Random Acts of Etiquette

like many of you, I've been taking full advantage of the dungeon finder ever since it came out. it's an amazing tool for both leveling and for gearing up once you hit 80. while it's truly awesome how easy and quick it is to get into dungeons now, the dungeon experience itself has changed a bit.

before the days of dungeon finder everyone in your group, strangers and friends alike, was from the same server. when everyone comes from the same place, your reputation matters. your behavior, good or bad, directly impacts your ability to get into groups in the future. with the dungeon finder bringing people together across multiple servers now, that behavorial constraint is no longer in place. as predicted by an oft-referenced (and mildly NSFW) behavorial psychology theory, player behavior has noticeably deteriorated in this new cross-server setting. in simple terms, you can be a complete ass and get away with it because you'll probably never group with the same people twice.

while there isn't much to be done about people with bad personalities (aside from adding them to your ignore list), good behavior sets a positive example for other players who just don't know any better. here's a short (and by no means complete) list of behavior suggestions when running randoms:

• say hi! players are in such a hurry to get on to the next dungeon now that they often don't even say hello anymore. WoW is a social game, so say hi; it's polite and quick.
• observe the Golden Rule: don't say anything if you don't have anything nice to say. if you have issues with another player's behavior or performance, don't start drama. you can attempt to politely explain what you think they could be doing better (in a whisper, not in party chat), but a lot of people don't take criticism well. just leave the group instead of yelling at each other in party chat.
• don't queue as a healer or tank unless you have the spec and gear to do the job. queue times for healers and tanks are short (nearly instant when I'm queuing as a tank), which tempts more and more players to queue in those roles just to beat the line. don't sign up for the role unless you can really do it, otherwise it's unfair to the rest of the group.
• don't judge a player by their gear. that warlock in quest blues and greens may just top the dps meters, know the instance inside and out and be an all-around amazing player that happens to be playing an alt. conversely, that paladin with all the shiny t9/t10 gear might be absolutely terrible (because they usually heal instead of dps, it's a friend's account, they're watching cowboy beebop, etc.). you won't know until you see them play, so don't vote-kick someone from the group just because they have a low gear score (the dungeon finder thinks that player has the right gear to be there, after all).
• if your class has group buffs, use 'em. and don't be cheap and do single-target buffs or the 10 minute versions either (yes, I'm looking at you mr. paladin). reagents cost peanuts at every level, so suck it up and do buffing right. (special aside for shaman: drop totems, damn you!)
• don't go afk. you're wasting the group's time while they wait for you. this is especially true if you're the healer or tank. I recognize that this is not always under your control (phone rings, baby wakes up, etc.), but do your best to be courteous to the rest of the group.
• compliment good play. if the healer's great, tell them. if the dps goes above and beyond (pulling mobs off the clothies, always on top of interrupts, etc.), recognize that. everyone likes positive feedback for doing a good job.
• thank the group at the end of the run. it was a group effort and you couldn't have done it on your own.