Well, it is, because you have to wait for the group while you do nothing. You can't go do your dailies (or you can, if you don't care about making people wait you to come back, or you won't care about how much it takes to get back to where you were). Teleport is essential part of LFG. Imagine if you wanted to PVP and had to walk into the PVP instance and wait for both teams to have enough members to play a game. How many matches do you think you would be able to play?

That's your experience. I did hundreds upon hundreds of dungeons in WOW via LFG (impossible without it) with my 5 level 80, in all 3 roles. Less than 5% of those runs had jerks that would slightly bug me, in which case I would vote to kick someone, or just quit. Ninjas? Never saw. It's a fallacy, people are there for badges to buy items off vendors, drops, after you have done so many, are insignificant. Plus, Bioware has this amazing system with pre-rolled drops, so it's twice an invalid argument. Elitist? Sure, after so many runs I grouped with people that went from full heroic sets to tanks in full quest greens. Often nobody cares, as long as you are not screwing the group (even low health tanks, if weren't stupid, would pass). Longer queues is better than spending my online time spamming General to get a group together. Even as a DPS in WoW, you click 2 buttons, and go do your dailies. Simple, easy and effective (similar to Warzones pre 50-bracket). Multi-spec system is even more amazing and flexible. Not only you can play your class to its full extent, you might find situations where you swap roles to fulfill some particular need. I would often queue as a DPS, even though I was a well geared raid healer, just for fun. It things went south, I could (and actually did) swapped to heal. The community in WoW is much stronger (you known, 10 million players) and these features (LFG/Multispec system) are part of the reason why. You pay to play the game, not to wait until a group is ready. Not to be forced to play on a specific time window. Sorry, albeit your essay, you are just part of the crowd that keeps spreading this baseless rumors about LFG damaging the community, when in reality, it's the opposite. There is only one community, the SWTOR one. Fenced people locked inside their servers not playing the game isn't helping making that community stronger, it's making it weaker. We are asking for tools to enable people to play more, not less. Whenever they want, with as little effort as possible, so they can enjoy the game. Finally, yes, if you don't like it, don't use it. I'm sure there will be like minded people not using the tool (if it, as you say, is so bad, full of jerk elitists ninjas) and ready to group with you every few days, whenever you are online at the same time. If the majority of the people are using, it's because they like.

That's my personal crusade at this moment. Going after every LFG thread to voice the desperate need for a cross server LFG system.

Go troll somewhere else. You don't even know what you are talking about. Read what you just wrote. You are saying it's ok to spend your online time trying to do things in a group and, if you can't make, "that happens". If you play off peak hours, "that happens". If you play on low pop server, "that happens". Really? Are you that conformist? When is the correct time? Whenever people are so bored of trying to do things and not being able to that they decided to leave?

A simple LFG with cross-server support allows you to deal with the jerk in the most effective way: kick him off. If that's not possible, remove yourself from the group, queue again, and your are done. The majority of players aren't jerks and keeping fences between servers just hurts the game community.

It needs to be cross-realm, otherwise you penalize people that aren't playing during the server peak time, or that plays on low-pop server. It bring community together, not apart. Promotes group content to be done. Jerks will always exist. With a functional LFG system you simply kick the jerk off the group, or remove yourself from it and queue again. It's makes dealing with idiots so much simpler. There is a vocal group of LFG haters that keeps the myth of servers communities alive. The argument is absurd and based out of thin air. There is only one community, the SWTOR one. A cross-server LFG will only help to bring that community together.

You form you group, manually inviting interested people, you walk up to the PVP instance 'door' for your faction, enter the PVP instance and wait for the opposing faction to form a team and enter. Whenever 2 teams are present, the game begins. Does this sound absurd to you? Well, that's what grouping for PVE content is. All I want is the same easy process, such as the one you have for Warzones. Click a button, wait, whenever a group is ready I'm transported to the instance, play the game, go back to wherever I was. As little time wasted as possible.

A non-cross-server LFG is what you have with the current level 50 Warzone bracket. Play off peak hours and you are in for 30m+ of waiting, perhaps even a hour.

Cross-server is a must in the LFG. What if you don't play during your server peak time? What if you play on a low-pop server? Should you be penalized for that? Should everyone be force to flock high-pop servers if they want to enjoy a few dungeons whenever they feel like? There is only one community, it's the SWTOR one. Please, help stop spreading the myth of server communities. It's not real. Servers are currently fenced and that goes totally against forming communities, not towards it. Look at the 50 bracket for PVP. It takes over 30m to join a single match if you are not playing during peak time of you servers.

That's a very small work around the real issue. You shouldn't have to spend your time forming the group or moving the instance. You should spend your time enjoying the game. Let 'computers' do the manual labor of forming groups and porting you back and forth the dungeon.

No, there isn't. There is a gimmick one that doesn't do what a LFG tool should do. If you enjoy PVP you click 2 buttons and the server takes over. Once there is enough people for a match, you are ported to the "PVP instance", play your game and, upon finish, are ported back to wherever you were. Simple, effective and easy. People who enjoy PVE should have the same system available and not have to go thru loops and hassles to put a group together, walk until the instance, play the game, and walk back to where he/she were. That doesn't add to the game, on the contrary, it diminishes it. The game needs a cross-server LFG tool sooner rather than later.

Good lucky trying to complete the daily/weekly pvp quests after the 50 bracket creation. If you play slightly off your server peak hours you are in for hours and hours until you get enough victories. Also, I wish even more lucky if you are on the wrong side of a overpopulated server and trying to do Ilum world PVP quests. Really, the 50 bracket was a awful solution to the PVP problem as it served only to give the people who grinded to valor 60 even more advantage. Now, not only it takes a lot longer to join a WZ (due to queue sizes) you are often facing pre-mades of Valor 60+ characters. 2 concepts easy concents: - Ranked matches - Cross-server At very least, if you joined as a group you will be forced to play against another pre-made. If you want a 'quicker' queue, you have to join solo. Far from perfect, but that would even things a little bit until Ranked Matches/Cross-server is implemented.

That's called LFG in WoW and has been available for several years now. Recently they went a step further and added the LFR (Raid) which is similar but aimed towards large group content (Operations in SWTOR). It is a awesome feature that enables you to basically run any dungeon you want at pretty much any time, with minimal hassle. Forget about planning to do stuff during 'your server' peak time, to maximize your chances of getting a group. If you happen to join a bunch a jerks via this tool, no big deal, just drop (or ask to be kicked) and queue again. Odds are, most people playing the game (whichever online game you want) are cool people. Jerks are minority.

So you want everyone to bow down to your elitist views, is that it? "everything was made to cater to casuals", "back when it mattered which server you played", "adding difficulty levels to raids". Do I have to be penalized if I'm not playing during the 'right time' at the 'right server'? I don't think so. I felt forced to skip 3-4 mid level FPs because I didn't have the will to stay in Fleet spamming General to (maybe) form a group. And I don't care about semantics of LFG or LFM, really. Do people that enjoy PVP have to worry about any of this crap (well, now they will start feeling the joys of a 'community' while waiting for a hour to do a single Warzone, just to get trampled by a pre-made)? No. Then why should I have to go to all these loops to do what I like? Why do I have to spend my time forming a group and moving from A to B to do a Flashpoint? There's only one community, the SWTOR one. Server based communities are a fallacy, a fantasy, a myth. Stop spreading it. At best, you make friends on your guild. At best. The game needs a cross-server LFG feature for both PVE and PVP content urgently.

Yes, it's badly needed: a cross-server LFG system. I played off peak hours yesterday and couldn't do a single HM FP, not even the easy mode BT. I feel obligated to play during my servers peak time if I want to do group stuff. Am I supposed to stay in fleet spamming General chat, while PVPers can just queue to Warzone and do whatever they want (although, currently, without cross-server Warzone, the queues are taking up to hours if you are outside peak time)?

The current LFG is a gimmick. I want automatic grouping system such as the Warzone one. Whenever the group is formed, ports you to the selected FP. Once you are done, ports you back to where you were. PVPers have this, why can't PVEers? It needs to be cross-server. I don't want to be penalized for not playing on a high-population server or outside peak hours. Please, don't come spread the false rumor about how much this ruins the community. There is only one community here, the SWTOR one. If I want to play in a group but can't, what community is there? If you are afraid of jerks, grow up, they are everywhere. Learn to deal with them. If your group has one, either leave or vote to kick that person. Regardless, you will be able to queue again and do whatever you wanted to do.

What community is there if you WANT to play with other people but CAN'T? For instance, yesterday, I came home later than usual and started doing my daily stuff, but it was past peak time on my server. End result: no HM daily, barely 2 WZ in the span of 1h30m, not to mention, no heroic missions. The excuse BW gave for not having it is not to build a community. They specifically mention that it was to avoid people leveling up via dungeons alone. Which in itself is kinda of weird as you can do it by PVP (and quite a lot of people did). It's not game breaking for me at this point. 6 month down the road, I really don't know.

As you pointed out, it's a story driven MMO. That on itself will be reason enough for me to play other classes. Regardless, I want to play all the trees on my main/alts as much as I want and not be penalized by it. Anyway, I digress as Bioware will have this feature soon enough. For all you haters: keep hating and cancel your subscription once dual/multi spec is live.

I will roll alts and that has zero relation to having/not having multi-spec. Rift longevity had nothing to do with its multi-spec system, which, by the way, was the finest system I've seen on MMOs. End-game content keeps the game alive. You can't expect the game to live further than a year if everything revolves around playing an alt(s) thru content that has 15-20% difference than any other class (ie, the Class quest line). If the devs really didn't want you to respec AT ALL (as you point) you would be restricted to one tree once you choose your AC. If it's not there (yet), it's because you have to prioritize some features for others in software development, otherwise, you never release your product. WoW Cataclysm sold more copies than Wrath. Dual spec was released during Wrath, so your point isn't exactly valid. I want the ability to choose. That grants you the ability to choose not to use it. Why are you trying to force your play style on others?

Yes, it's needed. It's almost 2012 and this is a feature that's on the market for years. Once again "bring the player, not the class". Not having it constrains your choices (or penalizes you for swapping roles however many times you like). Having it gives you the option to not use it. Simple as that.

Umm, I actually did and that's why I have been leveling as a healer, to avoid the cap-less respecing costs. Sorry if it wasn't clear to you from the rest of my post, but here in easier words: I'm advocating the game needs a multi-spec system as soon as possible, preferably in the next patch.

Respecing should be charged up to a cap, however, having a multi-spec system is the norm in this day and age. WoW has it for 2 and 1/2 years. Rift had it from the get go with 9 possible trees per class (and you could easily have 4 specs with little money investment). I love the game, but the lack of multi-spec is absurd. This is diversity: I can play my class to its fully extent, with whatever role the situation requires. "Bring the player, not the class" that's somebody else motto that applies so well. You don't like switching roles? Don't do it. Affects your immersion? Don't do it. Affects your RP? Again don't change your role, ever. Don't buy or use the dual-spec once it comes out. But please, don't advocate limiting how other people play their game. I'm an IA Medic for choice (level 28 at this point) and I don't have a problem leveling up (thanks for companions), however I would LOVE to be able to play with the other trees, but without a multi-spec system it becomes a burden (all the walk to and from the trainer). And for 60 bucks plus 15 a month I think I'm in a position to require that I be able to enjoy my character however way I like.