Personally, I just pick any game mode and deal with whatever mode I'm dropped into. All mechs have their own role to play in each game mode. At any rate, the map you get when you queue has more of an impact than the game mode you get. Would you rather have conquest on Frozen City with an assault brawler or have that same brawler for Skirmish on Alpine Peaks?
If you and your team can pilot and coordinate well, you can usually overcome whatever issues your mech may have with the mode. However, maps and spawns are harder to overcome.
Anyways, a big problem here is the fact that other people's votes dictate what mode you get more than you do. Let's say you have 12 skirmish-only players matched with 12 players that selected any mode. As I understand it, the matchmaker reads that as 24 votes for skirmish, 12 votes for assault, and 12 votes for conquest. So even though half of the players selected skirmish-only, they still only have a 50% chance of getting skirmish.
This is the problem--since there are 3 modes, if one person picks any mode whereas another person picks one specific mode, then the person who picked any has voted 2-1 against the one mode. Combined with the single vote for one mode, you have 50-50 odds of getting the mode that the one player specifically asked for.
I'm not going to vote on this because I don't have strong feelings about either option. I don't mind having the variety in what one is dropped into, and I think in some ways it requires people to become more well-rounded pilots and have better team coordination, but I understand that it is extremely frustrating to choose only one mode and still have a large chance of not getting that mode. Perhaps incorporating unchecked game modes for people who want specific game modes as "-1" (or better, "-.5") votes for the other game modes would help, although that could also have intense ramifications.
If you are trying to build mechs specifically for a certain game mode, IMO it takes a bit out of the dynamic and quick-thinking aspects of the game, but to each his own. Vote no then.
If you would rather not come up against teams that are specifically built for the game mode you're playing, and would rather play with/against teams with a hogepodge of mechs (although you could still potentially get a hodgepodge team vs a stacked team), then vote yes. However, know that by voting yes you are relinquishing much of your control over what game mode you select.
Edited by One Last Byte, 08 October 2014 - 07:59 AM.