The Death of Oqueue? (5.4.2)

Since we're still seeing some confusion about the Group Finder, let me try to clear up what I can:

There are two completely separate developments going on here. One is the cross-realm functionality being added to our existing Raid Browser in patch 5.4.2. This is totally unrelated to the new Group Finder we announced at Blizzcon. Basically, we discovered that we could pretty easily add cross-realm browsing to the Raid Browser for 5.4 content, so we've done that in 5.4.2.

6.0's Group Finder is an entirely different thing being built from scratch. It'll allow you to find or create groups for basically any content you can think of, be it raids, dungeons, PvP, questing... heck, you could start a group for running laps in Dalaran if you wanted. It also won't be hidden away someplace that the majority of the playerbase won't notice -- it's gonna be a lot more front-and-center.

A lot of players are drawing parallels between our new Group Finder and the oQueue addon, and that's a perfectly valid comparison. We've been thrilled to see how people have taken to oQueue for finding organized groups, especially in 5.4, and feel that's the sort of thing that the game really should be providing to all players. We're not trying to "kill oQueue"; in fact, a lot of us use it ourselves. We just think that cross-realm group finding should really be part of the core game.

12/05/2013 01:49 PMPosted by Mazzrim

Or do you thinking having everyone on each other friend's list is how Blizzard is going to implement it?

The 6.0 Group Finder will not rely on BattleTags or RealID to form groups, no. Of course, you're more than welcome to share that information yourself with players you meet, and make new friends!

12/05/2013 03:56 PMPosted by Jaquio

We're not trying to "kill oQueue"; in fact, a lot of us use it ourselves.

If I'm taking you out of context I deeply apologize Lore, but are you saying Blizzard is alright for the time being with us using Open-Que? I ask because concern of violating the ToU is the prime reason I have not ever used it.

Using oQueue does not violate the terms of service, no.

12/05/2013 03:49 PMPosted by Mawduke

But with OQ you can put restrictions, view how well they've done before, and how well they're liked with the public. Openraid had a reputation how well people liked your raids and gave you upvotes. Is there any way they will add something like that to help people avoid groups lead by bad players, mean leaders or elitist jerks?

We do want to provide some options for group leaders to put some restrictions for who can and can't request to join their group. We don't want to do it in a way that encourages people to be too heavy-handed, but we also want to make the system easy and intuitive to use, and feel it's better for everyone if the system lets leaders be upfront about who they're willing to bring along.

Basically, we want to avoid a situation where you can be invited to a group and then immediately be kicked when the leader inspects your gear and finds you're 10 item levels lower than he or she is looking for (and then have to repeat that process until you eventually either find a group that will bring you or give up entirely). We'd rather do our best to make sure you only see groups that you've actually got a shot at running with :)