I managed to persuade my husband to play WoW. He has been extremely reluctant in the past, so this was something of an achievement (Legacy point for me, Blizz?).
He has avoided mmos till now and was pretty sceptical but happily he has enjoyed it so far with some criticisms, in particular the problems surrounding layering and grouping up.
Over the last few days every time we formed a group, we would be on different layers and weren’t automatically moved after grouping up. IRL, we are usually playing the game in the same house and on the same network.
We either have to de-group and have the other one invite, which inconsistently fixes things immediately or throws up a ‘refresh layering’ pop up.
Or we have to log out and try grouping again.
We have also de-grouped for quests which require collecting items from mob kills because otherwise the quests takes too long. De-grouping instantly puts us on different layers.
We are ofc on each other’s friends lists so this is a bit worrying when it comes to considering the whole ‘Recent Allies’ feature and how it’s supposed to work out in the world, where we run into the players we’ve met before.
I feel Blizzard need to address these problems with some urgency if one of their core features, in support of a core philosophy - building social interaction and community - is to work properly and positively at launch.