Forum suggestion about Looking for Group

Just a suggestion, but you should probably split that forum(Looking for Group) into two groups or have two separate forums. One being Looking for group which would be people trying to find a group to play with and saying what they are interesting in playing. The other would be Looking for Players, where DMs/GMs could talk about the game they are running and people could browse through that. Just a suggestion. I wasn't sure where to put those so I'm just posting it in General

Thanks for the feedback Will. As it stands right now, the LFG forum is just a placeholder for a more sophisticated and integrated LFG tool that we are currently working on. Which will make it much easier for both DM's to find players and players to find games.

Yeah. One of my players is giving me a hard time over how he thinks that a sophisticated system for matching GMs and players based on preferred game, genre, setting, style, time, frequency, and shoe size is going to be make-or-break for Roll20. I'd tell him that I'm not one fo the developers if I could get a word in.

One of my players is giving me a hard time over how he thinks that a sophisticated system for matching GMs and players based on preferred game, genre, setting, style, time, frequency, and shoe size is going to be make-or-break for Roll20. It's odd how much of a priority it is to people, in my mind. Could it help? Sure. But there are so many ways to meet people, it seems funny that folks want the system itself to facilitate. We do intend to oblige, but (as always) that costs time that could have gone elsewhere. On the make-or-break perception, by the way: the numbers we have in terms of users (both in sign up's to date AND continual use) put us well towards the top of the pile in terms of other virtual tabletops... which is why our sights are set beyond carving up a pie when we've already got such a healthy slice. It's a good position to be in, with the only real question being to what extent running the operation stays financially feasible (as we're dedicated to the service staying free for the basic use people currently have). Interesting stuff to me... and I'm glad others find it interesting as well.

Yeah, I'm with you. I've been able to organise InterNet RPGs that I couldn't go on to run for about eighteen years. And I figure that I'm always going to be meeting people who want to game in InterNet forums of all sorts, at cons, and so forth, and that it will never matter whether they were members of the Roll20 community because I'll be able to e-mail them a link. And besides that, of the people playing in my current game I've known two since 1986 and the other since 2003. I see plenty of posts here from users who are keeping or getting back in touch with groups that formed in high school and college. But then the LFG thing has been going like a rocket since the beta opened. So much for my understanding.

I honestly don't see how some big gamefinder system would be a big deal. Just making the appropriate forums would do it for me and probably most other people too(though I can only speak for myself). It just cuts down on time honestly(and really not that much but I'm a freak for organization). I've seen people ask for it left and right and I've even suggested it in part before but it will not make or break anything. It would be NICE, but I'm under no illusions that it's absolutely needed as soon as possible.

Total newb to all this (literally opened my account in the last 10 mins) so perhaps I have a different perspective to you vets. I fully believe that a pairing system, either by forum or through a more sophisticated integrated method, will be the keystone of this website's success. Many people coming here have groups with which they can simply use the tools but people like myself are coming here to find a group to get involved with and learn how to play. One of the main prohibitive things for many people when it comes to RPG gaming is finding people to play with. Making it fast and easy to find a group you can be paired with will bring in traffic like you wouldn't believe. I do think an integrated system is better because it'll be real time but a forum where you can find players or find games would do the job adequately too.

Hi For me, a proper group-finder seems vital. People seem to be split between those migrating in with a pre-existing group, and people looking to find one. The first set don't need any help, the second set obviously do. Which set is bigger? Who knows? I'd like to be able to filter by language, time and system as a minimum. Maybe there are dozens of Tagalog Maid games at 5am, and more power to them, but they're not something every user will want to have to sift through. As a quick fix, maybe formalise the format of LFG /LFP post headers to include the basics? Will Rogers' suggestion seems like a good one in the short term too. The pbp forums at rpol.net do that, and it works well.