I’ve basically stopped playing the “endgame” after playing a healer (pally), DPS (hunter) and tank (pally) in Heroics. Running the same dungeons again, and again for ephemeral rewards with silent groups nearly put me off the game entirely.

All those i232+ items I grind-ed through dungeons for? Quickly replaced the moment I stepped into the level 80+ zones.

The thought of stepping back onto the Heroic LFG grind sends shivers down my spine.

Right now I’ve got a level 55 Tauren pally and a 25 Worgen warrior which I’ve levelling for fun. In addition there is my level 81 pally making his way slowing through the levelling process.

I’m in no hurry, I’m enjoying the sites and jumping into the LFG when I want to explore a dungeon.

Now I level alts, explore and play for fun.

In all honesty, I didn’t forget how long it took to find groups before these changes. I remember full well that it could take bloody ages. That was certainly a big shame, but stripping instancing of its very essence, just to make it more accessible was an awful solution if you can even call it that. Merging servers or giving high levels’ alts an experience gain boost would have been far better solutions. This however just isn’t worth the trade-off to me.

Imagine waiting for a hamburger at the local fast food place. If the guy at the counter told me that I can either keep waiting for the ham to cook, or they could give me a hamburger without the ham right away (just the buns with ketchup and salad), I’d pick waiting any day.
The alternative he offered would probably ease my hunger too, but it’d taste like sh*t. Not worth it.

It’s the same with WoW. The social pleasures and opportunities of instancing were my ham. Take that away and it all becomes something substantally different, substantially worse to the point where it’s just not worth the price paid for its convenience.
If your ham is gear and experience, you won’t notice anything of this of course. And most really didn’t, because they’ve been accustomed to the lack of decency and social interactions long before this change, thanks to the generally anti-social nature of the “new community” (of mostly immature children) that descended upon WoW over the years, invited by the community-wrecking changes I mentioned in my original post, which long predate the dungeon finder.
As a result, even those who’d otherwise be receptive to a socially pleasant environment end up supporting the dungeon finder, because they just don’t know any better.

On a sidenote, I question the economics behind the whole concept of turning the entire focus of the game solely on gear and leveling, even at the expense of community ties, as that’ll result in far fewer longterm subscribers. An engaging community can keep you interested in a game waaaay past the gameplay’s natural lifespan. A lust for gear and prowess on the other hand will fade much quicker, especially once people realize there’s no meaningful social environment left to showcase it to.

But I don’t want to wreck anyone’s fun. People who like the cross-realm dungeon finder should be able to use it. But those who value what I’ve been describing above should also get their option to find instance groups in a way similar to the old tool (though that too could use a lot of improvement).
There’s just no reason not to give people this choice. It’s an unsound practice even by Blizzard’s profit driven thinking, because there’s no downside to having different ways to LFG, yet it’d please groups left unsatisfied by the current way.

OTOH, I think that many people, like Cordell, forget how hard it was to find people to group with, especially as the game “matured” and BC came out. The lower levels have thinned greatly, making it difficult to finish group-oriented quests. It’s enabled newbies and alts to complete more quests and level, which I always found enjoyable, though I may be unique.

It is sad that the solution to the leveling and population issues has led to the issues mentioned by you, Cordell, and others: the loss of friendliness and sense of community in the game.

Great article, hope to read some more from you in the future.