Pick-up group

From Guild Wars Wiki

A Pick-up Group is any party composed of players that organize briefly to complete a specific goal, e.g a mission or quest. Often abbreviated as PUG or PuG, groups are almost always formed through an advertisement in the Party Search panel. These groups are sometimes called Randomway since the combination of professions and builds can be unexpected.

Some players also use PuG to refer to an unplanned assortment of guild members that get together through alliance- or guild-chat. In contrast, others use PUG to mean non-guild members, i.e. Players Unassociated with the Guild.

Disadvantages

• PuGs are often derided because of uneven player skill amongst the party members and a single weak player can cause the party to fail. In contrast, in a seven-hero party, the player has complete control over the builds and the AI offers a predictable and consistent level of skill for the party.
• Some groups will try to narrow the field of recruits by looking using arguably elitist tools to assess player skill, e.g. a character's rank, titles, or reward trophies.
• Another inherent weakness of a PuG stems from players being unfamiliar with each other, especially the variety of styles and tactics. Players comfortable with heroes and henchmen might under- or over-compensate when teaming up with other players.

See also

• Pickup group @Wikipedia: a group of musicians that are hired to play for a limited time period.