Afaik most games have such function. I believe that is what you meant, since most games do in fact have this function. We found this out last night, when we had 3 people and I suggested doing a /roll to find out who would use their companion, only to find out there isn't a /roll system. This means that we may have to completely change our loot rules for raiding as we have always used master looter with a /roll system.

Loot bag is on the easy "normal" mode only. Drops work like all other standard MMOs in the hard and nightmare modes.

I thank everyone that has voiced their opinion about this topic, one way or another in this thread. Posting this, I knew that there are many who feel strongly one way or another. I have read through all of the replies here, through all of the debating between each other. This is ultimately, a healthy process, of debating and making points for both sides. Something that I did not convey in my original posting was regarding the server community, and the friends made. The current "first" posting was put there through a bug in the forums that messed with the time stamp. The argument brought up about creating friends, getting to know each other better is probably the strongest argument that can be made to not have a cross realm dungeon finder. Like others, I made friends while leveling by chatting in open channels. Many of those people joined my guild, and some of them I still chat with today. I can not tell you who anyone is that I met through a Looking for Dungeon feature. I can't tell you their character name, I can't tell you who they are. As I stated in my original posting, I am all for this feature being within the same server and not cross server. However, once you do internal server, it is one step closer to that urge of doing cross server. It is a slippery slope here. As several here, I began my MMO gaming in WoW before Burning Crusade. I have since played most major other MMOs, including F2P ones, even if just a 10 day trial. Prior to dungeon finder, general chat in zones was active, people would chat about doing group quests and dungeons. Much like the current zones in Star Wars. People are socializing! After the cross realm dungeon finder was released in WoW, chat became non-existent. The mentality was to queue up while questing, do the dungeon, get your gear and get out. Absolutely no socializing occurs. Don't believe this? Load up a trail of WoW, go to The Barrens, which once even had t-shirts devoted to what was known as "Barrens Chat", go to Westfall, go to Silverpine. All of these zones have dungeons for people to do. Just sit and watch the chat that occurs, sit and watch how people ask for doing dungeon groups. Sit and wait. *crickets* Absolutely no socializing in a Massively Multi-Player Online game. After reading all these postings, I would propose to Bioware, to make the many happy, give us an option. Give players a choice. Let us decide when we queue up to look for others on our realm, or an option to look cross realm. Don't give us rewards for either, just let us decide where to draw our player pool from.

I did the same thing. @OP: Beta test does not mean testing a game to determine if you want pre-order or purchase it. Beta testing is finding bugs, reporting errors and issues to developers. Even the large scale beta tests were done that way where there were prompts after completing missions.

This is awesome. I personally recommend it for anyone having a hard time looking for a guild that matches their own values.

I played Rift during its beta, I had a VIP beta key for it. At the time, I was completely burned out on WoW, and that was too similar. I have heard there have been major changes to differentiate itself from WoW. However, my understand is that Rift introduced their Dungeon Finder when they did due to lack of population on their servers. I may be wrong, and correct me if I am. All I am saying is that I don't think there will be a lack of people on these servers.

Stephen, For the love of my F5 key ... please oh please let us know about the next wave. It is getting beat to smitherines! Also, on a side note, inquiring minds would like to know approximately how many invites are going out with each wave. Thanks!

As the overall feature the OP is requesting is there, I also think this would be a nice thing to do when inviting through the LFG window.

As you mentioned WoW, I will compare to that. I don't like to compare this game to that, but I will. I played WoW during the "Classic" version before any expansions. The LFG tool that was implemented in WoW was introduced late in Wrath of the Lich King. So, I know very well what your example is like. I also know what it was like going back through the portals to get to instances in Azeroth from Outlands. It seems that, thanks to other games, many just want to log in, press one button and be given everything. Whether that is loot, instant queue and teleportation to instances, and it ruins from the immersion of the game. I am in no way refering that you want that, but there are many throughout the gaming community that do want that, and many of them appear to be newer and younger gamers. Though that is how this generation has become, unfortunately. However, new people will always be joining the game. Even now in WoW, while they are losing subscriptions, they are also gaining new players. These new players don't know anything different. They don't know what the game was before the WoW LFG system. They don't have to explore, they just have to queue and enter. Many of them wouldn't be able to tell you where the dungeon entrances are even at. James Ohlen was exactly right in stating that it takes away from exploration and it does, but at what point to do you say exploration is not needed? At what point do you tell a new player, "You don't need to explore the game, hit this button and be taken there." This may not be as big of an issue considering you enter all the flashpoints from The Fleet, but it ruined exploration in other games. I am a huge explorer in games and don't want that ruined here. I also enjoy seeing active worlds and not just seeing everyone in the major city.

IGN: Moving forward might there be something like a group finder or something like that? An auto-finder implemented into the game? James Ohlen: Some people ask for a dungeon finder system but the thing about those systems is they're really for more of a mature online game. If you put a system in early on it really takes away from the exploration of the level up game. If you have people all just basically waiting around their dungeon finder and all being grouped up together, they're going to actually take the time to explore all the worlds that are available in the Old Republic galaxy. So it's definitely a feature that we want to put in, we just want to put it in at the right time. However, the looking for group feature is something that we continue to work on, we want to make that more robust and more powerful. http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1214438p1.html Dear Mr. Ohlen, I recently read this interview and was quite concerned about this section of it. I completely realize and understand that in today's MMO market, most every game is doing their form of a Dungeon Finder feature with auto-grouping to assist with getting groups quickly. While in your interview, you said the right time, I hope that it is also done the right way. Prior to the forum wipe I saw more threads from other players strongly requesting to not have a cross realm grouping feature. While in your interview you did not state anything about cross realm, I strongly, strongly suggest that if implemented the grouping system does not include cross realm grouping. I also suggest that the grouping does not automatically send you to the instance. As all the entrances are already based at fleet stations together, players can get back to them quickly through the travel to fleet ability (18 hour CD, I know.), shuttles while leveling, or binds back to ship docking bays. I've personally played games longer without this feature than with it, and feel that with this feature it has ruined the immersion of the game. By doing this it has eliminated the need for exploration, as you stated also. It doesn't matter at what point a dungeon finder system is implemented, if done like this, it will ruin exploration. In other games it has also reduced the full size of a game from the full world(s) down to the size of the major city players dwell in. Players feel that there is no reason to leave these cities because they can just queue up for the dungeon finder and wait for it to send them to their dungeon. I am by no means opposed to having this type of system and would be all for it if it would create the group from players only on the same server and not automatically teleport them to the fleet station. I just would like to see this system done properly as many have requested and not be rushed in or done improperly (i.e. Surnames). Thank you and good luck, -- Ohnoto __________________________________________________ Dungeon Finder System Eventually - Page 7 __________________________________________________ If you are standing at the entrance attempting to recruit for a Flashpoint, you are doing it wrong. You should not be recruiting for Flashpoints from The Fleet. You may get a few, but you are advertising to a group consisting of players from 10-50. Instead you should go to the planet containing the Flashpoint's level range where you are advertising to the players that are in the same range to do the Flashpoint. Dungeon Finder System Eventually - Page 17

I completely agree. To expand upon this, not having it cross realm created the sense of a server community. Each server had something different and unique. People that grouped up, if someone did ninja an item, it eventually got around and had its consequences, in that people would know who the good and nice players were, and knew who not to group up with. EDIT: This is not the original posting, that is the next thread below. This thread was placed as the first posting due to a time stamp bug in the forums at the time of replying to a posting.