Should LFD have ever been implemented?

[anabolicz]

Spending 3hours completing a single dungeon cuz u had to walk to it, then the tank left and had to find a new then the dps left and u had to find a new one and suddenly u spent 5hours or just gave up... Do you REALLY MISS IT?!
Do u wish u lived in the 1500's? Die at 30years cuz of a cold?
Evolution is king!

[Deleted]

So people who aren't very good at making friends or sucking up to people, are just screwed? I'm polite, friendly and skilled, but not very apt at making friends and I'm really bad at being a hypocrite (being friendly just so you can get them for your next group, while IRL you wouldn't even want to meet such a person), so I didn't have a very extensive friendslist. Add to that that endgame guilds would only group with each other and shun new people and grouping became very difficult.

And then you try to find people in trade, but that's not social enough for you? How else are you supposed to find people exactly? Whispering random people isn't well received either, is it?

Your ability to make friends should not interfere with playing a game (and there is a difference between 'being able to make friends' and 'being social/friendly' as I am the latter but suck at the first). If you are skilled and not a total douchebag, you should be able to group up for certain content. That was completely impossible before LFD.

You're taking it too far. A simple "would anyone be interested in running slave pens heroic with us? We need one tank and one healer" got me sorted most of the time.

Regarding your friends list, that's your problem, and yours only. And yes, the game I play shouldn't be reduced to absolute boredom because you're not good at saying "hey all" and "bye". It's not about "making friends" it's about being polite. And I'm sorry you didn't live that wonderful experience that is finding a bunch of people you like and level with them and talk to them and creating a web of people you "know" that are reliable and friendly.
Your loss really and I shouldn't be paying for it. Learn how to be friendly. It actually helps in real life too so there you go.

[Amerissis]

Because honestly, if it doesn't provide character progression you might as well start playing Tetris on your cellphone instead while you wait.

Really? You only find char progress fun and nothing else? Yeah, then there's little to do, obviously, but I do think most of the 7 million people playing, have fun actually playing the game, instead of just getting loot.

Regarding your friends list, that's your problem, and yours only. And yes, the game I play shouldn't be reduced to absolute boredom because you're not good at saying "hey all" and "bye". It's not about "making friends" it's about being polite. And I'm sorry you didn't live that wonderful experience that is finding a bunch of people you like and level with them and talk to them and creating a web of people you "know" that are reliable and friendly. Your loss really and I shouldn't be paying for it. Learn how to be friendly. It actually helps in real life too so there you go.

Did you even read more then the first line of my post? I said I'm friendly, polite and skilled, but not apt at making friends. Those things are different, really, very different. Why should I be excluded from part of a game that I can certainly perform well in, being friendly, polite and skilled, just because I had no friends? These days I can get a group and do the content I like and even made new friends in the process. You can still exclude people from your groups, so no loss for you, and I can get groups without friends, so win for me. I don't see the problem.

[Deleted]

Really? You only find char progress fun and nothing else? Yeah, then there's little to do, obviously, but I do think most of the 7 million people playing, have fun actually playing the game, instead of just getting loot.


Did you even read more then the first line of my post? I said I'm friendly, polite and skilled, but not apt at making friends. Those things are different, really, very different. Why should I be excluded from part of a game that I can certainly perform well in, being friendly, polite and skilled, just because I had no friends? These days I can get a group and do the content I like and even made new friends in the process. You can still exclude people from your groups, so no loss for you, and I can get groups without friends, so win for me. I don't see the problem.

Sorry man but I don't actually get what you're saying. You're friendly, polite and skilled and yet you couldn't just add people on the list after a successful dungeon because.... ?

[Deleted]

No, but just because you're not very good at making friends doesn't mean that there cannot be any content for those that are. There should be different content suited for all play styles, not the same content for everyone. Some people prefer soloing or pick up groups, there should be some content for them. Some people like making friends, building fried lists, guilds and teams, and there should be some content suited for that. The problems start when you try to use the same content for all different play styles, which just doesn't work.

I disagree with this. I agree there should be content for solo players, but for anything raid related we are forced into groups for points. Making friends is all well and good, but what if youre the 6th in a group of friends? What if I dont want to be penalised for not being able to drag my friends into a group or not wanting to? LFD saves me from all the pissing about i had to do to get a group in BC, and as a moonkin, I NEVER got a group. I think you'll find the problems start when you try to suit content for people who actually like pissing around spamming LFG. The rest of us, as the poll shows, are totally fine not wasting our time doing that.

The LFD system is a godsend. Oh, someone left in the middle of the group because their raid is starting? Thats fine, the system will fill the gap. Previously we'd have to hearthstone home, look for another and then fly back and summon them. Sickener if you lost a tank.

Hassle =/= difficulty. LFD was a massive quality of life improvement, and nothing more. I boggles the mind how some people dislike it. It automated a sometimes frustrating and dull part of the game. Sorry we dont all have overflowing friends lists with people willing to suck our dick and/or group with us, or play on full servers.

[Geckoo]

LFD is a tool that the game needs, even if it harms the social interaction it used to have. But, as much as the LFD is needed, there also needs to be a higher difficulty of the same content with a better reward without a LFD tool. Challenge modes could have been that content, but without gear it can't work, even if is a very fun game option.

[Perryn]

I don't like LFR, for a number of reasons. LFD is quite great, although if they only provided LFD for < 90 and then went back to non-LFD for 90 (updated for each new level cap ofc), perhaps only nonLFD during peak hours, I'd be ok with that as well. But overall LFD is ok, and a huge benefit on low levels in particular.

[Lord Blackmore]

My god I wish these pointless threads would stop. No matter how many times you ask - LFD and LFR have high participation and people like it. If you don't, move on.

This could have been a good thread. Unfortunately some people derailed it with the usual soapboxing.

[The Kao]

I have always thought, if this LFD thing was never implemented nobody would've missed it in the first place and probably things would have turned out different. Better? Worse? If I had to make a call for myself I'd say it might be for the better, but that's only my perspective. This "community" tends to have a multitude of different opinions on everything so how could one even tell what's good and what's bad?

[Prancing Minstrel]

LFD was the best thing WotLK implemented IMO, even more so than dual spec. The times before it were absolutely horrible if you didn't know the right people. 2 days in Shat waiting for a shadow labs group was not fun for anyone.

[Serendippity]

On my server it would be practically impossible to do low level dungeons with a low level group. Most of the time if you do find a good LFD group the other players will run a few together.

[lunchbox2042]

As was pointed out ^ , but to reiterate, WotLK killed your harder dungeons, not LFD.

Poor gear scaling and the unintended high item levels due to a filler tier and hard modes was responsible for easy mode heroics in Wrath.

[Akka]

Being social, or not, is a personal decision.
What some people tend to forget is that in the end it's your own personal decision to not talk to people.

If you're going to play a game where the entire point is to play with people, you've implicitely made the decision to be social.
The problem in WoW is that it's being treated as a single-player game, and it shouldn't.

[Teriz]

In all of these threads, I keep wondering what exactly is stopping people from doing things the old fashioned way?

You can still sit in trade and ask someone to group with you.

You can choose to simply walk through the zones and not hop on your mount.

You can choose not to do LFR.

So I don't get why people are complaining about things they don't have to do or use.

[lawow74]

Tools that facilitate you playing the game content do not make it less possible to be social, any more than being forced to sit and advert for groups for hours on end made it more possible to be social. IMO forcing socialization is more harmful than letting people be less social if they wish to be. If you want to socialize, get out there and do it, don't sit on your hands and whine for Blizzard to make people talk to you.

[LeperHerring]

In all of these threads, I keep wondering what exactly is stopping people from doing things the old fashioned way?

Nothing is stopping anyone from doing it. It's just an idiotic thing to do. People tend to play to the best of their abilities and purposefully handicapping yourself or doing things in a significantly less optimal way compared to others is not fun and puts you at a disadvantage.

[Feril]

It should have been there from the start.

It was going to be there from the start, but they didn't get it working as they wanted to until WotLK.

[Teriz]

Nothing is stopping anyone from doing it. It's just an idiotic thing to do. People tend to play to the best of their abilities and purposefully handicapping yourself or doing things in a significantly less optimal way compared to others is not fun and puts you at a disadvantage.

Except it doesn't handicap anything. Again, why don't people who despise LFD get a group of people together via the forums, and just agree not to use LFD? The same group of hardcores can also agree to never use their flying mounts.

The game allows you to play it exactly as you wish to play it. If you don't want to use tools like LFD, don't use it. It's not going to effect your performance either way.

[LeperHerring]

Tools that facilitate you playing the game content do not make it less possible to be social, any more than being forced to sit and advert for groups for hours on end made it more possible to be social. IMO forcing socialization is more harmful than letting people be less social if they wish to be. If you want to socialize, get out there and do it, don't sit on your hands and whine for Blizzard to make people talk to you.

I completely disagree. If you make anti-social mechanisms highly optimal way to play (LFD/LFR) then that's where people will go. It will hurt the community and turn it toxic as we've seen with WoW. WoW used to be a game where you made friends, and that was possibly the most important factor in causing its success. It caused people to make friends and socialize because there was great content that could only be reached by real teamwork and effort. Now it's a game where the majority of the playerbase just queue through LFR/LFD and act like complete twats because there is no penalty for it and no reward for acting like a civilized person.

- - - Updated - - -

Except it doesn't handicap anything. Again, why don't people who despise LFD get a group of people together via the forums, and just agree not to use LFD? The same group of hardcores can also agree to never use their flying mounts.

The game allows you to play it exactly as you wish to play it. If you don't want to use tools like LFD, don't use it. It's not going to effect your performance either way.

Because, like I said, it's a majorly inefficient and idiotic way to do things when there is a more efficient mechanism in game. It's just not fun to ride around on a horse when other people are flying by a million miles per hour, and as a result achieving much more than you can. It puts you at a disadvantage and is not a viable way to play.

[Armourboy]

Without LFD I would of stopped playing WoW years ago, mainly because after 2am its pretty dang hard to get a group to do anything. The game doesn't exist just between 4pm and midnight and during those off times used to be just a nightmare to find a group for anything. Now if we would have had this new realm combining coming in sooner maybe it wouldn't have been needed, but until we see how that goes it is definitely a useful tool.

Does it have its down sides? Sure, it could be a great way to meet people and make friends, but I can probably count on one hand the number of times that happened.

At one point I thought it was a good idea to go back to the old way of doing things with no LFD, then I played SWTOR without it and I will say it was horrible. I was so happy when I got back to WoW and had it at my disposal again.