How players are using cross-realm raiding to foster communities
by Mathew McCurley 
Feb 6th 2012 at 3:00PM
Sites like LFRaid.com and Twitterland Raiding are two communities that have sprung up quickly in this new cross-realm raiding world. Twitterland Raiding is a website created for the Twitter WoW community to form up groups for raiding across server lines. With a centralized place to express interest in raiding as well as no server structure or logistics to worry about besides Real ID names (which gets immensely easier with the introduction of BattleTags), raiding can happen in greater volume and more quickly.
LFRaid.com is another site that has set up a system to advertise for raiding with a group in a cross-server community. The biggest difference between sites like these and guild recruiting sites is that they exist outside of the guild parameter. You do not have to spend money on a transfer as a new recruit to raid with a different group of people, and you skip that potentially expensive trial period that might not work out. LFRaid.com also has a great Teams Recruiting section that players can browse through to find a group that's looking for a guy or girl just like you.
Choosing to create a community in a very different way, @vitaemachina on Twitter administers the Sleepy Hams public Mumble server. Originally created to streamline cross-realm raiding groups that wanted a place to use voice communication, Sleepy Hams has sort of taken on a life of its own.
Many people threw up their hands in protest over the Dungeon Finder's unintended consequence of damaging server communities (or, in layman's terms, asking in trade chat for two hours for a tank, because we thought that this was fun for over 10 years). Instead, we got a robust system of dungeon queuing that has been revised, tweaked, and added on to since halfway through Wrath of the Lich King. The Dungeon Finder and, by proxy, the Raid Finder may have potentially been among the most important innovations for the MMO genre to this day, if only because of how much content it made accessible to previously unknowing players. What these projects show is that no matter how much community you think Blizzard is removing, by adding features that greatly enhance accessibility, players will always find a way at creating communities with the people they want to play the game with.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
smartazjb0y Feb 6th 2012 3:13PM
Hmm, does this include TBC and older raids? I checked LFRaid and it only went as far back as Ulduar
Charron Feb 6th 2012 3:19PM
I did BT last night with friends from another server, so I can attest to TBC. I'm pretty sure it includes everything up to DS.
Reliq Feb 6th 2012 4:10PM
LFRaid creator here - I only included back to Ulduar as I was unsure what the interest would be. Happy to add any others :)
Nopunin10did Feb 6th 2012 4:45PM
@Relic
I'd like to set up a team to do Burning Crusade raids with other like-minded level 70 characters. Does your site have a means to declare certain raiding categories (like by-level)?
mark.bridgeman Feb 6th 2012 5:03PM
No not yet, but the site is only a week old at the moment :) All suggestions are welcome!
smartazjb0y Feb 6th 2012 8:07PM
Hmm, maybe just add the focus of why you want to do raids, in addition to older raids (this may be in the profile, I don't remember). Like if you want to raid for achieves, TransMog, etc. That way, like-minded people can be further grouped together.
Krsnik Feb 6th 2012 3:24PM
Just a heads-up, Reddit.com has started their own cross-realm raiding groups over on http://www.reddit.com/r/wow. Alliance and Horde have both had great success in raiding content from BC, Wrath and beyond! We're all loving this feature; it feels like it's a fresh breath of air into this seven year-old game.
For a recent example of one of our runs, please see http://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/pbwzr/results_of_a_reddit_raiders_first_raid_night/
xvkarbear Feb 6th 2012 3:26PM
Woot! I was hoping websites like this would pop up.
I want t8 on my druid very much, but Ulduar isn't happening on my server.
If anyone out there is doing Ulduar and wouldn't mind a resto/balance druid to tag along, I'd be happy to go! (Probably best to poke me on twitter. @xvkarbear)
DarkWalker Feb 6th 2012 3:36PM
I see this as the proof that realm segregation damages raiding (and, perhaps, all other kinds of content where players are required to come together as a group).
Cross-realm raiding might even be the lifeline 25-man raiding needs. If you pool the 200+ realms WoW has just in the US, you will surely find enough players to have a healthy 25-man raiding community.
Thander Feb 6th 2012 3:37PM
This brings up the question of cross realm guilds. A lot of players just use their guilds for chat and group content. Chat would be the only thing missing. There would still be a place for normal guilds too. Many guilds do events where their members meet somewhere in the persistent world. That wouldn't be possible with cross realm guilds. A lot of players would appreciate not having to worry about server transfers just to get in a good guild.
Domintal Feb 6th 2012 4:17PM
Raiding is one thing but I think guilds go a bit too far. All you would be able to do is talk to the other person and you can do that via realid, or create a chat channel for all the people you want to talk to together.
Not to mention it will be insane to code, be annoying to grasp who is or isn't on your server, and if they all shared a guild bank you could transfer items and money across servers, you could make a toon on a different server and take control of the AH over there with absolutely no effort involved.
It does sound good at first, but it'd be easier if they just spent the 25-55 to transfer over.
Jordan Feb 6th 2012 4:07PM
"Many people threw up their hands in protest over the Dungeon Finder's unintended consequence of damaging server communities (or, in layman's terms, asking in trade chat for two hours for a tank, because we thought that this was fun for over 10 years)."
^ times a thousand
The Dungeon Finder hasn't "ruined the community" or any such nonsense. If you were in a guild or knew enough people to not be amongst those spamming in trade(troll)chat for a group, then Dungeon Finder won't affect you anyways, because you already have enough pals to make a group.
The Dungeon Finder has been a blessing for casuals who can never seem to find their way into a good guild, and otherwise never see a lot of content. There's nothing that I miss about trying to worm my lfg requests amongst troll-chat spam and 4nal jokes.
Eyhk Feb 6th 2012 5:01PM
I think these are two entirely different issues that are just consequently linked together. It is an undeniable fact that barking in trade for hours at a time trying to find a group was pure madness. But one of the results was that you got to know the people on your server, the guilds, the good and the ugly. More time spent with your fellow server mates through the forced interaction had the (un)intended consequence of fostering the server community. Now that the forced interaction is gone, basically the only interaction that is left is within/across guilds, with an intimate knowledge of trade chat trolls. At least with normal/heroic raid pugging, the trade bark remains so there is still some interaction.
I actually like both models and hope they continue encouraging use of both. I like the fact that I can join or leave a group with relatively minor consequences to all parties involved. RL happens and leaving an LFR midway has almost no impact to the group or to myself. Running with guild/server mates has the high consequence of hurting the flow of the group, wasting group time trying to find a replacement that doesn't mind being locked out to previous bosses, and maybe even hurting my own reputation and not getting an invite in the future. With the added cost, comes the benefit of community though. Before, I actually knew which guilds were epeen jerks and which were actually pretty decent folk. Now, all I have is some bias on which servers I'd rather avoid in LFD/R (sorry Ragnaros, nothing personal)
Jordan Feb 6th 2012 4:08PM
Wonder if we will ever see cross-faction dungeons?
Domintal Feb 6th 2012 4:19PM
Even though it would make no sense (especially in Trial of the Crusader) it would be nice to do this, just for realID of course.
vitaemachina Feb 6th 2012 4:22PM
Creator of Sleepy Hams here - thanks for the mention!
Foxfyr Feb 6th 2012 5:08PM
I had a quick peek at these sites but they don't seem to be exactly what I was hoping for yet. I'm holding out for some kind of live chat that emulates a worldwide looking for raid channel.
Ideally, I would like to be able to see if there is a group looking for a couple more right away as opposed to one that's looking for someone for next Saturday.
Do any of these options fit that bill if I investigate them further?
Revynn Feb 6th 2012 5:18PM
Im waiting for BattleTags so I don't have to pass out my email address to strangers, but I'm really looking forward to what this means for the smaller communities in WoW. Particularly the ability to find a regular BC raid group for my Rogue.
Cerrena Feb 6th 2012 6:32PM
This!
I'd be quite happy to do some cross-realm raiding but not until BattleTags.
Saz Feb 7th 2012 12:22AM
This is Saz from Twitterland Raiding, just wanted to say thank you for the mention!