Implications of a Dungeon Finder

[Frein]

WOW's dungeon finder didn't kill guild and friend dungeon runs. Stop being such a neighsayer.

I never said it did. It killed your ability to make new friends and build a community.

[Wolfie]

I never said it did. It killed your ability to make new friends and build a community.

No it didn't. I had no problems meeting new people and getting into guilds.

What killed my ability to make friends was how fluid WOW's leveling model was and how characters were completely throwaway things. That's something that's not the case with FFXIV; you don't change characters in this game like you do pairs of socks.

[Vahzl]

With the FFXI community being as tight as it was, I wouldn't be surprised if cross realm friendships formed, as the current size of the playerbase is so low, you would continually meet the same players again and again.

[Frein]

No it didn't. I had no problems meeting new people and getting into guilds.

What killed my ability to make friends was how fluid WOW's leveling model was and how characters were completely throwaway things. That's something that's not the case with FFXIV; you don't change characters in this game like you do pairs of socks.

How could you meet the same person more than once? That's right, you didn't. Getting into a guild was based on a one-shot good experience, not continually bumping into each other like it'd work in the past.

Long time ago when I played WoW, we'd have great banter in the server forum, we'd organize fights in Alterac Valley, we'd form preset BG teams to compete with opposing preset teams. There was also plenty of world PVP. All of that instantly crumbled when cross-realm BGs were introduced. Winning a BG was no longer a matter of pride, instead we got the "let them win so I can queue again faster" crowd and bots that'd jump in one spot to not get kicked out of the BG for being AFK. Sure, the wait times were cut to a fraction of what they were, but the whole experience was invalidated. Instead of a long queue to something sweet, we got short queues to a dung heap. I know which I prefer.

With the FFXI community being as tight as it was, I wouldn't be surprised if cross realm friendships formed, as the current size of the playerbase is so low, you would continually meet the same players again and again.

I would. FFXI promoted player bonding in everything, this DF is the very opposite.

[Katella_Avenlea]

I actually really like the idea of the Dungeon Finder, and am really excited at the prospect. The hours I get the opportunity to play are generally ever changing do to real life things that take prevalence. I would LOVE to be able to still participate in content that requires a group and meet up with totally new people, but to be honest right now that doesn't happen.

Right now I end up playing solo, or I play with my husband when I can convince him to login. If I shout for things, I rarely get any kind of response from anyone. I've joined a few linkshells, and have logged in on more than one occasion to find them disbanded out of the blue. Personally I'd love the opportunity to meet new people and play with people from other servers. (I already can think of a few I'd like the opportunity to play with ^^). Like I said, if tweaked a bit, The dungeon finder system could be really cool.

If done right this could be very beneficial to gameplay experience as well as community.

What if:
~ What if there were cross server "Linkshells"? (maybe Free Companies will allow for this.. who knows)
~ What if there was an ability to send messages across servers like FFXI had. Then if you wanted to meet up with that cool person you partied with that one time, you could let them know you were available, and that you'd be queued up at X time on X date?

[Frein]

I actually really like the idea of the Dungeon Finder, and am really excited at the prospect. The hours I get the opportunity to play are generally ever changing do to real life things that take prevalence. I would LOVE to be able to still participate in content that requires a group and meet up with totally new people, but to be honest right now that doesn't happen.

It doesn't happen because our player search and LFG features are non-existent and terrible. This was never an issue in FFXI as long as people were actually online. In FFXIV you can't reach the needed players even if they were online.

Right now I end up playing solo, or I play with my husband when I can convince him to login. If I shout for things, I rarely get any kind of response from anyone. I've joined a few linkshells, and have logged in on more than one occasion to find them disbanded out of the blue. Personally I'd love the opportunity to meet new people and play with people from other servers. (I already can think of a few I'd like the opportunity to play with ^^). Like I said, if tweaked a bit, The dungeon finder system could be really cool.

You're not going to meet them with the DF.

[Wolfie]

How could you meet the same person more than once? That's right, you didn't. Getting into a guild was based on a one-shot good experience, not continually bumping into each other like it'd work in the past.

People still spam LFG and Trade chats for groups. You see the same names a lot, ESPECIALLY during leveling. People still do premades for everything, and it's easy to make friends if you aren't sticking to pick-up groups made via the dungeon finder exclusively.

And why does it matter if I met that same person more than once or not? If I liked them, I would friend request them the first time. It's not a dating game, I don't need to meet up with the person more than once to determine if I want to be friends with them.

Long time ago when I played WoW, we'd have great banter in the server forum, we'd organize fights in Alterac Valley, we'd form preset BG teams to compete with opposing preset teams. There was also plenty of world PVP. All of that instantly crumbled when cross-realm BGs were introduced. Winning a BG was no longer a matter of pride, instead we got the "let them win so I can queue again faster" crowd and bots that'd jump in one spot to not get kicked out of the BG for being AFK. Sure, the wait times were cut to a fraction of what they were, but the whole experience was invalidated. Instead of a long queue to something sweet, we got short queues to a dung heap. I know which I prefer.

Throwing BGs to make it go by faster happened a long, long time after cross-realm BGs were implemented and aren't a direct result of cross-realm BGs. It's a result of people 1) finally figuring out how to exploit the system for more points, and 2) one faction always being unbalanced in a battle group. Whether or not the BGs were cross realm wouldn't have made a difference, because the scenario of one faction being more unbalanced than the other is even more extreme when you look on a server-by-server basis; and the underdog faction would have learned to throw BGs anyways, to get more points faster.

[Sephrick]

You're not going to meet them with the DF.

I forgot the feature was already in game without a cross-world invite feature and will never be changed. It just must not be availablecon my server yet.

[Frein]

People still spam LFG and Trade chats for groups. You see the same names a lot, ESPECIALLY during leveling. People still do premades for everything, and it's easy to make friends if you aren't sticking to pick-up groups made via the dungeon finder exclusively.

Why would anyone bother to LFG shout with a DF in place? You're still grouping with randoms.

And why does it matter if I met that same person more than once or not? If I liked them, I would friend request them the first time. It's not a dating game, I don't need to meet up with the person more than once to determine if I want to be friends with them.

Yes, it matters a whole lot. When you play with the same people a lot naturally rather than out of a conscious attempt to make it happen, the community grows much stronger. Networks of friends' friends form and the server becomes more like a rural village than a bustling metropolis.

Throwing BGs to make it go by faster happened a long, long time after cross-realm BGs were implemented and aren't a direct result of cross-realm BGs. It's a result of people 1) finally figuring out how to exploit the system for more points, and 2) one faction always being unbalanced in a battle group. Whether or not the BGs were cross realm wouldn't have made a difference, because the scenario of one faction being more unbalanced than the other is even more extreme when you look on a server-by-server basis; and the underdog faction would have learned to throw BGs anyways, to get more points faster.

I don't know about your server(s), but EU Vashj turned from a great server with a strong community and friendly rivalry between the factions to a nameless vessel virtually overnight as soon as cross-realm BGs were added. People didn't give a crap about optimizing point gains, they fought because they wanted to win, or at the very least give the opponent hell before falling. All of this ended immediately when the floodgates were opened and all kinds of losers flowed into our BGs.

[Wolfie]

Why would anyone bother to LFG shout with a DF in place? You're still grouping with randoms.

Because people aren't zombies and realize the drawbacks of a dungeon finder, and still prefer to find a regular group of people to do content with, than to stick to strangers. It's human nature. The DF is a fall-back resource provided for people who are too lazy or cannot find a group of regulars to do content with.

It's why people are still organizing into guilds and adding people to friends lists in WOW, despite DF (and now Raid Finder) being part of the game. If DF ruins communities like you say it does, then WOW should have seen a sharp decline in guilds and guild runs, but it didn't.