Doing Pick Up Groups like I so often do to accomplish my goals, I get to see a lot of interesting player habits.
And sure, every player is unique, everyone is special. But each of us who are unique and special still have a billion traits that can be "categorized" even if the whole person cannot accurately be.
Let's talk about the trait of being a Tourist in a dungeon group.
What Is A Dungeon Tourist?
In short, a Dungeon Tourist is a player who feels compelled to be at the front of the party - generally in front of the Tank before the pull is done.
A Dungeon Tourist will decide without notice to head down a hallway that the Tank is not heading down, just to see what's over there, or to mine a node or pick a flower that's spawned.
Generally, what they find in their short journey is a mob that starts to attack them, and the squishier they are, the more panicked they are when they ask for help.
How Can You Detect A Dungeon Tourist?
Unfortunately, it's not easy to detect a Dungeon Tourist immediately.
They don't wear loud shirts, they're not carrying cameras, and they come along WITH you into the instance instead of already being there when you arrive. In short, they look just like everyone else in your group, and with your hopefulness of a successful run, you might even think them a "good player" by looking at their spec or gear.
The only way to truly know you've got a Dungeon Tourist on your hands is to watch their behavior during the instance:
- Do they stand behind the tank before the pull?
- Do they get hurt regularly yet do negligable damage compared to others who are not getting hurt?
- Do they regularly move up and past the tank before thinking about restoring mana or health between pulls?
Tactfully Handling Tourists
Most Tourists, I've found, are young players behind the keyboard.
To them, the game is still new and exciting, and the fact that they're in a dungeon group, or in this particular instance, makes it even more exciting. Team play is quite a bit different than Soloing or Pairing up with a friend, after all.
These tourists generally are well-meaning, and can be coached into altering habits - at least for one run - with a friendly person to give them a tip or two they find useful.
The most useful way I've found to tactfully pull most Tourists back is to appeal to their hope of not dying during the run. Simply saying "PlayerName, please wait behind the tank for us to go, if you aggro something, you're pretty squishy" works most of the time, at least for that pull.
Reminding is easy too - "Hey Squishy, let the tank go through first :)"
Handling Stubborn Tourists
Some Tourist-types are stubborn, unfortunately. Thankfully it's a small percentage of them the higher level you get - and certainly once you hit Outland instances, they're almost non-existent.
Stubborn ones might hang back once or twice, but in general, as soon as there's a corner they can't see around or a node they can mine or pick, they're off without a second thought. And again, aggro'ing something as a reward for their lack of foresight.
The best way I've seen to handle these types of tourists is to simply not assist the battle if they've done it too many times. Let them die as part of their education.
Even if they can get a quick resurrect from a party member, their actions will cost them two ways:
- Repairs
- A blow to the ego that the party members won't run in like Mommy and Daddy to save them.
Even if it means the rest of the party WAS put into combat and DO have to kill what was aggro'd after the first guy bites it, I still recommend this strategy. Even if the player leaves the party in protest, I'll bet your group will be the better for it, and unless you've got 2-3 OTHER weak players in your group, most pre-Outland instances can be 4-manned without many problems.
Tell Me About Your Adventures With Dungeon Tourists
I'd love to hear about your adventures with Dungeon Tourists - whether they be in PUGs or guild runs, or whatever.
I know of a casual raiding guild that has raid-based financial punishments for Dungeon Tourists, charging them a certain amount of gold every time they get part of the raid killed for their Touristism, and I think that's both great and hilarious.
What do you think?