Massively

The best thing that has happened to me was a few years ago in AO.

My metaphysisist was sitting in Borealis and somebody asked for mochams I gave them and refused any kind of payment, then half jokingly I shouted "Anybody wanting free mochams come here, I strictly do not accept tips", next thing I know I had to organise a Queue and ended up baffling people for the next two hours.

It was amazing.

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If I'm running around in Champions and I see people who are about to die I'll stop and heal them. Dying sucks, especially when you're at a low level.

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I have been on both ends of this, and I always say thanks. I have also gone one step up and given away loot.

Once in EverQuest I was moving to another server and decided to retire a character, a level 30 or so ShadowKnight. So Instead of just deleting her I decided to give my gear away to lowbies, at least the good gear anyway. So instead of doing a zone-wide shout and starting a run I would run around the noobie areas looking for groups, and would ask for help in /say. Sometimes I would ask for a stack of food or drink, sometimes bone chips, and I would reward whoever helped me. I would give huge amounts (for their levels anyway) for their help too. It was like a mini GM event.



It was a fun experience and I had a blast.

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I still remember my first day in EQ2. I was roaming by antonica with no idea on what to do or where to go and I came upon a bunch or gnolls that decided to breakfast dwarf...I tried to run and yell and then when i was just about to die a BIG guy in a full black armor set appeared from nowhere and with a single whirlwind killed eveything.
He bowed and ran to the horizon. I gave him proper thanks and we talked a bit.
It was my first mmo, first day and first lesson. Help others is great :)

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For a long time in Dark Age of Camelot a high level person could buff a Damage Shield on a lowbie that didn't scale right and did WAY too much damage to the mobs.

When I level-capped my main toon I would wait for RvR calls in the newbie towns running around casting that damage shield on new folks. Anyone who actually thanked me got free Gold!

I have to admit that part of the fun was when the new person figured it out and would aggro a bunch of toons...only to not time it right and have the shield time out when they had eight mobs chasing them.

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I have always buffed/healed when I could and aided them when they needed it (and only when they needed it) in every MMO I have played.

I used to sit for hours in Atlas giving Speed Boosts to everyone in COH and as my Captain in LOTRO providing buffs appropriate to thier class and heals where needed.

That is a side of MMOs I really enjoy along with showing newbies around, explaining quests, tactics, showing them POI's etc..

It is always appreicated, though has admitedly been given to a folk or two in the past who almost certainly didnt deserve the assistance.. (thinks of a couple he took under his wing in COH once only to have them rob his SG base and disappear one night)..

Still it is nice to help folks, even if the odd few are mentally incapable of appreicating the effort being given to them for no other reason than "because".

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In WoW drive-by buffing is so common you quickly stop noticing. When not in a major city I pretty much reflexively tossed out PW:F or MoTW at any passer-by. While I never did it myself, I've even known priests who would occasionally mind control an enemy faction member to buff them, just for luls. As for helping or healing someone in distress, again it's common enough to not warrant much note. The only real exception is, again, cross faction. There's an oft-ignored pact between druids, you don't kill other druids no matter the faction and you help another druid if you can, that I always tried to fulfill. Occasionally an alliance druid I'd helped would log to a horde alt after I'd pulled them out of the fire to thank me, usually they were pretty surprised.

As bad as the WoW playerbase can sometimes seem overall, in some ways its reputation is by no means deserved.

Most other MMOs I've played simply don't allow for buffing players not in your group, which is really kind of too bad. As far as I can find, that's the case in War. I can't even buff my wargroup, let alone a passing stranger, only the other five people in my immediate group. As for helping/healing others in need, my early experiences on Badlands kind of discouraged me from doing that. Even if it means they would have otherwise died, some people can be extremely nasty if you help them, and frankly I only had to run into that a few times to decide it just wasn't worth the grief.

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I help out people who are near dying in CO since ofc dying is lame. They always said thanks and never accused me of killstealing :D.

There are a few times when I'm near death and all of a sudden a random healer will pop up or the monster would drop dead from some spellcaster coming along.
When I played WoW (For the week I did) there were several drive-by buffers, I just got used of it.

I always like helping people as long as they aren't A-holes about it :p

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I'm a compulsive drive-by-er, but not generally in hubs - I usually play support classes in open world games, so throw heals and rezzes on anyone I see who looks to be struggling (of course post-struggling in the case of rezzes).

I'm not good at thanking folks in those types of games though, as the screen is usally so busy that I don't even notice for so long that the buffer is long gone.

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Seems you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I remember buffing someone in LOTRO a bit back and got told in no uncertain terms to fork off. Now, I don't buff anyone... stuff 'em.

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i usually go for heal/support classes. so when i see someone that needs help or even just standing with hp not at full, ill fill them up. its a mmo for a reason, and a lot of times people forget that. but it was fun at the start of SWG sitting in the ship ports with a long line of people waiting to pay to get the buffs. to me its good to have the feeling of other people on you side trying to help you or at least stand by your side. most of the time it feels nice to be nice. sometimes nay.

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I really enjoy topping off HP bars and buffing others. Getting a thanks is nice but I do it because it feels good (warm fuzzies!).

My most memorable save was shortly after I had gotten my Swift Flight Form in the Burning Crusade.

I had just been flying around the zones for the sheer joy of having faster wings; while cruising in Terokkar Forest I saw this lower level Shaman in wolf form fleeing from a pack of mobs with barely any life left. So I flew along side of her and popped a couple of HoTs then turned to the coming mobs and shifted to Bear and taunted them. They were easy to take out but it was one of those moments where I couldn't help but think - I love being a Druid!

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Giving random people random buffs is something I've been doing for a while. I remember once, playing anarchy Online, there was a lower-level player at the same shop, so I gave him a random buff. He bet me I couldn't fill his buff list (There's a maximum number of buffs in AO, based on buff strength)

I was a bureaucrat (Support / crowd control class).

I had lots of trouble convincing him not to pay me for the bet =P

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I regularly buff others with my pally in WOW. And I have more than once saved a stranger's character from death by providing a heal or the Gift of the Naaru. I never really expect thanks, I'm a paladin, it what we do.

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