Hey look, its the LFG tab.

[Margalis]

The other issue with grouping is that as soon as you finish one quest, everyone has a different next quest to do and the group disbands.

In beta I found the only real grouping outside of instances was killing boss-type mobs.

[Signe]

You're right.  The few groups I've been in always break up after the quest.  Sometimes I don't meet these people until we're all at the place where the quest is completed.  There is no roaming about, looking for trouble, finding unusual mobs with uber loot to share, that sort of thing.  Pick up groups aren't usually very social anyway, but in WoW it's even more unsocial.  Even people in our guild only seem to get together for the elite quests.  I don't think WoW is exactly anti-social, but it definitely doesn't encourage group exploration, at least not on normal servers.  

Maybe this will change at higher levels, when the quests dry up a bit...  I don't know as I've not leveled any character past 15 in either beta or release.  Hopefully by then, there will still be interesting area's left for group exploration.   Perhaps, it's different on pvp servers... where you might group together to skirmish in contested areas or stir things up in an enemy town.  We are on an normal rp server, mostly for the lack of server issues, queues, and the more mature community... except there really isn't any community with the lack of pvp.  I don't really role play, but a pvp rp server might be the answer.

This is where I miss games like SB and UO.  Stirring up trouble was a lot of fun and definitely add an element of excitement to those games.  I'd like to try it in WoW.

[Dark_MadMax]

Damn I can swear this community has some of the most anti-social players. Complaining about grouping in WoW...... What you want  everyone beggning your toon to join their groups as soon as you log in or something?

 And I tell you if you are a good player you get just that -  lead a few succesfull groups in a few  instances and  people will send you tells to join them  for other instances as well. -they will summon you and do all the running for you if you proven to be a worthy member (e.g. not completely retarded) .

 Any grouping for "hard" non-instance quests is not hard either -you just gotta come over your "snail in a shell" attitude and ask in a friendly manner people nearby if you can join them (or invite them yourself ,but ask first) . I mean some freaks so afraid to type a few words in chat that they spam you with invites without even asking , or run around you ,without saying a word ,hoping you read their mind and invite them(and then they complain if you  kill the boss).

 If you can't find people in area nearby ask in general chat , if no one responds just do solo quests. Get some friends ,get in a guild , don't be selfish asshole and   you won't have any grouping problems.

And ,yes , despite all that some people won't group with you ,or invite you. And  there is no need to be bitter about that  -you know they may have their own reasons , they prefer soloing , grouping with their friends ,or just don't like the look and the name of your toon .  -  the world does not turn around you ,nor it is doomed because of this.

 Its the attitude problem on YOUR part ,not WoW problem. WoW is designed perfectly for flexibility - it does not force you grouping ,nor it penalizes you for it.  There is alwasy opportunity to socialze  and at the same time  you can always do your own thing if thats what you want. yet some people complain that it is not eq/daoc like "group or die" nazi game mechanics. Freedom of choice is what WoW has ,sadly freedom and choice require at  least some form of initiative and thinking on player's part  and eq seem lobotomized those qualities from a lot of mmorpgs player base.


p.s. I am member of a well established guild on one server and soloing with alt on another , and I see no  problem grouping with either toon, except toon which I play with my guild gets a few  "giveaways" from higher level guildies.

[HaemishM]

don't be selfish asshole

UNPOSSIBLE!

[Rasix]

Don't take this as a flame, BUT PLEASE LEARN COMMA SPACING. I have no problem with what you said (I actually agree with most of it).  However, I wanted to stab your post serveral times.

[MrHat]

Don't take this as a flame, BUT PLEASE LEARN COMMA SPACING. I have no problem with what you said (I actually agree with most of it).  However, I wanted to stab your post serveral times.

/agree.

On a side note:  You can powerlevel you friends.  Just follow them around and kill all the mobs they attack first.  As soon as the mob turns grey, kill it.

[sidereal]

What is this 'turns grey'?

I had fun power-leveling a night elf with my Tauren toon on a Normal server last night.  I just followed him around and after he hit one of those owlbear bastards in Ashenvale, I nuked it.

We communicated through dance.

[Sky]

I was having fun with some warlocks last night , we were all soloing and had ended up camping the same boss mob on the same quest. But since we were also just hanging out having fun , not trying to finish this quest to get to another quest or anything , we didn't group up. We sat in the corners of the room and put all our pets on the boss spawn spot. We then took turns making our pets aggro , one pet per turn would be aggro , the rest passive. Once the mob turned grey , we sicced all out pets on it , never cast a spell in around an hour of hanging out shooting the breeze with those guys.

^^

[Trippy]

What is this 'turns grey'?

It's WoW's form of encounter locking to prevent kill stealing. The first person to damage a mob will "tag" it and other non-party (non-raid?) people will see the colored bar in the mob portrait turn grey. I personally prefer the more obvious lock icon that other games use but I've gotten used to it now. Unlike those other games, however, other people can still attack a mob once it has turned grey, they just won't get any exp or be able to loot it. At first before I realized what was going on I thought WoW didn't have encounter "locking" since I was used to the FFXI / EQ2 version of it and was getting pissed at all the people attacking my mobs. Now I'm like, go right ahead, that just means I'm getting exp faster.

[Morfiend]

The other issue with grouping is that as soon as you finish one quest, everyone has a different next quest to do and the group disbands.

In beta I found the only real grouping outside of instances was killing boss-type mobs.

I would have to say a lot of this occures due to WoW being the more casual friendly mmog we have all be bitching about wanting. People will log in, do one or two quests then log out.

But if you kind of follow the quest lines, its not uncommon to do a full quest line of 5 or 6 quests some times. I pretty much only group with guildies or solo (being a warlock I can solo very well). The only time I group with none guild people is when I join up with some one to share a quest mob spawn.

[Sky]

It's funny that in the game that required grouping to do most fun things I hated grouping, but in a game where you aren't forced to group much at all, I enjoy grouping.

[HaemishM]

Choice beats coercion.

[WindupAtheist]

The nice thing about the "turning grey" deal is that jumping on someone else's foozles is more of a friendly gesture as opposed to "OMFG F U KILLSTEALER!"  So far in my experience, when one group happens over another in the middle of a big fight, the second group will go ahead and help beat down the critters.

I prefer this sort of subtle "do what you want, but you won't get xp from killstealing" system to an overt immersion-breaking "you can't hit that monster, it belongs to someone else" deal.

[Trippy]

I prefer this sort of subtle "do what you want, but you won't get xp from killstealing" system to an overt immersion-breaking "you can't hit that monster, it belongs to someone else" deal.

The "you can't hit that monster" mechanic is also a way to slow down powerleveling but Blizzard clearly intended WoW to be a fast leveling game.

[Viin]

The "you can't hit that monster" mechanic is also a way to slow down powerleveling but Blizzard clearly intended WoW to be a fast leveling game.

Except you don't get experience points for it, so it's almost the same thing? Just better?

[WindupAtheist]

Maybe I'll sing a different tune eighteen months from now when I'm level sixty or whatever, but for now I say w00t for powerleveling.  Leave that "grind = game" shit for EQ.

[Pineapple]

Maybe I'll sing a different tune eighteen months from now when I'm level sixty or whatever, but for now I say w00t for powerleveling.  Leave that "grind = game" shit for EQ.

Doing the quests regularly are a lot more interesting than powerlevelling or XP grinding. Also better experience overall, too.

Just do the quests. Dont worry about levelling because it is plenty fast. Quests take the repetitive boredom out of levelling, mostly. Not all, but mostly.

[Pineapple]

It's funny that in the game that required grouping to do most fun things I hated grouping, but in a game where you aren't forced to group much at all, I enjoy grouping.

We've been telling this to Sony for years, and yet they do not understand.

Give people the choice. Encourage to group in positive manners, not in negatives (i.e. forcing).

[Trippy]

The "you can't hit that monster" mechanic is also a way to slow down powerleveling but Blizzard clearly intended WoW to be a fast leveling game.

Except you don't get experience points for it, so it's almost the same thing? Just better?

You are thinking about it from the perspective of the person attacking an already "tagged" mob. For powerleveling I'm referring to the person who tagged it first.