How would you like to group up?

Now I got the theme song of "The Neverending Story" stuck in my head, put in an infinite loop resembling a moebius ring. Everquest? How about "Neverending Quest" ?

Damnit! You had to bring all those memories back did you? Why did they have to kill Atreyu's horse?

“Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” - Pico Iyer

“One of the great things about travel is that you find out how many good, kind people there are.” - Edith Wharton

“Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.” -Carol Pearson

" traveling provides us with a neverending story that allows us to truly ever quest."

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” -Mark Twain

Depends on where you're traveling to and why.

Well hopefully we won't be travelling back and forth to tell some guy we killed 10 rabbits.

So I was sitting here reading some posts about communication and how grouping should work with LFD tools or not and started thinking about why we do dungeons and why communication broke down in the dungeon system then it occurred to me. The reason dungeons fell apart was not that we had tools that let us get there fast but because we really had no desire to do the dungeon in the first place it was just farming and exp gains. We didn't care if we completed it or not it never really mattered. The people doing the dungeon with us unless they were friends it really did not bother us if they got their objective complete or not as long as we finished and got what we wanted. I was trying to figure out how to fix that type of mentality when it occurred to me that maybe we shouldn't be doing them unless we had a reason to. If we did do them then make sure we wanted to make sure we completed it.

It came down to this I do not think players should be able to join random dungeon groups. There should be objectives that create the dungeon group situations a collective interest more then just finding a group and doing dungeons just for exp or loot. Collective interest could be anything from a common quest to a global objective. These objectives would come up like dailies but you would have to have completed some prerequisite before they would be available.

For instance as you are roaming you come across a recipe you right click it and it gives you a quest to go get materials from a mob that spawns in a dungeon. Another player rescues a little girl who tells him that her brother fell into a well that leads to the same dungeon. Some of these things would be like dailies but are tailored to a zone. You are doing some exploring in Lavastorm and come across a quest that tells you to go to SolA. Some of these quests could be static NPC type of deals or they could be random chance recipe drops or random NPC's like mobs that when you attack them beg you to stop and give you a quest.

There should also be a mechanic that if the player fails to complete the dungeon they get a failed for that objective and lose it completely. The dungeon has to be completely finished to get credit for the objective no matter if you got your part done or not. All items should be put into a collective list and rolled as they are found at the end of the dungeon they will be handed out but not before the dungeon is complete to stop people from ninja looting or ninja needing. This will cause players to communicate and try to work together also will lower the ****** bag effect of people ditching the group mid fight or kicking others from the group because if one player leaves they all fail and no one gets exp or the loot. This may lead to people only doing dungeons with friends but when you run the dungeon with others you will make sure that everyone is up to speed and you will be more respectful to people, knowing they can cost you time and money.

I do not think Dungeons should be something you could farm if you have no reason to be there the dungeon does not show up on your LFD or available dungeon list. If players have a reason to be there they will actually take the time to do it right. They will take the time to explain fights or watch how a fight happens to come up with strategy to counter the events. Anyway this is just random thoughts tell me what you guys think.

Traveling allows us to ever quest ..
its about being open to new experiences,encountering new groups

Part of the reason for players acting total *** hats is anonymity.

If players have a reputation (that they cannot hide) then they will soon become 'known' locally.

If they are helpful to others, people remember it.

If they are ninja-looters, bad players, or any other type of malcontent, people will remember *that*.

After a while he will find his reputation precedes him (for good or bad).

The problem is when you cannot identify the bad apples.

This tends to happen when :

(i) An 'auto' group/dungeon finder is used

(ii) Any form of 'teleport you to dungeon' mechanic is used,

(iii) There is too much 'Fast Travel'

(iv) cross-server 'queueing' for matching is possible

(v) Name changes and server changes are easy and fast

Players *will* police themselves (by not grouping with total ***'s) .... but this means that they must have the chance to be able to 'know' about people. If, as many would have, it only takes a maximum of 20-30 minutes (or less) to travel from one end of the world to the other, then people will not 'get to know' about people around them. There would be too many new faces.

This is one of the reasons I am against the things listed (i)-(v) above.

Sometimes it's about quickly meeting up with old friends, rather than the journey.

Now they've got the AA slider (just like Everquest) so you can slow down your levelling. And it leaves you plenty to do as you roll alts, so not every character has to do all the same things.

Hopefully 'emergent AI' will provide the same sort of difference in experiences.

I would like that are alliance system between the guilds, then if i don't have a group a would be joined of people of my guilds or that are friendly with my guild.

and sometimes it's about quickly grabbing dungeon tokens and skipping on content,rather than the journey

It is always about friends
If you travel with them you are together in the moment
If friends cross the world and move mountains to get to each other;there you have a solid friendship with deeper form of mutual appreciation

Can't travel with friends when your friends aren't with you.
Sometimes speed is of the essence. Sometimes you gotta stop to smell the roses.
Variety is the spice of life.

Bah. Epic quests that have several sub-quests SHOULD take casual players several WEEKS to MONTHS to complete. That's why they're epic.

If they adopt a model for crafting that makes ONE complex item instead of FIFTY easy ones to raise your skill, which they should, should take multiple sessions to assemble the mats. Longer for more powerful stuff.

If you can max out a character's "tiers" in this game in under 6 months (Personally, I'd prefer 1-2 years) I am going to be disgusted.

each stranger on your journey is a potential friend
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” — Tim Cahill

Not really, no. Far from true in an MMORPG.

Riiiiight. So, those tasks and sub-quests take minutes and hours and culminate in epic quests and rallying calls that take weeks and months.

It won't take multiple sessions to assemble mats. Nor should it.

Be prepared for disgust, I guess.

thats why most mmo's are far from good

Most MMOs are far from good because they are static, we can outlevel zones and they have an endgame.

Very good,and because they focus on selfish motivators like gear and tokens rather than the journey,
the moment together with friends and encounters that are potential friends
I just love this quote so much..It is the answer to bringing players into relation.
“Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” -Pico Iyer