‘This change won’t really affect me, since I usually finish M10 in the first week to unlock the vault. And if pugging gets much worse, I can always run keys with my guild raiders. What concerns me is how much harder it could get for the average pug group.’
Not sure why Blizzard is rolling this system out in the next expansion—it doesn’t seem like it’ll work the way people hope. League of Legends has had a similar system for years, and is still famous for its toxicity.
First, locking players into a group unless the timer expires is just going to make people more selective during group forming. Right now, many players are willing to take a chance on someone with a low or no IO score. But if there’s no easy way out, expect people to start hard-filtering based on last season’s IO—especially early in the season. No one wants to be stuck for 30+ minutes with a group that’s clearly not working.
Second, Blizzard seems to think that taking away the option to leave will make people cooperate more. In reality, it might just push things in a worse direction. Think of a healer whose group ignores mechanics and dumps all the pressure on them. Under the current system, they’d probably just leave. But with this vote system, if the group refuses to end the run, that healer is stuck. This kind of behaviour is nearly impossible for Blizzard to distinguish from a genuine lack of skill, which means players who intentionally give up and those who are simply underperforming could be treated the same. If Blizzard starts punishing both without clear differentiation, it could create a chilling effect—especially on support roles like healers. No one wants to risk being penalised for struggling in a tough run, and as a result, fewer players may want to take on those roles, making queues longer and the role shortage even worse.
Third, people already leave when the timer fails, and that’s not going to change. Even though the run can still be completed, many just don’t bother. Being forced to stick around when someone doesn’t want to be there is just painful. At that point, they’re not thinking about rewards—they just want out.
This system sounds like it’s trying to fix leavers, but it’s probably going to create new problems instead: more gatekeeping, more passive-aggressive behaviour, and less interest in support roles. Hope Blizzard rethinks this before going all-in.