World of Warcraft Newbie Guide 16: Playing With Your Group - The Most Difficult Adversary Of All

While your journeys will take you far, whether they are on the battlefield or inside the most ominous temples and caverns, and present you with many challenges. There is always one challenge that will remain constant, yet at the same time change fluidly to provide varying difficulty...

This challenge is your own group, who can range from just about any type of person (with the Internet taken into account) imaginable. Some are enjoyable to play with, but others will make you (and others) incredibly miserable. While it is close to impossible to handle the latter group of players short of removing them from the group (which only removes the problem for a time and inevitable dumps the burden onto another group of players), it is possible to prevent yourself from becoming one of these people. In this article, I will provide some guidelines that can make you one of the better members of your group. While these are largely opinion-based (and thus can technically be considered suggestions), I can guarantee that it is highly unlikely that you will be removed from a group if you follow them. (These guidelines also apply to veteran players.)

The Ten "Commandments" of Group Play

1. Be tolerant. Just because someone asks what might be a dumb question to you ("how do I do this boss?") or does something you think is stupid (makes any sort of mistake) doesn't give you a right to suddenly have a superiority complex and treat the player as an inferior or invalid. This includes insulting or talking down to said player (ex. "you stupid idiot!")
2. Don't overreact to the mistakes of other players. This is similar to the first rule in a way, but applies to any sort of mistake someone does. Just because someone does make a mistake doesn't mean they should be instantly kicked.
3. Admit your own mistakes. If there's something you did that accidentally endangered the group, potentially killing everyone (known as a "wipe"), you should come out and admit it. Chances are other members will find out who did it anyways so why not be honest about it?
4. Don't complain excessively. While I can understand when players complain about any aspect of the game or something else every once in awhile, anything more than that just makes the player seem like a nuisance.
5. Don't be a leech. This pretty much mean you should try not to go AFK (away from keyboard). On the off chance you have to, either communicate that you are AFK (either say "afk" or "brb") if it is brief or leave the group if said AFK may take a longer time (over 2-3 minutes).
6. Don't be incredibly selfish. This largely applies to rolling for loot. Just because you can Need roll on loot doesn't mean you have to or should. When in doubt about whether a piece of equipment is beneficial for you, refer to this (or ask here).
7. Use the tools provided, but not excessively. In this case, I am primarily referring to Vote to Kick (Dungeon Finder) and Report For AFK (Battlegrounds). There are inevitably going to be problem players in either case and that is what those two buttons are for. However, this doesn't mean you should go around trying to remove everyone just because you don't like them. While you can, you will eventually make it close to impossible to use either button when you need it most.
8. Don't "cheat" the system. This largely refers to players who queue for a specific role for a quicker queue, but are unable to do it or refuse to do it. Said player will end up causing a lot of grief to themselves and the group.
9. Don't grief deliberately/don't intentionally screw over your group. While mistakes happen, if it's obvious a player makes something that is considered a "mistake" intentionally on multiple occasions in an attempt to hamper the progress of the group, they should be removed.
10. Don't fall prey to your emotions. This is probably one of the hardest guidelines to follow, but the most important, as you may end up violating other guidelines as a result. If something bothers you, try your best to ignore it (or remove ignore the offending player). Also, try not to get into conflicts with other players unnecessary, as they have a tendency to escalate out of control. In addition, you can report players who are clearly breaking some sort of rule (for instance, if someone makes a rude racial remark, you can report the player for "Language")

While this article is among the shortest in the guide series so far, it will probably be the most important one if you plan on participating in group play. Happy dungeoning, battlegrounding, raiding, or whatnot.