Cross-Realm Dungeon Feature Coming Soon
Originally Posted by Slorkuz (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
With the continued popularity of the Dungeon Finder, many players have been asking for a way to group up with real-life friends who play on other realms to take on instances together. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about a new feature currently in development that will allow players to invite Real ID friends of the same faction to a party regardless of the realm they play on, and then queue up for a 5-player regular or Heroic dungeon.

As this is a fairly complex service to develop, we don’t have a release date to share quite yet. It’s important to note that as with some of the other convenience- and connectivity-oriented features we offer, certain elements of the cross-realm Real ID party system will be premium-based, though only the player sending the invitations will need to have access to the premium service. We'll have more details to share with you as development progresses -- in the meantime, you may begin to see elements of the feature appear on the World of Warcraft PTR.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Cross-Realm Dungeon Feature Coming Soon started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 1746 Comments
  1. Arslan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Yemiena View Post
    Trying to cash in as much money as they can before the game is dead. wehoo.
    This ^^ can't add more
  1. drakonblayde's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaeleena View Post
    All battlegroups in a region have been connected since Cataclysm released. They were talking about it about 1/2 way through Lich King but the backend was finally fully implemented at the beginning of this expansion cycle. Battlegroups have been obsolete and the only thing they are referenced for now is for rated battlegrounds. Why they kept this functionality, I could only speculate that they wanted to keep some nostalgia of the old battlegroup system, but as of December LFD battlegroups and unrated BGs have been linked region-wide. Server architecture is definitely not a bottleneck for this anymore; all servers in WoW currently share region-wide cluster just like every other MMO. The fact that they implement this functionality on the server back-end and then proceed to charge their players for usage of this service that all other modern games offer for free is just another issue I have with this debacle.
    Yes, I am aware of this. I was explaining the original architectural issues, and what they've had to work through, and why it's been so long in coming. The backend wasn't originally designed for interoperability, hence why it took so long to get any kind of significant communication. The server architecture itself is likely not an issue, as I'm certain they've been throwing some serious hardware at the realms. It's been a very long time since I've seen lag that was induced by anything other than my internet provider. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a network architecture bottleneck that they had to engineer their way out of as well. For example, let's say each database cluster has 40 realm servers. That means 40 realm servers all have a direct connection back to the database backend. It is very unlikely that the same database backend has 40 connections to every other database cluster. That kind of full mesh is very very expensive, and has a good deal of design issues. More likely than not, each database cluster has significant less links to the other database clusters, so there's an oversubscription model in place, so you have to be very careful about how you engineer your traffic. These are things you can't screw with in production, not without risking bringing the entire service down, and no matter how good your pilot environment, it won't come anywhere close to what a full production load will look like.

    (I'm a network engineer for a Fortune 50 company, so these kinds of design considerations are a daily fact of life for me).

    Since they're going ahead with services like this, that tells me they've probably got all the bottlenecks worked out, so they can develop for the present system instead of the old model. I'd suspect the only real challenge left is that of data integrity, that's the other major challenge when dealing with multiple database sites, especially when I'll bet dollars to donuts that the RealID infrastructure is just a glue layer on top of the existing database schema.
  1. Zeshiro's Avatar
    About the payable features now - they have a price because using them can affect the game in a negative way. All except character looks (which is $15 btw).

    This doesn't even make sense, this feature cannot affect the game in a negative way. When you use the RDF tool you find people you want to play with again and this feature would allow you to do that. And that is why paying for this is stupid.
  1. Brodeo's Avatar
    Well then i vote they remove the friend invites entirely. Then you can bitch about that. I've never seen so many malcontents in my life.
  1. Gurbz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by k1037 View Post
    Not only is this complete BS, it's incredibly bad business.
    Blizzard's stock price, and the shareholders who own said stock, would respectfully disagree.
  1. Almighty1's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tablemaker View Post
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Blizzard Entertainment - July 17th 2011

    - We are preparing to launch a new way to playing our game to our players in the next patch. Patch 4.4 will introduce 3 new 5 player dungeons and daily quest hubs in Twilight Highlands. Not only are we giving you new content, we are introducing a new system on how our players interact with the content. Patch 4.4 will introduce the Premium account! For a small fee players will unlock a premium account which will allow them to do even more things in the Warcraft world.

    + New haircuts, new skin colors, new facial features and the introduction of tattoos!
    + Players will also have access to the dance studio to create new dances for their characters!
    + With the new 4.4 5 man dungeons were are introducing "Premium" mode... which will be just a bit harder than Heroic mode and will reward the players with "Premium Points" which they can turn in to the "Premium Vendor" to buy the current level of epics from raid content! Any item from any boss will be on the "Premium Vendor" including Legendary items. Earlier 5 man dungeons will be folded into the Premium system in later patches.
    + Premium mounts and pets.
    + Cross-Realm Dungeon feature will also finally release!
    + Premiun players will also be able to access the LFR system. LFR system is much like LFD except it will allow players to randomally queue for 10/25 player raids.
    wtf is this? thought it was real for a sec
  1. Antixmother's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by redmund View Post
    Can't say I'm impressed with this being a paid service. Hopefully they backtrack on that.
    Can't agree with you more...
  1. Puremallace's Avatar
    I do not see this going over very well. 11.6 million subs and this is premium based? Sorry to say this is the next logical step in the service and why x-server was a bad idea in 09'

    We all know how this ends...."you want me to pay extra for more x-server features?? I want more". That one guy with the spoof blue notes is very right. This is a VERY VERY bad idea Blizzard. Stop it now trust me.
  1. Cows For Life's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gurbz View Post
    The difference between this and everything else you mention is that this is an addition, a wholly new feature. They are not adding a cost to something we can already do, which would be wrong. And if they ever tried that, I would be right there with you lighting torches and handing out pitchforks. So yes, you are exaggerating a "slippery slope" argument (which is a logical fallacy, by the way) just to make this sound far more insidious than it really is.
    Hate to break it to you, but this isn't a new feature. It's using the Looking For Group Dungeon Finder and RealID infrastructure that was rolled out in '09 and '10. It's exactly the same thing only you get to massage the dungeon queue to a larger degree.
  1. Azidonis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by drakonblayde View Post
    Not from a business standpoint. If you can hold something back, and sell it as an add-on to increase your revenue stream, you probably want to do it. It's bad business not to. You have to walk the tight rope between giving too much away, giving too little, or leave folks just hungry enough for more.
    And here's what happens... either they don't get enough people paying for this service so they lose out, or many people pay for it. Then, your gearing curve increases higher, as many people who would sometimes be forced into random groups, helping gear up the guildless on your server, now get a larger volume of friends to play with. This means the guildless will fall farther behind, and the disparity will grow.

    At that point you have two options: 1. make the content easier (aka WotLK), or 2. lose more subscribers

    If you do 1, then you stand a chance at losing your most loyal player base (the "hardcores"). So you just take the loss up front and create something like Cataclysm.

    Then they lose 600,000 subscribers, and are coming up with gimmicks to try and fill the money gap.

    What a great business move...

    I think you're assuming that Bioware still has a choice in the matter. If they develop extra functionality, of whatever manner, and big daddy EA tells them to sell it as opposed to just patching it in, what are they going to say? No?

    Game companies are in business to make money. Stringing people along with hopes and promises of a better tomorrow or a bigger better thing is a time honored way of seperating people from their cash. It doesn't matter what the intentions of the developers are, and what they want to do, not unless they're funding it entirely themselves. When the landslide starts, it's too late for the pebbles to vote.
    This I agree with.
  1. StoNe220022's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by k1037 View Post
    Fanboys here are making the most inane arguments I have ever seen
    What??? I liked Ranor's and Brodeo's "LOLZ...do you want free cheese on your burgers" arguments, I thought they were kinda solid, well thought out :/

    I also like "People complaining about this don't have jobs" Nothing like a good generalisation to pigeonhole people!
  1. drakonblayde's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Maklor View Post
    Actually many things get cheaper every year, there is no logic saying things have to get more expensive.
    Commodities tend to get cheaper, usually because manufacturing methods get more refined and efficient along with other competition in the marketplace.

    However, when a commodity reaches a relatively level price, it will then start adjusting upward again due to inflation.

    Subscription based services are always tricky. Things like magazines and newspapers have been adjusting upwards, largely because their subscriber base is vanishing. Subscriptions require a commitment, so you have to give the subscriber a reason to stay with you. This, I think, is why WoW's subscription price has stayed relatively stable, and they've just been in arms race to keep subscribers with features and content, and they've weathered the storm pretty well.

    I don't see this service as an attempt to regain revenue for lost subscriptions. If they ever do raise the subscription price, that's when I'll believe their bottom line is starting to hurt. I see this as a way to monetize development work they were already doing anyway, much in the way of the mounts and the pet store. It costs them effectively nothing to produce those (some artists and animation time, some bits in the database). The overhead is already taken care of through the normal budget, so those sales are pure profit. This will be in much the same vein.
  1. Gurbz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Cows For Life View Post
    Hate to break it to you, but this isn't a new feature. It's using the Looking For Group Dungeon Finder and RealID infrastructure that was rolled out in '09 and '10. It's exactly the same thing only you get to massage the dungeon queue to a larger degree.
    Do you have this functionality now? No, you do not. Therefore it is a new feature. Just because it utilizes aspects already in game does not make it an existing feature.
  1. Cows For Life's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gurbz View Post
    Do you have this functionality now? No, you do not. Therefore it is a new feature. Just because it utilizes aspects already in game does not make it an existing feature.
    There's always someone that wants to play the pedantic word games. You're splitting hairs here.
  1. Gratlim's Avatar
    Just cancelled my account.
  1. Vestia's Avatar
    Haha, i come back to check mmo-champ every once in a while after i let go of WoW about 4 months ago, guess it was becuase some things were still appealing. Thanks for that last nail in the coffin, can't believe how you treat your customers Blizz, paying a monthly fee + a million micro transaction is just.. The best of both worlds, FOR THEM. pets/mounts/mobile AH.. And now a feature that blizzard should've had already, but instead, they decide to fuck over their users by making them pay more than they already do. Pathetic, get back on the horse Blizzard, you definately lost a timeold fanboy with me.
  1. KCguy's Avatar
    Quite a lot of whining about this and we all know what has happened in the past when everyone whines. Blizzard backtracks. It happened with the Real ID thing, stuff in the game like the Insane title etc. I think they will back track on this as well. Now personally I don't have any friends cross realm, but if I did I sure wouldn't want to pay either.

    It might be a little different now though seeing as they are losing customers. Might just say screw it we'll cash in as much as we can before the game goes belly up or they might back track and think hey it'll bring back more customers. Guess we'll see what route they choose.
  1. Pulp5850's Avatar
    Bizarre, no announcement for the Americans, just the Europeans. A sort of mini-test to see how people react?
  1. Ranor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Cows For Life View Post
    There's always someone that wants to play the pedantic word games. You're splitting hairs here.
    That isn't splitting hairs. You're flat out wrong. You'd be correct if they suddenly limited RDF to paying customers only, however they're adding an optional feature that changes nothing about RDF for the masses.
  1. Gurbz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by sTyLnK View Post
    Quite a lot of whining about this and we all know what has happened in the past when everyone whines. Blizzard backtracks. It happened with the Real ID thing, stuff in the game like the Insane title etc. I think they will back track on this as well. Now personally I don't have any friends cross realm, but if I did I sure wouldn't want to pay either.

    It might be a little different now though seeing as they are losing customers. Might just say screw it we'll cash in as much as we can before the game goes belly up or they might back track and think hey it'll bring back more customers. Guess we'll see what route they choose.
    I would be VERY surprised. There was basically the same rant every time Blizzard announced a premium service and they were implimented anyway.

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