Wildstar Launch Thread - Server: Stormtalon | Faction: Dominion

Tmac

Adventurer
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
10,287
17,953
I have zero interest in being social during dungeons, For those dungeons to be social you need a lot of down time. Fuck that! Fact is the majority of us are socializing in our guilds with our friends. We have no interest in hearing you talk about how you are drunk, high or have girlfriend agro. The be blunt, we just aren't into you.
You and the mouse in your pocket?

You're missing the point. It's not about having a tea party in the middle of a dungeon. Obviously, you're not going to be gathering everyone's life story in a 20 minute run.

However, if they changed LFD to promote grouping with the same people, more often, that would be a step in the right direction.
 

Laura

Lord Nagafen Raider
582
109
How about a more sophisticated Social Tool that lets you rate those you group with and the higher the rating (between both of you) the more likely you're going to be teamed together whenever you both are LFG. The same can apply with low-rating party members which makes it less likely for you to team up with them. Also, remove cross-server matching then you'll make people care a lot more about their reputation since the pool of players to team with is not infinite and actually those you meet in the dungeon you will probably meet in the world.
 

Abefroman

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
12,597
11,941
You and the mouse in your pocket?

You're missing the point. It's not about having a tea party in the middle of a dungeon. Obviously, you're not going to be gathering everyone's life story in a 20 minute run.

However, if they changed LFD to promote grouping with the same people, more often, that would be a step in the right direction.
That is what guilds, friends lists and the server only check box are for. What else do you want?
 

Tmac

Adventurer
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
10,287
17,953
This happens already, right now, in most games that have a LFG. People put groups together the old fashioned way, and then use the LFG tool to fill in the rest of the slots. If you care that much about chatting with people in your group, I don't know what to tell you. Due to the nature of dungeons these days, the slower you make me go because you want to talk about whatever is just irritating. Especially if you're a stranger. Especially if I'm on skyp/vent talking to other people.
It's not about getting a random group of strangers to communicate with one another. It's about creating systems that make getting into the game quickly a breeze while ALSO maximizing the chances of playing with people you already know.

Draegan_sl said:
However, there is definitely ways to promote cross server grouping to build small friendships. Zehn and I have both described this before but you essentially create circles of friends within the database. So when you jump in the queue, the system should pair you up with people with this priority:

Friendslist
Guildmate
People you recently grouped with.
People you recently communicated with (tells, trades, duels etc.)
People you recently interacted with in the open world. I.e. that player is in your combat log somewhere, or people you were walking next to. (i.e. match your server and zone)
Random.
This is exactly what I'm talking about.
 

Draegan_sl

2 Minutes Hate
10,034
3
How about a more sophisticated Social Tool that lets you rate those you group with and the higher the rating (between both of you) the more likely you're going to be teamed together whenever you both are LFG. The same can apply with low-rating party members which makes it less likely for you to team up with them. Also, remove cross-server matching then you'll make people care a lot more about their reputation since the pool of players to team with is not infinite and actually those you meet in the dungeon you will probably meet in the world.
People would never use that system properly. Currently if you ignore people you'll never group with them again, so you have that at least.
 

Byr

Potato del Grande
3,964
5,649
People would never use that system properly. Currently if you ignore people you'll never group with them again, so you have that at least.
not sure why you say that. its as simple as thumbs up or thumbs downing a player, it will be used extensively. Not to mention its probably a lot easier to implement than the example you gave earlier.
 

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
27,070
41,461
The problem with systems like that is people tend to vote negative because someone fucked up their good time. But rarely would they give someone a thumbs up unless forced to somehow. Its human nature.

Also what happens to the bad people then? Those with 50+ thumbs down? Do they only get to play with other thumbs down people in a perpetual circle jerk of fail? What happens when you become that thumbs down person, because you are simply overestimating just how good you really are and in reality suck?

Do the thumbs down people quit now or forced to reroll because they are now labeled forever? Youre only thinking of this from a good player perspective, but sadly these games are comprised of more losers than winners.

also how is that system good for the company making the game? It seems like the system you propose basically alianates people into quitting eventually. Not a good thing for the bottom line.
 

Byr

Potato del Grande
3,964
5,649
The problem with systems like that is people tend to vote negative because someone fucked up their good time. But rarely would they give someone a thumbs up unless forced to somehow. Its human nature.

Also what happens to the bad people then? Those with 50+ thumbs down? Do they only get to play with other thumbs down people in a perpetual circle jerk of fail? What happens when you become that thumbs down person, because you are simply overestimating just how good you really are and in reality suck?
you would make it a personal system, so if you thumbs down someone it only blocks you from being partied with him. If the LFD is cross-server, theres more than enough players to sustain a system like this.
 

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
27,070
41,461
I think the vote kick system WoW has basically accomplishes this without alienating anyone. Cross server or not, eventually the thumbs down people would have less and less people to group with.
 

Byr

Potato del Grande
3,964
5,649
I think the vote kick system WoW has basically accomplishes this without alienating anyone. Cross server or not, eventually the thumbs down people would have less and less people to group with.
well, less and less people among a pool of thousands? tens of thousands? the pure number of dungeons youd have to run before it would effect queue times is staggering. a vote kick system only covers half of it and avoids the community building aspect of thumbs uping people you had a good experience with.
 

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
27,070
41,461
I dont really think its even thousands. Even in a game like WoW. In MOP on a relatively populated server battlegroup (Arthas) I saw the same people over and over running LFD, so I dont think its as many people as you think it is.
 

Byr

Potato del Grande
3,964
5,649
I dont really think its even thousands. Even in a game like WoW. In MOP on a relatively populated server battlegroup (Arthas) I saw the same people over and over running LFD, so I dont think its as many people as you think it is.
well, knowing nothing about WoW or its population after MoP, i would guestimate a thousand people using a LFD after a games release across multiple servers isnt unreasonable.
 

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
27,070
41,461
Either way you might be right, I just do not think alienating people is the right answer here. Think about it this way, you give too many people the thumbs down, because you are THAT good, and they all suck, might effect your queue times as well.
 

Pancreas

Vyemm Raider
1,139
3,841
All of the examples given about forming a group the old fashioned way, with an LFD tool present, talked about pulling from their guild and friends lists, which is what I mentioned. What I said was impossible, was putting together a group from scratch (i.e. you don't already know any of the other people), while an LFD tool exists. Interacting with new people outside of your already established circle of friends becomes more difficult when you combine mouth breather easy dungeons, an auto group tool and cross server barriers.

I don't give a shit about people's days either; but in every game I have played, the leveling game is what lead to joining a guild and is what lead to finding the interesting people to populate my guild and friends lists.

Everyone keeps talking about their guild and friend lists as if they are already established and that non-automated grouping is just a hassle. The socializing and networking that used to occur during the early game, and helped people form those connections, now mainly happens in the raid game. This is fine if you are moving from game to game with your core of friends, but makes the early game a ghost town for any truly fresh players.

Also, the LFD is not the soul source of lazy players, that was never implied. But the LFD does promote laziness and greed. It enhances a players level of anonymity and reduces accountability. Whatever tool is used, it should be built around the idea of helping people connect with each other as many times as possible if they had a positive experience.

Finally, McDungeons really do suck. Make solo content that can fill the quick fix, no talking necessary, style people want to play while listening to music. Involving other people should really... involve other people. Make the content so you have to discuss how to tackle it with your given tools and make coordination between players a must. If group content can be completed without using tactics and just requires you to spam your highest dps, hps or threat skill for 25 minutes, it shouldn't be group content. This sort of dungeon design coupled with auto grouping tools kills player to player interaction.
 

shabushabu

Molten Core Raider
1,411
188
Gents... I am curious what you think of the DDO grouping tool ? I always found it easy to use and great as a player LFG because you can see all ongoing grouping happening, including groups LFM.. it does not warp you away to dungeons either.

The damn thing just works and from a social aspect it helps as you level to meet folks as you recognize the names in groups...

The tool shows this

Dungeon: XXXXXXX : Level range
playerName1 :class
playerName2 :class
LFM : classlist
LFM: classlist

etc.. One "Dungeon Entry" for each group running a dungeon or group quest.

I always thought this one was the best out there and curious what others think ?
 

Noahx

N00b
271
17
At minimum these MMOs need to create a better UI elements for LFG/D that transcends a dam chat channel or query/criteria crap. Would be nice to be notified when a group is looking for someone vs having to join a queue... a message telling me "Hey there are a few groups looking for a tank at your skill level... give a shout to XYZ". I may not be in queue but if I know someone wants/needs help, it might change my mind. (of course in options to turn off "group recommendation notifications").