"Content Finder" - Please be careful

[FestAkos]

The thing is, WoW didn't have a good LFG tool, so people had to shout for groups before DF was added.

That's a pretty good point. A good LFG system doesn't need to be cross server but I have yet to see a game implement one that's worth mentioning. WoW's Dungeon Finder is seriously the best solution.

WoW is currently in the process of developing a Raid Finder which will work like the Dungeon Finder. And with it they are instituting new roll rules such as tanks can only roll on tank gear, healers only on heal gear and DPS only on DPS gear. This will almost completely abolish ninja looters in these systems. The problem of jerks being jerks is unsolvable in all honesty. There is seriously no way to solve it other than not joining random groups.

I'd seriously be all for a LFG system that was not cross server as long as the wait time was as short as a cross server system would be but that simply isn't possible. Accessible content is what sells games. And FFXIV being more popular means more money to develop more content faster, best servers and a better overall experience.

[Frein]

The problem of jerks being jerks is unsolvable in all honesty. There is seriously no way to solve it other than not joining random groups.

It actually isn't. If the server community is strong enough, it will automatically police its members. If this is your goal, you should absolutely not dilute the populations by letting people jump outside their server.

Perhaps it's just me, and I realize we live in a "must get everything NOW!" time, but I'd rather wait for something worth waiting for than immediately get something not worth getting, even if it slows down my progression within the game.

[Zumi]

Only the FFXIV community would argue against something like the dungeon finder. Its a simple fast way to get a group together and not have to shout for hours on end in town and never find people.

Dungeon finder is one of the best features WoW has. Gives players a choice on how hey want to level, they can do quests for exp or they can use dungeon finder get exp that way. Before the duengeon finder existed people had to spam the trade and general chat to try and recruit people to do some basic 5 man dungeons. Could be looking over an hour to find everyone you need.

FFXIV currently has no good way of putting a party together to do anything. I have got level 34 gladiator started playing FFXIV at the CE launch have never joined a single party. Due to the fact the game has no way of finding other people to play with. Most of the main towns are pretty much ghost towns you see people around crystals a lot but a lot of people are pretty antisocial and won't talk to you. If pull all the 30 leves in Gridania then go to the crystal to do them and see other people there and say, "anyone want to team up to these faster," 9/10 times you won't get any response from people.

With cross server content finder there will always be people around your level to do instances with which in turn will make leveling and finding groups much less painful and leveling should be a lot easier.

[Wolfie]

Only the FFXIV community would argue against something like the dungeon finder. Its a simple fast way to get a group together and not have to shout for hours on end in town and never find people.

Arguing against user friendliness and accessibility improvements has been a common theme in the SE MMO community. Where have you been?

[HoolieWho]

Only the FFXIV community would argue against something like the dungeon finder. Its a simple fast way to get a group together and not have to shout for hours on end in town and never find people.

There is a middle ground between auto-grouping and having to shout for a group. That middle ground is populated by useful seek/search tools. Yes, these tools require some initiative on behalf of the people who use them, but good tools can minimize the effort involved. Let people seek for the content they want, with their character resume on display and let party leaders advertise openings. This is the system I want.

An auto-group option if fine for those who want to be in parties formed by such a system, but I'd prefer a mechanism based on communication between prospective party members utilizing tools more sophisticated than /shout.

[Misteyes]

There is a middle ground between auto-grouping and having to shout for a group. That middle ground is populated by useful seek/search tools. Yes, these tools require some initiative on behalf of the people who use them, but good tools can minimize the effort involved. Let people seek for the content they want, with their character resume on display and let party leaders advertise openings. This is the system I want.

An auto-group option if fine for those who want to be in parties formed by such a system, but I'd prefer a mechanism based on communication between prospective party members utilizing tools more sophisticated than /shout.

Exactly.

I want a party search feature, even a cross realm one, maybe even one that automatically alerts me when a party for my level is available and gives me a list of people to send whispers to (or gives whoever checked the "I'm willing to lead" box a list of people to send whispers to). I want to be able to meet people, and be able to pick those same people again (or avoid them) if I see them on the list in the future.

I just don't want to automatically be grouped with random strangers, cross realm, with no recourse if they decide to abuse the group. No matter how many failsafes are in place to prevent specific, game mechanical abuses, I'd rather be grouped with people who don't want to trod the rest of the party into the dirt.

Short of that, I want forming a party to be as quick and easy as is possible. That's why I say, "Please be careful" and not, "Don't do it."

[Zumi]

Exactly.

I want a party search feature, even a cross realm one, maybe even one that automatically alerts me when a party for my level is available and gives me a list of people to send whispers to (or gives whoever checked the "I'm willing to lead" box a list of people to send whispers to). I want to be able to meet people, and be able to pick those same people again (or avoid them) if I see them on the list in the future.

I just don't want to automatically be grouped with random strangers, cross realm, with no recourse if they decide to abuse the group. No matter how many failsafes are in place to prevent specific, game mechanical abuses, I'd rather be grouped with people who don't want to trod the rest of the party into the dirt.

Short of that, I want forming a party to be as quick and easy as is possible. That's why I say, "Please be careful" and not, "Don't do it."

You do realize you can vote kick problem people or if people leave, requeue the group and it will find you replacements in a couple seconds. Sorry but party making systems like this are the norm now in mmos, and a lot more efficient then shouting for people. Like it was said before only in FFXIV do we have people arguing against a good feature. By today's mmo standards having to go to town and shout for people for a group is pretty archaic this isn't the year 2000 when mmos where new. People want to get in groups fast and play the game, much like any other game with a matchmaking system, like CoD, Halo any type of FPS game or online game.

Also nobody is stopping you from making your own group. If you don't like the dungeon finder nobody is forcing you to use it and you can shout in town all you want to make your own group. Myself I wouldn't do that rather have the game find a group for me with all the appropriate level people and class roles.

[Misteyes]

I am not advocating forcing people to keep shouting in the streets in hopes that someone will answer. You're absolutely right that it's a bad system.

But that doesn't mean that going all the way in the other direction, where the game even matches groups for us, is the best system.

What I am asking for actually doesn't even go against what they've put forward in their roadmap:

Release of a content finder system after version 2.0.
Content finder to allow input of information such as class, job, and level, to find other players across all
worlds for groups for dungeons, instanced raids, primal battles, etc.

I'm repeating myself at this point, but if you're going to keep bringing up shouting on the streets, I'm going to keep repeating that that's not what I'm after.

Let me enter in my available jobs, levels, what content I would be interested in (with an option for "any," similar to the "random" option in WoW's RDF), what party-roles I can take for it, and what languages I speak.
Then let me see a filterable list of everyone else (across all realms) who is looking for the same content. If I see some names on the list that I recognize, I want to be able to choose (or avoid) those people over total strangers.

If that ends up being too slow, add a "I would like to lead" button, which places people into a queue (very much like an RDF queue), and when it pops, it simply alerts them, "A group can be made. The following people are recommended for your group." and gives them a list of exactly enough names to fill their party with the appropriate roles, favoring people who have been waiting for group for longer (though the burden is still on them to send tells and invites). People who select to lead could still be chosen ahead of their place in the leadership queue, like anyone else.

The party leader would then have 2-3 minutes to form a group before the next leader in line gets alerted.

I do not believe that this system would be significantly slower than an LFD system.

I'm aware that I can always make my own group, but I like to meet new people. That's more than half the reason why I play MMOs, and definitely the whole reason I continued to use WoW's LFD tool despite it being such a painful experience. I tried to put groups together the old fashioned way in WoW post-LFD, but outside of abuse cases (tanks selling spots in their group since they get faster queues), it's much harder to create a party of people I don't already know when people can just as easily go to LFD and get their dungeon faster.

And it's harder to find people, the people who would normally be interested in forming parties manually have to wait longer, which then drives them to LFD. It's a vicious cycle.