This week, Garrett looks at the idea of scaling raid instances in World of Warcraft and how it would help his experience.

One of the great features of MMOs is playing with your friends or guild. The social aspect of MMO keeps people playing over long periods of time because of the friendships they form. In looking at how groups play together I thought about the concept of instancing and how developers might better cater to player groups as a whole.
Imagine having seven friends who play together yet only having the option of a five man instanced dungeon, this can be frustrating.

Right now Warcraft runs five, 10, and 25 man dungeons. The 40 man raid was scraped after a few years because getting 40 people to do anything was so difficult. I spent many hours on these 40 man raids and was amazed at how little players got for hours of team work among 40 people. Times have changed and Warcraft has made it easier to get groups together. Yet even on the server where I play (one of the originals) guilds are finding it hard to fill out their 25 man requirements for raids.

Read it all here.