True, lol, WoW will win only due to sheer mass...

WoW's community is piss poor, as it is with pretty much all Blizzard games (yes, I played it for about a year and a half). If you think it's good, you're either A) Part of the problem, or B) You haven't seen much of anything else. Period.

Don't get me wrong, I love Blizzard games, obviously because they craft digital crack, but they sure do seem to attract the lowest common denominator...

(partly in response to Macabre in case the reply system doesn't work)

Well in my case there's a C) all my friends are still playing WoW. If you're in a great guild full of great people, you don't have to deal with the rest of the community.

Of the games in the list, I've played max level content (at the time I was playing them) in EQ, EQ2, WoW, and LOTRO, and am currently subscribed to both WoW and LOTRO. I also play Guild Wars and Free Realms on occasion.

In my opinion, the PUGs in EQ were the best. Although I love soloing and mostly play that style, I do admit being able to solo makes it hard for new players to learn how to play in a group. I probably just got lucky cutting my teeth on EQ, but there were very few times in that game where someone was just totally clueless in a PUG. EQ2 is a close second. My experience with LOTRO is that there are a lot of new players who enjoy it for the setting but aren't really very good players in groups. And WoW--I enjoy the content and being with a great group of mature people in my guild...but I will never join a PUG in that game ever again.

When I went from City of Heroes years ago to World of Warcraft I was disgusted at the community in WoW. I had never seen so much hate and disrespect for others. In CoH people were generally willing to lend a hand or answer a question. I wondered if I was just getting old but then I spent time in WAR and LOTRO and I realized it's not just me getting old. How anyone can say WoW has a good community is beyond me. However, this poll is about the best PUGs...and I voted for CoH, LOTRO would be a close second for me. Running Ulduar 25 and having a pally get DI'd and NOT know he can click off the bubble to start ressing people is the kind of thing common in WoW PUGs.

@Oneiromancer

There is no "C)". A game community refers to all the people associated with a game, not just an individual's group of friends/guild. Of course you're going to enjoy the company of your chosen group (I would hope, at least), why else would you be with them? I was referring to--and what the article/poll is basically about--the community as a whole.

By your own admittance, quote: "but I will never join a PUG in that game ever again.", your thoughts are right in line with what I said about WoW's community.

Not meaning to flame you or anything, just trying to focus on the game's community as a whole, not just personal groups/guilds.

Macabre:

You're right, I misread your statement. I thought you were saying "if you think WoW is good", not "if you think WoW's community is good" when you listed your two options.

See, people on the Internet can admit they're wrong. ;)

@ Macabre

Just another arrogant response to WoW's success, is how I see it. As if *you* know all about the community on every server and every faction and can boil it all down to "piss poor". Right.

I've played WoW for about 4 years now, and just like any other MMO, there are good PUGs and bad PUGs. There are obnoxious players and good players. It's really all relative to each individual experience. To say that the community is "piss poor" is indicative of your own experiences and does not reflect the entire community.

For the record, I've played FFXI, WoW, LoTRO, WAR, Guild Wars, and even the Aion beta. I have seen the others, and that doesn't mean I think they're all bad games; as a matter of fact, I've enjoyed some of them. I just prefer WoW over them, and partly it's because it's easier to get a group together in WoW for me. Whether the group is good or bad is just a roll of the dice as it is with any game you join a PUG in.

@xtofer:

When there's an overwhelmingly negative opinion of the community in WoW, then I think there's more truth to his statement than just being "arrogant". In the same way that Macabre can't know how the WoW community is across all realms, you also can't claim to know enough about all the realms to refute his comment. To quote Scorched Earth - "Tracers work both ways."

Spend a day going on the forums at world of warcraft's website or any of the other unofficial sites out there, or research why when any person online, on any site, makes a remark about "barrens chat" or "trade channel", and just about everyone understands what they're talking about.

True. To get any real value from this survey, I think the first requirement would be to discount the WoW phanboi vote-stuffing.

As has been said, WoW does what it does very well -- it is the "McMMORPG", if you like that taste -- but to suggest with any seriousness that WoW has the best pick-up-groups, in light of its infamous community, is simply not supportable.

lol, I love how anyone who has anything negative to say about any aspect of WoW is obviously just a "hater" to its success...

I did admit to playing it for a year and a half, did I not? *Very* few games have kept my attention for that long, as is the case for many I presume, which is a testament to its success (not that it really needs any more, heh).

I love Blizzard, I've been a fan of their games since they were a console developer (yeah, that's right), and I'm thrilled that they're doing so well. That means they can continue to create the digital crack that they do with franchises like Diablo and Starcraft.

That being said, and much to your dismay it seems, WoW is not infallible. The game is great, as are all of Blizzard's offerings, yet they attract among the worst player bases I've ever experienced, and I've been gaming and been of active member of countless communities for a long time. We can argue all day on who's right, but that would be futile. As Manic Soul mentioned, all you have to do is go spend some time on chat channels and forums of some of the games mentioned here and compare it to WoW's. That'll do all the arguing for me.

Now don't be dense. Just because you've met some cool/nice people, doesn't mean the community as a whole is good. There are always diamonds in the rough. On the flip side, great communities certainly have their share of asshats. I shouldn't have to point this out, but apparently it has eluded you...

Obviously WoW is going to get the most votes, they have like 90% of the entire MMO market. People will vote for what they know.

City of Heroes is the best though for PUGs and i'll tell you why.

It has a very in depth search system.

You can search all players on the server and narrow by archtype (class),
level range,
origin (though that's sort of pointless as it doesnt effect powers),
zone,
& meta tags (like people can have a "looking for anything" tag or a "looking for missions" tag or a "looking for TF" (taskforce) tag, etc..
you can also sort by all aspects

people also have comments they can put that will show up next to their info in the search.

The tell/messaging system is integrated into the search so its easy to ask if some1 would like to join your group.

all of which makes finding people for a PUG. and making a balanced team. fast & efficient.

This is the exact same reasoning I'm using to vote for SWG. I spent 2 years in WoW, a year in WAR, tried everything else. I've played SWG since launch, and off an on for the past 2 years.

I stopped playing WoW 6 months ago, because a change in my schedule made it impossible to PUG any content. However, most of the SWG population has migrated to 1 server, and I've been having a blast. If you were ever interested in SWG, I highly recommend giving it another go. The game has changed a lot.

Completely agree the less PvP the game has the nicer the people seem to be (Generally)

I think its the competitiveness in PvP players, they always seem to have a massive ego to feed rather than just trying to get along and build a community.