Party Search feature

Many people in Guild Wars not keep party window open. It is one from biggest mistakes what you can do while in mission. This leads why they miss search button.

See, that's what I'm thinking. If people will just use it, more people will just... use it!

Since it was being widely used in the beginning, I don't really understand why the use dwindled. Theories that it's difficult to use seem sort of hard to believe, and I'd really like it to be used more -- it benefits all of us!

Personally, I don't see the problem as it's hard to use being the reason - just the fact that people have gotten used to screaming in town. Also the fact that it doesn't feel like you are doing anything to attract people with it in the party window. You just sit there waiting for someone to see you.

The party search was a good idea. But most players either do not use it for what it was intended or do not use it at all. Different areas I have seen different things on it. Most times in the newest areas it is beign used properly but even then there is wide spread abuse of it. We just need to use what is available to us and hope for teh best.

Mega Mouse

what's so hard to believe or understand? It's been said multiple times! It doesn't give enough space to describe what you are selling! If someone advertises a unique weapon I have to go to guild wiki to find out what its stats are or pm the person in the game - both of which make it clumsy.

If it's a qold item, I am forced to PM them because the stats are variable - again, clumsy.

And, if I am selling something then I have to answer multiple PMs asking for the stats - very clumsy, expecially since I'm not intereseted in making a lot of money - I don't like standing around and usually am just selling things I hate to give to a dealer - so I tend to sell very low or give them away. Using the search option to do that actually lenghtens my time hanging around in the cities because I have to keep answering PMs about stats.

Fact is, I use it but only as a secondary option. It is still easiest to look through the districts and see what people are selling in the trade channel.

I do like the fact that it makes it a little quicker to add and kick henchment and heroes. And I think it is fine for forming parties for missions. But the limitation on space makes it nearly unusable for trading.

In fact the major problem is its not used for forming a party not for the uber leet trading advetising.

It goes like this:

1) In the beginning, people used party search.
2) They found that for whatever reason, spamming was still faster. Thus, they stopped using party search.
3) These people have the mindset "If more people used it, I would use it."
4) This means that the majority of the GW population is waiting for the rest of the population to use Party Search.
5) Thus, Party Search will not become an efficient method of finding groups, because everyone is waiting for it to become popular. And it can't become popular if everybody is just waiting for it to become popular.

Think that sums it up.

I dont get it either that ppl arent using this GREAT feature! I cant find a single valid explanation NOT to use it!

Im perplexed.... Sad really...

And screw the trading! Im talking PARTY FORMING not trading!

Ill say to anyone who would like to get this used more for party forming: when your waiting in whatever pvp area you waiting in SPAM the chat with "Use party search to form parties!"... Ok granted that wont work...

It's more fun to spam lfp 3/8 anyway. To me it adds to the liveliness of a town. But I'm one of these people who likes trade spam in the major cities. It's creepy zoning into a major city like Kanieng when Elona has an event on and being met with dead silence. I find the Party Search screen to be kinda ugly tbh and it's more fun watching spam scroll by rather than look at the Party Search screen.

On the Europe server for the times I play there is usually only 1 English district in mission towns so using something like Party Search is overkill. I see it only as a very small step up/sideways from local lfg spamming, and if you're forming PUGs you generally need to blind invite people (for missions) so Party Search really becomes another channel for finding people rather than completely upgrading and replacing party forming atm, ie using it is additional work to form a party (yick). It really needs multiple districts to be present and for it to be difficult to find people in the current district for it to be noticeably advantageous IMO.

People have already suggested more features to it, maybe it just needs that extra umph to lift it above being a better way to local spam to make people start using it.

(This is PvE I'm talking about btw)

Maybe the "search" word should switch colours three times per second.Makes it harder to miss.

The 'Search' feature tries to do everything and does nothing well, that is why it's not being used much.

1) For people selling stuff it doesn't offer enough space to describe the item being sold in any depth and it being limited to a location limits its utility.

2) For people trying to advertise a guild it doesn't provide enough space to say much of anything useful and it being limited to a location limits its utility.

3) For people trying to find a guild it doesn't tell you anything about the guild not in the overly short description, the description isn't going to tell you much, and it being limited to a location limits its utility.

4) For people trying to form or find a group, it, like chat, is filled with trade and guild spam that often spills into the LFG section, being location rather than goal oriented limits its utility, and the only functionality it adds is the ability to be seen cross-district -- irrelevant in many areas and less important to most than the ability to click on someone in your district and see who they've got so far.

People tried the 'Search' feature early on, it's not a matter of no one knowing it's there. Whether it's a great feature in theory or not, clearly in practise it has been found severely wanting by the player base. It provides less information than can be had in chat and does not provide enough added functionality to, in most cases, make up for that.

It isn't being used as much because people are stubborn, we live in a "I want it now, instant gratification" world. Most people don't care that they are annoying everyone in the district with spam. They think that by spamming they will get results faster, in reality I think most of those people are ignored.

Personally I always check the search window no matter where I am, and my guildies always say that the people you see using it are the people you want in your groups.

People naturally assume that having their "advertisement" appear in the local chat channel, and as a little pop-up over their heads, will increase their chances of being noticed.

People with an "I want it now, instant gratification" mentality don't have to bother with the 'Search' function, we all hero/henchway everything anyway :).

seems now it is the city. Most outpost and small towns no one uses it. BUt liek in LA there is still a few hanging in there.

I think it is a great idea and wish everyone would use it. But as it is now it is useless. Maybe if the add a little more in the discription area more will use it.

The more I think about it (and reflecting on the various related threads about this subject) I don't think the party search feature is the issue, but increasingly it seems people play the game essentially in single player mode... at least that appears to be the case on Euro servers.

If it was used for a little while after release it was probably down to novelty or something. Now it's gone back to "4" (or "8") being the magic number. On most people's heads (and they probably aren't teamed with each other)

Simple. It was new. People love jumping on new things and seeing what it can do.
I don't find it hard to believe that it's difficult, I just don't believe it, period. I use it just fine any time I need to.

The only thing I can really see people complaining about is the length of characters allowed. Lets say it did let you put in longer descriptions. You'll now have the problem of everyone trying to completely fill out that space. It's gonna make it clumped up, ugly and screw with your eyes.
So, the only thing I can see with making the sellers happy is the box still showing the same amount of characters it does now, but maybe other players being able to hover or double click on the description to see the full message.

I for one am a complete PVE player. I guess you can describe me as one of the people that plays "single player" because I don't do PUGs unless it's absolutely necessary, especially with the addition of heroes (and this is because over half of the PUGs I've ever been in were either incompetent or had one incompetent person that totally ruined the mission). However, there are certain missions that're just impossible to hench (such as fighting Shiro in Factions) and it was amazing how long it took me to find a master's group for that mission the other day. It would just be nice to have the party search feature be in use because I could browse through groups rather than having to scroll through the chat log and potentially miss newer spam; it's not like I can filter the trade spammers for instance.

Oh, since there were too many posts on this topic to quote here, for all the people that said "the search function sucks because it's not conducive to trading," you obviously missed the point of the search function alltogether. Trade has it's own separate chat, and it's been there for as long as I can remember (and I've had Prophecies since launch).

I agree with Umbra. the party search button should be limited to searching for parties that are doing the same thing as you. The sellers should be told to go to the trade channel and stay there. I have my all chat closed most of teh time due to the spammers in certian towns (Lions Arch, Kieneg Center and even Kamadan), so I will miss things that I probably shouldn't. I say change it so it cannot be used for trade purposes at all. Anyone found abusing it for that purpose should have a time out.

Mega Mouse