![lowrance-lfg-250[1]](http://www.myextralife.com/wow/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/lowrance-lfg-2501.jpg "lowrance-lfg-250[1]")
It looks like Blizzard updated the 3.3 Test Patch notes last night, and this new tidbit just jumped out:
The Looking For Group chat channel has returned and can be accessed in all major cities (similar to the Trade chat channel) without the use of the Dungeon system interface.
It’s a brave new world. But how is this going to play out in the wild? Does this mean that there will now be two channels filled with drivel? Will one rise above the other? If so, which one and why?
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I have a strong feeling that the LFG channel will become filled with mindless drivel such as the anal game, but I am going to keep my fingers crossed that it will mostly be used by people who are indeed LFG.
I think this will degrade into another trade channel, until people just stop using it and begin to put their lfg messages in trade or both channels. I like the current LFG interface. Im going to miss it.
Love the show.
Yeb
One could hope that it would force people to stop using trade as LFG. I doubt that, though. I suspect it’ll become a second trade. Not for trading, mind you, but for people to spam into. Yay!
I’ll use it for it’s intended purpose, and I only hope other might too.
Yes, it will become a second ‘world’ channel filled with drivel. But… trade will have 50% less drivel than before.
I don’t think it will make much difference at all, trade always had LFG posts in it and it still will. Maybe there will be a fewer, but I will still have both channels turned off most of the time.
On my server Trade Chat is pretty much the established barren’s chat. I don’t really see any of the trolls moving from their comfy drama filled spot. So overall I think the change will be good. Plenty of people will use it effectively, but at the same time I’m sure something will be said once and a while that will derail it for a while. Should be more helpful when it comes to finding groups for special events such as HH. Having to join LFG to open the channel but not being able to sign up for Scarlet Monestary because it’s a low level instance is kind of frustrating.
I am not sure the space-time continuum can handle double the inanity of two world-wide chats. It may buckle under the pressure of having to relay all of the “anal” jokes, personal insults, and political/religious/prejudicial statements backed up by wildly unsubstantiated facts. (Maybe opening up another world-wide chat is how Cataclysm really starts. hmmm….)
It is indeed going to be another Trade chat. %99 Chuck Norris/Meme of the week, %1 actual LFG. Trade will still dominate the drivel charts, since more people sit around in cities doing nothing than actually looking for groups.
Trade has always been used for LFG because of the lack of a better option, so I hope that players will start using LFG now that it’s been made a “passive” channel.
I’m guessing that Trade will remain full of garbage, but hopefully all the LFG stuff goes into LFG instead.
If we could only have a General Chat which worked the same way, and have people actually use it :/
Umm … how does this impact cross-server LFG? Surely the chat channel won’t be cross-server … please tell me it won’t be cross-server … Trade/Barren’s style chat from across an entire server group! Ahh!
Otherwise, I more or less agree with what’s said above: it will, like all other channels, have a poor ‘signal to noise’ ratio, but still be the best place sometimes to actually find that group you’re looking for.
I wonder if that means new LFG channel will now be cross server as well. I can’t even imagine the mess that would be.
1) But how is this going to play out in the wild?
- I have a hard time believing that this will be any different than it ever has been. Namely, it will be useless still.
2) Does this mean that there will now be two channels filled with drivel?
- Yes. Absolutely!
3) Will one rise above the other?
- I think that trade channel will still reign as the most useless channel ever.
4) If so, which one and why?
- I think the fact that you join Trade Channel by default will keep it as the most hated and useless channel.
With the new changes coming to the LFG Interface, it will become the
spot to get cross server groups going. The LFG channel will be useful
in getting a group of those only from your server. At least that’s how
I see it. Once people realize this, it will become more valuable. Of
course initially, it’s going to be the standard drivel.
I think the outcome is going to rely on a number of contributing variables.
1 : Whether or not Blizzard decides to make this a passively active channel or something that is “opt-in” aka something you would actually have to /join
Reasoning : More players than you would realize obliviously click past the patch notes and jump right into the game. I think if it was not automatically joined, you would see a lot of credible use of the channel by people who opted into it for its actual purpose and a lot of people completely bypassing it because of complete ignorance to its existence.
2 : Whether or not the people using /2 trade to advertise their groups decide to switch or not.
Reasoning : If people want to make jokes, they want to make them in an atmosphere that is filled with other jokes to either build off of, or top. Ex: look at the anal game. If the new LFG channel is filled with all the traffic from the current lfg channel as well as all the people using trade as a lfg channel I think people will naturally just spam in the chat that is currently filled with the jokes, aka trade, and avoid the one filled with LFG stuffs.
3 : Whether or not people can break out of the instinctive typing of “/2 (insert anal joke or other such phenomena)”
Reasoning : Admit it, if you are bored, I mean really bored… what do you do?… you slam out a /2 and PAINT FACES WITH BLOOD
4 : Whether or not Blizzard ups their game on chat monitoring.
Reasoning : A good old spam ban wave and an accompanying blue post would put a chill down a lot of the hatching trolls’ backs.
All of these factors will play a huge role in the coming transition and how it pans out. I for one am hopeful and ever optimistic!
My solution?
Make barren’s chat global and suck all the spam to that. Problem solved.
Please excuse grammatical mistakes, i am writing this in short bursts so my boss doesnt get mad if he spots me. I want that pet way too bad but I am currently monitoring the IT desk at an investment firm…. see those guys on MSNBC and CNN commenting on the market? Keep an eye out for an obey sticker over their shoulder one of these days. I’m workin on it =D
now excuse me, i have to get back to work. Love the show!!!
-Raichu from the Malorne US server horde
shetler.ist@gmail.com
This, in my opinion won’t really work as intended right away but might work in the long run.
People will use the new LFG channel for Drivels at first… most people wont have it on for long because they’ll get annoyed. People writing useless comments will soon find out that there isn’t as many spectators on the LFG channel and will go back to spam Trade… This is when the LFG channel will become viable if it isn’t too late already.
Drivel is constrained by available channels. It will, by definition fill all available space. LFG will have,as someone noted above, lim N->oo S/N~0
Ultimately this is an idea that sounds good in theory, however in reality it is very likely that this channel will just be filled with trade chatter and the like.
I think that people have options in trade (leave, ignore offenders, etc) but in LFG think it will be a different culture… I’m hoping Blizz monitors LFg a bit more since people may actually turn to try to use it for it’s intended use. There’s bound to be a few bad apples; I guess I’m hoping they will be far and few between.
I may be in the minority here, but I always liked being able to go into the LFG channel and actually LFG. Now I like everyone else have been using the trade channel. There are ways to leave the channel if you don’t want to see the spam. I see it as a good thing…as long as I can choose when to be a part of it.
People are creatures of habbit. Unless trade is removed they will continue to use it to find groups. Now there will just be 2 channels to spam LFG. Hopefully the new cross realm LFG will help to lower the chatter in general. Maybe we can actually trade goods on the trade channel
.
Meh, I left trade chat long ago (for obvious reasons) and I don’t really pug except on alts, should help with finding people for lower lvl instances though.
It would blow my mind if the channels actually would get used for what they are intended for, but I don’t see that happening any time soon. Trade will probably slow down since LFG is world wide, and LFG will grow into what trade is now. To much Jibba Jabba as Mr. T would say.
I predict an upswing of in-channel protests like “go to trade” and “go to lfg.”
Any and every channel that contains a majority of players you don’t know, and therefore a higher potential for anonymity, turns into drivel.
As long as Blizz provides people the tools to do asinine things in widely broadcast channels they will do so. I have no reason to think that Trade or the new LFG channels would be any different.
Hopefully the new tools that we’re being provided though will at least help people that are actually looking for a group to find what they’re looking for.
I for one will be keeping the channels turned on along with one of those oh-so-handy auto-reporting add-ons. My hope is that if people at least get temp-banned they’ll smarten up, but if not at least they get auto-ignored once I report them.
I think this may last almost an entire hour. Trade chat is the channel that would not die
Nothing can rise above that horrible monster named Trade chat.
Great, in a bid to bring yet more pop culture into the wow-verse, Bliz has now introduced east side – west side crap battles. Barrens Chat has been brought in to referee between the two, judging whether Chuck Norris can do that with a Murloc, or if that spell really will prove that yo’ mama is really that fat.
Yet another chanel to turn off. At least lfg wont be hard to do, even without it. But I pose a question… in a cross-realm pug, how will a)you be able to tell if the guy your pugging with is up to the challenge (aka Ulduar in greens and blues) and, related, B)how will arsehats be able to make you prove your dps/gear/whatever before allowing you the honor of holding on to their coat-tails?
It’s a brave new world. But how is this going to play out in the wild?
-I think that it will be a bit problematic since many people are using the dungeon interface when mining or gathering other materials in the wild and to limit the LFG channel to cities only will inhibit multitasking since groups for heroics or even PUG raids are formed when some of their members are randomly roaming around the world of Azeroth(Or Outland) obtaining achievements and materials. I believe that they should also let lfg channel be available to those who are using the dungeon interface for LFG as well as cities.
Does this mean that there will now be two channels filled with drivel?
-Not necessarily since the trade c hannel is often cluttered up in the cities due to people who are looking for group and in turn the people who are cursing out those who are using traede chat for LFG and so the wheel of profanity and idiocy turns.
Will one rise above the other?
-I believe that LFG w2ill rise above trade because I actually do not see much “trade” requests going on on the trade channel at the moment, if all those who are currently using trade channel for LFG then when they migrate over I am sure that trade will go back to trade and asking to buy portals etc etc which does not seem to be much people (not counting peak hours)
If so, which one and why?
-Hmmm looks ike I answered this with the one above lol…..
Thanks for your time Randy and Scott!
-JonQ
There is only so much trash to be talked and only so many morons to spout it.
A new channel gives another outlet, but to the same audience (and that’s their candy) – So the ‘Look at Me! I’m Being OUTRAGOUS!’ dolts will just have two different channels to choose, I don’t see the overall bilge level increasing.
If LFG goes the same road as trade channel did there will be no people there actually looking for groups, just arguments about who has the bigger… chopper. Even on rp realms there seem to be few who would actually use trade to trade, so with the lfg channel broadcasting the same people will just leave the channel, which means less chance of using it to get a group. Could be good to make it easier to get into the lfg channel though and I like that idea, but not to this extreme.
Yours Sincerely
Kerrigor the ruler of Norway. Rawr
I think it’s about time. I really hate having to open LFG for a random place i don’t need to go, to get a group for something else, then get whispers about that run through Occulus.
Though to answer the question, all channels are ALREADY filled with drivvel, so adding an extra one won’t matter =P
I already have general and trade turned off most of the time anyway!
If there is no moderation by someone with the ban stick, this is an easy prediction: all the 8 to 15 year old boys (like my nephews) will “hang out” in the LFG channel, giving a creative (for them) response to every query or request. LFG will rapidly devolve into the sewer of random drivel, pointless nonsense and uncreative, stupid obscenities as is currently trade chat and, to a lesser degree, the Forums.
I dearly hope I am wrong.
I don’t see this changing anything. Trade channel has always been and will continue to be the place to go. All this gives is another channel for people to post crap in. In the end I think Trade will win and the LFG chat will quickly be a desert, because lets face it, I don’t see many people multitasking in chat windows or try to manage which channel they’re in.
The new LFG will be great.
There will now be 2 channels filled with drivel, but at least I can leave one when I am not looking for a group. (Being an enchanter, I make most of my money from /trade)
I really hope that it doesn’t turn into just another trade chat i think that people will leave looking for group to looking for group because its not necessarily going to be a channel that your in all the time you only join when your trying to run something
As long as Blizzard doesn’t force filtering on broadcast channels like Trade, General, and LFG, they’ll be filled with the puerile outpourings of individuals who have a mental age of 6 and a fascination with the waste products of the digestive tract.
Veterans of WoW (and new players reading this post) will already know that 1)finding groups has been a bit of an issue for some while and 2) the LFG channel was not any help. SO…I see this as no real improvement, and yes…another channel filled with drivel. Of course..it wont over take the trade channel as the #1 drivel channel, but it will be tied with he general channel for #2 honors.
I’m guessing that either they’re both going to become just the “spam” channel that no one actually used for its intent, or that the LFG channel will be ignored completely and people will continue to just use Trade for all purposes, including looking for groups. Luckily with aie I don’t have to use either of these! yay!
…or we could ask, since /2 is the ‘new LFG,’ will the new LFG channel get used at all?
I suspect both will be filled with drivel. Sorta like /1 is when raiding. But perhaps the drivel will spread out and overall be less annoying?
Good thing /ignore works globally!
2 channels full of spam, yay
Trade and looking for group channels are bound to be filled with non-sense. Trade currently is but at least now players will have the option to keep both channels open without having to be in the looking for group system (and you will always have to option to close the channels). Trade channel is already like a lfg channel anyways as people are constantly using it to advertise groups, this will just be a better way to sort the traders and parties.
I still think that trade will be the premier chat for nonsense and idiocy because people don’t like to change.
In a windswept field of ambers and greens, carved dirt paths and lost, dead wives, three figures stand. One is grizzled, bent with age, left wandering feebly, asking the simplest of questions to the closest passers-by. Whether they answer or not, he continues asking.
One stands firm, tall, and loud, shouting obscenities while occasionally begging for tanks or healers, with a rare offer to sell something. His shouts are loud enough that they carry on the hills, over the plains, through the rivers, and across oceans.
The third stands untested, waiting for inspiration, while observing the other two figures. With examples such as these, there is little hope for the newcomer to be more. It is likely he will be less, an amalgam of the two. But, there is hope.
Another creature enters the scene. It is nearly transparent, and walks on all-fours. One might say it crawls. It strolls by the three figures and holds up a sign, with the numbers “3.3″ on it, and whispers quietly, “New LFG UI,” before crawling off to the horizon. The three stare at each other for a moment before the cacophony resumes.
Trade chat will always be the king of spam but LFG will probably get to the point you turn it off when you don’t need it so you don’t have to deal with the spam.
I think it will stay as unused as it is now /2 will stay where it is as the king of spam and most LFG comments will be removed with the system.
The only time I see it of use is during Hollowsend etc, even then I think people will just post in trade.
The LFG channel won’t be as bad as the trade chat in my opinion. It’s something that I will definitely use to find people to group with. It’s kinda lonely out there in Azeroth and I’ve made great friends in the past because by grouping with people, we end up talking about random things, and generally it is a fun time for all.
Oh Thrall, kill me now!
Please, LFG has been and will be a pain. Granted the process right now is much cleaner. I really hate to see it go. I can’t stand all the channels that you can be linked to, it seems so overwhelming at times.
Here are the correct answers:
How is this going to play out in the wild?
It won’t since its only available in the Cities. The wild will be piecefully quiet and free of “Looking for lvl 80 to run me through RFC for 1 gold. Pst only if serious”
Does this mean that there will now be two channels filled with drivel?
Yes- Yes it does. And if you think it will be half the drivel in each channe, you are wrong. The drivel will increase 20-60%, because drivel-spouters will think they have to cram both channels full of the same nonsense just incase you didn’t hear them the first time. Also look for an increase in Chuck Norris jokes (Chuck Norris would never use trade or LFG chat, Chuck Norris doesn’t need to trade or need a group).
Will one rise above the other? If so, which one and why?
After months of a increasingly loud and annoying battle, the trade channel will win out over the LFG channel. This will be based on the sheer weight of everyone trying to sell/buy new items available in the Cataclysm expansion. The LFG channel will retreate and try to make an alliance with the Lich King only to be turned into a LFG DK. His mission will be to punt gnomes.
For the Horde!
Phariman, Lvl 55 Undead Mage on the Bronzebeard Server
It would be great ….in theory
WoW players are, despite four years of changes, creatures of habit and I think initially the LFG channel will meet some resistance and that the Trade channel will still get spammed with LFM for some time.
But inertia is only part of the reason.
For the rest of the reason why, ask yourself why people are spamming chat channels for group members in the first place if there’s a LFG system. The reason is that many times you can pick up good players for a raid or dungeon from Trade who are NOT in the LFG system. And there are two reasons for that. One, because a player will see a raid opportunity listed and say “okay, what the hell”. And two, because there are players who are looking but not using LFG because they don’t want to keep getting random invites from random failnuggets. They want to see who is trying to pick up players, what guild they’re in, etc and select who they reply to. That is to say, they are using Trade as the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the new randomizer system will push people into.
Will these players eventually migrate into monitoring LFG? That depends. If you have to be actively showing yourself as looking for a group in order to read LFG, then in both of the cases above those players will not go to LFG.
Another thought. If LFG turns into a global chat channel, such that cities and zones are all in it and able to talk, then it has the potential to be the most retarded soup of drivel and verbal incontinence imaginable. When MaladjustedTeenDK out skinning in Sholazar Basin can chime in with the rest of the crew bank-sitting in Dalaran, you have just created something like “Barrens chat x Youtube comment threads with an extra helping of anal [link] joes, murloc movie memes, and HEROJISM”. So in that scenario to say people would avoid the LFG channel would be an understatement.