Posted by ReDDoT in Blue Milk & Cereal | 32 Comments
Blue Milk & Cereal: Should TOR Have A “Dungeon Finder” Tool?
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This topic has been been discussed for years (literally), and has heated up once again with the recent Q&A sessions from PAX where it was reiterated that TOR would not ship with this feature, but BioWare is “looking into it”. Here’s an interview with Gabe Amatangelo that expands on the reasoning for the decision.
But what is a “dungeon finder” you ask? In its most simple definition, it assists a player in fidning other players who are interested in participating in specific (or random) instanced group content. Once players are matched up, they are all transported to the instance to begin their assault. In some games, those other players might even come from other servers, greatly reducing your wait time.
In theory, this sounds like a good idea – a real time saver that will get you into the action that much quicker. But let the players who already experienced the effects of a similar dungeon finder tool in World of Warcraft, tell you their experiences.
Shortly after the addition of this feature, a large number of players agreed that its addition severely impacted the game, and not in a good way either. Before, players had to travel to the location of the instance, generating some traffic and actual presence in the world. After all, MMO games are partly about the community and making new friends. The dungeon finder tool, while speeding up the queue times, completely removed any social interaction prior to making the party, and left the game world feeling empty as players just loitered in the cities waiting for their group to be formed.
So now that you know, how do you roll? Do you think this kind of grouping assistant feature is a good one for TOR? Discuss!
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Only if the finder doesn’t automagically teleport the group to the instance.
So spending 10-15 Min Walking to a instance is fun for you?
No it does not bother me. It ruins the experience of the game.
I should clarify, automatically teleporting to places ruins the experience of the game.
Sorry but I completely disagree with you. In is such a waste of time and leads to disbanding when someone’s hearth is down and it will take them 20minutes because they don’t have their mount yet. I think for the very first time you should have to discover the entrance, after that teleportion all the way.
Walking is for suckers.
Per server only. You get idiots and fools in the current one that is in a game that will not be mentioned. The fact that you are grouped with people that you will not other contact in game other then being paired up with them through a lfg tool leads to people acting like idiots as there is no repercussions.
If it were server only and people act like they do these days then that person can get a rep and placed on ignore meaning that they will be sitting in lfg for a long time. Also word gets around and that person would essentially be shunned by the community as a whole after time.
I totally agree. A looking for group tool/teleport to the Flashpoint would be great, as long as the pool is only from the server you are on. The wait times will be longer because of this, but your chances of getting a “higher quality” group are much better.
I agree with this. I want it to be people who’s rep on our server is at risk, and the ability to mark someone with some sort of karma system to warn others in my guild about them.
Thankfully though I am in a large enough guild that we usually don’t need to do PuG runs, but unless you can have some sort of karma system to weed out the rude jerks, it’s not worth it.
I agree definitely. It would certainly cause longer queue times, but I think keeping it local creates a more unified and familiar community. As said, it allows people to gain a reputation, good or bad as may be.
I’d sacrifice queue time for the need to behave more “responsibly” in your groups, or face scorn among your immediate piers.
I completely agree with you. I hated having people join up, act like a moron, and ninja anything good (mounts, green items, gathering nodes.) Was one of my worst experiences.
Speaking as someone who had the misfortune of ending up on one of the two lowest population servers in existence for that game you were talking about, I personally loved the multi-server LFG tool when it came about because not only could I find a group quickly and easily, but I also got to expand beyond the terrible skill pool of my local neighbors.
My server had about 3 decent guilds and every other person available for grouping was miserable, in terms of attitude, skill and manners it seemed.
Well, I feel the right way to play an MMO is to make lots of friends, not to mention be part of a great guild, and then this whole hornet’s nest pretty much goes away. I’ve only used the dungeon finder tool in WoW a handful of times, because there’s always a group of friends ready to go.
But failing that, I think that a robust tool to help players find like-minded players is a good idea, but not necessarily pull them from another server or transport them in from anywhere.
It sounds like the spaceport system might be a compromise to that, as it seems you all have to be there to travel to the flashpoint or operation. Look for more details on this from our discussion with Gabe Amatangelo soon :)
Your first paragraph is spot on for how I feel about LFG tools. Actually make friends in an mmo, join a guild with like minded players and it works fine. Enough with the I logged in at 8:01 and should be able to be in a competent group and pulling at 8:03 without having made any friends or being in a like minded guild.
Some people have jobs or kids or other obligations that make meeting 4 new friends everyday something of a hassle.
Sometimes you just want to get in and get the job done.
Instances are fun. Waiting 3 hours for a group, or standing around in a city spamming the LFG channel are not fun.
The dungeon finder was the best single thing Blizzard added to enhance the accessibility of WoW.
For those that don’t like the idea of it, don’t use it. The game will be better off with a dungeon finder in place at or shortly after launch.
Couldn’t agree more. The single greatest technology for MMO’s since WoW released. Before I NEVER ran dungeons because it would take SO LONG to get a group together from LFG in chat. Now, it’s only the crappy trinity that keeps me from running dungeons back to back.
I understand why TOR won’t have it at release, they want to create some sense of community. But once that fails, I’m sure they’ll add a dungeon finder within months of release (hopefully!!!).
Dungeon finders kill communities.
Totally agree with this. Most of the friends that I made were because there was no Dungeon Finder tool.
Agreed
No I think dungeon finders are needed. I don’t play video games to make friends. I have the real world for that. I play video games to be entertained.
Why not play a single player or some crappy fps?
Well dungeon finders are for those without friends on all the time that don’t mind dropping everything to join them. I know in the guild that I am in I won’t need the dungeon finder.
I understand why some people will want it. Too lazy to seek out players, too shunned to have anyone join them, or just too anti-social. I think if they add it the only way to keep it from destroying the community of the server is to keep it within the server.
I won’t need it but if it is in there I want it done right.
I forgot that adding dungeon finders makes it so you can’t talk to people anymore.
PUGing with the Dungeon Finder is like a Blind Date with the best outcome of getting lucky in a One Night Stand.
I agree that dungeon finders kill community. We are a society that wants things instantly though. There will be so much QQ about this I fear they may reverse their decision.
Hopefully it will take a while so I can build my friends list beyond the few friends I know are going to play with me.
I REALLY do not want a Dungeon Finder, it totally ruined the social experience of WoW, I remember leveling waaay back in the day and finding people in the zones I was in and asking if they wanted to do a dungeon because we were around the same level. Meeting stones = good
Dungeon finder = BAD
Getting teleported to an instance youve no idea where it even is with people you will never talk to again is not good for an MMO at all.
THE SPACEPORT IS A GREAT IDEA. IT’S THE PERFECT COMPROMISE.
SPACEP0RT + THE ABILITY TO SEARCH AND SEND MESSAGES VIA A LFG TOOL = FINE & DANDY.
WHAT DID YOU SAY SORRY I COULDN’T HEAR YOU OVER ALL THE CAPSLOCK
I think the dongeon finder is a great tool, sure u can get some retards or ego-maniac, but when your friends are not online or cant join you, i prefer using the LFD instead of sitting forever in a city asking in chat to get a group together. Just join the LFD and do something else (quest, farm, …) while waiting instead of spamming the chat.
If you don’t like it don’t use it.
I would like the group finder as long as it doesn’t have a teleport to instance functionality. It would make it easier to find a group, I am thinking.
Even if it could only be accessible on capital planets, it’d be helpful.
A decent compromise in my opinion would be you have to at least be on the same planet as the instance.
These planets are huge, who wants to Scooty-Puff Jr. all the way across Tatooine every time you want to run an instance?