A quick advice in dealing with uncooperative teammates.

I've played alot of MMORPGs and have always been on teams. This game is heaven for people who loves to team-up.

A while ago, I was doing a level-22 mission with a group of 5 people (we were 6 total including me). Unfortunately for me, all of them were uncooperative. My request was simple.

SPAM THE MOBS WITH YOUR BEST ATTACKS.

The truth is, the team could have been "okay". Nothing really has to be perfect. Even if there are occasional disobediences from your members, you should be fine if those minor things are kept at minimum and not become annoyingly consistent. But in this group, two of the members were being very rude. Although I cannot guarantee you that I can provide a perfect, word-by-word, direct quotations from the chat box, I can assure you that what I am about to show you is how the conversation basically was:



Me: (Just arrived in the mission door.) Wait.

Jerk # 1: For?

Me: We have the strength in numbers. FULL ATTACK!

Jerk # 1: Are you like Captain Obvious or something?

Me: (Ignored the comment and kept going.)

(We were attacking some mobs. I got killed because no one helped me when 4 mobs aggressed towards me. No big deal.)

Me: Revive please.

(Revived by someone)

Me: Thank you.

Jerk # 1: I guess you didn't follow the plan did you?

Me: Don't give me that attitude.

Jerk # 1: Are you trying to command us like pets?

Jerk # 2: He can't. That's the beauty of it.

Me: (addressed to Jerk # 1) I'm kicking you out of the team you jackass.

(Kicked him out.)



Members of the party got a little shocked (so does the jackass). In all fairness, they all thought I was disrespectful and that I should have "respected the underlings before being respected back."

But I digress...

It is in my belief that RESPECT is something that is freely given and firmly assumed. People must respect other people. A janitor deserves respect just as much as the President, a waiter, a teacher, or a plumber. Earning respect is a matter of regally practicing your liberty to be treated with respect.

In this particulat case, I was the leader of the group, I was the one who created the group, and it is clear in the beginning that I have the power and freedom to kick out any member out of my own will, for any reason.

They all sided with the alleged *********...

What happened after then? I started recruiting members again on broadcast, ignored *********'s smart-alleck comment (on broadcast), and found two willing members who helped me with my mission.

How did it go? Much better. At first, the other one was AFK and told us to go ahead without her. There were only the two of us and yet we were doing much better and mowing mobs much faster compared to the 6-man group I was in, all because me and him were actually listening to each other.

It is here that the value of having quality members is shown to be a much better jewel than a legion of morons.

That seems kinda...uh, harsh on your part

They were a bit rude, but the rather imperious "don't give me that attitude" and the excessive "you jackass" is even worse behaviour on your part. After that, I probably would have bailed on you, myself.

You sound like a control freak.

Someone's been watching too much Braveheart.

For some reason I don't have a FULL ATTACK button on my tray either.

If the team isn't experienced, you probably don't want 4 mobs agressing on you either.

PS. This game is hard.

If you were role-playing an egomaniac who got carried away with having a tiny bit of authority...
You did a good job!


So, your quick advice on how to deal with uncooperative teammates is to /kick them and find new ones!

Okay! I can't disagree with everything you've said, but the overall purpose of this thread seems poor... and the story doesn't really show you in a very good light at all.

At first I thought OP was a tank (note: not tanker) but then I saw only 4 mobs killed him, then I thought healer (note: not defender), finally, I settled on someone I never want to team with.

Generally, in Coh, "leadership" means inviting/calling contacts/selecting missions - giving orders isn't really part of the role, unless everyone gives their consent to it - like with the leader of a raid, for example.
In a normal team situation, the main thing the leader has to do is make sure the team is achieving the only really important goal in the game - which is having fun - and that's done best by getting feedback and opinions from the team about things like team balance, the pace missions are being done at and the basic tactics they might want to use.
It's also good to check if there are any new players on the team, or people doing the content you're running for the first time, as it can be easy to assume that everyone will know what to do.
It's also good if there's one or more new players on the team to drop or explain any game slang you might normally use, especially if it's not so common outside CoH - like "AT" instead of "class", for example.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience ViKtoricus. I highly recommend you read this guide on how to lead PuGs effectively. This guide's advice is invaluable.

WARNING: I bold names.

I have to agree with the majority here. Not that I haven't seen my share of idiots that didn't listen to what anyone said and usually managed to get, at best, themselves killed and at worst the team. But I have seen the other side of this as well...

A couple weeks ago I joined a team doing the STF. Now everyone on the team was 50 (+1) and while I didn't bother going in to check badges I am 100% certain that all of them had done the STF before. The fact that they had enough Notices to be at least tier 3 meant they did it when it was the WST and of course our illustrious leader asked "Anyone never do this TF before?" To which the answer ranged from a simple no to "Done it dozens of times".

The leader, a TANK (why does it always seem to be a tank that gets a little crazy? No offense tankers I play the AT myself), proceeded to carefully explain each part of his master plan for each mission.. Or to put it another way .. bored us all to death stating the obvious. Before we were permitted to launch into attack mode. I even got yelled at for taking out a few vines as we were defeating the COT that surround the Thorn Tree..... I was told they'd only grow back and I was wasting time. Funny I'd done the dang TF about 6 times recently and found just the opposite to be true.. Its the STF NOT the Red side TREESPEC. Anyway this sort of micro management continued until the final mission. Now We had a GOOD team and I have seen teams with less take on and defeat all 4 lieutenants at once but BRIGHT BOY insisted that if more than one arrived after we pulled we had to break off and retreat to the ship. Well how many of you have seen anyone that was able to pull just ONE of those 4 on a regular basis? We got two and our big strong STONE tank was the first to break and run for the ship insisting we follow. After two more trys we finally got Mako solo and were taking him down nicely when GEE look here comes Black Scorion... Okay we held our ground and took down both which seemed to puzzle our Fearless(?) leader. Fortunately we got lucky and the next pull only brought Scirroco so we finished up and moved to the next phase.

At this point I realized this guy has some GUIDE, probably found here, and is running through it step by step like it is the only POSSIBLE way to succeed. We took out the flyer and then all the ground troops before attacking the towers. I will give him this much he WAS able to hold Recluse's attention with help from the EMP defender I am sure someone told him he HAD to have along LOL But he drove me crazy typing in things like "Make sure to defeat those repairmen or they will just keep the tower up longer" Ummm Gee I didn't KNOW that. and I guess you are mission the combat logs saying XXXX defeats Arachnos Repairman every 20 seconds or so. /em rolls eyes

We finally managed to compete the TF and in only about 50 minutes longer than any one I have been on recently.. and keep in mind I AVOID SPEED RUNS. Oh and it is the first time in a while that no one on the team said thanks for the invitation.. we all just clicked quit TF and RAN away fast... I one starred the leader first to make sure I never join a team he's running again.

Now I don't know all the particulars of your team and I am assuming there were details you left out but basically team leader in most cases just means "I am willing to talk to the contact and send out a few messages to build the team" It does not make you GOD. Heck I have joined teams where the "TEAM LEADER" didn't have a clue and was standing there doing nothing but announcing in broadcast he was building a team... while I was sending messages to 8 different global chat channels and MYSTERIOUSLY the team filled. LOL Face facts .. these days between people after shards and people after notices in most cases you can build a team just by sending out invites to the players standing around the TF contact. After that your biggest responsibility is to get back to the contact as fast as possible after mission one to get mission two.. in most cases after that you have their cell number and all you have to do is SET THE NEXT MISSION.. it doesn't take a genius. EVEN I CAN AND HAVE DONE IT lol

Thank you for the feedback.

At least I now have some objective view on the situation at hand. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I would have left around the time you started giving me commands like a henchman. If not then, then I'd have offered to reform the team once you kicked that guy.

"Respect is earned, not given" is pretty much where all of this is founded. One always has to remember that this is a game and we are all here to have fun. When we play together, we do so either for its own sake because teaming is fun, or for the sake of strength of numbers to benefit us all. No-one joins a team to be someone else's servant, and a leader needs to keep that in mind.

The very position of "leader" is not one of power and authority, but rather one of responsibility. A leader is required not because someone needs to be empowered, but merely because consensus cannot always be reached without a single mind at the end of the chain. A leader is also needed if others are not familiar with the task at hand and need to be guided through it.

What a leader ISN'T needed for if for the sake of having someone in power. Contrary to popular belief, people in general are not sheep that need a shepherd, lost and hopeless without one. We are more than capable of looking after ourselves and make our own decisions. We are not units on the battlefield of an RTS. We are real, living people with opinions, emotions and intitiative, as well as with our own skills and initiative. A leader must understand this and use it, not seek to suppress it.

A good leader will make use of his strengths to cover his weaknesses. If a team ends up filled with aggressive hotheads, then this team is not applicable to a cautious, coordinated strategy, and a good leader must adapt and adopt an aggressive strategy that befits the talents of his crew. You cannot make people into what they aren't. This isn't boot camp.

Really, it all comes down to a single fact - your team-mates are not just tools to help your gameplay and they didn't join to serve you. You were given the responsibility to help their gameplay and look after them. If you cannot grasp that, you have no place leading teams.

Quote:

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.

Being the team lead doesn't really give you the right to order your teammates around like underlings. Keep in mind that they're real people, and that a little politeness can go a long way. And honestly, most of the time it's not even necessary.

The only time I even give instructions to teammates is if we're trying to do something in a specific way and they're unfamiliar with it (such as a STF or a speed LGTF or ITF) or if the strategy we're using isn't working and I want to try something else. And even then it pays to be polite instead of just barking out orders.

Don't get me wrong, I kind of see your side too OP. It can be very annoying when you're asking your teammates to do something and they aren't listening (like the one guy who always insists on trying to save glacia and/or infernia on speed LGTFs), I just don't think you were justified in what you asked them to do this time around, and I don't think you handled it very well when they didn't listen.