First post.
I'm too old to play video games, but my daughter bought me ME1 summer before last, and I got hooked. Played ME2 and started playing ME3 last summer. Started ME3 MP by the end of summer. Spent forever just learning how to press the right buttons to do stuff ... on Bronze, then how to do it faster on Silver, and even faster on Gold. Finally, just started playing a few Platinum matches recently and doing OK. I play all PUGs because I doubt that even 5% of players are half my age, and no one my age I know is playing this game or any other game like it.
My daughter said I couldn't play Gold until I got a headset and mike, "cause I would get kicked from the lobby otherwise, so she got me one for Christmas. But, just like everyone is saying in this thread, in 99% of PC PUG gold matches, rarely does anyone say a word.
I have had two funny/strange incidents, though, where people spoke. I dropped into a Silver game as the 3rd player with two Geth Juggernauts on Wave 3. It's a pizza delivery, and I'm playing a more nimble character, so I run off, grab the package and head for the zone.
Jugg1: "Drop the package!"
Me: "Why?"
Jugg1: "Drop the package!" And, he starts shooting me.
Me: "Not likely"
Jugg1: "I'm gonna enjoy watching you die!"
I try to walk around them in a narrow halfway, but Jugg1 & Jugg2 both move to block the hallway. So, I take a different route, deliver the package, and proceed to basically play solo for the rest of the match, outscoring both of them. I think I needed one gel the whole match.
Afterward, my daughter says, "It was probably two 10 year olds."
The other time, I got dropped into a gold match on about Wave 4 playing a human Vanguard, and basically got killed in the LZ almost immediately. PUG1 was nearby and immediately revived me, for which I was grateful. The next wave, I was on the far side of the map near PUG2&3, they went down in a crowd and I couldn't clear the area and revive either one of them without getting killed myself. Then PUG1 goes down in the landing zone. I run the length of the map, kill one or two enemies and try to revive him but momentarily forget I've just charged my acolyte. I release the shot, try to revive him but it's too late and he bleeds out.
I apologize on mike for the acolyte mistake, and proceed to start clearing the wave. But PUG 1 now begins a rant that just won't quit, "What are you doing playing gold? You suck. You are useless. Don't play Gold unless you are a team player. At least revive your team-mates, then you won't be totally useless. Don't bother using your solo skills, if you aren't going to revive, you are useless. Just die. Just lie down and die. Give up. Just quit." Anyway, this went on a long time, and I'm leaving out the profanity. Soon, I got irritated and started saying things like, "Hey, maybe you should try getting killed less often." And, "No one stopped you from using a medigel."
Anyway, to get to the point, I was wearing some pretty good consumables, and I hated wasting them, but I thought why waste my time on this team as no one else said a word, and instead of dying, Before clearing the whole wave, I just found cover and quit the game.
After telling my daughter about this one too, she said it sounded like "some pathetic neckbeard.". I asked, "What's a neckbeard?" She said, that's some thirty year old dude with bad hygiene who never shaves, lives with his mother, plays video games in the basement, and thinks they are semi-real and very very important.
Most of the time, however, people are very nice in PUGs; they just rarely say very much.