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Watch the full World of Warcraft: Looking for Group documentary
You might have missed the "other" Warcraft movie reveal at BlizzCon this past week, but we're here to make sure that you don't let it slip by completely. Blizzard premiered a special World of Warcraft documentary at the convention called Looking for Group, and you can watch the flick in its entirety right now. Looking for Group examines the phenomenon of the MMO's creation and operation over the past 10-plus years. According to the studio, the documetary will allow you to "explore the history of WoW with its creators, and journey into corners of Blizzard and the WoW community you've never seen before." Grab your Michael Jackson comment popcorn and watch it after the break!
World of Warcraft adding party finder functionality
World of Warcraft is expanding the functionality of its group finder tool in Warlords of Draenor so that making a group is easier than just inviting your friends and shouting in a city. The new group finder interface is designed to help players locate parties looking for the same content, from pre-made PvP groups to teams trying to take out a particularly obnoxious group quest in the zone. Group finder groups can be designated for PvE or PvP, with the former allowing for a variety of group-based PvE encounters (quests, dungeons, raids) and the latter opening up for PvP options (rated battlegrounds, arenas of all sizes, faction leader assaults, and so on). Players can either join a group or start a new one, with leaders setting both the designated goal and the requirements for would-be party members to join. Take a look at the full preview for more information on this expanded functionality.
Guild Wars 2 improving guild and LFG systems in April
The last few announcements about Guild Wars 2 changes have been big. And with good cause, as roughly no one should be unhappy about the final destruction of the much-maligned town clothes mechanic. But there are smaller significant changes coming along as well, as detailed in a new post outlining a few changes coming to both the game's LFG tools as well as guild management systems. They won't rewrite the game, but they should make it a little easier. Guild leaders, for instance, will be able to see when members last logged in. The LFG tool will allow filtering via language and for WvW groups, making it that much easier to find a group that you can communicate with and has the same goals as you. There are also improved mechanics for guild-based groups in the system. Sure, it's not a complete trait overhaul, but if you're enjoying your time in Tyria every little improvement is a good one.
The Daily Grind: Have you made any friends via groupfinder mechanics?
Raid finders, dungeon finders, and various LFG mechanics are becoming a modern MMO staple, but apart from throwing together five or six strangers and hustling them through a piece of content, they don't strike me as being particularly social. I do use them to clear content I otherwise can't do, of course, but whenever I've attempted small talk I've been met with indifference. On one occasion I even got some outright hostility! "Less talking, more DPS," was the family-friendly gist of it. What about you, Massively readers? Have you made any MMO friends via group finder mechanics, or are they simply a means to an end? [Image source: EQ2Wire] Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
A dragon rises in Guild Wars 2's next update
It does no good to leave a dragon out of your estimation, alive or dead. Yes, Tequatl the Sunless is dead and vanquished, but the undead lieutenant of Zhaitan was dead the first time you faced him in Guild Wars 2. So it should be unsurprising that the undead dragon can come back for another round. But he's not just coming out with the same old swings. He's faster, stronger, and deadlier, and it remains to be seen if he can be beaten this time around. The next update doesn't just feature an ambulatory dragon corpse with new tricks, though. It also features the long-awaited Looking for Group tool so that players can quickly assemble a full dungeon team without standing around shouting. All of the game's bosses have received a design pass to make them better and more enjoyable in play, and WvW players will enjoy a new power and new ruins. But the video preview is all about Tequatl. When you title an update Tequatl Rising, you put your star front and center. [Source: ArenaNet press release]
Sunday Morning Funnies: Looking for Group
Sunday Morning Funnies is your weekly list of WoW-related web comics. Every week, we're profiling a different WoW-related web comic. This week, we're taking a look at Looking for Group (LFG): Looking for Group is, unlike many of the other comics, not just a (time-consuming and awesome) hobby. In fact, it has a whole team behind it. A team including personnel with titles like "logistics manager" and "communications director." They are part of the Blind Ferret network. LFG was launched in November of 2006 and has grown to be very popular. It is a fantasy-themed comic that is loosely based on WoW; however, it's very accessible to non-WoW players. It "follows the adventures of Cale'Anon and Richard, as well as their companions." It's story-based but also humorous. The warlock Richard is the primary source of comedy as well as the entry point for readers who don't usually enjoy comics heavy on story. Looking for Group is Canadian. It's written by Ryan Sohmer and drawn by Lar DeSouza. You can read a bit more about them and the rest of the team on their About page. Looking for Group updates Mondays and Thursdays.
Guild Wars 2 data mining finds evidence of LFG tool
An enterprising Redditor has discovered evidence of a looking for group tool in Guild Wars 2's current files. After plowing through file strings in the game's .dat file, the player found hints that a LFG tool is not just in development but may be coming soon to a game near us. The files imply players will be able to filter/advertise/find/pull an LFG search, advertising one's group, finding players for living world content, and pulling together a party for a full range of dungeons and PvP. The .dat file has a few more insights into the future of Guild Wars 2, including back-to-school town clothes, swimwear, a dragon mask, an unlimited logging axe, festive dragon coffers, and something called Skyhammer. Regarding the latter, one of its commands reads, "Maintain control of the Skyhammer cannon to call down lightning and vaporize your foes." Obviously, you need one of these, don't you?
What's the purpose of a heroic dungeon?
One of the more volatile announcements that we've heard so far from Blizzard regarding Mists of Pandaria is the fact that Mists will not include any more 5-man dungeons. In an expansion where new content seems to be rolling out on a much faster, tighter basis than any expansion prior this seems a little bizarre to players, particularly those that enjoy dungeon-based content. Yet one of the things Mists has been doing consistently throughout the expansion is delivering a wider array of things to do. In fact, there's such a variety in endgame content that players sometimes feel legitimately overwhelmed by the sheer amount of it. But just because we aren't getting any new dungeons doesn't mean we aren't getting alternate ways to obtain all that sweet, sweet gear we know and love. Patch 5.3 will see the introduction of heroic scenarios, slightly tougher versions of the scenarios we've already seen this expansion. In addition to valor, the heroic scenarios will offer raid-finder level rewards for players that choose to participate in them -- better than any gear you'll find in a heroic dungeon at this point. While this may seem pretty cool for some people, it does make one wonder -- what's the purpose of heroic dungeons?
Breakfast Topic: Share your life hacks for WoW
I really like "life hack" sites because you can find so many different ways to make the little things (and sometimes the big things) easier. Whether it's opening bottles with a Mac power adapter or learning how to cook fish on a grill without losing portions of it to the grate, you never know what you're going to find. Occasionally I run across tips from other players in-game come within shouting distance of being a WoW-style life hack. There are two I can think of off the top of my head that made a noticeable difference to the ease of my play time, and they both have something to do with the Dungeon Finder/Raid Finder. If you're queuing for raids or 5-mans as a healer and aren't currently in your healing spec, don't immediately accept an invite. The timer is just long enough to allow you to respec and drink before entering the dungeon. If you do so within the dungeon, you run the risk of watching an impatient tank drop to half or even no health before you finish respeccing. If you're trying to gear a fresh character at level 85, do your dungeons/raids earlier in the week and not later. A higher percentage of players are on their mains at that point, which tend to be better-geared and -played than their alts. What life hacks would you recommend to your fellow players?
Does a video game have to force us to make good choices?
Take a moment and picture this: There's a politician out there, a pretty sleazy politician, who is basically in a position of power to use that power to do whatever suits him or her best -- no regard for anyone that voted him into office, no real sense of caring for those he is supposedly serving. One day, someone comes up to that politician and says, "Hey man, I'll give you $3 million if you start taking an interest in your constituents and doing what is best for them, OK?" The politician agrees, takes the money, and promptly starts doing the right thing. Is that politician in the wrong? Or is that politician simply learning that if he behaves badly, he'll get a bribe to start behaving correctly? What's to stop him from behaving badly again, if he thinks he's going to get another $3 million out of the deal? More importantly, if all the other politicians out there see this guy get a bribe to behave like a decent politician and all of those politicians decide to start behaving badly in an effort to get that bribe for themselves, are they in the wrong?
Should WoW players be responsible for player accountability?
Blizzard's policy as far as reporting players has been about the same since day one. If you have a problem with a player, you report them. While Blizzard can contact you and thank you for reporting the issue, it will not give any details regarding what it has done about the problem being reported. This has always been understandable to me; in the many years on and off that I worked customer service and call center jobs, rule #1 was that you did not speak to anyone but an account holder regarding the status of their account. To me, the Blizzard policy is just more of the same kind of treatment -- Blizzard cannot tell you about actions taken against another player's account, because hey, their account isn't yours, you know? It's private information. That said, I have reported my share of players over the years, and I never really knew if action was taken against these players or not. In simple cases of name violations, like using an inappropriate word for guild or character name, I could usually tell if something had been done, because the guild or player in question would have their name changed. But in cases of player harassment ... well, you never know if they've been told anything or not. You just sort of hope this means the person harassing you will go away and that will be the end of it, but there are absolutely no guarantees.
The Guild Counsel: Does SWTOR need a better LFG tool?
Often, this column has focused on guilds and communities in MMOs, both the good and the bad. With the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, it's interesting to look at the ways in which a community is slowly gelling on each server. Already there are players I'm bumping into more and more often, and while I tend to huddle around guildies most of the time, I find that I enjoy things much more when I'm surrounded by a good community of players. There's already been a lively discussion among SWTOR fans about whether the current LFG tool is good enough or something more is needed. Do we need something more "meaty" to help do the job of grouping for us or not? Read on for some pros and cons, and weigh in on whether more is needed to help bring the community closer.
Encrypted Text: A savvy rogue's guide to starting Dragon Soul via the Raid Finder
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. The introduction of the Raid Finder is one of the biggest features in patch 4.3, and so far it has been everything that we could ask for and more. The queues have been quick, the bosses are tuned just right for the demographic, and the rewards are potent enough to keep the system running. Anyone with decent gear can queue up for a raid, gaining valuable experience and gear. I think the new system is perfect for allowing new raiders to get their feet wet, preparing them for what lies ahead. Even as a pure DPS class, the Raid Finder queues haven't been too bad for rogues. Between my own experience and the word on the street (not Greg), queue times are between 15 and 30 minutes, and groups are mostly competent. To a class that's historically had problems finding a spot in a raid group, the Raid Finder looks like our new best friend. The only bummer is that we can't start or progress in our legendary quest line in the Raid Finder. In order to maximize our random group's chance for success, we need to be prepared to do our best.
WoW Archivist: Patch 2.0.1, Before the Storm
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Patch 2.0.1 was, according to a large chunk of players, quite possibly one of the best patches to come out of vanilla WoW. It had nothing to do with the introduction of the new talent trees in preparation for The Burning Crusade's looming launch. It had nothing to do with the new, bulky, and rarely used first iteration of the looking for group tool. There were no launch events with this patch, just a heck of a lot of data that needed to be implemented in preparation for the launch of the first expansion. But what had players either cheering fervently or cursing forever had nothing to do with the imminent approach of The Burning Crusade. It had everything to do with PVP and the removal of the honor system as we knew it in vanilla. What's so special about that, you ask? Let's take a journey back in time and look at the good and bad of the old honor system. If you think today's Arena grinds are difficult, well ... you're in for one heck of an eye-opener.
Zarhym hints at cross-realm raiding
In a recent player-created thread about cross-realm raiding on the official forums, Community Manager Zarhym popped in with seven enigmatic words: Zarhym We have some plans. They're good plans. source
Enter at Your Own Rift: One-point-four
Last week, Karen provided an excellent analysis on Trion Worlds' broad, eight-page State of the Game address as the company outlined its plans for the game's long-term future. This week, we're still going to cast our eyes to the present. As we wrap up the final phase of RIFT's Waves of Madness (how much fun is water bladder throwing, huh?) and raid guilds bang their way through Hammerknell, it's the time to revel in a brand-new content update: patch 1.4. Yes, another patch. I think people are still in disbelief that Trion is able to pump out updates as rapidly as it has, and the current naysayer theory is that the company is merely polishing up content it wanted to get for launch but had to hold back for whatever reason. There's probably a kernel of truth to that, but it doesn't hold up from what we know. We know that Trion has parallel teams -- up to six of them -- working on live development, which includes world events and content updates. We know that some of the features we've seen in previous patches were a direct result of post-launch player feedback, so it can't all be capping off unfinished projects. Say what you will, but from where I'm standing, Trion's putting its actions where its mouth is by continuing a hot-and-heavy updating streak without showing any signs of slowing down. It's smart, too; by providing faster updates than most MMOs on the market and giving players incentive to stay, return, and try the game for the first time, Trion's firming up its position as an MMO that's here to stay -- not one that's going to fold up shop when future titles hit. So let's take a peek through the highlights of patch 1.4 as I offer my award-winning commentary on each of the points!
RIFT patch 1.4 arriving on test servers tomorrow
"The seas have not calmed here at Trion as we continue to bring you more to enjoy with each update," Trion Worlds' James Nichols writes. Why doth the seas continue to roil? Because RIFT's patch 1.4 is landing on test servers tomorrow, July 14th, at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Patch 1.4 follows 1.3's Waves of Madness world event, Hammerknell raid and guild banks with even more high-profile goodies. Probably one of the most-requested features, the ability to look for groups across servers, will be part of the update. This will allow the LFG tool to draw from a wider range of potential dungeon runners. Also included in the testing process is an alternative gameplay mode for the Whitefall Steppes PvP warfront. Players will have to collect and hold Sourcestone at their base to activate powerful rune cannons to obliterate the enemy. Instructions on how to participate in RIFT's public test server can be found over at the site.
Lost Pages of Taborea: The poor, lonely looking-for-group tool
Karen's recent article about RIFT's new looking-for-group tool got me thinking about Runes of Magic's own LFG tool. It seems like such a nifty function, but it hardly ever gets used in RoM. It's such an interesting tool that I'm happy to see in the game, but it also seems to be better on paper than in practice. Part of the reason might be that it's slightly clumsy to use for the first time, which I'll get to a little later. LFG tools are one of those things that a lot of players ask for nowadays, but they only ever seem to be used minimally unless the devs attach incentives. Let's turn caps-lock off, stop shouting in world chat, and take a closer look at RoM's LFG tool.
RIFT's Spoils of War update deploys
It's a heady day for RIFTers as Trion Worlds has released the game's second major update. Titled Spoils of War, patch 1.2 includes several exciting additions to the game, most notably a Looking for Group tool, a cosmetic appearance system, and 10-man raid Slivers. The LFG interface will also offer daily dungeon quests with increased rewards as incentives to boost instance runs. The full patch notes are up over on the RIFT forums, and they're a doozy to read (but one has to have some way to pass the time while the game updates, right?). In addition to the headlining features, there is a metric ton of changes, tweaks and sparkling gems to absorb. Spoils of War will make the game's expert dungeons more attractive to run, and players who love tinkering with RIFT's soul system should rejoice at the addition of a fifth role. Trion's also added a lot more love for social media with increased integration between the game and Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr. There's really too much to cover in a few brief paragraphs, so after you read the patch notes, make sure to check out our larger coverage of this impressive update from a couple of weeks ago! If you haven't had a chance to get your hands on RIFT, Trion's also launched its seven-day free trial and Ascend-a-Friend programs for one and all.
RIFT's patch 1.2 moved to May 10th
Don't break out the updater just yet, RIFT fans -- we've learned that you are going to have to wait a little bit longer to get your hands on the game's second big update. Patch 1.2, which was tentatively scheduled for a May 4th release, has been moved back to the 10th. Trion Worlds let us know that the patch is still being "polished, tweaked and perfected," and as such the team needs additional time to get it ready. When we talked with Scott Hartsman a week ago about the update, he made sure to mention that all of the details about RIFT's content patch, including the date, weren't set in stone. Patch 1.2 will contain additional endgame content, the wardrobe system, and a new Looking for Group tool.
