WoW dev responds to major concerns over group finding in Season of Discovery

World of Warcraft: Season of Discovery has taken the MMO in many exciting new directions, but some age-old problems keep rearing their collective heads. One of those is finding a group, and some players are growing increasingly concerned.

Across the different flavors of WoW, finding a group can be easy to downright impossible. In Retail or Modern WoW, the group finder makes this a relative breeze in most activities. That said, the game’s most difficult activities can be harder to access.

The reason for this, is players who ruthlessly subscribe to the current meta, whatever that may be. This means players of certain specs or even entire classes can find themselves without a group for weeks or even months, thanks to factors outside of their control.

Unfortunately, this attitude has spread to Season of Discovery, and players are growing increasingly concerned.

Season of Discovery’s hardest activities should be possible for any class/spec

In a post on Twitter/X, one player drew the attention of Senior Game Producer Josh Greenfield. In it, the player stated that Season of Discovery has a “big problem” with players gatekeeping activities. This has then led to solo players being unable to get into groups at all.

In response, Greenfield detailed several methods for mitigating the issue and pointed out that there is little they can do on the development side to address players behaving in this way. Though many may consider it ridiculous, players gatekeeping is technically acceptable.

I see these comments a lot and while I genuinely feel for folks with these anecdotes, there's not likely a magic wand that a game designer can wave that will "fix" this.

The issue at its core is that there will always be people who want to gatekeep for no real reason. I'll also…

— Josh Greenfield (@AggrendWoW) March 17, 2024

Much of the advice amounts to leaning into the nature of an MMO. Joining a guild is the most prescient advice, as having players who you can get to know and enjoy activities with should override any inclinations to gatekeep activities.

Additionally, starting a group of your own is a great way to complete all of the game’s activities. Picking up the misfits and others who can’t find a willing group can be a rewarding experience for everyone.

With the game only in its second phase, there is plenty of time before the true endgame is reached. With overzealous players already an issue, its likely to worsen by the time Molten Core enters the fray.