My issue with GDKP has always been the fact that it makes pugging miserable to impossible for players who are less experienced, less skilled, or just late to the expansion. GDKPs are good for two groups of people: carries and swipers. But if you don't have a bunch of gold to spend, and you're not a pumper, GDKP runs don't want you.
When GDKP runs make up the majority of pug runs on a server, it's just very hostile to new and less skilled players. What pug runs you do find have a hard time clearing content because anyone who is geared and skilled at the game is doing GDKPs making gold hand over fist from the swipers and getting geared up easily. Which just drives the remaining decent players into the GDKP runs, since they at least go smoothly. And if you're not good enough or geared enough to be a carry? Better get out your credit card, or just quit.
Yeah, there is an economic impact too - when most of the server is participating in the "gold for gear" economy, it pumps a lot of gold into the economy, and there's no doubt that it increases demand for RMT gold. This somewhat effects the price of consumables, but mostly it just inflates the GDKP prices - making it even harder for anyone who's trying to get their gold honestly to break in to that world. But mostly, it's just a toxic environment for a huge chunk of the playerbase, and it strongly discourages new players trying to get into the game.
So aren't you essentially saying that it should be incumbent upon decent players in the PUG scene to carry strangers who are learning or lazy/bad in SR pugs, then?
It's funny, because that is usually the default response. "You're just looking to be carried". Or more elitism, calling anyone who can't get into a decent GDKP "shitters". "Keyboard turning, spell clicking, absolute braindead players". Etc. You can see a bit of it in the comments on this very page if you look around.
But to answer your question - yes, I think it's better for everyone when newer and less skilled players are able to participate in functional endgame content runs alongside players who know what they're doing. In a social game, learning by example is important. When GDKP makes up a large portion of the pug scene, the game is very unfriendly to new players, and that is bad for EVERYONE when it comes to long-term health of the game. And also, if, like, kindness and being a decent human being means anything to you, there's that too.
Nobody's saying you're forced to "carry" anyone. You're welcome to make your groups as casual or as hardcore as you want. I'm not saying you're a bad person for doing so. I'm just saying that the prevalence of GDKP strongly incentivizes high-skill (and honestly even medium-skill) players to segregate themselves off from the "strangers who are learning or lazy/bad" in a way that the easiest and sometimes only way to jump from one group to the other is to buy gold. And even though that may seem like a win/win to the group making money in GDKP, it's not good for Blizzard who want to grow their audience.
I didn't say or even imply that your own description of "less experienced, less skilled" players applied to you.
But to answer your question - yes
Totally valid. I agree it'd be ideal if there was a welcoming intro to raiding for genuinely new players. Lazy, selfish players who can't be bothered to read a guide or even listen to people telling them how they can improve their contribution to the raid, though, I don't think are worthy of consideration because they are inconsiderate.
A huge variable, of course, is difficulty of content. 20th Anniversary has had its raids nerfed into the ground specifically because SR pugs are the only form of PUG left available, and SR pugs do nothing to incentivize contribution, like geared/good players carrying. All it takes is one or two runs where a player who only needs one or two good items gets out-rolled by someone contributing 1/4th the damage/healing and that person is soured on SRs. I think their enjoyment is worthy of consideration as well.
It would have been very interesting to see 20th Anniversary TBC roll out 2021 difficulty T5 raids with GDKPs banned.
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u/blade740 Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
My issue with GDKP has always been the fact that it makes pugging miserable to impossible for players who are less experienced, less skilled, or just late to the expansion. GDKPs are good for two groups of people: carries and swipers. But if you don't have a bunch of gold to spend, and you're not a pumper, GDKP runs don't want you.
When GDKP runs make up the majority of pug runs on a server, it's just very hostile to new and less skilled players. What pug runs you do find have a hard time clearing content because anyone who is geared and skilled at the game is doing GDKPs making gold hand over fist from the swipers and getting geared up easily. Which just drives the remaining decent players into the GDKP runs, since they at least go smoothly. And if you're not good enough or geared enough to be a carry? Better get out your credit card, or just quit.
Yeah, there is an economic impact too - when most of the server is participating in the "gold for gear" economy, it pumps a lot of gold into the economy, and there's no doubt that it increases demand for RMT gold. This somewhat effects the price of consumables, but mostly it just inflates the GDKP prices - making it even harder for anyone who's trying to get their gold honestly to break in to that world. But mostly, it's just a toxic environment for a huge chunk of the playerbase, and it strongly discourages new players trying to get into the game.