"Content Finder" - Please be careful

[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.

[Nabiri]

I love random people parties, I've often had the most fun in them... but I wouldn't use a dungeon finder unless I felt like being anti-social and not speaking unless absolutely necessary. I like random parties because I can MAKE friends. I wouldn't want to risk meeting someone on another server that I wanted to be friends with and then couldn't play the game with them. That'd be sad. :x

So on the rare chance I'd use the finder, I'd be just another "NPC" adding to the silence.


I'd prefer SE would just make a really awesome in-server party finder.

[Yellow]

I agree with you.

I quit WoW because everyone at end level sat in Stormwind waiting for heroics.. and too many times would I join a group and have some guy either 'need' on everyone's loot (which he didn't need at all ><) or leave the group because he stuffed up but blamed the rest of us instead.

[neizero]

It is clear and obvious that getting put in a random party with people you never met and likely will never meet again is not the ideal scenario to socialise or make friends. So what? I don't join a random dungeon to make friends, I join it to get my stuff done, get levels, get gear. I could care less if people want to discuss their life story or stfu the whole run. I think this is the major selling point of dungeon finder, you get your stuff done with no ties and no commitments, and as cold as that may sound that is in fact why most people love it.

However, If you are the type of person that NEEDS to socialize with their party members, then by all means don't use dungeon finder and go shout in Uldah if that's what floats your boat (or use new Player search feature).

What I really don't get about a lot of threads like this is... This is an optional feature. It makes your life easy. If you are a masochist(in my opinion) and decide not to use it then great for you! But why do you want the rest of us, who do like the feature, to not use it either?

[Tezz_Xivectro]

I quit the day they add gearscore or the day the community ridicules & kicks random players for not being geared exactly how they "should" be. It's selfish & retarded to expect everyone to have everything at all times.

It'll probably happen with damage parser add-ons. Oh well.

[jones6]

I never had a problem with WoW lfg tools before. Just select the instance you want and you are put in the list. Put a comment of your dps or whatnot. Seemed to work pretty well. Dungeon finder just made it super easy to get in a dungeon. I agree that the total jerks pretty much ruined the feature for me. I got plenty of them on the same server I was in using the lfg tool though.

I didn't like the vote kick feature. If two people didn't like each other I would get many prompts to kick through the whole dungeon. If you don't like someone that much you should be forced to just leave.

I think a content finder is a useful feature if they allow for better searching tools in addition.

[MaxWinter]

Content Finder is a great idea and i am really happy to see it come to the game , i like to think i am not rude to people when i party up with them and enjoy be in parties with other people.
My problem is i have alot of trouble finding people to join up with , this may be because i dont have friends i know in person only meet people from the game which over the years while playing ff11 i met some of best players i have ever seen in online games and i used to be a ultima online player many many years back, that social experience of the game was more community based but i like with final fantasy to get online and acheive something in game without pressure to do it in a certain way so i am glad to see something like this come into the game.

I think what it needs is a linkshell bonus so that when you do one of these raids , if you do it with your linkshell friends on your world you get rewarded in a different way to how you do when joining a random group.
Both can be a great addition to the game.

[Alerion]

You know, honestly this is just such a quality of life feature that the end justifies the means. Sure there will be sucky people, and occasionally we'll have to deal with that, but man will it be awesome to never have to sit around waiting countless hours to do what you want again. You're the man Yoshida.

[Wolfie]

You know, honestly this is just such a quality of life feature that the end justifies the means. Sure there will be sucky people, and occasionally we'll have to deal with that, but man will it be awesome to never have to sit around waiting countless hours to do what you want again. You're the man Yoshida.

Honestly? I think people are completely exaggerating the number of jerks that are in DF groups.