Real ID Friend Grouping for Dungeons Testing !

[Royi]

MMOCHAMP: (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/)

New Real ID Party Feature Now Available for Testing
You heard it here first, the news is now official! the Real ID Party Feature is now available for testing!

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
When delving into the depths of Azeroth's darkest dungeons, it always helps to have some friends at your side... now you're able to issue a call to arms no matter what realm they play on. We're pleased to announce the new Real ID Party feature is now available for testing! This new feature will allow World of Warcraft players to invite their real-life Real ID friends of the same faction to a party regardless of the realm they play on, and then queue up for a 5-player regular or Heroic dungeon.

To learn more about Real ID, please visit the Real ID web page and read the FAQ.

For more information about how the Real ID Party system works, check out the FAQ below.

Real ID Party Feature – Test Phase FAQ

Q: What is the Real ID Party feature?
A: Players can now invite Real ID friends of the same faction to a 5-player normal or Heroic dungeon group, regardless of what realm their friends are on. This system is designed to make it easier for real-life friends to play together.

Q: How do I invite Real ID friends to a Real ID party?
A: Inviting a Real ID friend to a Real ID Party is simple. Just open up your Friends list to see which Real ID friends are online. Click on the “Plus” button to send an invitation to a Real ID friend to join your group. You can continue to add Real ID friends to your party until the group is complete. If you cannot complete the group with Real ID friends, you are free to join the Dungeon Finder to fill in the missing roles.

Q: Does a player need to have Real ID enabled to accept a Real ID group invite?
A: Yes, a player must have Real ID enabled, and both players must be Real ID friends to accept or initiate Real ID party invitations.

Q: Can a party leader invite a mix of Real ID friends, character-level friends, guildmates, or random players to the same party?
A: A party leader can invite any combination of Real ID friends from any realm, guildmates from the same realm, or other characters from the same realm to the same party. If the party leader isn’t able to fill up the entire party, the Dungeon Finder can fill in the missing roles.

Q: Can I invite someone who is not a Real ID friend?
A: You can only invite members to a party if they are on your Real ID friends list or if they are on the same realm as you are.

Q: Can I invite a friend of a Real ID friend?
A: No, you can only invite those who are Real ID friends with you directly to the party.

Q: How long will the testing period last?
A: We haven’t yet determined how long the testing period will last. We'll keep you updated on the status and inform you when the test period is going to end in the future.

Q: Will aspects of the Real ID Party system be premium-based?
A: We'll have information on the premium-based aspects of the Real ID Party system toward the end of the testing period.







(didnt see it posted here yet, sorry if it was already)

[Worba]

This sounds very cool.

[Gammaman]

WHERE DO YOU TEST THIS AT :O

[Kalliope]

Now we just need temporary faction swaps to go with this!

<3 Blizz for pushing in this direction.

[Royi]

Now we just need temporary faction swaps to go with this!

<3 Blizz for pushing in this direction.

I hope they would eventually have something like Caverns of time did for instance. It would be neat if whoever is the party leader, their friends would change to image/appearances of his/her faction.


One sour thing is that this service might be on a premium-fee option. However I'm ok if it would only be $3 more a month (like the mobile premium service is) if it includes mobile AH and mobile guildchat.... AND they would really have to throw in the cross-faction groupings as well. Most of my older WOW friends that I still stay in touch with play Alliance overwhelmingly and I alas am a horde-fanboy

I mean if Horde / Alliance can group together to kill the Lich King, why not Jindo and Zanzil????

It seems if this goes well they'll try and figure out how to get BG's included as well.

[Vephriel]

Now we just need temporary faction swaps to go with this!

This. x) I wish there was a way that this would ignore faction and just put you in a disguise (like the Caverns of Time instances). The minority in the group would be transformed to be the other faction.

[Kalliope]

Now we just need temporary faction swaps to go with this!

<3 Blizz for pushing in this direction.

I hope they would eventually have something like Caverns of time did for instance. It would be neat if whoever is the party leader, their friends would change to image/appearances of his/her faction.

I'm thinking that for balance reasons regarding faction-based racials, it might have to be more than just the appearance. (Just because I can't think of a specific reason they SHOULDN'T be okay to interact with each other doesn't mean that a can of worms wouldn't be opened by unintended interactions.) But yeah, I like that the party's faction be determined by the leader upon the instance's creation.

[Royi]

i would guess some kind of fix for cross-faction would be on the horizon. they did make REALID to allow friends to stay connected regardless of faction... I hope at least

[Kalliope]

The question is how much work it would be on Blizzard's end to set up a temporary faction change. Cause basically, that would be the last barrier standing between friends on different servers and factions.

[AdamSavage]

What's with Boubouille posting Fluxflashor name on mmo all the time lately..

[Monica Gems]

Initially they were going to charge extra, per month, to use this feature. I was part of the 95% crowd saying my $15/mo probably funded the development of this feature, and they aren't getting a red cent out of me for its use; it's like someone giving you the money to buy a pizza and you telling them they can't have any. We ended up with 14+ pages of mostly "against" votes but Blizzard's only answer was "Yeah we know these threads are happening". With this coming out, slapping a charge on it would be a PR nightmare.

Not sure I like the faction thing; if I end up in a party with a leader of the other faction and get changed, I'd rather eat the 30 min debuff. I rolled the toon I want to play, and would rather it not be changed.

[Kalliope]

Not sure I like the faction thing; if I end up in a party with a leader of the other faction and get changed, I'd rather eat the 30 min debuff. I rolled the toon I want to play, and would rather it not be changed.

You'd be queuing with your friends, though - wouldn't that be worth the tradeoff? Your opposite-faction friends could always let YOU be leader, so you'd queue as your faction too....

[Royi]

Not sure I like the faction thing; if I end up in a party with a leader of the other faction and get changed, I'd rather eat the 30 min debuff. I rolled the toon I want to play, and would rather it not be changed.

You'd be queuing with your friends, though - wouldn't that be worth the tradeoff? Your opposite-faction friends could always let YOU be leader, so you'd queue as your faction too....

and anyways, if i've logged already thousands of hours (i'm sure its probably more) on my goblin wouldn't it be fun to try out your character as a dwarf for a dungeon? or maybe even a night elf again (like what she used to be)

I know I would think so, ESPECIALLY if i could play with other REALID friends on different servers.

And if you rather not be changed, dont do RealID dungeon groupings then, or just make sure you're the leader as Kali said.