Give me a legitimate reason to NOT have a LFD tool.

Except no one is asking for the game to be easy or effortless. No one in this thread asking for LFD has even mentioned making the content easier, as that has nothing to do with this thread.

The only issue I have with the LFD tool is that it attempts to fix a symptom and not a cause. And even then, it can only go so far to fix that symptom.

The symptom is the uneven distribution of players and classes across servers. Some servers have more tanks and healers than others. And all servers have a disproportionate amount of dps players. I have no statistics to back me up, but no one can doubt that dps makes up the majority of players in any game, including this one.

The solution a cross realm LFD tool provides is distributing the lack (or glut) of classes across all servers. This way, you have an equal chance of getting a group no matter what server you're on, essentially raising the miserable waiting times to less miserable waiting times and lowering the good times to not so good waiting times. So, yes, there is a marginal improvement to grouping, but many would say the costs outweigh this benefit. Those costs have already been discussed in this thread and others, including the OP.

As I said, the cause is uneven distribution of players and classes. The group size in this game only exacerbates the problem. You would think having a group size of four would make it easier to find a group. It doesn't. Do the math. You have two games. In one game, you have a group size of 6. In the other, a size of four. You need at least one healer and tank in each group for both games. So, let's say you have a player population of 120. In the first game, that population can only form 20 groups, which means you only need 40 of those 120 to be healers and tanks. In the other game, you can form 30 groups, which means you need 60 of those 120 to be healers and tanks. It's 1/3 of the population versus 1/2. And I think even 1/3 is an unrealistic expectation.

Other than LFD, I see only two solutions:

1. Control the way players pick their class/server in order to ensure each server meets is population quotas. Most will probably reject this method, because it restricts the player's freedom to play how he/she chooses.

2. Eliminate the need for a tank & healer in any one group. The "down with the trinity" crowd espouses this point of view. But you don't have to eliminate the need for tanks and healers altogether. You can eliminate the need for both, but still have the need for one (i.e. have either a tank or a healer in the party, but both is not essential).

Players like playing dps. For some reason, developers have trouble designing around that fact.

Yes it does. It is a direct result of a Que system.

Back when I played FFXI (in the old days, haven't played it since WoW came out), it was easy to point out the absolute worst thing about the game: finding groups. The only way you could level in that game was camping mobs in full groups. You spent probably the first hour (on a good day) online looking for a party, and it was a dice roll as to whether that party wouldn't fall apart after the first fight. The only counter to this problem was having a static group of friends with whom you scheduled leveling sessions. This made the game practically inaccessible to new players, unless they were introduced by a friend who had a support system already set up for them (as in a guild).

Why do we need that kind of barrier to accessibility?

Nope. Not true.

My experience with LFD queues in WOW was a very positive one. The positives greatly outweigh any negatives there may be.

Socialism, huh? You are a funny one.

not at all.

You can speculate all you want that they'll change the difficulty... but it's just speculation.

not at all.

You can speculate all you want that they'll change the difficulty... but it's just speculation.

not at all.

You can speculate all you want that they'll change the difficulty... but it's just speculation.

I see you are now leaving out it took you 50 minutes to find groups with LFD.

You are learning my Padawan.

Next Step - a non-automated system does not mean a player HAS to spam General Chat.

So - we're going to use logic and our combined experience with MMO's again.

I am sure like me you have played lots and lots of mmo's over the years.

So between the 2 of us we've likely played UO, M59, NWN, Eq, EQ2, DAOC, AC, GW, WoW, Warhammer, LOTRO, The Realms, uhm other ones I cant think of right now.

On all of those games without LFD's.....how did most people go about looking for a group.


ahhhhh....I can see it in your eyes....realization....the obviousness that people DO and WILL spam chat with LFG groups if there is no LFD....the way they CURRENTLY do right this second in SWTOR at all levels.

Your training is complete.