Project Lore

I remember a time, pre-BC, when the Blackrock Mountains were the place to group and raid. I unfortunately also remember having to pug to get my Light Forge Spaulders. I wasn't much of a guild person back then, so I would have to do the obligatory "Lvl 60 Paladin LFG for UBRS, PST".  There were always 3 strikes a group would always face heading into UBRS. 1.) Does your group have someone who's keyed? 2.) Do you have the DPS for "The Beast"? 3.) Does your group have the understanding of how to fight the General, (ex. the kiting strategy)?

I can remember countless times when groups would just fall apart after one attempt of the General or when someone finally got their shoulders off the Beast and they'd say they have to leave because of something in real life and just force quit.

Here we are two expansions later and we have a lot of new players to the game. I know quite a few people who joined in the middle of Burning Crusade's lifespan and never spent one minute in the old world dungeons. So they were lucky to have avoided the Excedrin (yes, the headache medicine) popping moments. But I'm wondering why were pugs in those dungeons so bad?

I bring this up because since Wrath of the Lich King was released I've had to pug a few Heroics and even Naxx on occasion. The thing I've noticed is how smoothly the runs seem to go. Last week I pugged a 25 man Naxx group. Funny thing is we downed 3 quarters in under 3 hours. People listened. People did their jobs and did them well. This was incredible. Usually the more people in a pug the more drama, crying and problems you have or at least you would have had been back in the day.  Two weeks ago I main tanked a 25 man Obsidian Sanctum without vent and we downed it with ease. Even a run in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle went surprisingly well. So here are three different experiences with the same results.

Have players grown up? Are people finally "learning to play their class" as the old complaint use to be thrown around?  Has Blizzard done anything special to the game mechanics to make it easier to communicate without voices? You could say vent servers have helped but people have been using them for years and still have bad experiences. I'm just really curious to see if I'm the only one who's noticing this nice change in pugs. If you are experiencing a change why do you think it's happened?

While I still prefer to run with my guild I can say that I really don't mind the pugs as much as I use to in the pre-bc days.