Someone explain the LFG tool hate?

To be fair, some things others want, but I don't, might very well be detrimental in the long run. Take smoking for example. Some people want to smoke. I don't want to smoke. But I will try to put some restrictions on your smoking because a). the second hand smoke is dangerous (and smells awful). b). your increased medical costs drive up my health care costs too.

Anyway...that's off topic again I suppose. Point is, people are bringing up concerns about long term, less immediate ramifications of x-server LFG. Personally, I think both sides have made good points.

In a game were you can easily level to 50 solo, only need 4 people to do a vast majority of the content and 8 people to do all of the content you will never have a strong community.

Im not bashing bw for lowering the need to group with people, with the base that mmos have today if you made it impossible to level to 50 easily solo, and had raids that required 40 people you would have a game with a very small population.

As for "ninja loot" the only way (that I can think of) will resolve this (but people will hate it)

Lets say BH boot drops.
All BH in the group will get option Need/Greed/Pass while everyone else who is NOT BH will get Greed/pass.

this system will prevent ninja unless they are of that class. Of course people will go "What about my companion" that is where greed comes into play. BUT not everyone think this way. I feel that need should only apply to your main character only and not companion, but there are times when I run with my guild that none of us need it so we all greed for it.

The other option would be
Need for Self
Need for companion
Greed
Pass

Need for self ONLY apply if the class match. Need for Companion only available if the group leader allow that option.

That way the rolls will be
Need for self first (if class match) Need for companion (this can get complex like SI DOES NOT have any chara that use +aim so this could get difficult if we are getting specifics) Greed (work as always) and pass (same)

People who are complaining about this are incredibly selfish and ignorant. Go ahead and have your harmonious community and do FP and ops together...no one is stopping you. But why take this away from the rest of us who play this game casually and don't want to get together at a schedule and raid at the same hours. There are a lot of people who need a cross server LFG tool and I don't believe all the doomsday talk that this will kill communities. You can still have your precious community with a LFG tool and this way people like me can actually enjoy group content as well.

PS: I guess BW can make an option in the LFG tool so it would look for people on your server only if they want but on half of the servers it's still going to take hours to find someone so cross server is a definitive must.

First off I am not against a LFG that is done right. Say like the one in DDO. I have played MMOs for what feels like ever and DDO has the BEST LFG out of every single one out there. Now to adress your points.

1)It ruins the community. It only ruins the community if it is cross server. In a cross server LFG you aren't playing with people you are ever likely to play with again. Possible but slim to no chance. How is that not hurting the community? Your not interacting with those of your server.
Your not helping those of your server to advance in any way. Your helping YOURself and strangers to advance. And that hurts the community.


2) All that is needed is a global chat channel. Here I agree with you 100 percent. But a LFG channel that can be turned off in Global or a tab set to be just LFG would not hurt either. If your looking for a group and others are as well you can be in that channeled tab and see every one trying to find a group.

3)it ruins immersion. Here I kind of agree and yet disagree with you. If your constantly in a cross server LFG doing quest your own server population for world quest and exploration is smaller. You don't have a living world any longer. You have a world were every one is sitting on their ship, by themselves waiting for their chance to get into a cross server LFG. Thus you have no one on planets thus dead worlds and that kills immersion.

4) people can ninja with immuntiy. Ninjaing is going to happen reguardless. So I don't see this arguement much either. But if you know your not going to see these people again and that one item that is really hard to drop falls and there are loot rules in place you are more inclined to ninja it for an alt because whos going to complian to your server if they aren't from it.

And finally ummmm if your playing he game with FRIENDS but looking for a cross server group why? When I game with friends we are running FP, OPS and quest TOGETHER not running around as a group hitting mobs in the world and going " Oh hey my group is ready got to go run such and such FP"

I'm good with an Group Finder. Actually two.. Home Server and X-Server.

If done, it would be best to make it a very robust system, where you could check the box for as many instances as you want to run (restricted by level). Then when enough folks sign up for a given instance you are prompted to go or not go, then transported to the area instance.

This way you could make every attempt to group within your community, but if that is taking too long you can go ahead and plunge into a X-Server group.

And from my experience AND my opinion you are completely off base in your opinion... lets agree to disagree.

Or because they rushed an unfinished and unpolished game out to make money... that could be it too.

Absolutely my opinion is in play here... as evidenced by me saying... "I think" and "In my opinion" unlike you who stated your opinion as fact...

,

Other than a x-server lfg tool will: "adversely effect EVERY community on EVERY server..."

.

Which in and of itself is a sensational claim because you have no proof, just your opinion...

To agree that this happens is naive... there IS no community and never was... edit: there was a small one pre-launch on the forums... but once they hit the go button and everyone proceeded to race to 50... "the community" element disappeared.

By advocating the posture of the death of the game through the death of the supposed "community" and lobbying for no lfg tool you are in effect trying to stop me because I want a lfg tool so I can actually do the heroics on each planet and do the FPs while leveling up.


You do understand that per BW themselves there is no such thing as ninja looting because I can need on an item because I need the money for it... so it kind of destroys your whole premise when you take that into account.

.

I will again agree to disagree... I have not seen this work in any game I have played since EQ1... it used to work true... but then again the earth used to be flat... and we know its not anymore.

I will not and have not believed a single thing I have heard about anyone on the internet unless I witness it for myself... I saw on the internet that OJ was not guilty too... doesn't make it true...

Ah come on... you can at least give me that!! That was damn funny of me!


I will agree, the concept of a community is valid... unfortunately it is no longer a tangible thing... it is an illusion of yesteryear... as is the concept that woman stay virgins till they are married and all men are gentlemen... it just isn't how it is anymore and hanging on to a past that is gone just for the sake of wistful thinking... just isn't viable any longer.
Trust me, I wish it were as you say, I miss the days of Tempest Keep and being 1 of the 2 hunters taken by the "in crowd" to dungeons because I knew how to pull/trap and jump/spin/shot... its just not that way anymore.

Or they wanted it to be a community and they named the forums that... but it never materialized? Kind of like how they wanted class balance with PVE/PVP but cant seem to get that done?

The fact tha BW says it... makes me shudder with fear, trepidation... and reach for my wallet to make sure I am not getting robbed again...

"It ruins the community" translate: It makes it so new people don't have to grovel to our little clubhouse-style enclave of internet nerds in order to participate in grouped content, and we don't like the fact that we lose the power to make them grovel to us.

Best solution IMO? Implement full cross server LFG with a personal blacklist. Don't like a player you're grouped with? Right click their portrait, and select add to personal blacklist. I don't think it should boot them or halt the current run, but next time you join the LFG it just wont consider matching possibilities where you end up in a group with that person. Granted, you will wait longer in queue the longer your personal blacklist gets, but you can begin to have some control over who you get stuck with.

By and large though I find people aren't excluded from groups on their server because they are stupid, ninjas, undergeared etc. I find people are excluded from groups because they aren't perceived as being "popular", they slighted someone who is perceived as being "popular", or the e-**** of the month who is manipulating all the nerdy little internet boys don't like the person. (As a nerdy internet boy I have been manipulated by various e-***** in my day, so please take no offense I'm not judging).

Anyways all I'm saying is the "ruins the community" excuse is pretty much horse manure. It's usually a thinly veiled excuse to bully people online.

If you haven't try using cross server LFG tool before, I guess you were never ninja a loot that you are really looking forward to by the random person who can't even use it (more likely to Vend it for in-game currency)

the tool itself is great and wonderful to have, it is the people that makes the tool "undesirable"

That is the thing about the Internet. People can hide behind the Internet and be their "true self" without repercussion. So what if on a slow day that you keep forming a group for FP and get the SAME a-hole keep stealing your loot? do you want to wait and form later (and may still get the same person?) there is a good chance depending on how it is coded.

Is finding a group difficult on well populated servers like Harbinger or Fatman? Is it possible that the need for a LFG tool would be nil if there were server mergers for the rest of us on low pop servers and we could also enjoy grouping with our own server community? I just don't think this is an issue on the larger servers and could be fixed for everyone without a LFG tool, but I could be wrong.