ArcaneEchoXIII Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 I know that BW doesn't want to implement a lfd tool and frankly I agree with that decision. The purpose o this post is to come up with suggestions for ways to make finding groups easier without lfd and its reduction in social interaction. A simple solution would be global LFG chat channels. These channels would help keep /1 a bit less cluttered while still making it necessary for people to interact in order to find a group. I would even say to go as far as crating an extra chat box for this channel so that being in LFG doess not preclude being in General chat. Anyone have any other ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcaneEchoXIII Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 (edited) Another thought: whenever someone flags for a quest you have flagged a text prompt could pop up in the LFG chat. It could also possibly tell you how many people have a mission flagged when you first flag it. And possibly an option to look at the mission log of people on your friends list. That way you know what they are working on and it is easier to offer your help. Edited December 25, 2011 by ArcaneEchoXIII Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangbot Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 Still dont understand what could be bad about group maker that only adds people from the same server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcaneEchoXIII Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 I think what BW is trying to avoid is the wow formula of dungeoning. It is as follows. Queue for dungeon. Go back to soloing. Get matched up for dungeon. Complete dungeon with little to any interaction with the random people you were queued with. Go back to soloing. By requiring people to interact in order to make groups you cause them to become more invested in the group and Hereford more likely to chat with each other. After all, when you add someone to a group it's Polite to say hello. If its all random, that compulsion and any further conversation flies out the window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kharik Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 I think what BW is trying to avoid is the wow formula of dungeoning. It is as follows. Queue for dungeon. Go back to soloing. Get matched up for dungeon. Complete dungeon with little to any interaction with the random people you were queued with. Go back to soloing. By requiring people to interact in order to make groups you cause them to become more invested in the group and Hereford more likely to chat with each other. After all, when you add someone to a group it's Polite to say hello. If its all random, that compulsion and any further conversation flies out the window. If you choose not to speak in random groups that is your own fault. People are just as easy to talk to in randoms as they are in hand-made groups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caelith Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 Still dont understand what could be bad about group maker that only adds people from the same server. It won't work. Look at rift, At the start people said no LFD system, then they realised how tedious it is spamming chat. Then they added same server LFD and even on the busiest servers you would be waiting 30+ mins as a healer for a group. Cross server LFD works and saves time, the people who don't like it don't have to use it but the rest of us shouldn't be punished because a handful of people don't like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcaneEchoXIII Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 (edited) If you choose not to speak in random groups that is your own fault. People are just as easy to talk to in randoms as they are in hand-made groups. As someone who played WoW before and after the lfd system I can testify that it DESTROYED social interaction I dungeons. In ransoms people don't want to talk. There is no connection, no investment. I have tried talking to them, and you can tell they just don't care. It's an issue of subbconcious more than choice. Sorry about the errors. Doing this on an iPhone. Edited December 25, 2011 by ArcaneEchoXIII Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcaneEchoXIII Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 It won't work. Look at rift, At the start people said no LFD system, then they realised how tedious it is spamming chat. Then they added same server LFD and even on the busiest servers you would be waiting 30+ mins as a healer for a group. Cross server LFD works and saves time, the people who don't like it don't have to use it but the rest of us shouldn't be punished because a handful of people don't like it. That handful of people are the developers, there is no rest of us, no one is being punished, it's the dev teams choice. That's no the issue. I didn't make this thread to discuss lfd itself, only to put forth ideas for alternatives. Please either do so or find a topic that is actually about lfd to post in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reevax Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 I think what BW is trying to avoid is the wow formula of dungeoning. It is as follows. Queue for dungeon. Go back to soloing. Get matched up for dungeon. Complete dungeon with little to any interaction with the random people you were queued with. Go back to soloing. By requiring people to interact in order to make groups you cause them to become more invested in the group and Hereford more likely to chat with each other. After all, when you add someone to a group it's Polite to say hello. If its all random, that compulsion and any further conversation flies out the window. You mean the current system that is in place for PVPers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kharik Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 As someone who played WoW before and after the lfd system I can testify that it DESTROYED social interaction I dungeons. In ransoms people don't want to talk. There is no connection, no investment. I have tried talking to them, and you can tell they just don't care. It's an issue of subbconcious more than choice. Wow aren't you a special one. You played world of warcraft! So did I! From beta, even! Three people in your random group also had to wait 45+ minutes to get into that group, and they know if it all goes to hell they are waiting another 45+ minutes for another one. They are also invested. Maybe you're just not as big a social butterfly as you believe, and you simply had nothing to say that remotely interested them? Or maybe they simply didn't feel like talking? Not everyone groups up just to spam the chat window. I know, it's unbelievable! the nerve. How dare someone not play the game exactly the same way that you do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caelith Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 I think what BW is trying to avoid is the wow formula of dungeoning. It is as follows. Queue for dungeon. Go back to soloing. Get matched up for dungeon. Complete dungeon with little to any interaction with the random people you were queued with. Go back to soloing. By requiring people to interact in order to make groups you cause them to become more invested in the group and Hereford more likely to chat with each other. After all, when you add someone to a group it's Polite to say hello. If its all random, that compulsion and any further conversation flies out the window. Because Stand near dungeon Spam chat Spam chat Spam chat Finally find a group Do dungeon Talk the same amount as you would with a cross server group. Soooo much better, end game will be no different...people will just stand on the fleet spamming LFG xxx. That handful of people are the developers, there is no rest of us, no one is being punished, it's the dev teams choice. That's no the issue. I didn't make this thread to discuss lfd itself, only to put forth ideas for alternatives. Please either do so or find a topic that is actually about lfd to post in. I give it 6 months before we have a LFG system because people get bored of spamming LFG and having to stay near the dungeon they want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deshie Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 Wait what social intereaction was there is the first place? Most of the places are DEAD. And I'm playing on server that is rated "FULL" and has 2k+ queues. Typing LFG is general is no better than having a Group finder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcaneEchoXIII Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 Wow aren't you a special one. You played world of warcraft! So did I! From beta, even! Three people in your random group also had to wait 45+ minutes to get into that group, and they know if it all goes to hell they are waiting another 45+ minutes for another one. They are also invested. Maybe you're just not as big a social butterfly as you believe, and you simply had nothing to say that remotely interested them? Or maybe they simply didn't feel like talking? Not everyone groups up just to spam the chat window. I know, it's unbelievable! the nerve. How dare someone not play the game exactly the same way that you do. Setting aside that your sarcastic ********sry was uncalled for and unwarranted, my point was that before lfd most every group you got in would talk to each other, joke around, maybe even add each other as friends. How often do you see that now? Same server lfd wasn't so bad, but with cross server you'll likely never see them again so why bother, right? Why do multiplayer if the other players are little more than npc's with advanced ai? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fornix Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 As someone who played WoW before and after the lfd system I can testify that it DESTROYED social interaction I dungeons. In ransoms people don't want to talk. There is no connection, no investment. I have tried talking to them, and you can tell they just don't care. It's an issue of subbconcious more than choice. Sorry about the errors. Doing this on an iPhone. And it's different right now... how? Most people don't say anything further than the first whisper 'invite'. So the only difference the current system comes with is going back five years to a time in which forming a group meant wasting even more time sitting doing nothing rather than playing the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tNok Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 My reasons for disliking the cross-server LFD tool were not so much the random jerks (yeah, they were more common than when it was not cross-server) but the inability to form lasting friendships through dungeon groups. Most of the cool people I met over there years in WoW were met during dungeon pugs, where we had to spam LFG to find a group. Yeah, it took longer. But when I ran into a really nice person who was also a great player, we generally ended up friending each other and grouping together for dungeons more often. This eventually formed the basis of what's known as a 'guild'. It was a tight guild, everybody knew how everybody else played and liked each other because we already knew each other. Fast-forward to dungeon tool... I'd often meet a really nice person from another server, and it sucked. I realized that the chances of meeting these players again was very small, and even then, it would be completely random. Sure, one of us could change servers, but that costs money and we already have our entire bases of friends and guilds that we wouldn't want to leave. I don't want to be melodramatic, but the LFD tool for me felt like a good way to repeatedly experience 'missed connections'. Some of my best online friends that I met many years ago and have subsequently met in real life I met through random dungeons. And to those of you who say 'You don't NEED to use the LFD tool, stop whining' - yeah, you kind of do if you want to play. Go into WoW, and try forming a pickup group of people you don't know without using the LFD tool (for a non-tryhard heroic, that is). Good luck. /shrug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcaneEchoXIII Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 Wait what social intereaction was there is the first place? Most of the places are DEAD. And I'm playing on server that is rated "FULL" and has 2k+ queues. Typing LFG is general is no better than having a Group finder. It's because they still have instancing implemented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcaneEchoXIII Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 My reasons for disliking the cross-server LFD tool were not so much the random jerks (yeah, they were more common than when it was not cross-server) but the inability to form lasting friendships through dungeon groups. Most of the cool people I met over there years in WoW were met during dungeon pugs, where we had to spam LFG to find a group. Yeah, it took longer. But when I ran into a really nice person who was also a great player, we generally ended up friending each other and grouping together for dungeons more often. This eventually formed the basis of what's known as a 'guild'. It was a tight guild, everybody knew how everybody else played and liked each other because we already knew each other. Fast-forward to dungeon tool... I'd often meet a really nice person from another server, and it sucked. I realized that the chances of meeting these players again was very small, and even then, it would be completely random. Sure, one of us could change servers, but that costs money and we already have our entire bases of friends and guilds that we wouldn't want to leave. I don't want to be melodramatic, but the LFD tool for me felt like a good way to repeatedly experience 'missed connections'. Some of my best online friends that I met many years ago and have subsequently met in real life I met through random dungeons. And to those of you who say 'You don't NEED to use the LFD tool, stop whining' - yeah, you kind of do if you want to play. Go into WoW, and try forming a pickup group of people you don't know without using the LFD tool (for a non-tryhard heroic, that is). Good luck. /shrug My point exactly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elelr Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 I've been in plenty of groups that have little no interaction, and plenty in WoW through the LFG system that had interaction. It boils down to the people you have in your group and you yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocolocco Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 As someone who played WoW before and after the lfd system I can testify that it DESTROYED social interaction I dungeons. In ransoms people don't want to talk. There is no connection, no investment. I have tried talking to them, and you can tell they just don't care. It's an issue of subbconcious more than choice. this man speaks the truth. being a wow veteran and planner irl i even surveyed this issue on 3 different servers (pvp, pve, rp-pve), the difference in behaviour is just huge. saying hello in x-server lfd groups is 71% less common, chat involvement rate (avg. time spent interacting about dungeon resp. non-game related issues) is around 52% of that from tbc... i had been lucky tracking this weird kind of data in ~230 runs in vanilla/tbc and now as tank (60%), healer (22%) and dps (18%). the results are Not statistically representative but valid for giving me the picture i needed. theres no rational explanation for the change of the state of mind, rather emotional barriers of stereotypes when entering the same content ("cba"), meeting unknown entities, frustration from queuing/waiting etc. all lead to same conclusion - substiantially less social interaction. im not surprised by bioware's decision to postpone the inevitable launch of lfd, they gotta have the critical mass of involved players first to keep the worlds efficiently running in a long term. those are the best testimonials resp. advertising to keep attracting new players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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