LFG tool!! (finally!)

[Schalde]

Didnt see the live stream. when will this feature be avaliable?

[Zeek Daniels]

Didnt see the live stream. when will this feature be avaliable?

17th of september

[Lane]

Can't say anything showed on the stream was anything of my interest.

Same. I only caught the Q&A session, but none of the questions were anything I cared about or would have asked.

I did think it was funny that the two audience 'questions' that were brought up that I was moderately interested in were shrugged aside. Improvements to the guild management? "Thanks for the suggestion." Improvements to Charr armor? Sorry, they're the least played race so don't bet on it. (They could have at least said for future armor sets they'll try not to clip the tails.)

Also, why were people giving me a hard time about Jeff Grubb when it sounded like that one lady (Angel?) is in charge of all of the Living Story? (No, I don't know who she is either or what her writing credentials are. Still wouldn't stop me from being "meh" about LS anyway.)

Also they supposedly found a way to replace the orb mechanic they first had when the game launched. The new orb mechanics look like the sPVP capture points.

Orb mechanic? O_o

[zed zebes]

Orb mechanic:

In the WvWvW Borderlands, each Borderland had an Orb of Power that first spawns at the top of the map with each new match-up. Getting that Orb of Power and bringing it to an altar provided your server a buff. That buff helped you with damage, health and scoring points. There were two major problems with the Orb mechanic though. If a server got ahead, they could grab all the orbs and just steamroll everything else. It made point disparities worse. Also, people were using a lot of hacks and exploits to get to the Orbs. ANet was having to go in and reset Orbs after someone on a server hacked to get it. It was an exploit magnet they could never totally fix.

So they removed orbs from the Borderlands and hadn't replaced it with anything up until this new Bloodlust system.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

Without auto-matching it will also be more susceptible to community bias/perception, for better or worse. By which I mean, there will be people who just won't accept Rangers into PvE groups (or whatever is currently ostracized in the meta).

[Meledelion]

Without auto-matching it will also be more susceptible to community bias/perception, for better or worse. By which I mean, there will be people who just won't accept Rangers into PvE groups (or whatever is currently ostracized in the meta).

BS, in wow if I got something I didn't like /kick. Exactly the same... PPL need to stop blaming mechanics when it's actually human "error".

[Rapti]

FFS why does this game have to change to so much better when I have:
a) GTA V coming out
b) Vacation with GF

Fuck me... I so want to play GW2 instead, now >_<

This looks what I was hoping for a LFG tool, Im so happy they went with what they just did - so awesome!
When it comes to speed of this LFG - I think it will be just like with TP - you will get a lot of "FULL" responses .

[Karizee]

Without auto-matching it will also be more susceptible to community bias/perception, for better or worse. By which I mean, there will be people who just won't accept Rangers into PvE groups (or whatever is currently ostracized in the meta).

Not really. I mean there will always be those speed run fellas that are trying to shave 30 seconds off a dungeon run but they identify themselves. Just like how it is now on gw2lfg.com, you don't see posts saying "No Rangers" but you will see a couple mixed in that say "LF1M Path 1!!!!!!!!! MONEY QUICK RUN FAST FAST SPANK IT FAST!!!!!".

Usually you see "experienced only/preferred" or "all welcome".

[Meledelion]

Sooo..I need to ask this. Guys over at WoW been whining how LFD (LFG) "destroyed" the community, but you guys are all excited. Personally I think you have every right to be. I love LFD and LFR.

But...some of you are surely ex-WoW...so..you probably don't agree that a LFG tool is "bad"?

It's due to the different system. Most people that say LFD destroyed WoW say so because of the auto grouping/teleporting part. In GW2 that isn't happening, it's basically just sort of an LFG chat channel where you describe your group and that's it. You still can select certain people/profs/builds/skills/... that wasn't possible in wow anymore.

[Karizee]

Sooo..I need to ask this. Guys over at WoW been whining how LFD (LFG) "destroyed" the community, but you guys are all excited. Personally I think you have every right to be. I love LFD and LFR.

But...some of you are surely ex-WoW...so..you probably don't agree that a LFG tool is "bad"?

Well, first off we already have strong server communities with WvW and PvE is already fairly fluid between servers with guesting and overflows.

But the big reason (and this is Huge - it's one of the Core differences between WoW and GW2) why it's different is players from other servers cannot grief you. They can't tag your mobs, steal your nodes or ninja your loot. We all tag the mob, we all get the nodes, we all get loot from chests, bosses and mobs - this is why we all work together.

[Svifnymr]

Improvements to Charr armor? Sorry, they're the least played race so don't bet on it. (They could have at least said for future armor sets they'll try not to clip the tails.)

There's an Anet guy on my server who is a Charr, so I asked him how he felt about the answer, but he didn't answer me.

For myself, I've only got one charr, elementalist. I'll probably be using the heritage armor set (with Infernal gloves) because I don't like the charr light armor. Heavy armor looks good on them though.

[Lane]

There's an Anet guy on my server who is a Charr, so I asked him how he felt about the answer, but he didn't answer me.

For myself, I've only got one charr, elementalist. I'll probably be using the heritage armor set (with Infernal gloves) because I don't like the charr light armor. Heavy armor looks good on them though.

I'm planning on making a Charr elementalist. I like a couple of their cultural light sets (I forget which other than T1 is one of them), so that's what I'll probably be using. I forgot about the Heritage armor, which surprisingly looks good. Most armors look ugly on Charr though. I love the race, but it is really hard to find anything good looking to wear. I've been trying to find a new leather set for my Charr ranger and everything is just terrible other than the Rogue set (which is what I've been wearing).

Sooo..I need to ask this. Guys over at WoW been whining how LFD (LFG) "destroyed" the community, but you guys are all excited. Personally I think you have every right to be. I love LFD and LFR.

But...some of you are surely ex-WoW...so..you probably don't agree that a LFG tool is "bad"?

It was a blessing and a curse, I suppose. Prior to the LFG tool in WoW I knew people from every major guild on my server, so that was a big plus. However, it was also really difficult to get groups as a DPS due to lack of tanks. (Getting geared via heroics in BC was a miserably long process too, which is one of the main reasons I do not have fond memories of BC.)

When LFG was introduced, it got to the point where I didn't know anyone outside of my own guild anymore, but I was also able to gear up in a week (what would have taken months in BC). Being the altoholic that I am that was a big deal too and allowed a lot of people to do off-night raids on their alts.

Eh, I guess a lot of that isn't really applicable in GW2 since you don't run dungeons for gear though.

[zed zebes]

The lack of interest in WoW's open world is another problem that was increased by LFR/LFD. I don't think its a coincidence that they're releasing LFG tool along with a major revision of a world boss that turns it into a giant open world challenge.

[Fencers]

I rarely/never socialize with people outside my guild in ANY MMO. The existence of an LFG tool is of no real consequence to me personally. Of my limited experiences in LFG and LFD-like features in various MMOs I have found them to be "okay" for the most part.

I think it will be the same in GW2 for me. As I can't see any + or - to the system over any other. LFG features are all the same really- inherently you are playing with PUGs. They are what they are no matter how they are formed.

[zed zebes]

Remember, a LFG tool represents the same basic goal of spamming LFG in chat. It is just a more effective and convenient form of LFG spam.

[Edge-]

It's like the Eastern style of group finder tools.

Yeah, looks a lot like the one from Aion or EQ2. I do like this quite a lot and it shall mean I actually group with people now : D

On the topic of the quote though, I'm not really a huge fan of the "Everyone gets everything" stuff. It just devalues everything, and you still don't "work together".

But everyone doesn't get "everything". You're just rewarded for helping other players kill mobs, something which actually encourages more socialization (sorta) and in no way provides "everything" to everyone.

[rhandric]

Honestly, the tool does exactly what I expected, and what I (and likely most people) wanted. It's mostly an iteration on the GW1 LFG tool.

[Odeezee]

The speed of the LFG interface is complete speculation at this point.

There really is no way to know what join speeds or attempts will be like with this in-game tool. This style of LFG tool has been used in other MMOs in the past with mixed results. So yea, don't jump to conclusions till it hits live for a few months.

it's not really speculation at this point as we have evidence from GW2LFG.com which is very similar to the in-game tool except it does not merge groups, allow for specific server events/activities to be queried or filter by number of party members. also the % of the playerbase that even knows GW2LFG.com exists is much smaller than the one that will have access to the in-game tool so there will be a much larger pool of people to fill groups rapidly.

Without auto-matching it will also be more susceptible to community bias/perception, for better or worse. By which I mean, there will be people who just won't accept Rangers into PvE groups (or whatever is currently ostracized in the meta).

ummmm, no. there are VERY few people in GW2 that are min-maxers and if they are they know that rangers do some sick dps. i really do not see any profession having a hard time getting into groups for dungeons baring some speed clear groups or higher tier Fractal runs where people want greater efficiency. but guess what you can put notes in the LFG query and you can just not join those groups if it is something you are really worried about. remember you can always start your own group and it will fill up FASTER than "elitist" groups.

Sooo..I need to ask this. Guys over at WoW been whining how LFD (LFG) "destroyed" the community, but you guys are all excited. Personally I think you have every right to be. I love LFD and LFR.

But...some of you are surely ex-WoW...so..you probably don't agree that a LFG tool is "bad"?

the GW2 incarnation is not automated so it still requires some type of human interaction which should negate the "destroyed the community" mantra.

[Fencers]

it's not really speculation at this point as we have evidence from GW2LFG.com which is very similar to the in-game tool...

Ehhhhhhhhhh. I wouldn't look at a third party site with reduced functionality as an indicator of an in-game feature's functionality and operation. No, that doesn't seem reasonable at all.

Perhaps as an indication of the desire for players to join groups, sure. But as a point of UI design & function, not at all.

Nothing which exists outside of developer design is of consideration. Meta tools are not game design.

[Fencers]

One the lead developers of Grinding Gear Games once described that mechanic as "loot tension". The idea being that seeing a loot-able/node/drop/whatever, created an inherent sense of tension and a rush of moment to moment goal acquisition.

For example, Sally and Sara are sharing the same play space. Sally is killing zombies 1 or 2 at a time. Easy. Sara sees Sally killing these zombies and endeavors to collect a number of zombie skulls or herself. The two players are not grabbing increasing higher number of zombies in an effort to out-do the other. Raising the tensions between two players with the same goal. As a result a meta challenge that is intrinsic to the gameplay is created in the scenario of a shared play space.

Remember, Sally was killing zombies at an easy pace. A few at a time. Just having Sara there raises the challenge and effort Sally is putting forth. Maybe now she is using more tools to rope a greater number of zombies? Perhaps Sara is taking on larger groups and so forth.

There are valid reasons why a designer would want to create a sense of tension even in a cooperative play space among players.