?

 

The only time it gets frustrating to me is when it turns into complete team wipes multiple times back to back.

Generally, that doesn't happen when I'm a team because I'm long gone before the team wipe happens.

 

Not smart enough to fall back when you need to?

Okay then, you are on your own.

[Greycat]

It *really* depends on what we're calling good or bad teams.

 

There have been what some people would call "good" teams because they can clear the content, finish an ITF in 5 minutes killing everything... that's a boring team.

There are the teams that just *cannot* work together, running a 5 hour Posi 1 and not learning from what's going wrong or trying to do anything different - that's a bad and frustrating team.

 

Honestly, I'll be happy with a "competent and fun" team. Might wipe, might not, lots of joking and BSing and/or RPing while we finish up whatever we're doing.

[Lusiphur Malache]

I look at bad teams as a teaching opportunity.  I'll let a blaster nuke a mob and watch as they all get up and bum rush them, let a brute get too far ahead of the group trying to keep his fury up, or somebody goes left when everyone else goes right.  If the bad teammate learns his lesson, then things will go smoothly from there, if they don't well, I'll make my excuses and leave.

 

On a good team same rules apply only I'll be the one doing stupid things, just for fun, nothing crippling.  Got to keep things interesting

[kelika2]

bad team if im playing support fun

good team turned up to +4 fun

 

felt good using Vengeance on a recent Positron and constantly healing and knowing said veng was the only reason we got through an early ambush on city hall + every god damn group around the doors

but then again a +4 yin on my thug/trick arrow lighting everything on fire is just as fun

[Sovera]

Bad teams, because I invariably build self-sufficient so I can try to hold it together and if possible see what is the crumbling weak point and shore it/give advice.