Not Attitude but a Culture Shock

This is in response to a thread about Attitude in Exalted. I've seen a few talk about attitude in global channels like /help.

This "attitude" is debatable. It's a perception. And we're all going to bring a perception from our own respectable servers, and it's going to be a bit of a culture shock. This is a very curious and neat opportunity to suddenly merge all the servers and experience how each one is different.

An Example:
I came from Freedom. And servers like Freedom and Virtue who have so many players that we've tested every which way something can be done until we've found the fastest and easiest way to do it. We are extremely fast paced. TFs and Trials are done in record times. And we find these methods within a day of any release.

So coming to Exalted and teaming with people from unfamiliar servers with lower populations is a complete culture shock. One, I can't just barrel through the missions like I've been nurtured to do. And two, the leader might be using a method to finish the objective that my server has already tested and thrown out from day one - but to them, thats the most up to date way to do it.

We settle into comfort zones naturally. And when somebody throws a new idea of how something should be done, it's the proverbial monkey wrench, and we recoil. We get defensive, and sometimes we take it as an assault on our methods. We are comfortable in how we do our TFs and Trials because it's how we've come to know them as the best possible way to do it. Sometimes, they are. Sometimes, they're not. Either way, some get affronted that somebody is questioning their methods.

It's not a bad thing. Just a perception or an attitude. An understanding. By all means, make suggestions. Help people out. We move forward and grow by calculated risks. Hopefully, those people you are helping don't automatically misinterpret your suggestions as attitude, but understand up to 50% may.

This is a neat opportunity. To me, it's like visiting another country. All of a sudden, there are heroes doing similar things, but in different ways. Sounds like a fun new challenge on top of the already awesome new content we've been given in the past year.

Let's roll with it.

Very interesting. This makes me way to start a character on Exalted now. I've been bouncing between Liberty and, now, Freedom out of habit.

It's not "attitude". It's a perception.

An example:

I come from ******, and servers like mine have the smartest players, they're so smart they've figured out how to do all the TF's and trials better than any other server. That's a fact. It's not debatable. It's not attitude, it's a fact.

So coming to Exalted and finding players who won't listen when I tell them how great ****** is and how they need to be doing trials our way is a complete culture shock. When I didn't form the team, why shouldn't they let me lead? I mean, their methods are obviously so inferior that on ****** we threw those methods out long ago.

Anyhow, people can either start listening to how I say things must be done, or they can continue to be wrong. It's just that simple, believe me I know. It happen.

One more thing, it's not attitude.

P.S. - There is no I in TEAM.

Funny, when I started playing on Freedom after years on Infinity, I found the teams to be far slower.

All I'm going to say is that there's a reason I don't play on Freedom... and frankly, if Exalted ever becomes "Freedom 2.0", I doubt I'll keep playing there either. >_>

All I have to say, Brigg, is faster is NOT better. And saying that you and your server "threw out" cetain methods ages ago because they were inefficient smacks of some sort of superiority issue.

Personally, I like to be able to notice I was fighting things... and what methods were used. Folks who insist on speed runs are not invited to my teams and often get kicked for being a ****** to the rest of the team. YMMV.

Generally PUGS and AE farm teams from Broadcast or Help tend to be chaotic, as can randomly throwing together a TF or Trial. To fix this, we've created global channels where veteran players have run them until their eyes bleed.

Type /chanjoin BMT of Exalted to join the Badges/Monsters/Trials,TF's,SF's channel on Exalted. or
Type /chanjoin Exalted Events to join the Exalted events channel, it's for the more casual teamer, Costume Contests, Biography Contests, Raids, PUG teams, trials and everything. It is a sister channel of BMT of Exalted and usually gets cross spammed when something big is forming.

Both channels have chat whenever someone's not trying to form something and it's kept at T for Teen or cleaner.

Events are usually posted on the Forums, the Exalted Events Calendar or on the Exalted CoH Facebook page at www.tinyurl.com/CoHExalted.

On Freedom, I've done STFs and ITFs and Eden Trials within 25 minutes. I've done Synapse and Dr. Q TF's within an hour. I've done Numina TFs within 20 minuties. Katie Hannon TFs within 15 minutes. And, yes, I've sped through 100s of Lam's and BAFs for those VRs and T4s.

So yes, I'm guilty of doing the fast ASAP pace, but I never said it was better. It's the fastest and easiest route to the end rewards, yes, but not the best way out there. As Purple_Lynx said, that's all relative. What I personally think is best isn't what others may think is best, which is why I didn't declare it the best. But I can say it was the easiest way to get it done the fastest way.

And for TFs like Synapse, Sister Psyche, or Dr Q, I'd definitely rather speed through those. I enjoy the teams. I enjoy the camaraderie. I enjoy the great xp and the badges at the end. What I don't like is taskforces taking hours to complete. My wife actually left me because of a long old-school Atta mission that took 4 hours to complete. It's sad, but I can at least LOL a little about it now. She was barely ok with me playing so much. But when I got stuck there for 4 hours, she'd had it. Please be gentle with your comments. So yeah, I'd prefer faster TFs.

The point is, give others some slack within the new server. It's not like it's only a small group of peole who are doing things different, because those same people came from a server where, most likely, everyone was doing the same thing. To them, everyone else is doing it different.

It's all relative.

I'll copy & paste what I posted in a thread on my old server's forum last week:

Exalted is the America of City of Heroes. It is the melting pot of servers. You have (a large amount of) people that emigrated from Freedom. You have people that emigrated from Guardian. You have people that emigrated from Champion. You have people that emigrated from Pinnacle. Etc. While we all play the same game, each server developed its own particular way of doing things. With people emigrating to Exalted from all these different servers, it's resulted in a bit of a culture clash. People want to do things the way they're used to doing them. Except everyone has done things differently.

So, right now, Exalted has a bunch of people that want to run the same content (whether it be ITFs, LGTFs, Hamidon raids, mothership raids, Incarnate trials, etc.), but are used to running it in one particular way. Most people are willing to listen to the leader, play nice, and try new ways of doing things. Unfortunately, you also have some stubborn people that say things like, "No. Back on Freedom, we did such and such this way. You can do it your way, and I'll be over here doing it the RIGHT way." Fortunately, that situation has been few and far between in my experience.

While Exalted is currently experiencing some growing pains from being the America of CoH, it'll settle down eventually, and get into its own groove. In the meantime, I'm actually enjoying it. It's been educational. We (The Stoned Templars) actually learned a couple of new Hamidon raid tricks from an experienced supergroup from the Pinnacle server that's been helping us lead Hamidon raids on Exalted, for instance.

I'll also say that I, personally, prefer to steamroll. Kill what's in the way, but don't go out of the way to kill things. However, most of my friends and SG mates prefer speed runs. I've been on 12 minute Eden trials, 17 minute ITFs, and 23 minute LGTFs. So, I'll deal with whatever. If I form a TF or trial, it'll be a steamroll run. If one of my friends forms a TF or trial, it'll most likely be a speed run. I'm down with either.

It'd be a big help if everyone calls out their intended pace--speed, kill most, kill all--when you are recruiting. Fewer surprises == less culture shock.