I disagree- Dungeon finder is something that allowed me to really get into the game with very little play time. I look forward to having it.
Yes, it is a tool that adds a layer of anonimoty and easy access to spread toxic behavior. It does nothing to prevent it but rather facilitates it. As for evidence, it’s really just a bunch of stories I have had and heard over the past 14 years. I recommend doing your own research or just logging into retail and seeing it yourself. Heck, you can just search in these forums, mmo champion, reddit, youtube or whatever for videos and posts older than a few months about how dungeon finder is a bad social experience. I can tell you more stories if you want, but I am not going draft up a game design thesis or analysis explainig why. I am saving that energy for a detailed analysis why Era is the superior version of WoW.
What does?
I’d really like to know.
The anonymity is already there.
If you want to say that an increase in the number of dungeon runs results in an increase in opportunity for toxic players to be toxic, that tracks (albeit a bit of an obvious statement).
Personally I’d rather have a system where I can be guaranteed to find a group in 20-30 minutes with a small chance of encountering a toxic player (or nearly instant for tank/healer/whatever is in demand), compared to spending 60+ minutes hoping to form a group using the LFG channel or an addon, and still having a chance of encountering a toxic player.
Right, stories. Except anecdotal evidence isn’t real evidence. Here’s my anecdotal evidence: I used RDF in original Wrath and I loved it. See? I didn’t prove anything to you just now. It’s the same with any other stories. Your mileage may vary, that’s part of the WoW journey.
I am doing my own research, you’re not the first person I’ve asked. But each person I’ve tried to ask has tried passing the buck saying “it’s been discussed before, look it up.” Nobody wants to give me a direct answer.
I won’t ask you for a game design thesis or analysis because I don’t view you as any kind of expert. But you seem to have such strong faith that the game will be worse with the RDF, and I genuinely want to know why you believe it so strongly.
Consider this, assuming RDF is in the game: if I am queued for a dungeon, I am free to go quest, or do dailies, or gather resources for my profession. The dungeon finder pops, I knock out the dungeon, then pop back out in the world and keep questing/etc while queued again.
Now assume no RDF: I want to run dungeons, so I’m tied to sitting in Dalaran spamming the LFG channel. I’ve whispered “inv” to a dozen players posting to the channel, but haven’t received responses from any. After 45 minutes I finally get an invitation, mount up, fly to the dungeon, and knock out the dungeon. Once done I hearth back to Dalaran, and since I want to keep running dungeons I can’t leave the city.
Between those two, with RDF sounds fun and without it sounds like hell.
Now for leveling alts, with RDF is extremely efficient for gaining exp quickly and getting some gear upgrades along the way. Without RDF, dungeons are not even an option, the only option available to me is solo quest all the time or pay a mage or paladin to boost me.
The “without RDF” option is exactly the paradigm in TBC Classic RIGHT NOW. Taking that into Wrath Classic without RDF is a mistake waiting to happen.
I’d rather they remove the randomness and implement an LFG board similar to what they have in retail WoW where you can search for specific dungeons and whatnot.
That way you can still engage in forming a group, but you aren’t forced to stand in Trade Chat to do so.
I would also propose that cross realm grouping be enabled in some capacity. Either for all dungeons, non-heroic dungeons, or 1-70 dungeons; Whichever feels the most correct. Cross server wasn’t necessarily the issue when it came to eliminating the social aspect of WoW, it was the fact that so many groups were entirely random. No effort or work was put into forming a group. You didn’t care if somebody left, you’d just get a random new player to fill the spot immediately.
Having to physically interact with people, send them whispers, get invited, and manage a group will at least create SOME social interaction which is more than the LFD system currently does.