A recent post on my realm forums, and a reading that was given to me in a morality and ethics class at University sparked some thought in me.
Imagine you are in a random pick up group for the daily heroic, and as you progress through the dungeon, you are doing something wrong. Your DPS is abysmally low, people are watching aggro, feigning death and wind shearing and still pulling off of you, and people/tanks are dying often. Whatever your role in the group, you are performing badly. Assuming you have the proper gear, Intellect and spell power for a caster, Stamina and Defense for a tank, or whatever your class requires. You don’t out gear the instance, but you are geared well enough for it.
Now, multiple pulls in the dungeon, someone says something to you:
“Do more DPS”,
“Make more aggro”,
“Don’t let your group mates die”,
…and this ticks you off.
What should you do?
If someone’s criticism of you made you mad or ticked you off you could question what that person’s relationship to you is. For the sake of this argument, let’s say this person is your enemy.
You’re in the same group as your enemy, and he criticizes you. How can you profit by this?
Plutarch’s writing claims that one’s enemies keep one at guard. Enemies reveal your weak spots. Your enemies dislikes you because of your performance (you don’t join a group for the heroic daily to make friends, you join a group for the daily Emblems or whatever your group’s goal is).
“Now our enemy … doth acquaint himself with the infirmities both of our bodies and mind, with the debts we have contracted…all which he knows as well, if better than ourselves.”
-Plutarch
Some might claim that criticism can be mean, or some people might take it the wrong way. Your enemy sees your performance differently than you do. Your enemy sees a different reality and can criticize you differently than your friend will. In some cases, your friends will praise what you do, even if you are doing it bad.
““Those persons who have been brought to live soberly by the fear and awe of enemies, who have learned to guard against negligence and idleness, and to do everything with a view to some to some profitable end””
-Plutarch
Why Bambi? I have no idea, but it’s an important piece of wisdom. I found this one when I searched Criticism on Google Images.
What do I encourage you to do? Go run a pick up group for a heroic, a complete PUG. See what others might say about you, and what others are doing. At the end of the run, possibly ask them to say how well you did. If someone says you are playing badly, take their word as some type of wisdom. Ask them for a recommendation. If someone is blatantly trolling you, or giving you stupid criticism(y u play tauren lol), just thank them for the advice anyway.
Now to answer my question from before, if someone criticise you, what should you do?
Don’t be scared to make yourself a better player.
