A group-heavy game is fine so long as they make it quick and easy to get an appropriate group for whatever it is that you want to do. A group-heavy game that goes out of its way to make it impractical to actually get an appropriate group will be dead on arrival by the time the game launches. That so many group-heavy MMOs were the latter is what led the industry to move away from group content.
Pretty sure that's considered blasphemy here. We still have people who think queues and dungeon finders are bad things.
yes that person is me. i consider groupfinders to be junk because:
1) you can only get groups for dungeons usually. What if i want a group for fishing?
2) you often get paired with the wrong people.
3) it takes away any social interaction on your part. 4) groupfinders use huge amounts of server resources but apply to minimal activities.
npc guilds are superior to groupfinders in every way. They serve all players and do it in a way brings the proper players together organically at zero cost.
on topic: theres no details here. Nothing.
GW2 group finder. You put a description for your group, like an ad on a bulletin board, and wait for people to join. Can be used for anything. No automation. Takes care of 1 and 4, avoids chat spamming. Best happy medium approach imo.
NPC guilds are not a panacea for grouping, like EVE shows, although they are a good step towards. You need more design elements for that.
This certainly sounds better than what eso has but it doesn't appear to organically funnel players based on achievement and interest as part of the game.
a combination of the bulletin board and the npc guild might be ideal imo. That way you get the organic funneling of players based on achievement and intent with the passive flexibility of the bulletin board.
you really need achievement as a filter imo to make sure the right people are playing together. The worst outcomes in grouping come when players are mismatched. Like adding an elite player to a bunch of scrubs or a single scrub to a bunch of elite players. The best outcome (whether they fail or not) comes when similarly skilled players group together.
Good. The more social and group oriented the better. Hopefully with the tools to support and grow guilds/communities as well.
For me the current drop in/drop out style of mmos is severely lacking in so many ways. Give me a deep and rich world, with story and the opportunity to explore it with a team of friends.
Not sure why any mmorpg would exclude a group finder so many more positives then negatives. Guilds will still make parties from within and pugs have an avenue to play content. Sure some social interaction is lost but not within guilds. Not having a group finder will just create parties with desired classes that are the most efficient at clearing content. Its been seen time and time again and people eventually leave and game dies off.
I'm happy to solo or group, but my problem with most group content is the focus on heavily scripted boss fights, to the exclusion of significant emergent gameplay. That and the gear grind. I need a better form of motivation to do these things than just keeping up with the Joneses.
I'm happy to solo or group, but my problem with most group content is the focus on heavily scripted boss fights, to the exclusion of significant emergent gameplay. That and the gear grind. I need a better form of motivation to do these things than just keeping up with the Joneses.
Totally agree here. Scripting has its uses but when every fight is dance dance revolution its gets pretty lame.
Oh bollocks! Ghostcrawler is their freaking Executive Producer!? Aw hell no! Count me out on this one!
Why what happened?
While it might not be fair to lay the blame directly at the man's feet, all the changes that made me start to loath Wow started under this man's watch. All the e-peen measuring, e-sport dude bro mentality players turned up at this time and made grouping with other players completely annoying and unbearable. And since this game will be based on their LOL lore I quite imagine it will be the same.
As to the whole focus on group content mentality. If I remember correctly the Wildstar developers said the same thing early doors, and my that turned out well didn't it.
Comments
a combination of the bulletin board and the npc guild might be ideal imo. That way you get the organic funneling of players based on achievement and intent with the passive flexibility of the bulletin board.
you really need achievement as a filter imo to make sure the right people are playing together. The worst outcomes in grouping come when players are mismatched. Like adding an elite player to a bunch of scrubs or a single scrub to a bunch of elite players. The best outcome (whether they fail or not) comes when similarly skilled players group together.
For me the current drop in/drop out style of mmos is severely lacking in so many ways. Give me a deep and rich world, with story and the opportunity to explore it with a team of friends.