So I'm listening to some of this and thinking back. A little context. I've been playing since open beta, 2012. I've come and gone and when gone its just I got other stuff to do. I like the game, so I don't speak from a point of spite or jaded resignation. Back when I was dropping in old days, old matchmaker ... I was often part of groups which would be on like the Marik Gunslingers Discord and people would make a point of grouping up in game after discussing what their matchmaking tiers were, like psr tier 2, tier 3, etc and they'd coordinate that in the discord so that you had several premades grouped at once, all with similar tiers on all the players within. Everyone then would be in that main discord room and together in their MWO drops. People would then coordinate clicking at the same time to try to "syncronize" thier dropping - providing a bunch of very similarly grouped tier 2, tier 3, and even tier 4 players in several groups to fill matches on the matchmaker. This did not at all guarantee you to be on the same side, you very often would be facing the other premades you were in discord with - but also, often if you had four or more groups dropping at that same moment, similar tiers... you'd often also get one or more of those premades on your discord on your side too.
As matches started, you'd see names you recognized on your discord channel on your side in other lances and so you and your premade 2 or 3 man and the other 2-3 man you recognized would say okay lets go into lobby 33 of the discord server you were on... both those groups then were in the discord chat and didn't even have to use the in game chat with anyone else. So you'd have plenty of people on those nights and they'd not even all be the same unit and tags, but often the pre-made groups were at least several of the same tag and we'd all coordinate - and only if something was absolutely important or the game really tight would you see the people in those premades deigning to use push to talk or whatever to talk using the MWO in game voice comms, yet the coordination was totally there for the rest because there was continual communication going on in that discord lobby between the two premades that ended being match made on the same side. Back then sometimes I think it could even be more than one or two groups even, so there might be like a two 2 man groups, a 3-man group and a single lone pug going WTH, how are they all coordinating so well?
The same might have been the case on the other side for the reds, but often one side wouldn't get as many of the premade groups and would have more quick play solo players. They were out of the loop and out of the coordination, very often you'd see the loss on that side even if you knew that two of the lances on the enemy team were fellow premades, cause they were on your discord server in another lobby at that moment. Coodination was key and seemed sometimes like a super power, but it also was goofy cause sometimes people got spicy even on the discord, fights and arguements happened over who to follow, what tactics... and a tool for coordination, became a tool for ... discord.
Edited by Mad Porthos, 05 November 2024 - 04:08 PM.