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I've been thinking about some behavior of some players in WoW that mightily annoys me, and I've finally narrowed down a way to describe it.
A hero is someone who uses their skills-- whether those skills are ordinary or extraordinary-- to help other people out of a bad situation, even if the other people caused the bad situation.
A pyro, on the other hand, is someone who sets fires to pet stores, hoping to get the credit for rescuing the kittens by using his sooper sekrit speshul powerz. Or knowing that someone else will be able to run in and rescue those kittens.
Groups in WoW tend to be more pyros than heroes. The paladin who breaks sheep repeatedly, causing the mage to have to deal with aggro and the paladin "saving the day" by laying on hands for a heal? Pyro. Hunter who refuses to control his pet, and spends all his time healing it instead of working with the other group members? Pyro.
Of course, anyone who's new to playing their class is going to foul this stuff up until they learn. And even experienced players hit wrong keys. That's why every class has special "get out of OH SHIT free" abilities, like Lay On Hands and Fade and the like. You're going to mess things up, random things will happen, things won't be what you expect. However, all of these abilities are on a timer, so you can't use them every single fight, just like you can't ALWAYS park your car by ramming it into a wall and letting the airbag and seatbelt catch you. You have GOT to learn to play your class correctly, and not depend on other people and your special tricks to bail you out every single time.
There used to be a joke in EQ about "getting a six-pack of Shadowknights, popping the Harm Touch on each of them, and then throwing them away"-- a joke designed for a class that had one really good special ability, and supposedly not much else going for it. (Supposedly. SKs kick ass, in the right hands.) Using all your special abilities and then going into a fight with no safety net is just as stupid in WoW as it is in EQ. If you're in a group with someone who forces you through THEIR lack of learning to use every trick up your sleeve, get the pyro out of your group before they get you killed.
The kinds of things that make people pyros also tend to make them loot whores (i.e. people who take more than their share of loot)-- in WoW, since some really good stuff is Bind On Equip, this can be more than a minor inconvenience, it can screw someone more deserving out of armor they could actually use, that's an upgrade to what they have.
You can't count on someone's level to indicate whether or not they're a pyro-- some people reach 60 without ever having grouped, and occasional stupid actions can be explained by simple inexperience. I think that's one of the reasons for WoW guilds, even for low-level folks: a list of people you'll encounter repeatedly, so that you can determine which ones have half a brain.
A hero is someone who uses their skills-- whether those skills are ordinary or extraordinary-- to help other people out of a bad situation, even if the other people caused the bad situation.
A pyro, on the other hand, is someone who sets fires to pet stores, hoping to get the credit for rescuing the kittens by using his sooper sekrit speshul powerz. Or knowing that someone else will be able to run in and rescue those kittens.
Groups in WoW tend to be more pyros than heroes. The paladin who breaks sheep repeatedly, causing the mage to have to deal with aggro and the paladin "saving the day" by laying on hands for a heal? Pyro. Hunter who refuses to control his pet, and spends all his time healing it instead of working with the other group members? Pyro.
Of course, anyone who's new to playing their class is going to foul this stuff up until they learn. And even experienced players hit wrong keys. That's why every class has special "get out of OH SHIT free" abilities, like Lay On Hands and Fade and the like. You're going to mess things up, random things will happen, things won't be what you expect. However, all of these abilities are on a timer, so you can't use them every single fight, just like you can't ALWAYS park your car by ramming it into a wall and letting the airbag and seatbelt catch you. You have GOT to learn to play your class correctly, and not depend on other people and your special tricks to bail you out every single time.
There used to be a joke in EQ about "getting a six-pack of Shadowknights, popping the Harm Touch on each of them, and then throwing them away"-- a joke designed for a class that had one really good special ability, and supposedly not much else going for it. (Supposedly. SKs kick ass, in the right hands.) Using all your special abilities and then going into a fight with no safety net is just as stupid in WoW as it is in EQ. If you're in a group with someone who forces you through THEIR lack of learning to use every trick up your sleeve, get the pyro out of your group before they get you killed.
The kinds of things that make people pyros also tend to make them loot whores (i.e. people who take more than their share of loot)-- in WoW, since some really good stuff is Bind On Equip, this can be more than a minor inconvenience, it can screw someone more deserving out of armor they could actually use, that's an upgrade to what they have.
You can't count on someone's level to indicate whether or not they're a pyro-- some people reach 60 without ever having grouped, and occasional stupid actions can be explained by simple inexperience. I think that's one of the reasons for WoW guilds, even for low-level folks: a list of people you'll encounter repeatedly, so that you can determine which ones have half a brain.
