Guild Wars: Party Search

Last year for Christmas the developers gave us obs mode. The game will never be the same and it's the best friend anyone interested in PvP ever had. They only thing they could do differently would be to do it better.

This year we got a tool that promised to be even more wide-reaching: Party Search. Sadly, it hasn't had quite the same impact just yet. Mostly because no one bother to use it.

I suspect that it's come about two years too late. Players have gotten used to finding groups without a bulletin board system in game and, so, it hasn't done anything to help me get a group. Or to stop the flood of players looking for teams or teammates in local chat. Maybe I'm just in the wrong districts or something but personally, the most use I get out of it is that it saves me time when I'm putting together a group of henchies.

It doesn't seem to work, basically. As although I've made a point of checking in whatever region I zone into whether it's HA or DoA or LA, there's not much activity there. What you see most is, well, trade requests. Which, I think, is actually a positive sign. It's not that big a step from a grouping system that lets you communicate across district boundaries and the reconnect features to a full blown auction house (Or some other kind of automated trading system. I don't care what it is. I just want a way to dump my inventory without having to stand around in town and screaming my head off until I find a buyer. That's not fun to me and I only have so many hours in a day to play.). All you need to do is add in the functionality to post an item even if you don't want things to keep going while players are offline. It's getting closer, then, to something the game's been missing for a long, long time.

But for using the Party Search to actually find parties? Well, not so much. Most players who bother to use it are individuals advertising for a party. It's rare to find nearly full teams looking for that last piece. Which seems like a bit of a waste. Especially given how hard it is to find a group or connect with people in this game.

If you ask me the problem is that it's an opt-in system. Players have to open up a tab, type out a message, and sit and hope for the best. As with any system where the barriers are to easy entry, most people aren't going to bother with the hassle. What I'd like to see, then, would be an opt-in system. Every group made in a district, every player that enters a lobby, gets listed on the Party Search board. Players could browse through all the options available. For those who don't want to be bothered by whispers from random strangers, have toggles that list them as not looking for a group or turn them invisible to the party search function scooping through the registries. Something like how you can toggle yourself away or offline in your friends list.

From there, I'd go even further to list even more information than is currently available. Let every player have a profile, of sorts, listing what they play and what type of roles they like to play. Display any titles they want to show off. Show the current skill bar for their character. Let anyone who wants to set up preferences in these profiles that will help out when other players are searching. Those who don't want to be bothered don't have to, but those who want to take the time to tailor their preferences will be easier to find and, potentially, find a place in more groups.

Those are my ideas but underneath them is the potential that Party Search has. It could be wonderful without a change or three. Small steps to improve the functionality of the service. Ones that would help players and groups find each other across the digital void. Because, as it stands, Party Search is nice but I could easily do without it. And that sums up one of the game's biggest failings right there.