Do you think Dungeon/Raid Finder was a good addition?

[Sansnom]

This was NOT as big of an issue if you played on a decent realm at prime time.

For me it was a big issue and I played on a relatively busy realm. There were login queues during new raid releases. The problem for me was not just due to the realm activity. It was also who you knew. For people with active guilds running dungeons regularly or knew others, PUGs was not a major problem. For a complete new players, it was. No one knew you. You knew no one. Your guild may or may invite you even since they also had their own inner circle.

Getting LFG removed all of the community aspect as it was super easy to get runs.

I heard this sometime and never once witness anything great or wonderous from this mythical "server community". That could be because I do not hang out in cities reading trade chat, except to try to find PUGs. I am usually out in the world doing stuff, like levelling alts, doing dailies or farming.

I am sure some people experienced this, since I heard this mentioned now and then but how big was this "server community"? Was it really that great or was it simply people knew a few others from other guilds because they raided with them or group with them regularly?

[Deleted]

I am sure some people experienced this, since I heard this mentioned now and then but how big was this "server community"? Was it really that great or was it simply people knew a few others from other guilds because they raided with them or group with them regularly?

Well, they were just that, communities. You didn't have to associate yourself with them if you wanted to play alone, casually, but the design of the game helped to incentivize social interaction.

The game has gotten to a point where Blizzard is trying to get you to play with people you already know, desperately, instead of having any focus on actually incentivizing making friends in the game. Because that was what those communities were all about - making friends.

[Deleted]

Nah, I preferred how it was prior to dungeon finder/raid finder.

I kinda enjoyed looking for groups and talking to people whilst doing it. And it was never a problem to find a group for any of the dungeons/raids I was doing. I used to spend a lot more time in the game, and that is something I miss.

Having to move to Scarlet Monastery from Desolace sure was a long run, but it acted as a break in the leveling journey, and a break was always nice. The journey is not even in the game any more, and that is something I also miss.

People were a lot less inclined to leave after one whipe as well. People didn't even get angry after a whipe, just stating what went wrong, and go again. This I also miss.

This is my personal experience.

[darklogrus]

I think people like the old system cause they were on at the right times, right server and right faction.

For me I was the exact opposite. I was on a low populated server where the horde were out numbered 3 to 1. Which made finding people and groups a lot harder. To make matters worse I had such a weird school and work schedule that my peak game time was basically my servers off peak time. So I would spend hours wasting my game time away just lookin for that extra tank or healer.

LFG just made things a lot easier in general for someone in my situation.

[Deleted]

I think people like the old system cause they were on at the right times, right server and right faction.

LFG would not have made much of a difference had it not been for cross realm in your case.

[clevin]

For me it was a big issue and I played on a relatively busy realm. There were login queues during new raid releases. The problem for me was not just due to the realm activity. It was also who you knew. For people with active guilds running dungeons regularly or knew others, PUGs was not a major problem. For a complete new players, it was. No one knew you. You knew no one. Your guild may or may invite you even since they also had their own inner circle.

Fair enough. I should have added "especially if you had an active guild". The key here is that pre-LFG you really wanted to have some social involvement and to belong. You wanted to have a good guild of active players and/or to develop a good friends list. WoW was not a good place to play solo if you wanted to also run 5 mans. But heres the thing - you SHOULDN'T be able to play solo and easily do group content. It's an MMO and you should be rewarded for being in a guild or having friends. I never really have had much sympathy for the people who insist on being solo AND who want to do all of the group content.

I heard this sometime and never once witness anything great or wonderous from this mythical "server community". That could be because I do not hang out in cities reading trade chat, except to try to find PUGs. I am usually out in the world doing stuff, like levelling alts, doing dailies or farming.

I am sure some people experienced this, since I heard this mentioned now and then but how big was this "server community"? Was it really that great or was it simply people knew a few others from other guilds because they raided with them or group with them regularly?

The server community could effectively isolate real asshats and ninja looters as those people became known pretty well. Like all social communities it was great if you participated in it (PUGging from trade, etc) but wasn't that important if you grouped mostly in guild and from friends lists.

My point there was that with LFG's introduction you removed all of the incentive to add people to a friends list or to try to group up with people on your server or even in your guild. I've seen, over and over, people with tanks login to the game, say nothing at all in guild chat, queue for heroics and get in right off. That's incredibly selfish and anti-social but the game incentivizes that behavior. If you''re a tank and want to knock out a quick 5 man you're wasting time if you ask in gchat whether anyone wants to run a heroic, etc. That's really the thing - LFG rewards people for playing solo and in some ways punishes people for being social. This is heightened when the made running quick 5 mans a benefit. You want quick Valor? Login, knock out a quick heroic. You're not there to play with friends, it's a chore and we all want to do chores quickly and easily.

[Wondercrab]

Excellent additions that greatly expand the breadth and accessibility of content we have available, especially now that the group finder is around to fill that controlled pugging niche that LFD/LFR obscured.

[CaptainV]

dungeon finder, yes, raid finder, no.

[Aschen]

No I do not. I still firmly believe LFD helped to kill socialization on realms. LFR was just the final nail in the PuG coffin.

That said, there's no way you could remove either from the game now as people are too accustomed to them.

[Daetur]

Dungeon Finder was and is an excellent feature. I'm a little more on the fence about LFR, but I know that my opinion is the opinion of a person for whom LFR is not designed.

[Spinster]

Yes, I thinkit is fine. Nobody has to use it, but it allows shy people, busy people, and players who don't play well enough to do regular raids the oportunity to see all content and also feel rewarded by cool gear.

[sam86]

No, and I was extremely horribly disgustingly wrong to be 'happy' when it was first introduced
I admit I loved it a lot at start, so short sight of the long term destructive damage it did to the social aspect of game
Probably my biggest (wow) mistake in life to think that it was good
But I admit i wonder if it is possible anymore to remove it from game and still be playable

Yes I play wow since way back when if u don't log before 1:00am you can't do ur daily hc, even if u are a tank
Yes I play wow since going to dungeon involved average of 10+ min of flying, not counting trying to pug tank in non-rush hours (like 1:00pm for example) and I remember it can take up to 2 hours to get one, and forget even try to do a dungeon - hc or not - at 3:00 am in morning, even if u are a tank
Yes I play wow when u had to cc, and ppl take pally for high threat, and warlock (hi Slenish, wonder if he reads this forums at all) overaggro u in raid boss

BUT

I remember that you knew everyone in server, literally
You know who they are, you know who is good and who is bad, you know who is polite and who is f*cking insulting u every 5 sec
You know if someone ninja loot anything, he will at least have to leave server, if not wow
You know the top guild member by member, and even their alts, and you knew who plays that long to get all that hc gear, and how many days spent wiping on same boss
There was a social part, you were part of the MASSIVE MULITPLAYER online experience, something that you can't feel anymore now, ppl are no longer friends but tools to help u get better gear, and the social is literally dead

As I said I admit I was horribly wrong idiotic when I thought that LFG was a good addition, how extremely short sighted I was, I play since vanilla and I was 'so happy' i can do a dungeon at 3:00 am, how idiotic, the price is extremely high that it isn't worth it, if i can't run a dungeon at 3:00 am, screw me, just do some quests or bgs or farm mats or anything, why do i need to do a dungeon at 3:00 am..

EDIT : I don't mean the old LFG system that was only u queue dungeon u want with ppl from same server and u still had to go/run to dungeon etc, I meant LFD the one that sign u with random ppl from different servers that u won't see them again and teleport u instantly to the dungeon

[Ryzek]

Dungeon Finder was an awesome addition to the game. Raid finder I don't care for, but I hardly use it and don't really mind that its in game.

[Aleks0410]

I dont see any real downside from the dungeon finder.

If people want to play with friends, they should play with friends.

This is like saying "Don't like flying? Then don't fly".

[Kioshi]

For the social aspect of WoW? they are bad.

For the ability to see content and enjoy max level content? They are good.

I gotta say I love the RDF because I remember waiting in dalaran for 6 hours after I got off work to find a pug every day just to maybe get 1 run and that is maybe.

This is like saying "Don't like flying? Then don't fly".

and yet people still complain.

The only thing players agree most on is that when blizzard thinks something is for the best for WoW they over blow it. Example, people say they like dailys, so blizzard give us too many in a day, then we said we enjoy timeless island and they give us apexis jungle, where rares have a low chance to drop 650 tokens compare to timeless island where rare almost always give you a timeless token. We say we want more content, they take that as we need to charge them 49.99 each year.