Give me a legitimate reason to NOT have a LFD tool.

[Amiracle]

Actually they said they definitely want to do it. Here's SR direct quote.

 

Please provide link.

 

I know they said that about PvP and did not say that about pve.

 

Again, you are putting words in there mouth.

Edited February 14, 2012 by Amiracle

[Uruare]

That's a foolish reason not to do it though. Again giving pain medication to a cancer patient doesn't cure the cancer. I'm not sure why we should accept a band aid solution to real problems. Going forward if they follow this mentality then they may as well be Blizzard 2.0. Don't address the core issue, implement a system to alleviate the symptons instead.

 

 

I entirely agree. I have an engineer's mindset on such things myself; the best answer is the correct answer, even if it's not the popular answer.

 

There's pretty much no future in pushing for server merging though. There might even be devs that would be happy to shuffle some of the servers around and just...merge a few to aggregate populations, maybe support it with some free character transfers to lower population servers to encourage people, if they'd like, to move there, and so on.

 

But then you'd have whatever passes as Customer Service getting more workload and chiming in with nastygrams if it wasn't workload they were prepared to handle, and Marketing people flat refusing to sign off on any plan of action that seems like a statement of weakness, uncertainty or incompetence and on and on and on.

 

So what we tend to wind up with is the popular answer that's as close to correct as the thinking heads upstairs can make it be without lighting a fire under Marketing's rump to do it.

 

I'd honestly prefer a more elegant and comprehensive cross server system than what Blizzard's invested in. Something that lets people do the cross server friending and, who knows, maybe some social rating tools ala the Like/Dislike buttons we see in so many forms of social media these days.

 

Social darwinism's role doesn't have to die to anonymity; it just needs to be fostered in such a manner as that it doesn't lend itself easily to exploitation.

 

Some douchenut that keeps ninja'ing and being a jerk to everyone that keeps racking up Dislike votes though?

 

Someone nice or particularly good (or both) that keeps racking up Like votes?

 

If such things persisted on a character irrespective of name change or server transfer and a given character could only vote once per say, 4 hours on another character?

 

There'd be some room for exploitation; kinks would have to be hammered out; but the idea could work.

 

And I don't see any of these games trying very hard to make things like that to work.

 

I can only imagine that not enough people are pushing hard enough or consistently and reasonably enough to get heard -and- cared about.

 

It's a shame. We'll probably be stuck with another inferior model of what we could have if not for unfortunate political realities and 'meeting the minimum requirements at an acceptable level of address'.

[TheSuperD]

I would support a LFG tool. I would prefer it not be cross-server because I do feel that it adds a little bit of community sense, knowing that you could do dailies or ops or something with people you meet in dungeons. I was resistant at first, but after standing on the fleet for an hour here and an hour there looking for a group... I changed my mind. Plus it doesn't help that there are about 60 republic players on the fleet during peak hours on my server.

[MalignX]

Please provide link.

 

I know they said that about PvP and did not say that about pve.

 

Again, you are putting words in there mouth.

 

You are aware he's not required to prove anything to you right?

[AmirTheButcher]

Because I want some decent challenge from this game, I don't want to 1 click and get a full party... Forming groups and being social is a part of the challenge for me.

You just want everything ready on ur plate.

[Amiracle]

I found it. You are pulling it from a twitter convo back in August of 2011....rofl

 

 

I guess they looked at it and decided against it.

[Enexemander]

So long as everything stays on the same server, I'm fine with it.

 

I'll probably leave the game when/if it gets cross server. I don't want to play WoW 2.0.

[harpuax]

Because I want some decent challenge from this game, I don't want to 1 click and get a full party... Forming groups and being social is a part of the challenge for me.

You just want everything ready on ur plate.

 

People want everything to be easy. First its finding groups, then it will be leveling, then level 50 content will be too hard. Just keep dumbing it down till we can just stare at the screen and drool on our keyboard to win. That what happened to wow and 10 million people love it.

[Kaelshi]

People want everything to be easy. First its finding groups, then it will be leveling, then level 50 content will be too hard. Just keep dumbing it down till we can just stare at the screen and drool on our keyboard to win. That what happened to wow and 10 million people love it.

 

 

I do find it more of a challenge to sit around spamming chat looking for a group.

 

I find it exciting and fun.......

[harpuax]

I do find it more of a challenge to sit around spamming chat looking for a group.

 

I find it exciting and fun.......

 

Do you also just spam your 1 key to dps?

[Rebeldad]

One reason to not respond is your name is Evil Troll Guy. As far as a reason for not having lfd, no matter what anyone lists or says you will just argue against it. Why? just look at your name.

[Enexemander]

People want everything to be easy. First its finding groups, then it will be leveling, then level 50 content will be too hard. Just keep dumbing it down till we can just stare at the screen and drool on our keyboard to win. That what happened to wow and 10 million people love it.

 

It's actually dropping subs at an alarming rate in the Western World. Cataclysm was a disaster for them, sub-wise.

 

/random knowledge.

[Amiracle]

Simon – Any plans for an LFG tool?

 

SR: Definitely being looked at including cross-server Flashpoint tool. Definitely wanting to do.

 

 

Looked at.....wanting to do.

 

 

Where did he say its coming?

 

And how do you get that its coming from what he said?

 

Just what I thought, you are reading more into what he said.

[Kaelshi]

It's actually dropping subs at an alarming rate in the Western World. Cataclysm was a disaster for them, sub-wise.

 

/random knowledge.

 

 

lol @ alarming rate

[Daedricshots]

There is no logical reason to not have lfd. Just like there isnt one for xrealm pvp. The most popular excuse is that it will "ruin communities" which, im sorry, i find laughable. The problem with that logic is that it assumes a community can only be had on your specific realm. Seeing familiar faces over and over to some is "reassuring" but for me it doesnt really matter im only there to do what it takes to finish the wz/raid whatever.

 

Also it doesnt kill a community because xrealms just enlarge your existing community between multiple realms. Why be closed minded and only allow your special group of friends to be allowed in your "community". You are just becoming part of a larger community by allowing xrealms.

[Lerthan]

Great ideas! I totaly understand what you are trying to do here and I like the concept.

 

1 issue though. If you have a random/que type system in addition to a "make your own group" system, how will the "make your own group" list get populated if more of the community just uses the que system. If more take the random group that gives the "make your own group" people little left to form a group from and vice-versa. This seems like it would divide the available people and make both systems harder to find groups in.

 

I understand your concern there. Yes it may cause a bit longer ques in the random tool and it might take a bit longer to form a group using the other tool. However it gives the power back to the players by allowing them to choose. This is never a bad thing.

[TonyIommi]

Please provide link.

 

I know they said that about PvP and did not say that about pve.

 

Again, you are putting words in there mouth.

 

http://toroz.com.au/2012/02/stephen-...ry-transcript/

 

That's an interview with Stephen Reid. Scroll down a bit you'll see someone asks about cross realm dungeon finding.

[TonyIommi]

Simon – Any plans for an LFG tool?

 

SR: Definitely being looked at including cross-server Flashpoint tool. Definitely wanting to do.

 

 

Looked at.....wanting to do.

 

 

Where did he say its coming?

 

And how do you get that its coming from what he said?

 

Just what I thought, you are reading more into what he said.

 

Because they want to do it. Generally if they want to, they will. Combine this with the overwhelming popularity of such features and the feedback they're likely getting about this feature we can say its coming. I agree though a clarification from the developers would be nice.

[TonyIommi]

I entirely agree. I have an engineer's mindset on such things myself; the best answer is the correct answer, even if it's not the popular answer.

 

There's pretty much no future in pushing for server merging though. There might even be devs that would be happy to shuffle some of the servers around and just...merge a few to aggregate populations, maybe support it with some free character transfers to lower population servers to encourage people, if they'd like, to move there, and so on.

 

But then you'd have whatever passes as Customer Service getting more workload and chiming in with nastygrams if it wasn't workload they were prepared to handle, and Marketing people flat refusing to sign off on any plan of action that seems like a statement of weakness, uncertainty or incompetence and on and on and on.

 

 

 

Take a page from rifts book. Offer free transfers.

[TelamonSedai]

Warcraft saw its greatest rise in player base during that time. SWTOR currently has a max pop of lets say 1.6 million. You can pick any number you like but that's the number that was given. Warcrafts rise to fame had it exploding at upwards of 14 mil at its peak. No matter how you look at the numbers the greatest period of growth for warcraft occured before the implementation of lfd when people had to grind out keys. Much more than 1.6 million I can assure you. Maybe not everybody but far more people were able to get **** done in a system that was far more restrictive without the use of LFD. I don't incidentally think we should make this game for everybody. Theirs definitely a margin that can be played around with and likely BW will do whatever it thinks makes it the most money and hopefully is also the most fun for its customers. Bejewelled is probably a much better way to go if you wanna make a game for EVERYBODY.

 

The truth is that its simply not just a case of they experience the game by themselves. These are shared virtual worlds. We're in this together now more or less. A change to one effects a change to all. If the game is tailored to give an experience to one, it is tailored to give it to all. You are more or less pigeonholed into using LFD.

 

Again no system of convenience goes by without an associated cost. I think its safe to say thats a truism.

 

 

I love it when people pull random numbers about WoW's sub numbers out of there rear ends, and when the growth spurts happened. Just to expound on what you have said, hers a little timeline.

 

Vanilla ended with 6 Million Subs: People complained that raids were to big and were to hard to organize. They made raids smaller.

 

TBC ended with 9-10 million subs: People complained raids and overall content was to hard. They made every thing mind numbingly easy, and added a LFG tool eventually.

 

WoTLK ended with 12 million Subs, which is what they peaked at: Everyone complained that the game was mind numbingly easy, they also still complained about raid sizes and equality of loot. They made content harder, made 10 and 25 mans drop the same loot, and eventually added a LFR tool.

 

Cata so far down to 10.2 million subs: People started complaining that it was to hard, they dumbed it down, now is far to easy, LFR has destroyed what little community there was left and people are leaving, at a fairly good clip.

 

So where did the game truly grow in to the largest MMO in all of gaming history? Vanilla, if not for 6 million people starting by the end of Vanilla the game would have been a ghost town ages ago. Why they started trying to fix things that weren't broken, mostly the difficulty and grouping, I cant begin to understand. They had constant growth in subs all through TBC and the beginning of WoTLK before LFG was ever implemented. They plateaued about that point and then just started dropping in Cata.

 

Did LFG kill WoW, don't know, what I can tell you is they had serious growth before they put it in. I personally hate it, I believe its bad for community, bad for accountability, and really one of the worst things Blizz has ever done, because now its what people expect, instead of doing what has been done for years, people want east mode everything.

[TonyIommi]

I love it when people pull random numbers about WoW's sub numbers out of there rear ends, and when the growth spurts happened. Just to expound on what you have said, hers a little timeline.

 

Vanilla ended with 6 Million Subs: People complained that raids were to big and were to hard to organize. They made raids smaller.

 

TBC ended with 9-10 million subs: People complained raids and overall content was to hard. They made every thing mind numbingly easy, and added a LFG tool eventually.

 

WoTLK ended with 12 million Subs, which is what they peaked at: Everyone complained that the game was mind numbingly easy, they also still complained about raid sizes and equality of loot. They made content harder, made 10 and 25 mans drop the same loot, and eventually added a LFR tool.

 

Cata so far down to 10.2 million subs: People started complaining that it was to hard, they dumbed it down, now is far to easy, LFR has destroyed what little community there was left and people are leaving, at a fairly good clip.

 

So where did the game truly grow in to the largest MMO in all of gaming history? Vanilla, if not for 6 million people starting by the end of Vanilla the game would have been a ghost town ages ago. Why they started trying to fix things that weren't broken, mostly the difficulty and grouping, I cant begin to understand. They had constant growth in subs all through TBC and the beginning of WoTLK before LFG was ever implemented. They plateaued about that point and then just started dropping in Cata.

 

Did LFG kill WoW, don't know, what I can tell you is they had serious growth before they put it in. I personally hate it, I believe its bad for community, bad for accountability, and really one of the worst things Blizz has ever done, because now its what people expect, instead of doing what has been done for years, people want east mode everything.

 

Now who has random numbers.

[Sttm]

This game needs X-Server LFG to fix its horrible faction imbalance problems. Bioware failed so completely to make Republic an attractive choice or put any form of population control and now has servers, like the one my Vanguard is on, that have a whopping 50 people on in the fleet at peak hours, with barely 10 of those 50 and people are lucky to find 3 other players their level to go run a flash point.

 

This game is terribly designed and implemented for Server only lfg or no LFG. It has to get the tool, or Bioware will need to force population balance and server merges in the next month.

 

The longer they wait the more subs they will lose. The single player content is running out and Bioware has to get the MMO side of this game in shape. X-Server Flash Points is a necessary feature. Other features they need to be getting out with it, Combat Log, Mod Support, UI update featuring customization, completely redone auction house, class overhauls, and rated pvp.

[TelamonSedai]

Now who has random numbers.

 

Its funny because I was actually agreeing with you, and no none of those are random, I played since Vanilla, I paid attention to sub numbers when they were published. Most people like to play the it didn't get big subs until it was made easy, that's what I was referring to, and to some extent the 14 million number you threw out. Either way I was agreeing with you...

[kjpoke]

Okay I've read these kinds of threads a million times now on various game forums, including this one.

 

LFG/LFD/LFR tools allow those of us who do NOT enjoy committing hours upon hours of time searching for groups, scheduling raids, searching for quality guilds, etc... to actually see game content without all the hassle.

 

I want to see the content however I also want to play the game in my own time without feeling that I have to be on a peek portions of the day in order to be able to find a viable group.

 

I also don't enjoy reading endless spam from the same people begging for others to join them, just to have those same people come back in 10mins and complain about how "fail" the group was after all the time they wasted putting it together and starting the cycle all over again.

 

The key factor that gets missed by those that don't want something like this in play is this; You don't have to use the tool yourself. You can still form groups the way you want to. You can still form relationships with those that share your point of view and take yourselves out of the LFG/LFD/LFR pool of people to pick from. Chances are those that are using the tool aren't incredibly concerned with the social aspect of the game anyway, I know that it holds no interest for myself. I don't really relish the idea of making RL buddies out of the people that I'm playing an online game with, they most likely won't live anywhere near me anyway. The people I know in RL don't play MMORPGs and quite frankly I like it that way as who I am in game is not who I am in RL.

 

It doesn't kill the "game" it only kills your ability to force people into a social situation that may not actually want to be there with you.

 

Just my 2 cents

[TonyIommi]

Its funny because I was actually agreeing with you, and no none of those are random, I played since Vanilla, I paid attention to sub numbers when they were published. Most people like to play the it didn't get big subs until it was made easy, that's what I was referring to, and to some extent the 14 million number you threw out. Either way I was agreeing with you...

 

I know you were but I still don't think that means you can make an argument and then get away with being a hypocrite. You have any sources for those numbers?