Rift: A Dungeon Finder in the Works

Love it or hate it, WOW's dungeon finder is coming to Rift.  It will be cross-shard (i.e., cross-server), too.  Since the Solo MMO Player occasionally finds it hard to get through fights because no one else is around despite the high population on his beta server, this probably is a positive sign.
http://www.riftwatchers.com/2011/02/15/a-dungeon-finder-is-coming-to-rift/

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Group Behavior

MMOs have other people in them.  And where you have other people, you have other people whose behavior is going to annoy you no end.  The Pot drew my attention to a post by Tamarind about how people act in the dungeon finder.  Just what is acceptable behavior in groups?
http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2010/11/righteous-orbs-on-acceptable-standards-in-group-settings/

Blessing of Kings looks at this controvery, explaining how Frostheim set it off and his reactions.
http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com/2010/11/outvoted.html

Here's the article in full.
http://www.righteousorbs.com/?p=2711

The only thing you can do about it is laugh, to tell you the truth.  Tam knows this and posted a quick audio of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" reworked as a raid.  For those who know the Tennyson poem, this is hilarious.
http://www.righteousorbs.com/wp-content/uploads/charge-of-the-light-brigade.mp3

And he's not the only one laughing at group behavior.  Here's Jasyla's take on how to fit in while doing dungeon finder raids.
http://www.cannotbetamed.com/2010/11/17/lfd-how-to-fit-in/

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Patch 4.0.3 Due Tomorrow, Nov. 16

This is the patch that prepares the game for The Shattering (which will be Patch 4.0.3a which will probably hit Nov. 23).  When this next patch hits tomorrow, the Wintergrasp raid leader won't be able to kick folks from the raid and when in a Dungeon Finder group, going to an instance portal will take you to the Looking for Dungeon entrance, not the normal destination of the portal.  Honorable kills are no longer rewarded for killing players below Level 5.  The rest of the changes are listed here.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2073-Patch-4.0.3-this-week-Tier-11-All-Races-Classes-Preview-MMO-Report-Comics

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How to Find Cataclysm Instance Entrances

 How to find portal entrances via photos and video, useful for finding the entrances so that they can be listed for queueing in the dungeon finder once Cataclysm hits.
http://www.wowhead.com/blog=173564

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Region-Wide Battlegroup Matching

Region-wide battlegroup matching continues.  Blizzard probably finds this to their advantage when it comes to server space.
http://www.wowhead.com/blog=173021

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The Art of Pulling in Five-Mans

The lack of skilled tanks is obvious.  After all, the Solo MMO Player had a second tank fall off a cliff while in a dungeon finder raid this week.  WOW Insider columnist Allison Robert has started a two part series on how to pull during a five-man.  The first article is about assessing the situation before a pull.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/20/shifting-perspectives-pulling-101-assessing-the-group/#continued

The next article is about the pulls as they are happening.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/27/shifting-perspectives-pulling-101-deeper-into-the-dungeon/

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The Shrinking Population and the Disappearing Servers

Gazimoff explains how Blizzard is invisibly shrinking the servers and predicts how this will play out in-game as WOW's player base shrinks.  This is a must-read for players interested in the mechanics of networking MMOs.  It starts out with a history of how Blizzard organized their servers (and realms) in 2005 and continues through today with the "random" battleground and dungeon finder systems which allow Blizzard to balance their servers.  This is why you end up in the same dungeon or Battlefield over and over again, by the way.  Blizzard is putting folks where they need them.
http://www.manaobscura.com/2010/07/the-growing-yet-shrinking-world/

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Signs That One Should Drop Out

Signs one should drop out of your current dungeon finder raid:

1) The healer inquires as to what sort of vanity pet your wolf is.
2) Your wolf draws more aggro than the tank.
3) The tank falls off a cliff.

Sadly, all these happened to the Solo MMO Player this weekend....

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Dungeon Finder Vote Kick Changes UPDATED

Rohan points out Blizzard is changing (Patch 3.3.5) the way Vote Kick works in the random dungeon finder.  Basically the cooldown has changed so that folks who overuse this feature can't use it as often.  These is no cooldown if you don't use it often.  I am not clear how Abandon Group is going to change.
http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com/2010/06/interesting-vote-kick-changes.html

UPDATE:  WOWHead posts about this change with some idea of how the mechanics work and with their reaction.
http://www.wowhead.com/blog=158475

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Basics of Grouping

A useful summary of the various ways one can join or set up a group in WOW.
http://www.wow.com/2010/05/13/wow-rookie-grouping-101-thurs/

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Leveling Druids With the Dungeon Finder

Anyone who has the stomach to use the random dungeon finder a lot can use it to level their druid characters.  Lissanna at the Restokin blog pointed me towards a very nice forum posting by Wildpaw on how to use the random dungeon finder this way.  The guide is broken into two parts:  tank and healer.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24702232850&sid=1

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Big Bear Butt Takes a Tauren to the PUG

Moooo
http://thebigbearbutt.com/2010/04/09/tales-from-the-pug-the-return/

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People Watching in Dungeon Finder

Big Bear Butt writes about his experiences in dungeon finder and the characters he's run into there.
http://thebigbearbutt.com/2010/03/18/lfd-its-making-me-a-people-watcher/

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Dungeon Finder Problems (with Diagrams)

This article about the problems with dungeon finder caught my eye, partly because of the diagrams and partly because it illustrates the issue of how player misbehavior makes WOW such a pain to play.  In my opinion, nothing that Blizzard can do to tweek the dungeon finder will improve PUG raids.  Only folks changing how they treat others will do that.
http://manaobscura.gazimoff.com/?p=201

Look!  Two whiny posts in one day!
http://trollshaman.blogspot.com/2010/03/announcing-whiny-post-day.html

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Blizzard Collects Dungeon Finder Information

According to WOW Insider, Blizzard is keeping tabs on player behavior in the dungeon finder, at least in the Public Test Realm where Patch 3.3.3 is being beta tested.
http://www.wow.com/2010/02/24/patch-3-3-3-ptr-random-dungeons-are-being-watched/

I am still waiting for Blizzard to change the rules so that folks can't be kicked out of a group after the main boss is dead.  This is just a way to grab all the loot by reducing competition for it.  There is no other reason to kick out someone at the end.

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Tips for Dungeon Finder Raiders

WOW Insider has written a long article about how to raid via the dungeon finder. It's meant for lower level novice raiders.
http://www.wow.com/2010/02/11/wow-rookie-pro-tips-for-lowbie-dungeon-runners/

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DPS Meters Are a Tool of the Devil

Or words to that effect from Arcane Brilliance, who explains why they are useless in PUG raiding here.
http://www.wow.com/2010/01/23/arcane-brilliance-why-i-hate-dps-meters/

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Raiding and Aggro Reduction Strategies

Since the guilds have totally failed at teaching new members how to raid, lots of raiding tips are appearing online for folks raiding via dungeon finder.  This article explains how to not pull more aggro than your tank when raiding.
http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/how-not-to-aggro-your-tank-with-aoe/

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Let's Talk Healing Now

Now that we have talked death knights and tanking, let's turn to healers and what they hate in dungeon finder raids.
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-piss-off-your-healer.html

By the way, the Solo MMO Player adores shammy healers. You guys and gals rock.

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Tanking in Dungeon Finder

The Solo MMO Player says if you are a death knight and you want to tank in the dungeon finder, please don't.  If you must, please don't jump up and down constantly like a Mexican jumping bean.  It makes him dizzy!

WOW Insider talks about tanking abilities that he wishes didn't exist.  This has tips on tanking for the death knights who must, and for anyone else.
http://www.wow.com/2010/01/12/abilities-i-usually-wish-didnt-exist-in-5-mans/#continued

Here's a death knight primer for tanking in the five man dungeons.
http://www.wow.com/2010/01/12/lichborne-a-death-knight-primer-for-tanking-5-man-dungeons/

Melee tips.
http://morrighan13.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/things-about-being-melee-i-wish-more-pugs-knew/

More death knight tips
http://pwnwear.com/2010/01/14/tanking-to-be-less-squishy/

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