Suggestion: Server Without the Duty Finder

[PArcher]

You can do this right now. Go ahead and recruit people from all servers and build this community.

Wait...you cant? Not enough people to sustain this?

Basically, if you cant build this idea on a current server, you wont be able to get it to work on its own server.

[LandricFrey]

You can do this right now. Go ahead and recruit people from all servers and build this community.

Wait...you cant? Not enough people to sustain this?

Basically, if you cant build this idea on a current server, you wont be able to get it to work on its own server.

Trust me, I've already had such fantasies. My guess is I'd get only a small fraction of the server to join in and no it wouldn't be enough, though if I had that fraction from every server, that may just add up to a nice populated world.

And I agree the DF needs to remain in game, (a MMO today couldn't compete without it. I understand that most people want it, and want it now!) I just think it would be fun to have one server without.

[Dyvid]

Trust me, I've already had such fantasies. My guess is I'd get only a small fraction of the server to join in and no it wouldn't be enough, though if I had that fraction from every server, that may just add up to a nice populated world.

And I agree the DF needs to remain in game, (a MMO today couldn't compete without it. I understand that most people want it, and want it now!) I just think it would be fun to have one server without.

The key issue is your assumption that the lack of social communication is based on DF. I counter with FATE grinding. It's Open World, server based leveling yet still not a lot of chatting going on. Now write your reply in 2.5 second or less and you might found the real issue.

[Jynx]

I counter with FATE grinding. It's Open World, server based leveling yet still not a lot of chatting going on

Because while it's open world it really doesn't require interaction with the other people you are playing with. Doesn't actually require multiple people to show any form of coordination, or present any real challenge to players.

It's not just being open world on the same server that fosters a server community. A trial that must be overcome or becomes much easier and fun with multiple people. Make getting to the next zone a challenge solo encourages people to travel in groups or to assist others they see out in the field. FFXI for example if you seen someone agro a monster you were more inclined to help them because you know what happens when they die, the real consequences of the act is that they could possibly lose EXP and time getting back to the area.

This encouraged people to interact, a random act of kindness that could lead to a friendship or rivalry or just hope that some day the favor would be payed forward.

Adversity gives grounds for cooperation. A sterile safe world does not.

[Makeda]

Open world dungeons would just lead to lines forming in front of bosses - and some fool would always cut the line and kill the boss before your turn came up. You'd have giant zerg armies clearing the place - and steam rolling past the few players trying to do it at proper group size. Basically you'd have Everquest 1...

The thing about all these requests people always make for a special server is that you have to wonder how many people asking for it would try it and give up on it a few weeks in out of frustration. I realize that is a VERY BAD REASON to deny changes. In fact its probably the stupidest reason one could use to defeat a NEW idea...

...But lets look at Wildstar for a second - the game that promised dungeons would finally be hard again and raids would actually require all 40 players coordinate. They delivered that, perfectly. And now they've patched it all out, and are going F2P end of this month. Its a great game... especially in its now patched state. But actually delivering on that demand to roll back the clock on MMO design seriously hurt its success.

- If you really want a game with no duty finder and open world dungeons, go show your never cancelled sub to Everquest 1 to the devs, and that your play time still shows several hours a week, as it has since the 1990s. Otherwise... your demand is a big risk.

Because this isn't me chanting down a new idea. Its me pointing out that your request is actually a very old one, that the market long ago rejected. We now need to prove that the rejection was the wrong idea... and that takes showing them numbers...

[Vasala]

As a player who was playing World of Warcraft and Star Wars the Old Republic before each had a dungeon finder I will tell you that it is really not as fun as you think it would be. I can remember spending hours looking for groups for specific dungeons in both games back in those days. The party finder would help sure over what you had to do back then yelling over and over about looking for a group til you found people. Yes I was in guilds in both but that does not always mean there are people on and interested in the same content you are all the time.

[Selli]

You mean I'd actually have to remember where dungeon entrances are? XD

Also, RIP PvP. I can't imagine seeing 24 people surrounding the PvP entrances.

[ElHeggunte]

Forgive me if this has been asked before. What would you think of having a single, new server in FFXIV with the Duty Finder removed?

I think it would be the kind of thing people who have a hard on for the nostalgic past would try for 10 minutes and immediately ask for a way back to the old servers when they're given a harsh reminder of why pre-DF games sucked in a big way.

Sure I don't use it now(as a cross server match-up anyway), but everyone else is; tempted by the shorter wait times.

Of course. Because it's not fun potentially waiting hours for a group if you're not playing a FotM class or you aren't playing during prime time. The lack of DF also tended to make parties an organizational nightmare even if you filled one of the more popular roles during peak hours.

I miss the old days of stronger, closely-knit communities where it was easier to make friends and people had reputations to uphold if they wanted to get in groups. If there was no DF, then everyone on the server would be using PF and/or communicating more. Don't have time to wait? Stay on the rest of the servers with DF.

This is a common "argument" and it's a wild exaggeration and misrepresentation of what old pre-DF games were like. Friends are just as easy to make now as they were back then. You mean to say you were forced to make friends with people, for better or worse, before DF became a common thing. Personal reputation also typically meant very little. You could easily be considered by some to be the biggest asshole on the server and you could still find groups just fine. For every person who thought you were a dickbag there would be five more waiting around the corner who didn't give a shit about what someone claimed you did. It may have been general consensus among your LS/Guild mates that Muscular Manny should go die in a fire, but the rest of the server never cared enough to completely ostracize him.

In my personal experience (especially with FFXI), pre-DF games were even less social than what we have now. Your Guild or Linkshell or Clan or whatever the game called it may have been tight-knit, but because competition for mobs and resources were so much greater (because everything was open-world) I found that if someone wasn't part of your clique they were usually considered an enemy and you were constantly at each other's throats. It was a bunch of tiny isolated communities at end-game instead of the big Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood people like to remember. Naturally you still had friends outside of your LS and you often were on friendly terms with other Linkshells, but when push came to shove it was always every man for himself and trying your best to throw someone else under the bus was common practice.

Thoughts?

I think nostalgia is dangerous thing.

[Coatl]

Why would you want to go back to prehistoric times of MMOs where you had to shout at players standing outside of a dungeon, just to form up enough people to get inside said dungeon. Of course you would make friends if you had to stand by the same people for days at a time. You should ask for your server to not have PFs either, to get the true, classic MMORPG feeling.

[Valaska]

I think its most important just to galvanize yourself in your actual servers community by crafting, talking in shout with each other, and your own free company. Foster friendships between companies too!