Devs really have me confused with the new LFG

Just a couple of observations from our point of view:

1) Players who don't pug dramatically underestimate the number of people who do.
2) Players often assume every realm has the same dynamics that their realm has.

Pugging is something an awful lot of players do and our (frankly inadequate) tool didn't facilitate that experience very well. The new tool is pretty fast and simple. If you enjoy pugging (or don't enjoy it but do it anyway :) ) the new tool should let you spend less time organizing and more time killing (or wiping :( ).

If pugging isn't your thing, that's cool. We're not trying to push you into it... unless you really like pugs (by which I mean the pooch). The tool will also benefit premades.

Q u o t e:
The things that confuse me about the tool are:

1. It auto groups you, and you can't pick up your member anymore (unless I'm mistaken, but it's how it seemed to be last I checked the PTR).

2. The new LFG channel is Trade v2.0. I don't see the logic behind "We don't want the LFG channel to be available everywhere, else, it'd become the current trade channel" by making it a Trade v2 channel.

1. You can run with whoever you like. You can /invite or have the tool find random players to fill it in (it is pretty smart in who it finds too). If you find random people, we place some restrictions on your group to discourage griefing.

2. I don't want to get into this too much in this thread because the discussion has already gone on and on regarding this topic. However, an old style LFG channel doesn't make much sense (because 1, the tool finds groups pretty quickly, and 2, we don't like people lurking in the tool and messing up matchmaking just to use the chat channel). Making a new LFG channel world wide would instantly become the new channel of choice for gold sellers, spammers or people who are bored and want attention. Making a second city-wide "trade" channel might at least draw some of the legit LFG lookers from the traders.

Q u o t e:
Just a quick question or two... By restrictions, could you perhaps elaborate? And I can't remember where I saw this, but when you pug for raids, it checks the person's average item level to make sure their gear is fairly appropriate for the raid you're pugging, right? I'm assuming/hoping that's part of the "smartness" you're talking about. I just don't want to pug a 10-man ICC and find someone in my group in full greens and/or blues. Ya know?

You can't use the dungeon tool to automatically fill raids. You can use the LFR tool to find people for raids, but it's more of a listing service. You put your name up there or scan for others.

You can use the dungeon tool to automatically fill 5-player dungeon groups. It does look at things like item level (of all items, including stuff in the bank and offspec) but really only to make sure players who don't know any better don't wander into tougher dungeons like Forge of Souls or any heroic. When the pool is large enough (and it usually is) it also tries to have class diversity and even melee vs. ranged.

The restrictions include locking the loot system to Need Before Greed and preventing the leader from booting people without a vote. These precautions are there just to try and minimize jerky behavior and make your pug more pleasant. We also offer a small buff to the entire group if there are random people in it, just to try and grease the wheels a little to make the run more smooth.

Q u o t e:
In all my time in WoW since the dawn of the LFG channel in its current incarnation, I've never seen people exploit it to any significant degree for something besides its intended purpose

That’s because you have to opt into that system – it isn’t on by default. That implementation doesn’t make sense now since the groups fill up pretty quickly. You would have to purposefully queue up for a dungeon you hoped wouldn’t get much use (Mauradon maybe?) in order to just sit in the system and use the tool. But that hurts people who really do want to go to Mauradon.

Q u o t e:
1) How does 3.3 help me to more easily put a RAID together when my target audience to advertise to has been limited?
2) How does 3.3 help me to more easily join a RAID? Especially on an alt?
3) Many players are concerned that the new implementation will shackle them to cities in order to find RAIDS for not only their main, but especially their alts. Leveling a lower level alt while looking for a raid now seems to be impossible unless you can somehow level in a major city. Can you address these concerns for us?

No, you will have to be in a city if you want to use the LFG chat channel to find a group. You can use the new LFR tool to advertise that you are looking for a group, and chat with other people looking for groups. You do not need to be in a city to use the LFR tool. You could even be on an alt as long as you explained to people that you don’t really want to pug Ulduar on your level 40 warlock.

Q u o t e:
Yeah how will raid ID's work? If I'm in a raid with people from 9 other servers and we don't finish, can someone from those other servers use that ID later and finish it without me?

I have no intention of pugging a raid any time soon, but it'd be nice to know how that works.

You cannot join a raid with players on other servers, largely for this reason. It may be something we do in the future. Or not.

One of the benefits of using the dungeon tool for heroics is that it won't respect dungeon lock outs. If you are locked to Oculus and your buddy is locked to Halls of Stone and you choose random dungeon, you can still get a fresh version of either instance. However, the system does put a slight weight on dungeons you haven't done recently (in the same way mp3 players on shuffle rarely play the same song 3 times in a row, even though randomly that might happen).