How to Use Etiquette in World of Warcraft Groups

World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online game (MMO). The key word is multiplayer. The game can be a lot more fun when played in groups, either with people you know in real life, or with strangers that you meet in the game. These steps will help you to be a good group member, and get invited back on future adventures.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. First, don't just click on someone, and click the Group Invite button. First talk to the person, and tell them what you have in mind. It can be vague, such as, "Want to kill some of these boars together?," or "Are you on such-and-such quest? Do you want to do it with me?"

2. If you are an inexperienced or casual player, make that known to the members of your party. Many WoW players have dozens of characters and are highly experienced and obsessive, so even if you are playing a low-level character, your group members may assume that you know how to play it well. For example, healers are expected to heal their group members effectively. Warriors are expected to provide tanking services (i.e., stand on the frontline and get pounded on). If you tell your group members that you are new, they will likely be more lenient with you if you "mess up," or they might tell you in advance that they'd prefer to group with someone else, and at least you'll know ahead of time.

3. Understand how the looting system works. The most common system is such that special items are rolled for. If a special item is looted by anyone, a screen will pop up, asking you if you want to roll Need or Greed. Here is how this works: Group members who click Need get automatic precedence over those who click Greed. Of those who click Need, the computer automatically does a roll-off to see who gets it.

4. The typical convention among pick-up groups (i.e., strangers that just met in game right before the group) is that you should only choose Need if the item is something that your character can use right away, and is better than what you have. It is highly frowned upon to say that you Need an item for another character that you may or may not even have. It is also not OK to say that you Need the item because you need money and want to sell it.

5. Before rolling Need, ask your party members if they are OK with you selecting Need. If unsure, just click Greed. If you see that another group member is unfairly rolling Need over and over for things, just leave the group, add him/her to your ignore list, and move on. Remember, you may be grouped with people who are literally 8 years old.

6. If you come to a treasure chest, it is common for all group members do a /roll command. This will generate a number from 1-100. The highest roll gets to loot the chest. Even if you win, consider sharing appropriately. Find out what professions your group members are doing. If someone is a tailor, consider giving them cloth. Consider giving ore to miners, and herbs to herbalists, etc. If a nice wand is in the chest, and there is a mage in your group, don't keep it just because you won the roll. If you are a warrior, it will just come off as very greedy, since you can't even use it.

7. If there is more than one miner, skinner, or herbalist in the group, take turns performing your professions. Lean toward the generous side, rather than keeping strict track.

8. If at any time you "mess up," (e.g., let a group member die, grab something without permission, etc.) just apologize, and remind the group that you are new. Give back anything that can be given back (i.e., not Bind on Pickup), or offer to continue to help the person finish the quest, or whatever you were working on.

9. Tell the group ahead of time how much time you have to play. If you are about to be called for dinner, don't embark on a far away lengthy quest, only to have to stop in the middle. It especially comes across really bad if you are able to obtain all your quest items, but then by coincidence have to go offline before you can help your group members do the same.

10. Most importantly, try to make yourself seem like a real human being on the other end. Speak to your group members as though you were in front of them. Say please and thank you. Consider asking them where they are from, or similar questions, unless you are on a role-playing server and are trying to stay in character. If you had fun with your group members, add them to your friends list so that you can play with them again, and they will do the same for you!