This is a post in an attempt to bring people who WANT to discuss the pros and cons of RDF in a single forum. im sure the trolls will come try and feast but im going to ask that anyone interested in a discussion to not feed the trolls on either side of the argument.
Now to set the stage, heres a list i put forth previously that were my reasons behind why I personally think that RDF is a good thing. these reasons are mine, these reflect my belief in the tool/feature and the reasons it would be good for the game.
rdf benefits:
classic dungeons become viable runs again
rdf allows a very efficient way of mixing up questing and dungeon running.
rdf allows a very efficient way of farming mats in the world and dungeon running.
rdf gives people with limited play time the chance to maximize their gaming experience without spending hours spamming chat for a group.
xrealm rdf enlarges the player pool for running all levels of dungeons making it quicker to get the run you want.
rdf makes guild runs more efficient and makes it easy to pug that last slot you are missing.
xrealm rdf allows players to meet players they would never have the chance to meet without it.
it allows players who like constant dungeon grind to do so much more efficiently
it allows folks like me and my guildies to hop on our tanks and healers and help others of our faction to get runs in xrealm rdf, lifting up the entire faction.
rdf gave me the opportunity to meet new folks and turn a guild of 5 into a guild of over 300 great people. some that i talk to still, 15 years later. i stood in guildies real life weddings, one of my guildies is my sons godfather, and several of those in my guild met through rdf and have been married for over a decade.
rdf limits gatekeeping
rdf helps to bypass gdkp’s and tanks selling runs.
rdf makes it more efficient when chasing dungeon achievements.
rdf provided me a way to share my knowledge of tanking and of dungeons with new players and have fun introducing them to new runs.
rdf helps people realize they dont have to be a thousand member faceless guild, they can get runs without being a faceless number.
rdf GUARANTEES every person that ques a run, no other tool provides that.
rdf cons"
rdf does leave an opening for ninja looters but i have never experienced alot of that happening, only the occasional issue
rdf allows for toxicity? sure but what tool doesnt
rdf itself doesnt allow you to pick and choose your group composition.
rdf kills world pvp
im sure there are folks out there with opposing opinions that will help fill out the cons list and those that may have reasons i dont for the pros of rdf.
again, im not speaking for any majority, these are just my reasons and the reasons my guild has brought up to me in our discussions about rdf.
Most of the cons can be fixed by taking away the teleport from the RDF so deleting the tool is totally something starting with the letter R and finishing in DED
People who support rdf are radical extremist and cultist! Rdf doesn’t need a thread or a discussion. It does not belong in classic WoW and any such thread in favor of it should be deleted and the creator perma banned!
I think World PVP is dead on most servers anyways. I don’t really see how having RDF will put a dent in world PVP either way. I have yet to see any PVP happen at a summoning stone.
Far as ninja looting goes there usually isn’t anything super valuable in randon dungeons anyways. I can’t see that many people needing on an item they can’t use just to vendor it for a handful of gold.
Far as toxicity goes I have seen very little of this issue from running many dungeons on retail all the way from low lvl to mythic+. I have never seen a person kicked unless they were afk or just being a complete jerk. I have never seen somebody kicked because of their DPS, or ability to tank. Then again I don’t run super difficult content (Mythic 10 is about it). Again RDF won’t be touching difficult content anyways so don’t see that being much of an issue.
It don’t let you pick your group but for fairly easy content it doesn’t really matter.
I am on a small population server and horde is about 2 per 8 alliance from my understanding. Lately its been a chore to fill a heroic group sometimes even just trying to find a final DPS. Tanked UP the other day with a 4 person group because we couldn’t find a final dps. Have done this a couple other times for heroics.
Once DF hits I suspect the population will go down even more. Cross server RDF is really needed or heck even if they designed it like the LFG on retail where you can pick players cross server that would still help.
Players can still form there guild groups and run with friends if they so desire. Nobody is asking to take that away from you.
I don’t ignore legitimate pros. What amuses me is how it challenges you people to come up with a con list.
I certainly can come up with a proper pros/cons list. The discussion would then largely come down to how important each point is (which drives whether you’re for or against RFD).
A list like OP has does an awful job of getting a real convo going, especially when he says stuff like this:
“rdf provided me a way to share my knowledge of tanking and of dungeons with new players and have fun introducing them to new runs.”
Like really? That has absolutely nothing to do with RFD. You can do that currently without RDF.
Anyways, perhaps when I have more time, I will create a proper thread for this.
Each of these can be easily addressed by either Blizzard or the players.
Ninja looting can be prevented by making RDF a personal loot run.
Toxicity, well every system has that even the current LFG tool. But RDF gives you a means to eject the bad behaving player.
RDF most certainly allows you to set your group composition as you can queue with up to a full 5 man team. So you can grab one thing you want before you queue, then queue as a group.
World PvP, well that is dead right now so that is a moot item.