There are aspects of social interactions in life that can be extremely stressful. Auditioning for a musical, trying out for a sports team, job interviews, and Tinder swiping are some experiences filled with sweaty palms and the urge to run. However, all of these pale in comparison to the dreaded Group Finder experience in modern World of Warcraft. Players have recently been taking to social media to show just how ludicrous some of their fellow players’ gatekeeping can be when it comes to getting a group invite.
Fans have been popping up on Reddit to reveal these ridiculous instances of cringe expectations for doing content such as Raids and Mythic Plus. In the same manner that a company wants its prospective applicants to have experience beyond their years on Earth, some groups set the bar extremely high. One player was expected to meet at a test dummy for a performance evaluation, even though the record shows that they successfully completed a Mythic Plus key higher than the one being advertised by the group.
Another player showcased the hazards of being a character race that is covered in fur when they were kicked simply for playing as a Vulpera. Half of World of Warcraft’s playable races have some sort of animal relation, but for some reason, group finder is notoriously hard on Vulpera players.
If you think it couldn’t get any worse, check out this player who made the mistake of offering a polite greeting to the group upon being invited, only to be kicked a moment later. This happens quite a bit, and groups don’t seem to care that there is a person behind the character. Many will drop you as soon as a more attractive class comes strutting into their potential candidates without so much as an apology.
Even Dark Legacy Comics, a popular World of Warcraft community comic, poked fun at this issue recently. The character in the comic is denied by a group advertising that they will take literally anyone, and is also refused by a sale group at the same moment. These are hilarious, and actually not far from the true experience.
Related: Blizzard sends new World of Warcraft players into ridiculously scaled dungeons, promises fix
World of Warcraft can do better than just presenting a player with a social contract to sign before playing. They need to take steps to encourage players to accept and help others, in a manner similar to competitors like Final Fantasy XIV. No community is perfect, but WoW’s community reputation has sat in the gutter for way too long.
