Looking For Groups
As I was PMing some guy in general chat in RIFT about an instance group he was forming, I realized RIFT has no LFG system. It certainly reminded me of WoW before the LFG/teleports came into effect and the problems they cause. Sure, they’re convenient. Sure, they’re faster. But, in my opinion, they negatively impact the community of the game.
I’m sure people know about the whole “anonymity makes people assholes” thing and this definitely occurs all over the internet, but in MMOs it’s slightly different. If you piss someone off ingame, they can do something about it. Call you out on your server as a ninja, grief you back, or whatever they can think of. People you screw with play in the same world as you. The cross server LFG system just ensures that the people you screw won’t ever see you again. It reminds of a heroic I ran from just after Cata was released. An agi epic cloak dropped, but it was taken from our rogue by a warrior. His reasoning was that he “wasn’t stupid enough to trust that the rogue would use it.” so, by taking it, he was preventing a ninja. I don’t think I’ll ever see him again, but I still remember what a douchebag move that was. Good thing the queue times improved dramatically, because the groups didn’t.
I know I keep referring to WoW, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to again. When an LFG system teleports you, it eliminates the need for you to actually know where the instance is. WoW sort of fixed this by requiring you to discover them, but I still ran into people who had no idea how to get back inside after a wipe.
I was actually a little sad to hear RIFT is getting an LFG system, but at least there won’t be people asking for tanks in the middle of an invasion. Having help finding a group for an instance is good and all, but there has to be some balance between that and clicking a button, then randomly finding yourself in a dungeon with 4 other people.
-
gorawyn likes this
-
fangedbovine posted this
