Group Finder in Classic (DON'T FREAK OUT, READ FIRST)

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Ok, I can see you’re already freaking out saying Group Finder is poo, and it goes against the social aspect of Classic/Vanilla. But let me explain before you freak out on me any more than you already are!!! (<3)

I’ve played WoW since Vanilla Closed Beta. I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and yeah, I got the Rhok’delar. BUT, one aspect of Vanilla that I always hated was the ability to form a group easily. Spamming trade chat, general chat, or even the “nifty” LFG chat was hectic, cluttered, and messy. It just sucked. When Group Finder initially came out, I looked at it as a gift from the WoW Gods that quickly turned into epeen flouting and annoying “requirements” to get into groups. Again, that sucked. But one aspect of the Group Finder I really liked was the ability to have groups coalesce into a common area for finding other groups. It was exceptionally handy and it just made life so much easier on players.

What I personally would like to see is a version of Group Finder where the toxic garbage that exists on live is tethered back and have an in-game “app” that makes it easier to find groups. I don’t want LFG or LFR, and I don’t want any way to minimize the “assembly” of groups for dungeons, etc. What I would really enjoy is a central place that allows people to start a group in Group Finder and list it. Then people can see what groups exist and are currently forming. Then the rest is simply sending tells, getting invites, and truckin’ your butt to the instance or quest area like normal.

With the removal of the Group Finder addon recently (which, for the record, I feel is a phenomenal idea - removing it), it sort of brings a “concern” to my mind on potentially have an easier method to form groups without the aspects of the live Group Finder that takes away from the Classic gameplay.

I know I’m being vague, and that’s on purpose. I don’t want this “app” to offer anything outside of an easier method to assemble groups and see what groups are currently assembling. The way that’s implemented is beyond my paygrade and not something I can comment on intelligently.

Is this something others would like? Do you feel that even have a central “hub” for groups that is outside of chat takes away from the Classic social feel? Am I all wet on this? I’m genuinely curious, because frankly, if I’m alone on this, I’ll go back to spamming trade chat.

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Or you know just type “LF2 DPS Strat UD” in the lfg chat

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This is more or less what meeting stones were supposed to do. Having the option to use it globally would be nice, and it would keep the spam out of global channels. As soon as these sort of features start auto forming groups or teleporting people to the dungeon, it stops being in the spirit of vanilla

Edit: Before people REEEE at me, the process would be opening the group finder, see a pally queued for strat, message him, he’s ret, invite a holy priest instead. No automation at all. We’d be finding groups the same way that we do now, except it wouldn’t clutter up chat channels

Edit2: Before you say “uSe ThE lFg ChAnNeL”, if I’m playing on a 25 warlock looking for an SFK group, i don’t want to sift through a sea of “LF2m UBRS, tank + dps” just to find one more person

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Or you know, just read my whole post and it explains why that’s messy.

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I think people highly underestimate how cluttered the LFG channel will be with modern server populations

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That’s exactly my opinion on the matter, too. I have ZERO interest in taking away from any of the important aspects of Vanilla that people are looking forward to. What I prefer is an easier method to assemble those groups (and this is for @Andreanna who can’t seem to read an entire post…) than using LFG chat, which spams quickly if a ton of people are using it, and makes a mess of my screen! EWW

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Honestly, this would be a fine idea. The problems with retail LFG have more to do with automation and grouping people from different servers, which diluted the community and a person’s reputation for playing well or poorly in groups no longer mattered.

A better interface and more streamlined way to introduce those looking for groups besides chat spam would be a boon. We don’t need or want automation, just a method that’s easier to see who is lfg for certain dungeons, what class and role they are, and then we can whisper them to start a conversation. Anyone who thinks that would destroy a community has a weird sense of community.

And as a side note, anyone who thinks WoW Classic will be exactly like the good ol’ days needs to get off their porch rocking chair. Other games with poor matchmaking (e.g. Destiny) have third party websites and tools outside of the game to connect people. If we punish in-game lfg tools, then people will just connect out of game, which will do worse damage to the community than a similar in-game system. You may find it difficult to find a party unless you go to wowteamfinder, or wowtracker, or whatever becomes the new standard for lfg.

Let’s at least make it easier for people to connect and get to know each other. Strip out the automation, keep groups within the same servers, and let’s get a decent interface besides chat spamming.

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An addon like CTA that just listed things out would be fine (unless I am remembering wrong and it did more), just something to clean up the chat clutter.

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Based on the blue post it’s more than likely that ClassicLFG will still function after their changes, it will just be more limited, probably in addon to addon communication.

It’s unlikely they’d break basic functionality involving chat parsing and posting.

Enjoy still using ClassicLFG a month from now. Even if it’s just organizing LFG messages it will still be used.

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I think people are really missing the point on this issue.

People group up and form friends and guilds when that is the most efficient way to progress through the content and get loot.

What killed the social aspect is not LFR or LFD, let alone the organized LFG Premade group finder. It’s cross realm instances, catch up gear and all the world quest content that invalidated needing a stable group to gear past normal instances.

And as much as I like raider IO in retail, systems like that are much more damaging then a LFG or LFR tool because they allow you to find capable players at a moments notice, decreasing the benefit of forming longer lasting relationships.

At some point you have to find a stranger and group with them. This produces random results so it’s not ideal. If it produces good results you might go, hey mind if I friend you? That’s the root of the process, not the method you used to find them.

And the community just killed a tool that makes it easier to start the process of meeting and finding people to friend and guild with.

Difficulties finding and building long term groups is why retail got to where it is. The solution was getting rid of the need for long term relationships. Might think about this:

If nothing changes for no changes sake, eventually we end up at retail again.

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There’s actually a “LookingforGroup” channel if you type /join Lookingforgroup in-game and you will join that chat channel.

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No group finder of any kind!

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No we killed a tool that automated it.

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This is what we dont want

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Despite my best efforts I was still triggered before I could finish reading

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Y I K E S opinion

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I fully expect Suu’s ClassicLFG addon to retain most of the functionality that I and other interested people wanted.

I believe the real issue for Blizzard was the fact that the addon could produce a closed social network in which users could elect to only group with other people that had the addon. That was never a big issue for me as I planned to use it to announce my groups in the LFG channel and put them together the old fashioned way.

I played with the addon a little bit the past weekend. I can assure anyone reading this that the drama over this addon’s capabilities was greatly exaggerated.

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You killed a tool that had a feature to auto invite people as they applied.

If you just invite people manually as they whisper you or a tool does it for you is irrelevant. It’s probably going to be a bad experience if the content is difficult.

The social process starts at the end of instance. Wow, that went well, mind if I friend you?

I’m assume you’re familiar with the premade group finder for M+. Imagine if instead of just seeing people trying to get into your group you saw everyone trying to get into everyone’s group.

Is that the type of thing you really think will make the game more social?

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You must have not played in a Vanilla days. We did it from patch 1.0 to 3.3 with no problems.

And no the social aspect does not start at the dungeon. That is silly. There is getting to the dungeon. Figuring out if you have summons. Figuring out what is needed for the dungeon. That is all apart of the social aspect.

The ClassicLFG was trying emulate Group finder and automate the process. Good riddance. Server Rep is far more valuable to streamline automation.

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No LFG… How about Joining a Guild?

I am just not seeing the “big picture” here?