You started well and showed your understanding of the issue at heart. You had my vote, until... Just exactly how did WoW "penalize"guild/group play because they didn't PUG? Blizzard Devs gave incentives to people for playing certain roles (e.g., Tanks) becasue tanking was (and is) a thankless task, with the majority wanting no part of it. There's nothing wrong with providing incentives to promote the less popular classes and roles, especially when the game is designed around the 'Holy Trinity' and one of the three is in short supply. Yup, I agree with you. A workable solution is to institute a cross-server LFD/LF Ops tool. Most people's first instinct is to go to friends and guildies for grouping. But that didn't work for WoW (a game with 11 million accounts), what makes you think it will work in SWTOR? The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again, and expect different results, right? Dude, I'm in TOG (one of the largest guilds) and it's not easy to get groups going for FPs, Heroics, and Ops. The root cause isn't lack of social networking, it's lack of people wanting to do the same things at a particular timeframe. The LFD tool solves that problem by empowering people to do the things they enjoy, at the time of their choosing. It's a win-win for all but the "you got to play it my way" crowd.

You mean you're not doing your share to "build community" by spamming LFG Heroics 4+ in General Chat Channel? Bad boy! No desert for you.

Your statement reveals your lack of business sense. WoW has about 11 million accounts, and I suspect the company president is laughing all the way to the bank at his/her detractors.

If BioWare really wants people to use its LFG tool, then the Devs need to make it more user-friendly. The majority of MMO players just woulnd't put up with bush league UI's and clunky social tools. Also, a feature that's not being used is worse than having no feature at all. The lack of a decent LFG utility and no '/roll' feature show how new and inexperienced BioWare is to the MMO genre.

Sorry but you are just plain wrong. I'm in a large WoW guild, and it can take hours (yes hours) to get a group going for anything. Wait for this, and wait for that. Wait 5 minutes for so and so to finish something that often drags to 30 minutes. Wait for Joe Blow's girl friend to complete whatever; wait for Jane Doe's boy friend to come and tank... the list is literally endless. With LFD and LF Raids, players can continue play the game and HAVE FUN while in LFG queue and not have to count on Tom, Dick, and Harrys in your contact list. Once again for those that missed the memo, waiting around in chat channels spamming "LFG Directive 7" does nothing to build "community." NOTHING!

Oh! A much cooler system, and it does so much to build community too...

So why are Are you against the /roll function? Is it because you think it's bad for community building?

Nice summary of your thoughts, and here's my feedback- 1) Blizzard didn't dumb down heroics because of LFD tool. The WoW Dev Team said the reason Blizzard made heroic content easier is becasue they were only used by a small percentage of players, and the effort that want into creating them didn't justify their usage. 2) You make the mistake of thinking what's easy for you (and some others) is also easy for most players. Again using WoW as an example; Blizzard made dungeons and content easier for most players precisely because they reasoned the average player wasn't l33t and had little interest in being so. Since we're talking about profits and losses in the real world, Blizzard made a business decision to please the masses. 3) LFD has nothing to do with how difficult heroic instances are. Nothing. BioWare probably have some idea of the "ideal" range of content progression, and they will adjust difficulty based on real data they get from the percentage of players attempting and completing easy, medium, hard, and elte content.

So... how does spamming LFG Red Reaper on the space station "build community" again? Other than a "community" of spammers I mean.

Because...?

So instead of spamming for 40 minutes, how about putting your self in a LFD queue while you continue to do missions or whatever things that are fun to you? I know, I know, it's too logical and it doesn't "build community." All we need now is for someone to explain how communities are built while spamming LFG Colicoid War Games over and over.

If your honest aim is to have fun in game, then consider spamming LFG Colicoid War Games over and over and over agin on Fleet Station isn't actually fun. A LFG tool is just that, a tool for those that want to use it. Purists like you are free to spam LFG and build your kind of "community."

What? You mean spamming LFG Colicoid War Games on the Space Station doesn't do much to "build community?"

Not so easy to get good groups if you PUG a lot. Some FPs are just too long and the extra length doesn't add much to the gameplay. On the other hand, a relatively short FP like Colicoid War Games is very fun. The bottom line is Devs should design FPs with player enjoyment and not time sinks as goals.

Let's be rational for a second. Just because YOU can'r famthom something doesn't mean it isn't valuable to a great many players.

*** "community" are you talking about? People that want to band together are already joining guilds and communning. Using that as the reason to kill a LFD system is just an excuse by players that don't like LFDs for whatever reasons.

If everyone uses the LFG system, then what you say works. But the best tool in the world is worthless if people don't use it. The Dev Team created a clunky and not user-friendly LFG tab (under the social page), and they wonder why it isn't popular. The mighty Dev Team forget the golden rule in a free market industry: people woulnd't use services they don't like.

So what if there's already long threads on the need for a Dungeon Finder system? The Dev Team is thus far tone deaf on this issue so players need to agitate until they see action.

And shouting LFG Hoth Heroic 4+ on a planet with 15 players is so great for community building? Yeah, right.

Says the expert in what job title people should call themselves.

The OP had some great points on SWTOR business model and the BioWare project management team. The Devs didn't even know enough about MMOs to have a /roll feature. Really brings into question if the Devs played much MMOs in the first place.

Nope.

And of course, what goes on in your server is typical of all servers, right...?

So... your advice to Jedi Knight players is to level to 50 before going back and finishing the tough lower level class missions...?

Cultural Neanderthals aren't nearly as infuriating as kneejerk fanbois. Once every other bluemoon, you could actually reason with geezers.