But then they put it back…and then they had to remove it again as LFD was unable to cope. And every attempt to put any difficulty in LFD/LFR has been met with incessant whining ever since.
And, as we have evidence that players did just fine before it was nerfed, and we have evidence that LFD can’t hack it after it was un-nerfed, I think we can make some strong hypotheses as to the problem.
I don’t think LFG doomed WoW by itself. I think making it cross realm has enabled a lot of the negativity.
When people could recognize you from previous runs, you had to protect your reputation. With cross realm LFG, everyone could be anonymous.
Content wasn’t dumbed down for LFD, they started doing that when they started making it easier to level.
The dumbing down is a result of rushing players to the level cap.
It isn’t necessary if it’s purely an LFG tool to allow people to get in groups without sacrificing actually playing the game because they have to sit in a capital city spamming chat.
Alternatively they could implement a server wide channel, and strictly enforce it for LFG.
We’re referring specifically to LFD/LFR.
And yes, it is necessary and there are several examples that show that.
Honestly I feel that a combonation of LFD/LFR/CRZ with Accessibility caused the issues that plague the game today simply because gear/dungeons/raids don’t matter anymore
Those and welfare gear.
I vividly recall the frustration of trying to find folks to run heroics with back in the day. One would spend a fair amount of time trying to build a party. It was particularly more challenging if you were DPS (how many folks recall having a party of 3 DPS, but no tank or healer?!)
When LFD hit, it did provide with significant relief. To queue, you could “set it and forget it” while questing or farming. This in itself was a significant quality of life improvement, as it freed up a lot of our time. An immediate frustration was the quality of player/attitude that would show up to such things. People would either not be geared enough to run the content, not know the content, or not care enough to do what they need to do. DPS would queue up as a tank or healer, then refuse to do the job. I could go on…
In a round-about way, I suppose this feature did kill a key component of the game, namely the social aspect. But that was dying anyway. People grew bored with content toward the end of each expansion.
No, it didn’t.
The attitudes in this thread of people against LFD are a perfect example as to why.
So you do know… Classic had a LFG system right?
If you went to a Innkeeper in a party or solo, and you could “Q” for a group, and it would put you in a party… now you had to run to the 5 man… but it was a LFG system… well a LFD w/e you want to call it… it was for “dungeons”
If you’re talking about meeting stone queue’s then yes, there was lfd back then. However, most of the time, people never bothered with that and would just spam trade chat or general chat hell even world chat to get people for their dungeon runs
Not talking about the meeting stone, I’m talking about Innkeepers… lol like no one used it… but you could pick the Dungeon from the list the Innkeeper had… and it would put you in a group with other who have spoken with the innkeeper
It “was dying anyway”? By what measure?
It put you in a party with people on your server… Huge difference.
Getting dungeon and raid groups together grew more and more difficult as time went on. Interest seemed to drop off quicker during WotLK between content patches (compared to TBC, for example.) LFD/R was implemented to help save the game, from what I could tell.
I was on a high popular server. Many alliance folks either quit or transferred off.
First off, you’re wrong. It was put in to pander to the incessant whining of the people that refused to seek out groups.
But, even if you are right, how can you save the game by making it a sad shell of itself? Whatever you want to say about why we have LFD, I don’t think you can argue about the results from LFD. Namely increasingly neutered content. When was the last time there was a real possibility of death in a normal or even heroic 5 man?
i played vanilla.
know all about meeting stones, but was today years old when i learned about this inkeeper thing.
Patch 1.5.0 (2005-06-07):
Innkeepers around the world now have a gossip option that lets you join a meeting stone directly from the innkeeper rather than going to the location of the meeting stone. Also these Innkeepers will now have background lore about each of the dungeons.
Levels Required for meeting stones have been increased. The intent is that a group will not receive party members from a meeting stone that don’t really have a chance of completing the dungeon.
Meeting Stones have had their rules for what players are grouped with what other players relaxed. This means groups who use meeting stones (or innkeepers) should have their groups formed much more quickly than they were previously.
Okay man, whatever.
LFD was the beginning of the end. Here is how to happened.
LFD
LFR
Transmog
Cash Shop
The biggest sin of all
Making the game accessible to everyone! Blizzard went down this dark path in WoTLK. A lot of people loved this expansion, but a lot of people started playing in this expansion. Compared to Vanilla & BC:
Leveling Was Easy
Dungeons Were Easy
Raids Were Easy (Anyone could do 10 man content).
Dungeon Finder made Dungeons even easier.
People should have to conform to the game, rather than the game conforming to the people. While many love this expansion (once again most starting in WOTLK). You also saw a stagnation is WoW’s sub numbers. For those who had played since the beginning the game was changing in a way we did not like. How do I know this?
75% of the people I had played with in Vanilla and BC with quit during Wrath!
Example:
My Older Brother quit!
35% of my guild quit 3 months after Wrath. I lost two tanks in a months time, they outright quit.
About 6 people I knew IRL had quit during the duration of WOTLK. They no longer got the same satisfaction from the game.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying WOTLK is bad. I am just saying that it was too easy for a lot of people. The game was now conforming to the players. People who enjoyed wow in the past did not get the same satisfaction out of the game.
Example: When my guild started WOTLK we decided to have a race to 80. Those who had been playing since Vanilla got into it, and enjoyed the challenge.
However…
There were a few people, a couple in particular that got extremely pissed off that people were doing this. The people who got pissed off… guess what? They started in BC! They had the time, but could not keep up with the pace. We assured them they would not be left behind as we would give people until the new year to level up (we started raiding after christmas because a lot of people had families and whatnot).
Still, this same couple became quite furious. They made it to 80 a few days after, and promptly quit the guild before we even started raiding. They felt we were too elite for starting… IN JANUARY 2 MONTHS AFTER THE BLOODY EXPANSION LAUNCHED!
These two people, wanted the game (and the guild) to bend to what they could do. I felt we should have started two weeks after. I had no family, but we eventually decided on the first week of January to let people catch up due to the time of year the expansion launched.
Are you saying you agree with me or simply lack you lack the means to say I’m wrong?
I remember early LFD, players still had to walk up and discover the geographic location of the run.
Arenas made welfare Epic PvP gear a reality in BC. (10 games a week!) Before they started putting raiting requirements on stuff.
WotLK played of the BC success drawing more players for the money grab, the content itself was meaningful as well as the hard modes and achievement rewards and unlocks. The Crusader Coliseum addition hit the wrong path for gear, while the tokens in BC did much to help the pure RNG woes, making every player raid ready by grinding currency spelled the end.
I am a firm believer that account wide unlocks would have been the solution to many issues. Gearing alts and switching mains was made easier in WotLK, however it facilitated Wraith Babies. Player quality began to drop sharply making the plunge into Cataclysm too much for many of those new players.