The Perfect Experience

This article has been created for members of Team GCROCK, the team that is the heart of the community. Our aim is to;

Offer person centered help to our members with the toughest content in The Division Game.
Give members a platform to learn more if they choose to, and to enable them to join Team GCROCK.
Create long lasting friendships within a non-toxic environment.

You can see how we are setup to achieve all of this in my “Team GC” article. But how do we deliver the perfect experience to every member that we meet?

It is hard to put into any form of guidelines but what I can do is share a few stories with you. In the time I have been doing this I have seen many stories from lots of different people. Not one person is the same and it is important to recognize that as we look to grow the team and make it the best environment for everyone.

Some of the stories that follow are based on real community members that I have had the pleasure to experience their story with. There will also be a flip side to each story to show how a rigid system with no real direction can turn people away.

I started playing The Division 2 as it was on sale and COD was getting a bit trash. Turns out it is an okay game but a weapon that I wanted was locked behind an 8 player raid and I have no intention of making any friends.

I found this guy on Youtube promoting a Discord community that helps with this stuff so I joined and before I knew it I was in a raid with a team ready to take me through and try to get the weapon.

I didn’t even think about needing a headset or mic as I play solo all of them time but this wasn’t a problem as the raid leader just communicated through text with me. She asked about my raid experience and what build I was using and I thought I was about to get kicked out.

I told her I had no experience, my build is awful as I have only just started playing really and all I wanted was a carry to get the gun at the end. To my surprise this wasn’t an issue. She just asked if I could join the voice party so that I could hear her instructions to speed things up and I was okay with that. I even found out I could use a mic on my controller so it worked out for the best.

The leader said that she wouldn’t explain much to me during the run because she could tell I was just there for the gun but did make sure there wasn’t anything else I wanted. I confirmed I wasn’t bothered about anything else and they said they would do the run as quick and fun as possible.

Through the raid I was given very basic instructions and the team was a laugh! Probably the best 20 minutes I have had on the game. At the end somebody dropped me the Eagle Bearer as I didn’t get one and they took a photo to share with the community.

I found out that there was another raid too, and an incursion! Even more exotics to try and get but her and the team would be happy to take me through them as well whenever I had the time as I couldn’t stay any longer.

I can only give 10/10 for this experience and would tell all my friends to come here if I had any! I might actually snoop about the Discord and run with more people if this is what it is about.

The Flip Side

I found this guy on Youtube promoting a Discord community that helps with this stuff so I joined and before I knew it I was in a raid with a team ready to take me through and try to get the weapon.

I didn’t even think about a headset or mic as I play solo all of the time. This seemed a real big issue and the raid leader said I need to get a mic or they would find somebody else. After about 10 minutes of trying to find my headset I just said to leave it but somebody suggested joining the chat and using my mic in my controller and this worked thankfully!

The leader asked what experience I had with raids and what build I was running. I told her I had no experience, my build is awful as I have just started playing recently and all I wanted was a carry to get the gun. She wasn’t best pleased with this and insisted I should have a 50/150 all red DPS build. I don’t even know what she is on about at this point and she may as well be speaking alien.

After the team discussed the “situation” they decided to take me through anyway and said they would get a few things chalked off for me as I was here. I politely said that I only care about the gun so there was no need for any extra but she stated it was her raid and there was a process.

The raid took about 40 minutes and it had to be the worse 40 minutes I had spent on this game. The leader explained every aspect of every mechanic even though I wasn’t doing it, some guy was shooting blue bears for whatever reason and I was told it was pointless doing anything else because I had no build.

The atmosphere was awful. It was like I just ruined their day because I never had a build. Except for when they were explaining the process, it was silent. They missed one key as well for me so I never got chance to open the box at the end. The rest of the squad tried for me though but unfortunately it never dropped for them.

They told me to stand on this trailer for a community photo for my FTC and then they said better luck next time, you can go now. They also advised me that I should work on my build before I look to get help again.

After that experience they don’t need to worry. I won’t be asking for any help again! I left the Discord and for me, the game is now done. It was fun while it lasted but I will just go back and play COD over going through that again.

The Division and The Division 2 have to be the best games I have ever played. I love games like this but I have autism among other conditions, and games like this are normally far too much out of my comfort zone. I struggle to even read, never mind understanding builds and everything.

I was lucky enough to find this Youtuber who had a community, and after jumping in with him a few times he introduced me to a few of his friends. They all helped me put some builds together that were good enough for any piece of content in the game. They would often share play and do all the work for me.

The Youtuber and his friends helped me get everything in the game and they created roles for me so that when I ran with them I always knew exactly what I was doing. It was kind of sad when I got everything because I didn’t want to stop playing with them. And to my surprise they all kept my contact details and invited me to sessions when they were helping others.

This was brilliant because I can’t use Discord but now have lots of friends that understand me and the role I can do when we help people. Every day I get invites to help other people with this tough content and they are even teaching me new things at my own pace.

The experience I have had with The Division franchise has to be the best I have had while gaming. Even in real life it has helped me to learn skills I never knew I had. I have even learned reading a few things and my family are proud.

The Flip Side

The Youtuber and his friends helped me get everything in the game and they created roles for me that when I ran with them I always knew exactly what I was doing. They made me a part of their teams and it was great! But one day they all stopped playing and took breaks so I had to run with others.

At first it was okay but then teams I was running with started to learn new ways of doing things. They wanted me to make new builds and said I needed to make them before I could continue running with them. I said I struggled with builds so they said I should be in the Discord so that I could get some help.

I tried Discord but you really need to be able to read and write so it wasn’t for me. I tried to find more people to play with but everyone was doing the new strategies and nobody understood I needed extra help to be able to fit in.

I can’t wait for the old guys I used to play with start playing the game again and hopefully remember to give me a message.

I have never been too much of a gamer but during lockdown in 2020 my brother told me to pick up The Division 2 and get stuck in. Whenever I have gamed I have always played solo and I did play The Division so I thought why not, there was nothing else to do at the time.

I got hooked! Once I got to endgame it was heavily team focused for the tougher content and I had the time to commit because of lockdown. I found this community through some guy on Youtube and they had a system where teams would help you with this endgame content.

I got everything I needed but still a lot of time on my hands and I noticed they had an academy where they would teach you basic strategies. I put my name down for this academy and before I knew it I was meeting others doing the same thing and we had a little team together.

Lockdown helped us all a ton as we were just sat at the console all day when normally we all had jobs and busy lives. But we all agreed that this was something we could continue and took the test to become a fully pledged team.

I was nominated as the team leader and we have since helped hundreds of community members with raids and incursions. We have given away loads of exotics and we just have a tremendous amount of fun when we do it.

Even after lockdown we all agreed on a few days a week where we would get on and play or help the community and I have met some friends for life.

I think the best thing for me is that we all have lives and at times we have had to have some long breaks. The community understands this, lets us be and doesn’t force us to do anything new. Even if we have a 6 month break, we can come back and pick up from where we left off with strategies that we learned many years ago.

I never knew gaming could be this powerful and meeting these people I now call friends has been one of my best experiences.

Flip Side

After lockdown time was limited but we all tried to get together at least twice a week to just play or help people. In recent times though we have had to take some long breaks and we went about 6 months without playing.

We decided to get back to it as life had quietened down for us all and we headed to the Discord server. None of us had the roles we once had and no access to the systems we used to use. Fair enough though as we have been gone a while and I was sure it would be easy to get back in.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Their whole system had changed and now people had to go through a system as individuals and perform tasks as they told you to do them. It wasn’t even as if the old stuff never worked anymore, if anything it was more efficient for us then the new stuff they were doing.

We tried to explain we were a team before and have helped hundreds of people. All we wanted really was the access to do that again. They wouldn’t accept that though and insisted each of us had to take their test. Everyone of us went through the test just to get our roles back and it left a real bitter taste.

This wasn’t anything like it used to be but at the same time, we just wanted to be able to do what we used to do again and this was the only place we knew how to do it. Once we got our roles back we never bothered integrating with the server much. We just did our own thing and made sure we put enough activity in to not lose the roles again.

Some of my team had enough and jacked it in so I had to find a few more members. I won’t lie, I have been tempted to jack it in myself. We pulled together though, set up our own Discord server and we are going to try and grow our own little thing based on what they used to be great at!

I never knew gaming could be this powerful and meeting these people I now call friends has been one of my best experiences. I know things move on but they really need to keep what is good as they do it. Hopefully one day it goes full circle and they go back to their routes.

The perfect experience is going to differ from one person to the next. As you can see in those stories there are different types of people with different needs and different goals. Rigid systems and processes will work but they will only work for the people where that system matches their perfect experience.

Story 1 – Teams need to be ready to help anybody. There are means to complete anything in this game without a full squad easily. Teams should be prepared for any build the person brings and even be prepared for very limited communication. We also need to focus on what the person actually wants and tailor the experience for them so that it is enjoyable. Have a laugh and include them in your conversations.
Story 2 – Having basic strategies in place with minimum steps makes Team GC more inclusive. We don’t know the needs or extra support people need, but we do know if everyone knows some basic strategies and we teach these, they can be used and adapted into other teams for as long as they work. This makes it easier for a lot of people to stay involved as teams evolve.
Story 3 – Similar to story 2, if it works it works. We have to accept experienced teams no matter how they choose to do their business. If strategies 5 years old still work today then that’s fine! Teams and people are allowed to take breaks for however long they want. Once they return they should be allowed back in with as minimal fuss as possible to pick up from where they left off.

The goal of Team GC is to have a very broad system. There has to be some processes and means of doing things but at the same time, these have to be as inclusive as possible.

Our teams and team members need to have this is mind when meeting new people. We need to learn about them and tailor what we do for them. One size does not fit all.

I hope in some way this article has been of some benefit. When you join Team GC I do set you expectations but for the most part you will do things your way. Just remember that for each person there is a perfect experience and we are in control of that.