Is it just me or is the public game experience...

[Archon_Wing]

The best in all the Blizzard games thus far?

I'm honestly pleasantly surprised, since Diablo 2 tended to have a lot of trash talking and other unpleasant words being tossed around. People always demanding rushes or items, or what have you. Later on, it was impossible to play thanks to cheaters. We don't even need to discuss Starcraft or Warcraft in which tempers flare and insulting the other team and deriding their school is a tradition. You'd expect things to be worse since you can arbitrarily inspect another's gear.

There's been a few rude folks, but I'd almost say 90% of pubbie gamers are quite respectful, or they don't bother talking much.

Maybe the whole catering to "casuals" thing worked better than expected, given the somewhat angry tendencies of gamers (see battle.net forums). The boot function is also a really great thing to have that would have been swell in d2.

Hardcore pubbies are also great too in that there's actually a concerted effort to protect each other during lag spikes, except for the occasional griefer but you can usually recognize them easily. Just remember to create your own game and open it to the public to avoid any banner special surprises.

I just wanted to put this out, since this is one of the biggest reasons I still play.

[MongoJerry]

Yes, I've been pug'ing a lot for the last month, and I've also enjoyed the experience tremendously. For example, I've been pugging in Act 1 Inferno magic find runs recently, and as you say people tend to stick together in an effort to protect and synergize with each other. Unfortunately, I ran into a bad situation two nights ago where my three ranged groupmates ran screaming because the monsters were too scary for them, leaving me on my own to bad consequences. However, I've already met a few people in pugs that I definitely enjoyed playing with and with whom I've now officially "friended."