They won’t ![:sweat_drops:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/sweat_drops.png?v=6" ":sweat_drops:")
OOH! ooh! Can I click the portal and then walk away?
Initially they had a group making feature that was essentially useless, and often matched 5 DPS in a group, because it never asked for Role. But you couldn’t use them unless you were at them. There was no city LFD option.
I wouldn’t mind a tweaked LFD that asked for roles. NO teleports though.
The single biggest problem with the LFD tool in Wrath was the cross realm part of it, IMO. The teleportation aspect(needed because it was pre-CRZ, so people from 4 different realms were going to have a hard time summoning each other) just made it that much worse.
I wouldn’t mind either. Though it wouldn’t be Vanilla, so shouldn’t be in Classic.
There was an interview that explained that in Wrath. Laughably, they chose to do CRZ because they didn’t think it would be utilised enough on a given server to justify its usefulness, after the failure of the first Dungeon matching tool.
That’s one of those “give me a break” moments from my standpoint.
The function existed. The implementation was already there, it was simply missing about 6 to 8 lines of code and three pieces of artwork on the UI side(3 of those lines of code would be invoking the artwork), and maybe another 10 lines of code, if that, on Server-side.
But then, I guess Slippery Slope types would point out a lot of Class Balance changes wouldn’t even necessarily require a code change, they’d just need to change 1 field in their database and it’s done.
Flip-side however is realistically, the LFG capability I’m talking about can, and probably will, be replicated in an addon, it’s just a question of players deciding on if they’re willing to use it or not. And in that vein, much like with Mail Batching in Vanilla, they might decide to go ahead and make that tweak to the (known to be broken) game system.
It was essentially never used, so saying “It was there” is no more accurate than saying that Hyjal “was there”.
And as they said in the 2018 Blizzcon panel, they don’t want to introduce anything that would affect the community even if it “seems” positive.
They’ve also said that they’re not opposed to introducing things into the base game client “if it can be easily reproduced with an in-game addon.”
So it becomes a question of how they view the possible impact of an “official group finder” that isn’t horribly broken.
Given people’s immediate reaction to saying “LFG”, I doubt that they will just on that.
Blizzard may very well “break” those group finding add-ons.
They have stated that add-ons that replicate social functions added later (after vanilla) may (or would likely) be prevented from working. Those looking for group add-ons certainly seem to me to replicate a social function added after vanilla.
It remains to be seen how far Blizzard plans to go with “breaking” add-ons that replicate later added social functions.
That particular “social addon” would be VERY difficult to kill.
All it needs is an Addon communication channel that can use a global communication that is outside of guild/raid/party chat.
It doesn’t have to exchange much data for that matter. Just announce details when a new person indicates interest and have others that previously communicated interest “ping back” and check to see if they have a “viable” group consist at that point.
It should also be mentioned that I recall such addons existing during Vanilla and TBC, just most people didn’t use them. Which takes us back to why Blizzard’s implementation was cross-realm in Wrath: Because home-server only addon options existed, and people weren’t using them.
There are non-systemic ways of “breaking” addons too. Which is how they tend to “break” the advertising addons, or paid addons, by suing them into the ground.
That does not negate the fact that that type of add-on reproduces a social function added post vanilla.
It also may not be as difficult to prevent that type of add-on from working as some would have us to believe.
I have seen numerous add-ons that people once claimed would be difficult to “break” suddenly “broken”.
Who knows what API changes will be made Classic?
They would have to prohibit addons from using global chat channels. It is the only way to break such an addon. Considering addons could use global chat channels in Vanilla, I highly doubt they’re going to break that functionality just to prevent a LFG-type addon.
Because I’m pretty sure it would break a number of other addons that would make a lot of other players very unhappy.
Yes, they could do it, it is one change to the API, but the screaming that one change would cause…
I honestly do not remember any add-ons that would have used global chat channels.
Perhaps you could refresh my memory.
I suspect that some people are terrified that those precious LFG type add-ons may be prevented from functioning. I point no fingers at any particular persons, though.
Remember, that until TBC there were no such thing as “channels” for addons to use, so if addons were going to “talk” to other players in order to syncronize data, they’d be using a in game chat channel. Which meant the choice was: Say, Yell, Whisper, Party, Raid, Guild, or Global keeping in mind that users would see what the addons were sending unless they specifically disabled visibility of that channel.
The grand-daddy of them all that everyone would recognize: Damage Meters. Threat Meter addons were the thing in TBC that also introduced addon specific “channels” which is another Non-Vanilla Feature that Classic is likely to retain. (If you don’t remember, by the start of TBC the “theorycraft” around threat had reached the point that player-made threat meters were starting to become reliable, so people were starting to use them. By the time that Kara opened up, enough people had started using those threat meters that the message spam said meters were generating was sufficient that it started crashing the chat servers, which had unintended ramifications in the game world at large.)
The Add-on specific channels retain those same levels of function, only now they can operate as a “sub channel” to Party, raid, and guild chat.
But now, you’re going to say “Damage Meters have no need to use anything above Raid chat. So not a problem.” (That and “modern Combat logs,” also introduced in TBC don’t require syncing data for meters)
I said Damage Meters and Threat Meters were the highest profile users of such things. Off-hand other things which used global chat channels include:
Social Event Scheduling addons. Not just for scheduling events for one guild, but for many guilds. (This particular use also complicates the verbage Blizzard would need to use if they simply tried to make a LFG addon against the TOS/EULA for Classic)
Guild Chat linking addons, for those mega-sized guilds that hit the character/player limit in the first one, and have since started a second or even third Guild.
“Reputation Trackers” for players on a given realm to try to track bad players/ninjas/etc.
Those are just the ones I can recall offhand, I have no doubt there are others, it has been a long time, after all, since I’ve really paid any attention to addon options for WoW.
No, and that’s a good thing.
It increases the value of warlocks.
It’s not breaking social functions, though.
Seriously:
LFM Deadmines
2 minutes later
LFM Deadmines
2 minutes later
LFM Deadmines
Random mage: I’ll go
This is not exactly profound socializing.
Personally, I want to see the current group finder make it into the game. To me, Vanilla and TBC was a complete failure in the fact that if you wanted to do a dungeon, you were pretty much tied to the capitals until a group was formed, you couldn’t really go out and do anything in between. Working on your attunements meant that you were logging on to NOT play WoW until you found 4 other people, which if it was during the day, could take hours.
I guess we shall have to wait and see.
Just as we will have to wait and see what they do about add-ons that automate any part of gameplay.
Blizzard stated that they may, or likely will, prevent add-ons that replicate social functions added later (after vanilla). These social functions would include the TBC version of LFG, as well all the other versions after that.
Personally, I’m hoping that the only “group finder” tool in Classic is what was available in vanilla, namely the meeting stones.