Finding people you *want* to play with...

I've been toying with this idea for a while now, so I thought I'd run it past you guys and see what everyone thinks.

I'm only a recent new comer to the field of MMORPGs, but there's a single thing I keep noticing over and over again.

People expect very different things from the game and other players.

It could be suggested that this is what guilds are for. Don't bother with pickup groups. Just get a bunch of people together you either know irl, or try and slow pickup members as you go along.

A couple of problems with this approach...
a) There's little way of telling what a player is like before grouping with them

b) A lot of times by the time you find "good" players, they've already found their own guilds, so it's difficult to bring them together (without poaching).

c) People have limited time. I might only get 1-2 hours a night (if I'm lucky) to sit down and play guildwars. It's frustrating to have to throw away several nights of gaming time just to try and find a solid group of people to play with.

Ok - now for the idea:

A gamers matching Service.

Simple idea really - Ask a few questions of the player, a personality test if you like, to try and figure out that players preferences within the game. The system then tries to group people based on their personality and play style.

At the end of the session, your asked if you feel the group was a good match for you or not. The system tracks your choices over several groups so eventually you end up being grouped more and more with players who share similar ideas and play styles.

Yes, I'll freely admit the idea needs more development, but I thought I'd get a general opinion on the idea.

Contructive posts welcome.

I dunno how this woud work as an in-game thing, but a website service would be worth it...

It would be nice if there was a better method of finding people I could tolerate. I can just think of it now...

GuildWarsMatch.com, find your Guild Wars soul mate today!

Try eguildharmony.com, making guild matches last a lifetime.

Has anyone giving this any further thought? Not the "romantic" matching, but the idea of having a web site where you can create a profile with your various characters, which district you're in etc. Then specify what quests, missions, bonuses whatever you want to do, select your playing style (ie, fight or run-all-the-way). Maybe have the ability to choose if your profile is visible to everyone, or only allow your guild mates to see your profile (ie, guild master creates a "guild profile" which is passworded, and then passes this password on to guild members, who then can add the guild profile to their profile).

Anyway, could flesh out the details more, but without others who had access to the resources to make the ideas come to life (guessing it would need a web server with database, ppl with programming skills etc).

The idea could be hugely popular, like Neowulf said, I too only get an hour or two of a quiet evening to play, and am being totally turned off playing GW because of the time wasted trying to get compatible teams together etc, which is a pity as the game is excellent.

how about just a bio section that you can choose to read, like in other MMO. Fun way to spend time, and get to know the person.

You could just do a sort of EBay-esque rating system, where you can give a "thumbs down" to the last five people that have been in a party with you. No negative rating given would be the same as a good rating, or half a good rating anyway.

You could then hold down a button to see their approval percentage above or next to their name.

Reference my post the "infamous LFG tag", I'm along these lines. This is what I really wanted to hit on. Yes; grouping with people who share similar play is a cool idea! I feel if we had selective service to form those PUGs there'd be no PUG ranting because everyone would be comfortable. My post ties into this on a smaller scale; the LFG window allowing for where you are, what level, what quests you're looking for, districts, etc for finding people more accessibly.


--The Shim

Are there any websites available for ingame party forming? Could something like that be added here? I'd love a place I could check when I log in to see who's forming what party, where, and for what purpose.

Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) has an extensive matching system like this in place. It allows you to put in your interests in multiple areas (gaming, hobbies, life, etc.) and allows you to select choices as to your preferences. Then you can set a specific "match percentage" and the game would actually tell you if someone with a high percentage match above your selection came into your area (about a 30 second run in any direction). It was quite complex and exactly like what you are describing.

The problem was the technology never really worked that I was aware of. I played the game for two years, and never used it. I'm not really sure it ever worked because of the bandwidth and server overhead required to keep track of all this information, constantly comparing it to everyone in your area, all the time.

Personally, I would like to see a bio or character information screen available for examining for each player much like ActionJack mentioned. SWG also had this and it was quite useful for figuring the kind of person behind the avatar. It was quite easy to see who was the role-player, who was a power-gamer, who was a casual player, etc. Obviously, there's always the exception, but overall it worked quite well, and SWG admins even sometimes gave out "badges" to people with exceptional biographies for their characters.

All of this can be tied into the need for more character information though. Quest logs being another common request for character information. Or titles, or an external /age graphic, many of us want more information about this character that we've spent hundreds of hours controlling and playing.

My feeling is that for a "community" to flourish, SOME kind of personal identification has to take place. Whether it's character class and looks, clothes, armor, rank graphics, fame, guild membership, or with these new ideas suggested here of player bio's and interest surveys, we all want to have something unique about us and that we can take pride in, and use that to connect to other like-minded people.

And I think this is why the in-game community in Guild Wars is not as developed as other MMO's of the genre. (Yes, I know it's a CORPG but let's just skirt that issue for a bit.)

I also wanted to quote Plague here because I think it's a very valid idea that I believe will, eventually, become a part of every MMO to come.

The need to be able to get a feel for a person is really a requirement for growth in online virtual communities. With the anonymity of the internet, being able to have a "reputation" is a very good thing in online communities.

Before we go further, yes I know any "reputation" or "rating" system can be abused. Let me devote this one paragraph to my opinions on how this would work, then I'll get back to my original point. You can minimize problems in a number of ways. One way is to make each negative mark you give count less and less as you give them. If you give one every 30 days, that's one thing. If you give one every day, it becomes something completely different. Or you can counter-balance chronic negative-raters by having the system keep track of how many positives and negatives YOU have given. Then people can see if you are just a negative or positive person. No matter what, the game company should stay absolutely HANDS-OFF the system. It must be totally community controlled for it to be of value, and be able to function without totally draining the company of developer resources. A good system would eventually balance out or minimize any possible "bad eggs" in the system. No matter what, a truly good person will always end up with a good rating. And a truly bad person, will eventually end up with a bad rating. There's no other way it can work when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of people, the sample is just so large that eventually the truth will be known, if people take the time to rate when it's important.

Now back to my point...

Eventually, all MMO's will implement a version of this because people are going to keep asking for it. The MMO that does this well the first time, will see a large growth in their in-game community because the good players (not skill necessarily, just character) will come together and continue to grow the community.

Or you could not allow someone to vote on a person twice.

There's something just not right in "rating" someone, or even someone's 'usefulness' to the party. It's all relative and people will abuse it.

I guess that's what guilds are for, to group people who share common interests within the game, be it pvp leetness or just pvp fun, or something in between.

Rather than rating maybe the game can help remembering who you'vep layed with.

Instead of a Friends List, you can have something like a browser's History : the last nn persons who I have partied with, where and what was completed (mission/quest), and wether they're online atm or not. Then whenever I m looking to group I ll just contact people from this list, to see if they want to group again for some other objective.

That's more or less what I do with my friends list, but its unpractical. Also it won't work to just contact people you add in your friends list, because it doesn't work both ways. If it worked automatically both ways, it would be easier I think to regroup with people you have partied up before. Because if in this 'history' list you see someone online, chances are this person will see you in their list as well.

So with this idea, instead of rating you would "tick" people in the party window who you've "liked" to play with. Then they would be remembered in your list. So you dont rate, and you dont give anyone the thumbs down.