The Grass always seems Greener

So I was leveling one of my characters last night, when one of my guildies, a new guy from his guild tag, grumbles that he is having a terrible losing streak in the T3 scenarios (he is rank 22). I empathize, saying I'm sorry to hear it. A bit later, he complains about the healers not throwing him heals, as well has healers ignoring him as he goes down in front of them. Again I commiserate, being a tank player myself, when the tank gets no heals, that's usually not a good sign. Shortly after this he makes the following statement:

"This sucks, I can see this game going the way of Hellgate"

Surprised, I strongly disagree with this statement, and point out that Hellgate was bogged down by problems since launch, including a borked subscription type and character deletion bugs. He then says that people are going to quit since the players in his faction are no good and that the factions are so unbalanced. To which I counter that healers not healing is not a game balance issue. It's a team quality issue, which is why you ought to roll around with guildies or friends if possible. I add that I hear this sort of complaint over on my characters on the other faction. It's a grass-is-greener issue. 

At this point another guildie pipes up that the bad pugs unbalance the game. Again I retort that bad pugs are part of the MM in MMO, and nearly every player has to deal with bad pugs at some point. I reiterate that bad players are not a design or balance issue, but rather a community issue. Everyone has had those nights in which every player in your groups seems to be in the running for most useless teammate of the year. I've had weekends where my team just couldn't pull it together, and I've had times where my group steamrolls over everything again and again. The thing is, I hear this kind of talk regularly, from both sides. So if anything the equivalent amount of bitching each side does is actually a very good indication that the game is better balanced than one would suspect.

Sure there are certain bugs and issues that affect balance in the game, but these are being ironed out on a regular basis by Mythic. It saddens me when players point fingers at inept group mates or players who make a bad decision in combat and yell "unbalanced!". Competency in a video game is not something that can be coded into the game. Players need to take responsibility instead of disavowing their own contribution to the success or failure of a team. Also, we need to take into account that it will always seem that we have weaker classes or dumber faction-mates, but the other side is probably saying the exact same things about us. As someone who plays both sides, trust me, both factions are equally broken and are arguably pretty balanced.

Players unfortunately have this tendency to look for reasons beyond their control when things are going badly for their team or faction. Now, sometimes players are correct. There are many well-known and documented bugs and exploits that can be extremely frustrating to deal with in the game. But a great majority of gamers will cry for nerfs or buffs, or suggest rebalancing instead of dealing with the resources available to them and learning to play smarter. Smart players find ways to bypass or minimize these perceived imbalances without resorting to whining. Remember, don't worry about the stuff that you can't control, and focus on the variables that you can control.