The Angry Raider

I’m a goal-oriented person. I like to set goals, work toward them, achieve the goals, and then do something else. When it comes to MMOs, this personality trait can be both enormously exciting and devastatingly frustrating.

Sometimes my goals are individually achievable. For example, if my goal is to get 140 AA, I can do that on my own. I don’t have to depend on anyone else.

Other goals require one or two other people. Grabthar’s tier 1 gear, for example, only required two other people: one person to mentor down to, and another to help clear the zone (he also made the gear).

And still other goals require five additional people, or 11 additional people, or 23 additional people. Those are the frustrating goals. Those goals have too many dependencies, too many avenues of failure caused by other people. My goal for Sedition, my fabled epic weapon, falls into this category.

As a rule, I like grouping with other people. Playing EQ2 long enough finally indoctrinated me into the groupthink (with apologies to Orwell). I like tanking, I like being a lynchpin, and I like the feeling of success.

What I don’t like is trying to bring those five people together, trying to make sure they are as committed to my goal as I am, and trying to make sure all five people will meet the expectations of everyone else in the group.

Perhaps I am too demanding of other people. In my day job, I work in a leadership capacity. I have deliverables. The people who work with me have to get their work done in a timely manner in order for us to ship software on time. Otherwise, we fail.

My last few grouping engagements in EQ2 have been very unsatisfying. In one case, the guy leading the group took a two hour afk to go eat dinner, right in the middle of the dungeon that he organized. This has happened more times than my razor-thin patience can deal with. So I don’t want to group with that guy anymore, which in itself is very unfortunate because he’s an otherwise awesome guy. I’m not the guy’s dad; I can’t make him schedule runs for after dinner or whatever. I’m at his mercy if he’s in my group.

The obvious solution is to find other people to group with, either within the guild, in another guild, or a pickup group. That starts the whole process over again. If I log in and I’m not making progress toward a goal, I don’t want to play. That’s just how I am.

That means I have to find another goal to work toward. In EverQuest II, that means playing my ranger, who dinged 56 last night. While I’m playing Ipswich, I’ll occasionally give a thought to Grabthar’s equipping Sedition.

Someday.