World of Warcraft: The Social MMO... But Only If You Like Queuing with Strangers

[Lilíith-draenor]

@Moecus-argent-dawn

Ah, World of Warcraft. The MMO where players used to form actual communities, join guilds, make friends, and, you know, talk to each other. But then, Blizzard thought, “Hey, why don’t we throw all of that away with a lovely little thing called the Dungeon Finder?” Now, instead of forming groups through effort and communication, you just hit a button and, voilà! You’re magically paired with four random strangers who you’ll never speak to again.

Remember the days when running a dungeon meant walking up to the entrance? Or, dare I say, actually talking to people to form a group? Nah, too much work, right? Let’s just teleport you directly to the dungeon with zero interaction and remove any sense of world immersion. Because, clearly, walking to the dungeon was the part people hated about dungeons. The nerve.

Of course, Blizzard calls this “convenience.” What it actually means is, “We’re just going to strip away any reason to engage with others in our massively multiplayer online game.” Want to make a friend or find a guild? Nope, here’s a few people you’ll never see again. But hey, at least the queue is fast, right?

And let’s talk about the delightful player behavior the Dungeon Finder has nurtured. Blizzard’s brilliant system has now gifted us the joys of toxic, entitled players who think they’re gods because they outgeared everyone else by a single ilvl. Pull a mob by mistake? Prepare for a verbal lashing from some keyboard warrior with nothing better to do. Need a second to breathe between pulls? Too bad! Someone’s already flaming you in chat while speed-running like their life depends on it.

But don’t worry, when someone rage quits or kicks you for no reason, just queue again. The magic of anonymity! Because why not encourage the worst kind of behavior when no one has to face consequences or accountability? After all, who cares if you’re toxic when you’ll never see these people again? Blizzard sure doesn’t!

Thanks, Blizzard, for turning what used to be a social adventure into a glorified single-player experience with background NPCs—err, I mean players. What’s next? Raiding through an app? Oh wait… that’s probably coming too.

But hey, at least we’re saving precious seconds by not having to interact with anyone. Because that’s why we all play MMOs, right? To not talk to people. And to deal with absolute jerks in every random dungeon. Truly, a winning combination.

Great job, Blizzard. Keep making WoW as “multiplayer” as possible. I can’t wait to see how you “streamline” the social aspect next! Maybe just remove chat altogether and replace it with a “Nice DPS, Bro” button?

Nobody "talks " because nobody is gonna risk infractions from trolls.

You cam thank Blizzard for their new brave automatem report system and ai bots replaceing CMs with their generic "we dont care for your appeals "

[Demeriel-argent-dawn]

No offense, OP, but you come off so passive aggressive and angry LFD is probably the only content Id agree to do with you and only by happenstance because the system decided to put us in a group.

[Lilíith-draenor]

@Annaconda-ragnaros

@Moecus-argent-dawn

If you think that the remnants of social interaction that exist now are enough, that’s your perspective. But don’t ignore the fact that many players feel this system has eroded the sense of community and teamwork that was once central to the MMO experience.

I agree that guilds nowadays are basically a raid group that doesn’t disband when you log off, but the kind of communities you’re wishing for exist in sandbox-style mmo-s that don’t revolve around content with player caps.

Not true.

Communities moved to discords where they wont get banned from game for making Jokes.

Again blamme blizz for their idiotic report Policy

[Vicktor-aszune]

Heroic Dungeons are pointless faceroll.

No way I’m farming the second worst tier of gear when way better gear is coming out soon and will actually be fun to get.

You just seem like the Delve boss who uses the ability “Raging Tantrum”.

[Hatalii-aggramar]

@Moecus-argent-dawn

Maybe you’re perfectly fine with WoW turning into a glorified matchmaking simulator, but some of us miss the days when the game actually felt like a community and not just a queue fest with a side of toxic behavior.

But hey, if you’re happy with the way things are, more power to you. I guess enjoying meaningful social interaction in an MMO is a bit too much to ask for these days.

There is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing all the things you’re complaining about here (and in your whole rant of an initial post).

[Enluu-argent-dawn]

Now that Blizzard developers are older and have families and other things to do, even other games to play, they’ve been starting to understand that people don’t have 30 minutes to scream out they need a dungeon run on a normal. It’s an in and out dungeon. It shouldn’t need that much effort to just form a dungeon.

Also, they’re starting to understand a lot of WoW players are introverts who are adverse or intimidated by social interactions outside of their circle, so when all your guildies and friends aren’t around good luck getting into that normal you need for a quest.

Things changed to be more convenient for casual introverts like me. Other people go and socialize in their Discords. It’s just how modern technology caught up and let people be more insular if they wanted to be.

[Annaconda-ragnaros]

@Lilíith-draenor

Not true.

Communities moved to discords where they wont get banned from game for making Jokes.

Again blamme blizz for their idiotic report Policy

Well…it’s also because discord is more practical. It can be accessed via any device, has tools, linking pictures, gadgets…and doesn’t require a sub so we can talk with inactive members.
WoW as a chat platform (social guilds) was only viable because there was no better alternative, so I wouldn’t say anything “killed” social guilds. They just became obsolete thanks to alternatives, and because there’s no in-game reason to have large groups of people in one community.
Otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing posts like this.

[Hatalii-aggramar]

@Moecus-argent-dawn

Ah yes, the classic “it’s been 10 years, just get over it” argument.

@Moecus-argent-dawn

Ah, the good ol’ “manual” M+ argument.

You’re being ripped to pieces - this is as someone else said:

@Linaria-steamwheedle-cartel

Gonna be real, this is a you problem. It’s entirely possible to join an actual community where people talk and do content together.

A you problem.

[Blindingsun-argent-dawn (Blindingsun)]

With the OP’s attitude I’m not surprised he doesn’t get invited to groups

[Enluu-argent-dawn]

@Moecus-argent-dawn

If you think that the remnants of social interaction that exist now are enough, that’s your perspective. But don’t ignore the fact that many players feel this system has eroded the sense of community and teamwork that was once central to the MMO experience.

The many of older players on WoW who enjoyed that kind of thing are already on Classic WoW or moved over to other games. If you guys were the majority, WoW would have never had a dungeon queuing system. Simply put, while quite a percentage may still feel that way like you, you do not outnumber the players who like it the way it is now.

Make a guild and a community of players who like that. By your rationale, it would be overflowing with members. So show us your roster numbers if that’s the case and maybe I’ll agree with you.

This is just another one of those BACK IN MY DAY we walked 10,000 miles to the dungeon with a wet yak on our backs posts.

Sorry you feel insulted by new technology.

[Hjorik-silvermoon]

Yes, spamming chat channels 40 minutes to find a group and then get kicked was very fun.

Group finder is great.

[Enluu-argent-dawn]

@Hjorik-silvermoon

Yes, spamming chat channels 40 minutes to find a group and then get kicked was very fun.

Group finder is great.

“Sorry my friend just got on we don’t need you anymore.” yeet

Insert Andy from Toy Story dropping Woody into the abyss trash can.

[Gulruuk-stormscale]

I mean, your ‘bad design choices’ statement is entirely subjective.

I think the majority seem to be pretty happy with how the game is right now and there is good reason for that. Communities are not the same now that people have been on the internet for many more years and ugly, sarcastic, toxic personalities have become too common for those old days to ever exist again.

[Enluu-argent-dawn]

@Gulruuk-stormscale

I mean, your ‘bad design choices’ statement is entirely subjective.

I think the majority seem to be pretty happy with how the game is right now and there is good reason for that. Communities are not the same now that people have been on the internet for many more years and ugly, sarcastic, toxic personalities have become too common for those old days to ever exist again.

It existed back then too, but all you had to do is get the majority to turn against a person and suddenly they weren’t welcomed in any capacity to play and changing servers meant you had to level and start all over again. Some maybe deserved it, others may have been treated that way over a misunderstanding or even lies. I experienced plenty of toxic internet communities being one of the few girls who was open about their gender online. It absolutely existed.

[Vershantis-argent-dawn]

I still remember the day they introduced LFD in Wrath vividly, and i had a rotten feeling about it in my guts. And it wasn’t from eating a bunch of trash with soda for once.

That day Blizzard decided to invalidate the enormously beautiful and magical world, and make it an optional choice to play in. Alongside making it optional to care about who you’re playing with, and whether you wanna communicate at all or not.
The game design intent with it was clear: it was about efficiency over adventure and friendships, about fueling endgame at the expense of all else their team had so carefully crafted.

The world shrunk and players got pushed into this new mini dimension of dungeon queueing, and then… the players adapted. As we always do. Those who didn’t want to, left or complained into Blizz’s deaf ears.
And then the devs further fueled the gameplay into instanced content, leaving the old world in WoW to die off with each new expack. It’s as if endgame was the devs own preference, so they put it into the game regardless of having started the best game of all time with a living breathing world.

The people left playing and replying here are those that are at the very least okey with it, or in my case, put up with it grudgingly sometimes. So i don’t expect you’ll get alot of agreements here in the comments at least.

But what’s interesting to keep in mind is that there are so many that left because of how everything shifted towards endgame, and being less and less social. We went from what was it, 12 million? to about 2 million players now.
And i have no doubt the World of Queuecraft contributed greatly to that decline over time.

Who wants to play a hamsterwheel with new paint every 2 years for 10 years plus? Well, me apparently, and those others who are left. It’s a sometimes quite fun hamsterwheel, although that fun gets more and more fleeting each xpack for me.

But the game could be so much more than it is now if they tried to appeal to that which drew so many people into this game to begin with back then.
Something i do hope for alot, still, even now, but get flamed for aplenty because i’m supposed to play classic (which i did, until they took TBC and turned it into another shop extension by adding the level boost out of all things to it).

I wonder where the game would be now if they had continuted to focus on the world, adventure and friendships/enemies as the core part of the game, with raiding being the cherry on top, and not the whole cake as it is now together with M+.

But for now, Blizzard seems perfectly keen on staying endgame focused, hell even e-sports focused even as a supposed MMORPG, so the games true potential will probably always stay handicapped, unless some massive direction change happens in Blizz that makes them cater to an audience that sees the name World of Warcraft and buys it for that idea; expecting to play in that wondrous world, with their own hero alongside others going on an epic adventure together, finishing it off with some badass raids worth grinding gear for.

And i know Blizz could make that, if they really focused on it; but their focus is elsewhere, and as long as that’s the case, this whole efficiency over all and everyone else gameplay will remain unfortunately. Times change, yes. But in this case not for the better

[Gulruuk-stormscale]

Oh I’m fully aware that people were far from perfect back then too, but I have witnessed the toxicity levels continue to rise over the years. It was inevitable as more and more people got access to the internet over the years, and social media also allowed people to see how bad others could really be.

This is something that has gotten exponentially worse over the years and it has been there for all to see.

[Sylvare-argent-dawn (Sylvare)]

So filter out the ones that seem nice or atleast aren’t making any waves while in the group
Promote them from stranger to non stranger
and then you won’t have to deal with strangers
also here’s the thing with non strangers;
they all start out as strangers

[Gulruuk-stormscale]

Who, me?

No, I don’t care. I play the game on my own mostly and I like it that way.

[Sylvare-argent-dawn (Sylvare)]

I clicked reply on the OPs comment so no
idk why it doesn’t show the reply link either to be honest

[Gulruuk-stormscale]

Yeah, it is annoying that it does that.