Fixing WoW's Social Problem

[grothezk]

or they can create a sort of clickable option:look for cross server players / look for realm players. That way, if you know your server is lacking people, you could just un select the option to look for realm players and stick to pugs, which was the reason it was created on the first place.

[Noier]

I like this idea, the social aspect of this game as gone so downhill, I used to know so many more people because we were forced to cooperate in groups since it was so hard to get a group. Yes it was more time consuming but more people were interested in playing nice and doing multiple dungeons as well. Now that many of the people I met back then have quit or changed servers/factions etc, it's hard to get any type of connection with anyone outside of your guild. Love the new lfg system, queues are way less but community is dead except for the trolls in trade imo

[Silentshank]

alot of ppl run 1 heroic a day anyway. so this would solve nothing

[zshikara]

I honestly like the OP's idea. Back in BC and early wrath (pre LFD) I was one of the "goto" guys that everyone who was anyone on the server knew could do things and do them right. I loved the popularity, and it guaranteed me a raid spot anywhere I went. Noone cared about my gearscore or anything like that, they knew I could perform. As a result I pugged almost everything for well over a year. I even completed TOGC that way (yeah, heroic, and yes, when it was hard, before icc came out). I loved it, and it was a lot of fun for me not having to have a set schedule to do what I wanted to do.

Since LFD came out the community went to hell. Most of the other people I knew on my server left or quit and I had no idea who most of the new people were, so I transferred to a server where a couple of good friends of mine play. I am slowly working on building my reputation back up on this new server, but I have been here for almost 1 year now and I know less than half the people that I did on my old server pre LFD after the same amount of time.

The only other idea that I could recommend is letting us friend people from other servers that we enjoyed grouping with. I know several that I'd have loved to take with me again. (no, I don't want to use real ID for this feature) Once you have someone friended from another server you should be able to invite them to your group and then queue for randoms, BGs, or even invite them to your guild raid. I don't want an LFD for raiding, but there is no reason why you couldn't invite people off server into your raid instance since each server doesn't have their own dedicated raid servers anymore.

The only other solution that I can think of is remove LFD completely and go back to the way things used to be done. But then you go back to 4 hour plus waits before you can get your daily random done. I don't want that. I love being able to run heroics and whatnot whenever I want. I just want the sense of community back. Contrary to what some rude people here have said you can force community. Its because of blizzard that the community has disappeared.

[Rylas]

How about a mandatory minimum wait before players from other servers are allowed to fill spaces in a group ?

(say 5-10 minutes).

This would help to counter some of the antisocial trends created by the LFG, and help create new social opportunities on the same server.

A GREAT idea. say youre a tank, when you queue (now don't freak out) you could have a 5 min wait OR until the group is filled with full server people.
After 5 minutes if your group hasn't filled, the people who it has filled with are moved into the larger Battlegroup queue.

With the extreme amount of dps players out there they would almost always have 3 from the same server.

The changes to "luck of the draw" buff has further hurt people from pugging on server.

Why go in with 5 people on server and get Zero buff, when you can queue with 1 to 2 people and get 15%?

What you could also do is change the "luck of the draw" buff and change to a "Same Team" buff.

3 people from same server = 5% buff
4 people from same server = 10% buff
5 people from same server = 15% buff (and maybe to even entice more a 5% more justice/valor for full 5 from server)


Thank you all for your idea's and criticism (the constructive ones).

[zshikara]

What you could also do is change the "luck of the draw" buff and change to a "Same Team" buff.

3 people from same server = 5% buff
4 people from same server = 10% buff
5 people from same server = 15% buff (and maybe to even entice more a 5% more justice/valor for full 5 from server)


Thank you all for your idea's and criticism (the constructive ones).

This is quite possibly the most ingenious idea I have heard today. I love it. If Blizzard wants the community to come back then they need to reward people for grouping with people on their own server, not the other way around. I think when I get home from work tonight I am going to post a collection of ideas from here (my own included) on the wow official forums so a blue has a chance of seeing it.

[Katfish]

So do you really need friends that bad that you want to force them to talk to you? Personally I don't talk during Heroic runs. I tell ppl what CC to do and that is about it. Sometimes I will get someone who wants to talk to himself during the whole entire dungeon. To those folks I normally say "I bet you are one of those ppl that talk throughout the whole movie in the theaters". That will normally get them to shut up. Yep call me weird but even though this is a MMO I am happy with just talking to ppl in my guild. I have real life friends and I don't come on WoW to find ppl to talk to. I come to play the game.

---------- Post added 2011-03-06 at 10:30 PM ----------

^^ THIS is part of the problem. Massively Multiplayer by definition means it is social

Not sure if that is 100% correct. MMO just means a bunch of ppl playing the game at the same time live in the same world (server). MMO doesn't mean you have to be social in order to play the game. That is just what you want out of the game personally, not what is really needed.

[Rylas]

So do you really need friends that bad that you want to force them to talk to you?

It's an MMO.

Mass Multi-player.

If i wanted to run dungeons by myself I'd play Final Fantasy or the other 1029843 single player RPG's out there.

The want for better gear will only get you so far, i mean what good is having purples if there's no one to show them off to?

2ndly, it's not about friends. It's about community. From the Elite to the Trolls and the Baddies... all these make up the wow community.
Every Group needs is leaders and every village needs their idiot. The community is what sets wow apart.

It's definitely not the graphics, the items, or the plot.

I'd like to go back to the wow where you judge peoples ability by what you saw and not by their GS or Item Level.

[Aeriedk]

No offense to you or the idea, but this would just screw low pop servers again. It's one of the main reasons it was made in the first place. That, and to help clear trade a little bit.

The above poster was right. Your hearts in the right place but meh.

[Katfish]

It's an MMO.

Mass Multi-player.

If i wanted to run dungeons by myself I'd play Final Fantasy or the other 1029843 single player RPG's out there.

Those reasons still don't mean I have to share my personal life with you or talk to you while doing the dungeon. I don't mind playing with ppl in game, just don't see the need for chatter about non game stuff.

[Goosed]

The changes to "luck of the draw" buff has further hurt people from pugging on server.

Why go in with 5 people on server and get Zero buff, when you can queue with 1 to 2 people and get 15%?

What you could also do is change the "luck of the draw" buff and change to a "Same Team" buff.

3 people from same server = 5% buff
4 people from same server = 10% buff
5 people from same server = 15% buff (and maybe to even entice more a 5% more justice/valor for full 5 from server)


Thank you all for your idea's and criticism (the constructive ones).

Now you're cooking, this is a great idea or some variation to reward/promote running with groups from your server.

[Greendog]

Well just think for a moment. Wouldn't it just be easier to add an option that enabled you to find people on your server rather than have it from the start?
For example you want a fast HC for your daily so you go about your business as normal. When you are done if you want more dungeons or are not in a rush you would have an option for a "Local Random Dungeon"

[coldbear]

Why go in with 5 people on server and get Zero buff, when you can queue with 1 to 2 people and get 15%?

What you could also do is change the "luck of the draw" buff and change to a "Same Team" buff.

3 people from same server = 5% buff
4 people from same server = 10% buff
5 people from same server = 15% buff (and maybe to even entice more a 5% more justice/valor for full 5 from server)


Thank you all for your idea's and criticism (the constructive ones).

Brilliant.

[Kwickslash]

What you could also do is change the "luck of the draw" buff and change to a "Same Team" buff.

3 people from same server = 5% buff
4 people from same server = 10% buff
5 people from same server = 15% buff (and maybe to even entice more a 5% more justice/valor for full 5 from server)


Thank you all for your idea's and criticism (the constructive ones).

If only the people on the official forums had ideas half as good as this.

Personally I'd rather see the % buff to v/j points rather than role throughput as I've never been a big fan of buffs that increase speeds and decrease difficulty of instances as it can create unnecessary expectations and impatience from other players in some cases.

E.g. They have to run less instances to get their reward than expecting to do a lot of fast instances and putting stress on people that are trying to get their bearings in a new instance/unfamiliar group.

[creepygnome]

Personally, the lack of community is why I cut my time in Azeroth by more than half. I used to know a ton of people on my server, both the trolls and the ones you wanted to group with. You also knew which guilds were good, and those which were full of ninjas. It also seems to be the number one reason that a lot of people have stopped enjoying WoW. Personally, I spent less wasted time in dungeons before the Dungeon Finder. Mostly that was because we easily kicked people that weren't that good, and we all had more people on our friends lists to pull from. It didn't take more than that average que time to find a group, and there were less fails.

If there are that many low pop servers maybe Blizz should look into merging servers.

[Sansnom]

If only the people on the official forums had ideas half as good as this.

That is because the 15% buff from Luck Of The Draw is there to solve a different problem. Mainly bad co-ordination PUGs.

[Kwickslash]

That is because the 15% buff from Luck Of The Draw is there to solve a different problem. Mainly bad co-ordination PUGs.

That's why I think the game partially turned out like this. You were rewarded for risking bad-coordinated groups. Rather than let them wipe a few times and hopefully learn (or force them to co-ordinate) from the mistakes they are making in the encounter they chose to just buff them in order to bypass the skill check.

[Rylas]

so... is there anything we can do?

[Deleted]

1. Delete Flying Mounts
2. Delete LFG tool.
3. Experience an entire new and different WOW! GRATZ!

[velde046]

You can't force community. If you want to improve the community you need to start with yourself instead of expecting blizzard to wave a magic wand that will suddenly make people nice to each other. Your suggestion does nothing but punish people and extend the already long wait times on the LFD tool.

This exactly... there will always be jerks, no matter how you design the system. So basically the change has to start with yourself. You could:
- Not use LFD... that way you only get people from your server.
- Tell people that you do not care for their behaviour. If necessary initiate a kick from the group and put the person on ignore list. They won't be bothering you again. If the kick fails, just drop the group. I know it won't actually hurt the other group really, but that's not the point. You should get out of that situation for your comfort it's not about punishing 'them'.
- Report behaviour that is way out of line, i.e. abusive language etc.

If everyone would do that it would just be a matter of time before the dust would settle... it could take a while but it will happen if more and more people would act that way. It's like one poster said, you can't force the community, but you can do stuff yourself. At first it might be a lonely position (believe me) but after a while you'll discover more and more likeminded people.