Now that I’ve made some of you wince so hard from reading the title that your eyelashes have become hopelessly entangled and you’ll have to see for the rest of your life through a straw… let’s talk irony.
I log in this morning to WordPress and see the following comment left by Skro on yesterday’s TSW post: “More generally, this game is much much better when played in group.”
It made me laugh to read that, because last night I did just that. I log in to The Secret World, determined to make headway in the final chapters of Solomon Island, and run back to the Indian camp to get the last two quests done there. The first is a pretty standard “go kill these guys, then these guys, then these guys, and when you’re done, turn yourself into the police because you’re a mass murderer” type quest. The only problem was that the first stage was to kill 13 zombies — and it was timed. I don’t know why it was timed, but I started to panic because it was taking me a little less than a minute to kill a mob, and I had just 10 minutes on the clock. I was frantically running from zombie to zombie, trying to keep the kill streak going while healing myself whenever my skills popped.
Three minutes to go, I had six mobs left and a sinking feeling that I’d be redoing all of this very soon. It was right then that another player ran up to me and invited me into a group, and everything changed.
When one became two, the mobs fell to us like butter in the heat of a July sun. Suddenly, six mobs was no big deal, and we agreed to stick it out together for the rest of the quest. When that quest was done, we did the next. And the next. And the next. After some light talk and an hour of questing together, we traded friends links and logged out.
As some of you have pointed out, grouping is such a game-changer for TSW, almost more so than other titles on the market. Now I don’t mind grouping for quests, but what I hate is having to spam general chat looking for people on the same tier of the same quest as I am — and this problem is compounded by the limited number of quests you can have at any given time.
In one of the loading screens, Funcom encourages grouping up by “asking in LFG chat.” OK, devs, it’s 2012 — we shouldn’t have to do your job for you. If TSW is greatly enhanced by grouping and devs specifically encourage it, there need to be tools to facilitate it past running in circles screaming in the hopes that someone will come along. Relying on a random player to run up and happen to be on the same quest chain that I am is equally flimsy.
LFG tools, Funcom. Get on it. And not just for dungeons, you hear?
Then again, we can turn that around and say that they shouldn’t have to do your job for you…
That said, it seems like they are working on a LFG tool separate from the dungeon tool (at least going from Joel’s comments on the latest live stream).
It is a better experience to find other people organically while you’re questing – the waiting factor associated with having to ask in LFG or queue really screws with the immersion. Ideally, TSW would be able to pull you into an instance that had other people standing near you on the same quest line to allow you to group up – but there are tech limitations there.
My partner and I are playing TSW as a duo, and we are having a great time. Solving puzzles with two is more fun than on your own, and it’s easy for us to find dungeon groups as a tank/healer combo. I think that a lot of the quests and mobs would be pretty tough if there weren’t two of us – but we’re only halfway through Savage Coast, so it might change.
Petter beat me to the punch. I also agree with Nazaniel that it is better to group up on the fly with people in the area, though I also understand that if you find yourself completely alone it can be very frustrating to try to finish a quest that appears designed for a group. This will only get worse as the player pop in the lower zones thins out.
As inconvenienced as you are by the lack of a LFG tool, the community is better because of it. Forcing players to converse, plan, and compromise leads to higher quality social environment. Pseudonymity is better than faceless anonymity, and players gain reputations that they work to preserve. Relationships form: you are an example of this. Have you ever exchanged Friends List invite with someone you met through an automated LFG system?
I see the whole Social aspects of MMORPGs as one of their most important features. Forming relationships and reputation is not a “job” for developers, but instead a part of the gameplay. Should Funcom kill mobs and complete quests for everyone also?
While typically I do not like game mechanics that seem to encourage speeding things up… a group finding tool seems only logical, especially if you are designing content for groups. Since a large portion of the game is in such instances that require a group it amazes me they do not have such a tool.
I also am a pretty forgiving player, especially with an ever changing thing like an MMO, but to have no LFG feature AND have the chat be broken for as long as it was was pretty bad.
I blogged recently about TSW’s unsung open grouping system. They haven’t trumpeted it like Rift or GW2 but it’s there just the same. I do lots of open-world content in TSW with other players but I rarely bother to group with them.
The whole thing happens organically. You see someone nearby and it’s clear from their actions that they are on the same mission, which is much likelier in TSW than in other MMOs because of the very small number of active missions allowed at one time. You tag along or they tag along behind you. You both know what’s happening form the Mission journal, you can heal anyone from outside group, xp on kills is shared out of group, and in most cases Mission updates are granted for participation in the stage regardless of who does what.
I only pop a group invite if I notice that a stage isn’t updating, which has happened rarely. I find the whole thing much more immersive and natural when I, the player, stand at one remove from the characters. Having to talk to the other person usually breaks the spell, unless I’m lucky enough to bump into someone who stays in character.
And that timed zombie kill quest is the very one that caused Mrs Bhagpuss to log out and never log back in. There were two of us doing it and it was still impossible. We did the zombies but we never even got to the next stage because of repeated Ak’Ab attacks in transit.
They may want to fix the chat issues for good, too!
Anyway… YAY ZOMBIES!
I see it as the developers’ job to provide as many tools as possible to encourage socialization, including communication, guild support, and grouping. Just because you prefer one way to group does not mean that works for everyone. Plus, let’s face it, the game does a horrible job letting you know about it’s laid-back open grouping feature. I’m not against what it has, I just think it really needs more. The open grouping system in RIFT is wonderful and I have indeed met and friended several people through it.
Let me flip these arguments back on you guys: Should MMOs also not include an auction house/marketplace, but instead just make everyone shout through chat channels or find people one-on-one to sell stuff? Because that makes for a better community? Or no guild tools, but instead ask players to organize themselves and use their own efforts to keep the guild going? Of course not, that’s silly. A solid LFG tool isn’t a nicety at this point, it’s a necessity in MMOs.
You might like to know that there is already a lfg tool, created by one of those mysterious but wonderful modders. Since TSW seems to have a more open source then some there are actually quite a few decent mods already available… Go Go emote mod
The Killing the 10 zombies in 13 minutes is a dps check! It may not seem like it or say so on the mission but if your dps or QL gear is too low you will likely fail to complete it solo.
I’ve not found it any bit difficult to do group friendly missions or to group on missions either nor have I had to go out my way to group for completing a mission. Usually if I’m in the mission area and someone else is as well it’s pretty much quite obvious that person is just about on the very same mission. Usually that person usually ask to group up and I’m always inclined as it just makes things easier and faster. Mostly I just like to go it solo as much as possible unless I’m stuck or it’s allot more difficult. But grouping in TSW is dynamically faster and in the times I’ve grouped the game really does flow different and appear allot more fun grouping. If you can complete some missions in group it’s a total blast of a time and a great rush.
Sometime on group oriented missions you don’t even have to group, just help the other person along the way which makes it easy for each to complete their objective. As long as your there to kill the last bad guy or monster you also get credit if you have attacked the mob when it dies. And in the end even if none of you said a single word you both completed the mission and all you had to say to the other person is did you get everything? Yep all done! Great, have fun, see ya around. Yeah I had that happen several times.
Grouping in TSW is a good thing and yes Devs shouldnt have to do everyone social job got them.
Syp – I belive we can do that song and dance for every feature in MMOs, more or less. While I agree on a dungeon finder, I don’t care as much about a LFG-tool. Not that I have anything against that either, I have only yet to see one that actually works…
I will have to agree with bhagpuss, my experiences have been exactly the same. I’ve grouped up organically, without actually sending or receiving an invite, so many times by now. Being able to share updates while not actually being grouped is great. Yesterday I went through almost a whole quest like that, when it was over I handed over a blue gadget kit that dropped (and that I didn’t need). Then you can share a /cheer and go on your merry ways.
Can be a bit more difficult to do missions organically as usual if no other player is really in the immediate area with you on the same mission.
Sorry after spending more time waiting in agartha for nightmare groups then running them. The next MMO thats does not include a dungeon finder tool from the start can kiss my a**. TSW is a very good game. Awesome quest and world design but the “metagame” is lacking after you finish the “main” part of the game……………..