A Missing Feature or a Smart Decision?

I've been playing quite a bit of Star Wars: The Old Republic the last few days (I want a max-level character so I can stop playing before I have to pay for another month). As I played, I kept noticing something I hadn't seen in a long time - people looking for group (LFG) in General chat.

World of Warcraft was like that at first. There were group quests all over the place and the only way to find groups for the instances and raids were to advertise either in the General chat channel or in the Looking For Group channel. I can easily remember the days of having to search for a group yourself in these channels if you wanted to get anything accomplished, especially at max level.

Of course, World of Warcraft has evolved to the point where players don't really have to do that anymore. It now has a tool that groups people together automatically when they choose to queue for a dungeon or raid instance. It pairs characters of the same level and balances the group to succeed. It was a major innovation for the game and has even evolved to go across servers to group people.

I was a little surprised when I noticed that TOR didn't have this. The game has been in development for awhile and the design document was probably finished a long time ago but an LFG tool seemed like something Bioware might have wanted to devote some resources to. The idea of casting about for others in a chat channel seemed almost archaic.

I don't like to group much in MMO's (I hate relying on others, if I can help it) but I have done a few group quests/instances here and there. As I ran these quests, I came to realize a second thing - the groups were much chattier and livelier than I had seen from World of Warcraft in a very long time.

My belief is that LFG has ruined a lot of the social side of the game in World of Warcraft. The LFG function was a convenient thing to add to World of Warcraft but it also facilitated quick groups that didn't have to communicate at all to succeed. I can't tell you how many dungeons I've run in World of Warcraft where no one says a word. It has become the norm to simply shut up and do your job, being rewarded with loot and quest progress in exchange.

It seems the simple act of forcing players to seek out parties with a bit more work has brought back a bit of the social element that has been slowly fading from WoW for years now. It is nice to join a group and chat a little in between the groups of mobs. It isn't necessary but it's nice to hear. The lack of an LFG tool in Old Republic may be inconvenient but it sure seems to make things more entertaining.