Idiocy in your /Search note

As previously mentioned, when some say "sg only" they usually are including in any of the alts of a person that's in their supergroup. That alt won't have access to the supergroup roster. That alt will be building a team using the LFT tool.

If you had "sg only," then I, the sg-mate on an alt, would know that you still may be open to the team I'm forming.
If you don't have that- if you're declining all invites, I'd assume you wanted to be left alone.

Seems rather asinine to be judging people without fully considering when such notes are justified.

1. I have 2 accounts and 235 toons. Some of them have not been touched since SSKing has come about. Many of their search comments are 'My lvl and up please'. Sometimes I log in for a quick mission and then log. Besides, some people, even with SSK, may not want to exemp down.

2. Sometimes the flag unsets itself. I've experienced it quite a few times. And sometimes you don't even know its happened.

3. Why not? Perhaps some people have been soured by PuGs and prefer to stick with people that they know and are used to. I usually only play with people I know, and it works just fine for me.

"Not Seeking" is the DEFAULT OPTION. Leaving it on the default option flagged and placing "SG Only" in your search comment is NOT "using the LFT tool". It's NOT about letting your SG mates know you're available (they can look at the damn member list). It's letting OTHERS know that you're not available unless they're in your SG.

If a person sets to "Not Accepting", they can't accept invites from ANYONE... that is a solo toon, not an SG toon.

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

I asked a woman that, and she just said "maybe"

I'm interested in hearing your response to the reasoning provided by others in this thread towards the "Not Looking For Team" search note. You didn't address it in your post.

I don't want to discredit your opinion, Ex, but sooner or later you'll have to understand that some of us don't WANT to play with other people and will make that fact known when asked or prompted. I don't put such search comments in my field, but does it really make a difference when, if you ask me to team, my response will be "No, thanks. Not at the moment?" 'Cause that's 90% of what I reply to people with.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

If you're not looking for a team, then 'not looking for a team' is a perfectly fine and valid option, not at all 'idiotic'. I've often put up comments saying 'not teaming today', or 'crafting/marketing, DND', but then again, I usually use the available option to flag myself as 'not available for teaming' or even go to the length of /ghide with all options if I'm respeccing or other 'srs busns'

And please, people, there are ALWAYS cases that prove the rule. That is, there will always be people who genuinely don't want to team, who genuinely are only playing with SG with that particular character, or have Special Circumstances Which Limit Their Life Choices And Teaming Is One Of Those Restrictions (yes Athyna, I'm calling you out )

People who take comments as absolutes are just as much idiosyncratic jackasses as those who reply 'me too' or 'first post after redname' or some other such idiocy. If you don't have anything interesting to say, then don't say anything, and PLEASE, I IMPLORE you, if you don't LIKE reading my articles/opinion then avail yourself of the IGNORE function, that is what it's there for. Seriously, I wouldn't want anyone who doesn't get anything out of my messages, to have to -suffer- them. Use ignore, use it often, and let others express their otherness without any of this mindless whining about 'oh, you're being -horrible-'

Now I've got to answer Samuel's repartee, that's certain to be a joyless task ...

Sam, I'm not picking on you or anyone in particular for your choices.

I was railing against the -custom- of having 'my level or higher' in a comment (from a Level 14 scrapper, for example), or SG only as the -only- comment for ALL characters on an account, because they only feel that playing at the bleeding edge of the game is 'worth it'.

The people who never/rarely team (like yourself), I'll never personally understand the attraction of solo -- nor do I need to justify my mystification or have someone try to explain it to me. My opinion is just that -- my opinion. Personally, Solo send me to sleep, and I think that's enough of a definitive hatred for playing with myself (so to speak).

To each their own. Keep on keeping on Sam, as ever I find your articles to be full of sense and reasonableness.

I c u wut u did that.

Too bad the people who were harping on about 'SG ONLY ROOLZ' never bothered explaining it like that, and/or seemed hellbent on believing me to preach use of the 'Decline Team Invites' option rather than the explicitly named 'Not Looking For Team'.

I dunno. Shrug.

I'm actually right with you on the "my level or higher" crowd, for exactly the reasons you stated. It's a hypocritical stance to take. If someone's not going to play with people lower level then him but wants to play with me because I'm higher level, then why would I want to play with him? It's a self-defeating position, because it relies on that rule applying to you and only you, and I don't enjoy those kinds of things.

As far as SG-only goes, I tend to take is as a live and let live situation. Personally, I'm as mystified about this as you are, because I've never seen a SG so huge and active that there's ALWAYS someone on ALL the time playing ALWAYS the right type of character at the right level of the right faction. Maybe if I were part of one of those soulless "clans" I keep hearing about that treats membership like work, I'd see more of that, but I interpret SGs as groups of friends. And just as I don't expect my friends to live at my beck and call, so I don't expect my SG to always be available when my whim strikes. As such, I have to ask - who do these people team with? Do they team at all, outside of SG business?

I guess I can kind of understand not teaming at all, but making an exception for your SG-mates, but then that's my stance of not teaming as a base. If you're not going to be teaming at all, then just say so. I look at it this way - if I'm looking to invite someone, do I REALLY need to know who he'll team with when I'm not one of the people he'll accept? And, on the flip side, does his SG not already know he'll team with them? As such, I can see how this would come off as a "Nyah! I'll team, just not with YOU!" comment, but I try not to put too much stock in tone over the 'net.

I can respect that. Again, live and let live is how I like to approach these situations. For me, soloing is a question of consistency and dependability. I want to know that each and every time I log into the game, I'll be able to play any way I see fit. In order for me to facilitate this, I've had to ignore all variables that I know I can't depend on. I can depend on my friends to be good team-mates, but I can't depend on them being online when I'm online, specifically since I'm between 7 and 10 hours ahead of most of them. I can depend on just random people to be on pretty much all the time, but I can't depend on them being good players, or indeed good people, and rather than try to be a control freak on others, I choose to keep to myself.

Most of all, though, I enjoy the freedom of no-one depending on me or waiting for me. If I suddenly develop a craving for TV, I drop what I'm doing and watch TV. If I go hungry, I get up from the computer and go have dinner. In the middle of a mission, when necessary. If I want to dick around with pointless things like walking the full length of Steel Canyon, I can. If I want to sit in place and chat with people I can't currently play with, I can. On a team, I'm never as free as this, because other people are always waiting on me. Even if they're very patient, I just don't feel comfortable dicking around when people are patiently tapping their foot.

But you know what? That's the beauty of City of Heroes. If I want to go solo, I can. Sure, I miss out on a few TFs and a few high-class rewards, but I don't mind. The biggest reward for a TF is the TF team experience, and since that's not something I actually enjoy, that's no skin off my nose. As far as tangible rewards go, I've already bored everyone to death with why these don't motivate me. Suffice it to say, I've carved out a little hovel for myself out of this game, and I'm perfectly fine in it. It doesn't mean I'll never ever team, I just don't go out of my way to do it.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Or they don't want to lose [insert awesome power here] or [insert awesome set bonuses here] by exemping. Which, in my experience, is what lower-level people want you to do 90% of the time that they invite you. "My level or higher" or "no exemping" are a bit broader than needed for that purpose, but trying to express everything would lead to search notes along the lines of "No exemping below 27, no exemping below 39 if you want me to tank, no teams with crazy blasters who knockback everything at random, no teams that feel that they absolutely must herd to survive four even-level minions, no Healing Aura set to auto, no farms or AE missions with stupid custom groups of Extreme Rad Emission/Fire Blast bosses, no farms, no teams with people who have binds set up to shout in local every time they attack, no Empathy/ defenders who don't use Fort/Adrenaline Boost, warranty void if prohibited, some restrictions apply, offer not valid in Hawaii. PST. Amen."

You don't have to be in a mega-clan to be that sort of player. My SG has five human beings in it, but it contains almost all of our blueside toons. Of the five of us, two tend to play redside almost all the time, where we have a VG, also made up of just our toons. The third always plays solo. Always. The other two of us duo a lot, and when we aren't on at the same time, she likes to pug and I like to solo.

Personally, my search comment is "Go Away," which tends to work for all but my defenders. But if I were to put 'SG only' it wouldn't be for my SG mates, because they already know my playstyle, but to save other players from wasting their time sending me an invite. There are lots of players who seem to think you owe them a reason for turning them down, and that's just providing one in advance. Saves time all around.

Why don't you just go hidden? 95% of my toons are hidden from searches. I usually only team with the same people from a hidden channel.

It's not at all a hypocritical stance to take. If I'm level 32 and playing with a team that's running around level 32, a level 17 person or two getting invited to the team doesn't affect me as long as they aren't set as the head honcho. I don't lose anything from merely *playing* with a low level character. However, in being recruited by a much lower level team I do lose something. And since it is those who are recruiting that will be seeing the search comments it makes perfectly non-hypocritical sense to advertise "my level or higher" there.

Basically, recruiting lower level people and sidekicking them up is a far different situation from being recruited by lower level people and losing access to your powers. Such a big difference that I'm somewhat surprised you wouldn't notice it.

Actually, with the changes to how exempng works, I'm okay with teaming up to 5 levels lower than me. I still get to keep any powers I may have, and I still get xp, so I don't lose anything by it.

I don't mind teaming with those much lower than me either, as long as they don't have the star. My only exception is tanks, if I'm in the 40's and there's a tank on the team I want them to have enough of their powers to be able to do their job (exceptions are made if they are not the only tank). Expecting a level 6 tank to hold the agro of an 8 man spawn of Nemesis and survive it is kind of ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.