Someone explain the LFG tool hate?

My dislike of an LFG system is thus:

1) You have fewer incentives to make friends. In a game without a LFG system, when you develop relationships with other players, you are rewarded by being able to do group content without spamming chat. In a game with a LFG system, you are rewarded as much for not making relationships with other players as you are for making friends, for the purposes of flashpoints. Since maintaining relationships in a game like this is actually work, people will take the path of least resistance.

2) An LFG system actually hinders your ability to make friends in the game. When you play in a game with a cross-server LFG system, you are automatically matched with people who are on other servers. These are players you will never run across in the game world, who are impossible to communicate with outside of the flashpoint you're running, and who even if you become fast friends with in the period of 45 minutes that you're running the flashpoint, you won't be able to play with again, barring a server transfer.

3) A global LFG system means that you will rarely get to play with the same players more than once. Most of the friends you make in a game like this aren't from single encounters. If you make a friend here, it's generally because you've played with them a few times and have enjoyed playing with them. A global LFG system will generally mean you won't ever play with the same person twice in a row. And even if you did, the previous issue of it being impossible to coordinate playing with them a third time comes up.


I think an LFG system can work well if it takes those points into consideration.

If a cross server LFG system attempted to match you with players from your server first, and then maybe considered other servers "nearby" so that maybe if you're on the "Black Vulkars" server, it will try the "Bondar Crystal" for players before trying other servers. That way even if Black Vulkars is a low population server, you're most likely to play with people from either your own server or Bondar Crystal, giving you a higher chance of repeatedly playing with the same people.

If a cross server LFG tool rewarded you in some fashion for queuing with friends that would be beneficial. For instance, if you queue with a friend, maybe everyone in the group gets an extra crystal at the end of the flashpoint, or a random box. Other games like WoW have gone the opposite and rewarded you for playing with strangers, but I think rewarding you for playing with friends is a better scenario. You can always play with strangers, that's the easiest scenario. If you are rewarded for playing with friends you'll be motivated to develop relationships.

Finally, a cross server LFG tool should allow you to play with friends that you met over the cross server tool. This would mean you'd have to be able to add them to your friends list, you would have to be able to chat with them, and you would have to be able to at the minimum queue up for other LFG tool content with them. Ideally you should also be able to do other sorts of content in the world, like heroic daily quests and whatnot, with friends you met through the cross-server tool, but I recognize that would be a very significant technical hurdle, so I'm not going to hold my breath there.


If a cross server LFG tool could do that, then I would be absolutely thrilled by it.

Still, the game is with few enough things to do once you hit the level cap, and a cross-server LFG tool will give players something to do on servers where organizing groups in the traditional fashion is impossible. Obviously the worst thing that can happen to a community is to have nobody playing the game, so anything that keeps people playing is of net benefit. However, I think that with a few tweaks, a lot of the ways that a LFG tool can harm the development of a community can be turned into ways to help grow the game community.

This, exactly my experience. In Vanilla/Burning Crusades time, if there was someone from the biggest guilds, or even worse a raider from the biggest guilds, more often the not it run went horribly. They would cause wipes cause they thought "dur, this is childs play compared to Raiding" then go all Leroy Jenkins, they also tended to be the ninja looters cause they needed the money for raiding repairs, and they tended to be the jerks about various things about ones character or gear.

When it comes down to it even if there is an LFG tool you don't have to use it, you can still spam chat and do it your way. So the only reason to be against it is to complain. If you think it will bring all the "bad" players .. even better .. just don't use it and you won't have to worry about grouping with bad players they will all be using the tool.

Are you aware that BioWare's stance is it's fine to click the Need button if you need the credits you'd get from vendoring the item, thus invalidating every single "Ninja" argument?

And how do you do that notification of your fellow players?

You make a convincing argument here.

The biggest thing that happens with cross server LFG is the content nerfs. And don't even say they won't happen. In WoW dungeon runs are what 10 mins long of aoe snorefest?

i dont think you understand the difference

Can you chat with people on other servers? Can you have a guild?

a cross-server LFG creates the absolute worst PUGs.

server wide LFG - YES

Cross-server LFG NO

I can work with that idea.

They weren't nerfed, people just got geared up more quickly because they were able to do runs more often. Not to mention the more often you do it the better you get at it. So repeating plus better gear equal ez mode instances. Also, that is how Blizzard designed the instances in the first place, they purposely got rid of the need for CC from the get go.

No from my experience AND my opinion. There is no supporting evidence for the position that cross server LFG tools do not affect server communities adversely as well.(Other then the fact perhaps the main reason it has not been in place is fact enough?). Maybe this is your opinion at play here as well? I made no sensational claims btw, only that the FACT that server communities are affected adversely by cross server. To deny that this happens is naive.



Oh I'm not trying to stop you from enjoying the game. I'm just objecting to the server communities and player accountability being compromised.



No, they will face the possibility of being isolated and punished for their play practices by their fellow players of the servers they are on or if they change the one they land on. Yes...server community ostracizing does work...and works very well. The likely hood of x server reporting being used is ZERO because of how it can be used to grief others reputations. Try to make your case to player x's server if you wish but, unless player x has a rep for doing the same there you are pissing in the wind.




Actually...its not that cleaver but thank you for quoting me.



I honestly see no community in the /general chat that is fleet on the servers I play on... and where did this pressing NEED for a community come from... there is no community inherent in an MMO... its just massive, multi-player and online...
If it were a MMOC... Massive Multiplayer Online Community... then you might have a leg to stand on in your "community" argument?[/QUOTE]

The concept of community on servers is as old a as muds & mmo's, even back as far as chat rooms each one has their OWN community. Your "We are the world" concept is a community all in its own. The fact there is a COMMUNITY section in these forums confirms the community aspect. The very fact BW themselves speak of community assures it. I feel my idea of server community is on VERY stout legs.