I also thought that LFD was a type of “game breaker”, I experienced the difference as a new player to the World of Azeroth. Before LFG, I went into a major city to find people near my level to do SFK, Cathedral; the search for a group took less than half an hour, other times it took nearly an hour because of lack of tanks at that level.
The main problem with the removal of LFD is that new players will not be able to do those dungeons without having to wait close to an hour. Additionally, most new players won’t play the “leader” until they have experienced enough of the World of Azeroth. When I played (different account) through those two experiences, it was nearly 10 years back, which means the rate at which new players come to the game have marginally decreased. Thus, a new player may not find enough people in there server to group for the many instances - at different levels - offered in the game at any point in their leveling experiences. LFG removes that problem, obviously, by finding players across realms. If they are fresh to the game and have initiative, they’ll be eager to talk to the group, and if they are lucky they’ll find socialble players to make friends with. Let us also not forget how fun it can be to find a group through LFD to que together and continue to farm exp, not just one instance but multiple instances.
Now let us look at LFD from the perspective of a fresh player: Okay, I’m level 15, I’ve done quests, I’ve got few pieces of gear, now I want to do an instance. I go to the LFD function, I queue, and wait about 25 minutes; in the mean time, I’ll finish this stack of quests. Notice: this perspective of a fresh player is under the condition that the user is committed to thoroughly playing the game before forming an opinion of Azeroth, and is someone that is seeking this form of entertainment.
Player finishes dungeon, earns 1.5 levels, decides to queue again. “I’ll go finish more quests in the mean time, this is an entertaining gaming experience, this is how the game should be”. Along the way, said fresh player finds cross realm connections with whom to play with, both experienced and fresh players alike.
Although LFD brings positive and promising experiences, there exists underlying problems with this dungeon tool that can’t be unnoticed. For one, when I experienced the LFD implementation - nearly 10 years back in history - my mentallity switched from social-community driven of findings server wide groups, to hard-core go-go attitude of farming experience and runnning instances as much as possible to reach cap level. This mentallity has the potential to decrease the satisfsction received from a laid-back and social gaming experience for yourself and users who are not on the same page.
I was a healer so this made it possible for me to do, however who is to say that this isn’t an entertaining gaming experience in itself? It provides a challenge for the group to utilize their many spells and cooldowns to migitate damage and avoid character death. Pulling more mobs than a group normally would, provides a touch of that “elite” gaming experience, even if the characters aren’t cap level, it provides an opportunity for the group to have to coordinate and communicate. You may die more than a fair share of times, but become a veteran, a more experienced player along the way, and figure how to kill the mobs the next time around.
The World of Azeroth has experienced a varierty of changes, some better some for worse. It can be argued that ‘Looking for Dungeon’ is a game-breaker, but ultimately, the pros of LFD outweigh the negative experiences that can be experienced from this dungeon tool. At its core, LFD is not the problem, as it is outside the hands of the makers of the game. There simply isn’t enough fresh players or experienced alts at a users level to continously finish instances. In other words, the rate at which players join the game do not make it possible to find groups in major city chat. To add further, this particular point has the perspective of the game without cross-realm connection.
World of Warcraft is a 15 year old game, it has refined itself and will continue to be refined and age like old wine as time goes on. I’m willing to go far and state that World of Warcraft is still an unpolished - naive at times - teen, coming to age, that has not reached ultimate form and formula. On the other note, LFD is not a game-breker, the situation is not as cut and dry as it appears to be.
The development teams have been innovative, have reached in their ideas, and have delivered unfulfilling experiences; for the purpose of finding its actual refined target market that will continue to play the game at an older age, not just for the players that consider the game a phase in their lives. Though this may be true at times, development has provided highly memorable memories for us to look back on and cherish through and through, since the inception of the game - which I did not play - and even at the current version of the game.
In my opinion, World of Warcraft does not need a peak of 12 million players to be enjoyable, as time progresses the game will become an invaluable and aged wine, in the homes of France, that can never be finished; you simply pour yourself a glass daily or every other day, and the bottle never ends.
Fellow Azerothians,
I encourage you to be optimistic, to find your place in this vast world, and to take initiative in finding satisfaction from the game. If you are unhappy with the state of server community, I think it just means that its time for you to step-up to the plate and lead your Alliance, Horde comrades to victory in the battle grounds and triumph over the sinister plans of raid bosses.
Note:
This is a pro LFG/LFD argument-opinion, I welcome any other and every other pros and cons that were missed, and weak points in my argument. The situation is flexible, we can talk about it, andpossibly come to a conclusion. This short-piece could have not been written without the opinions from other users, that I’ve taken into account over time. Thank you for listening, and game on!