New Party Search Option - Worthwhile or a Dud?

There is already a general consensus starting to permeate on several forums that the new party search option is flawed and a waste of time as no-one uses it.

This feeling results in comments like "I dont do PUGs because I dont want to be stuck with useless noobie scum etc etc etc".

Frankly, this type of comment from a GW user(s) is precisely the reason why PUGs are becoming extinct and difficult to organise!

"Noobie Scum" eh....may I remind you all that we were all once one of them as well!

Personally, I would always prefer to do a quest/mission with humans before accepting the hench option (I only have Prophesies). I constantly like to help newer people to finish "hard" missions and, therefore, open up the world map for them (I have a Level 20 W/R who roams Tyria re-doing missions/quests).

I also constantly give items to newer guys on my team/in my guild that I dont need/want so that they may progress through the game quicker.

However, this "elitist" attitude of higher level players refusing/not wanting/not caring to help others in the game is disappointing to say the least.

The purpose of the game, people, is co-operative play, after all!

Perhaps if we all showed some kindness and sincerity to other players in the game some of the angst being shown against PUGs in this forum would disappear!

So...next time someone is LFG or LFP...my word of advice is perhaps you could actually HELP someone else to achieve some enjoyment out of the game! The GW world(s) would then be a better place!

If PUGs were worthy of kindness, they would have some kindness for them.

You find it gratifying to expend more time in the long run to help others, I find it more gratifying to complete my objective.

And only one of us is trying to convert the other.

I don't use party window except for trade and it's really good for that. I'm sure there's plenty of people that use it for the other options and I definately don't see it as a dud and instead I'm grateful for anything that Anet puts into the game that I didn't pay for. It wasn't a part of the original game and doesn't have a negative affect on the game any argument against it is invalid.

Co-operative plays is not necessarily the purpose of the game. Guild Wars' retail box states something like: "Play with your friends or others, band with other people or skillful AI henchmen". It is supposed to be a choice for each player if he wants to play with other people or not. Not a forced-PUG game.

Just because you, ozsparrow, like helping newbies it doesn't mean everyone else has to.

Most players don't like losing 10 000x times in a row due to horrible PUG players when they can Master the same mission on their own the first try with AI allies instead. Which is why PUGs are not popular. As it should be. If PUG players want PUGs not to be dead, then the average joe GW player needs to stop being a horrible player. But that's won't happen so things are as the must be.

It's not "elitist" to not PUG. Bad players should waste their own time exclusively, not the time of good players.

As for the new party search option: it's not good enough since it doesn't span all areas of the game at once, and also it does not even span all districts of the same type at once. Ie: During Wintersday being in a high-numbered district means you didn't see any of the stuff in the party search screen, even though there was a lot of it there in the lower disticts of the same outpost. I'm not sure what's up with that.

For the party search option to be effective it would have to span every outpost - of different types - so as players who want to do stuff they have already done again and/or help newbies can be recruited from towns they are not currently in.

I use it, when other people are trying to use it... so if more people would just use it, it would be better.

Also, if it would save your typed message and keep "seek party" checked when you change outposts, it would be even better.

I think all the spammers(WtS,WtB) don't use it because they can't get their (full) message out to the community...and alot of those types don't even use the trade channel, so it's not that the search feature is failing, it's the players themselves. ;-)>

It's a good thing. More people need to become aware of it and use it. I think it's great for trading - especially in busy commerce centers. Now you don't have to hop from district to district to sell your wares or try to buy something.

One thing I've noticed is people LFG in there but don't bother to say what they want to do! This is especially silly in non-mission areas. So Please folks,when you're LFG in the Party window, put something in there saying what it is you want to do.

I fail to grasp the link between your rant about players, and the question that was posed in the threadtitle.

What has the partysearch system have to do with this all?

It would be, except our humble devs were smart enough to do five minutes of market research.

Rule one of any online RPG is that forced grouping equals forced (market) tanking.
Funny that you should put it like that, the more logical arrangement would be "no-one uses it because it's flawed".

...But I agree with you! The problem with the group finding system is that it came too late and consequently can't get a critical mass of users up to save it's life. Considering Nightfall couldn't have done more to discourage PuGging if there had been active malice involved, it falls well into the category of "too little, too late".

I don't want to seem like an ingrate, but so far the party search is half-baked at best. The party search aspect is decent enough, but it's the trade function that needs some work. There isn't enough room to put down what you are trying to buy/sell, and because it's only good for one town, it doesn't really address the issue.
I find myself wanting to buy and sell quite a bit, and the trade function is pretty much worthless. I wind up just jumping down the top 8 districts of LA, Kamadan, occasionally Droks and Kaineng, and because I don't plan on sticking around very long, even putting up a trade entry in the party search is wasted. It's still the same old enter up arrow trade spam, hoping to eventually get a hit that isn't an obvious waste of response time.
With some revamping, it would be great to get to the endpoint: I don't want to waste my online time buying/selling, this needs to be automated to a much greater degree. I want to play the game and have my wtb/wts ads running in the background somehow.

There's another problem though: as more and more content gets added, people get spread thinner in any given town or outpost. I could imagine the party search being very helpful in the early days of Proph, but at this point, there are very few quests and/or missions that you can find a full team of people for, and that number will dwindle.

The search function is a GREAT addition to the game but im stunned that ppl dont use it more! Is it because players dont know thats it there? Is it because players dont know how to use it? I have NO idear why, but sadly this is tha case.

I play alot of AB and I RARELY see teams advertised in the search. I think that in AB the search function would really excel but again here ppl just dont use it...WHY!

its ok i guess. no one will ever be happy no matter what anyone does anyway.anythime somethings added people bitch. everytime somethings not added people bitch. unending cycle.

The party search is good for trading, though I've found the brief lull in spam has vanished(leaving LA 1 as spam filled as before). I've also seen quite a few groups trying to form through it, especially in the major cities which normally have more than 1 district.

Maybe we should give it more time.

But that's just my two cents

The party search system is absolutely fine, except the limit on what you can write.

The problem is that, as with most new technology, no one wants to use it. They make irrational excuses not to, and say thats its rubbish without even trying it. (I write software for a company, I know)

What is possible wrong with the party search feature? It provides a long overdue way to find a party, and post trades very easily and effectively.

How forming a party using it is going to result in you being in a bad PUG is beyond me. Your just as likely to end up in a bad PUG whether you spam the chat channel with "LFG...." as you are using the party search.

All you need to do is whisper the leader and talk to them before joining. Dont blame the software.

But as you said, PUGs are mostly bad because of the attitudes of the people in them. NOT because of the way we form them. The party search option will take a while to get going because we have long standing players, who are resistant to change and dont want to use it. But thats their choice. Having the party search option in the background does no harm.

The newer players will come in, and think its always been there and use it without question.

It does how ever need to accept long text when posting.

To bad the messages seem to stay forever, I get randomly whispered in explorables for an item that was sold long aggo or some mission, and mostly I haven't got a clue what it was again or in which town I put it.

that's nothing....I tried to sell a Death Magic wand 2 months ago and last week someone PMd me out of the blue to ask if I still had it. Very VERY strange!! I'd not even seen it since I last tried to sell it.

More on-topic.. I also only use the window for Trade because more often than not I just forget it is there. I get into a mission and do the usual routine for me which is:

1. Look to see if there is a nice spread of professions in the town.

which leads to either:

2. There is noone in the town therefore Hench win.

or

3. There are lots of people in the town and after a minute of saying "LFG" noone still wants me therefore Hench win.

It's because I've been playing the game so long now...I just don't think of the party search as the place to look when I first get there.

I also quite like going to help new players from time to time and a true new player is really nice to be able to help since they are, on the whole, actually grateful for the help...but when I am trying to progress my own characters there is nothing I hate more than people who don't read the chat box and so don't follow instructions...then things get aggrod... *stares at closest wammo*

Guildwars is about the only Online Game were most players wouldn't even notice if it suddenly became a Single Player Offline Game. The party search option is fine, it's just that almost every long time player has by now developed a hefty superiority complex. They just think they're so much better than everyone else and are gods gift to the game and as such, should not have to deal with infidels.
The partyfunction is not at fault, the community itself is. The only thing that may help is that you probably wouldn't want to party with the Elitecrowd anyways as they're mostly antisocial to the brim.

Dud. Noone's using it for trading and they're STILL spamming !Local. I _never_ see people using it for group finding for missions/quests either :/

The problem is, it's still local city only. For Defend North Kyrta Province, some people would want to start in LA, some in ToA, some in Beetletun...

Noobs are okay. I prefer noobs to idiots. Noobs listen and learn from experienced players. Idiots make you nervous. It's not the noobs that are killing the PUGs, it's the idiots. Idiots like survivor dervishes hanging 3 aggro bubbles behind your party. Idiots like monks played by wamos whom Dwayna herself couldn't heal. Idiots who think they know it all and mess up the master reward because of rushing. Idiots with uninfused armor in Ring of Fire missions. Idiots that can't interrupt Meteor Shower cast by a dazed target. Idiot wamos with more healing skills than the Skill Trainer. Idiots that spam Flare and Fire storm. Idiots that equip Flare and Fire Storm on their warriors. Idiots with B/P and a level 5 Dune Lizard in Thunderhead Keep. Idiots that talk to Jalis even though the consensus was not to talk to him so everyone can explore the map properly. Idiots that body block the Titan on a bridge while failing to see that the Titan is actually body blocking them while the Sparks gang-bang the entire team (monk with IQ higher than room temperature excluded).

Am I ranting?