I suspect this will get lost in the wash, but I want to leave the feedback anyway. I think it would be a good idea to revisit the listing requirement to talk in LFG.
Over the course of Classic people have used LFG to talk about random things, usually to the dismay of those of us just trying to find a group. It’s understandable though because it’s a global chat channel, people can talk to other people no matter where they are in the world.
In WotLK, in order to participate in this global chat, you will have to list a group. This will have the unfortunate side effect of cluttering up the listings for those looking to build a group. I think this is the wrong approach and Blizzard should consider either…
Remove the requirement to list in order to talk in LFG. Let people talk with each other. Those of us just looking to find a group can use the tool to list what we’re looking for, or join existing groups. I certainly have no intention of looking at the chat channel once this change goes live. I will reach out to group leaders directly to talk to them about the group.
Keep the requirement but make a “Global Chat” channel for those who just want to talk to each other.
For my perspective, I think that given the design pillar of Nuture and Protect Social Experiences, the latter option is probably more in alignment, but either works tbh.
It won’t be that big of a deal. People will just list themselves for some random dungeon in the tool then go back to spamming the LFG chat channel. Just a minor inconvenience. A stupid, not necessary, inconvenience, but still minor.
This is my point, people shouldn’t have to do that. It’s a worse experience for all involved. Either remove the listing requirement, or just give people a global channel to talk. There is obvious demand for it in the Classic community.
We all knew the whole thing was going to suck when they ignorantly announced no RDF in WOTLK. Players may just forego the LFG channel entirely and sit in capital cities spamming trade chat.
By forcing people to use the new tool in order to be able to use the /lfg chat, Blizzard can claim that most of the players are making use of the tool (even if they don’t use it properly and just select random dungeons), therefore they can consider it a success.
Or they could be like me in the Beta right now and try and answer peoples questions or be apart of conversations and it tells you “you must be queued to use this channel” and than just not participate which is ironic seeing as how the tool is supposed to make people more social.
I’m not sure if the tool was supposed to make people more social, or attempt to modernize looking for group while facilitating social interaction.
Either way, there is a lot of social interaction in LFG right now for some folks and it’s a shame to force them to jump through a hoop to keep doing that, which also has the downside of cluttering up the listings for everybody else.
This is especially disappointing on RP servers. The LFG chat almost always has some casual conversation. People enjoy that, and it creates the community feeling that Blizz is supposedly promoting. Restrictions like this on chat is oppressive and counter to their claims.
If they make a Blizzard supported world channel I think that would help since LFG channel shouldn’t be the designated channel for chatting but it’s the only option available that can’t be abused by players just setting a password and locking player created /world.
It will simply clutter up the LFG interface with listings that aren’t really lfg, but rather just want to use the LFG chat channel. But hey, they have a report feature for this, so people will be reported left and right.
Smart players will continue to use the Bulletin Board addon.
It is a huge waste of resources, but that sums up how the entirety of Wrath Classic is being mishandled and changed.
Dragonflight is where the resources are being used. Wrath is going to struggle come 2023, unfortunately. But they know that, hence having no design consistency or standards with recreating original Wrath.