Dungeon Finder

[OJtheLIONKing]

First, I have to get ready for work soon, but I'll post once more.

It has absolutely nothing to do with time. A proper party search function (which really only needs a party seek function/seeking for party list right now as well as a better comment box with auto translate functionality) would work just as fast a dungeon finder without the need to have the server randomly put people together.

Not really. What you're proposing basically exists in FFXI already, which is exactly the game I was referring to. No doubt, it SHOULD be implemented in XIV because they shouldn't force people to use a dungeon finder, the game needs a better party search anyway, and it'll help those who avoid a dungeon finder or just want a group for something else stand out from the crowd. However, it is inadequate for putting parties together in a timely fashion. In ideal conditions, it took me 15-20 minutes to put together a party and get to the destination in FFXI, which is close to the max time you would have to wait in a dungeon finder with a similar queue time to WoW. Having to find members like that is a large reason why FFXI encouraged such unhealthy super long single session xp parties, as well. Lastly, although it's not as bad as FFXI, there is class elitism in this game and it will grow when they change the battle system. I don't think anyone who ever played a dragoon or a puppetmaster in FFXI before a year or two ago would want a return to that party system.

Also accountability does not automatically mean someone is "blacklisted" for making a mistake while playing. In all my time playing FFXI I never once did this to someone, and I always formed parties myself if I could not find one quickly (I still do). People are fully capable of understanding others limitations in pick up groups, if they truly can't deal with that then they will play exclusively in statics anyways.

I didn't do it either, but it doesn't mean it doesn't occur. In any case, this also applies to dungeon finder pugs. I am perfectly able to form a group of people I know or a static if a dungeon finder exists, and indeed I think most would prefer to run entirely with people they know, but the reason pugs exists is because this isn't always possible.

With automatic dungeon finders instead of getting help to learn how to play your class in a party you are more likely to have the people simply abandon you there and requeue to try to find a group with someone who does know how to play (unless the content is so broken that it doesn't matter how you play). They'll still tell their linkshellmates about you, and they'll still laugh at you only maybe you can hide behind the chance that you'll never run into each other again. But I don't think that that sounds like a very good solution to your problem though.

I don't want to make assumptions, but have you played WoW? How recently? Although problems do exist (particularly after they launched the recent troll dungeons), most people are willing to help someone who's new or going through their first time. There are griefers and jerks, but despite the preconceptions people have about WoW players, random dungeon groups are surprisingly friendly. The WoW team foresaw the potential for the jerk problem, put a fairly long cooldown timer on randoms, and it works--most people are willing to work with their group rather than have to wait 15 minutes then another wait on top of that to requeue. What you say just isn't really true.

To paraphrase Yoshi-P, there should be as much time spent actually doing stuff in the game as possible, as opposed to preparing to do stuff or moving towards stuff. I want to play the game, not spend an hour putting together a party to walk to a dungeon to spend 30 minutes actually doing the thing I want to do.