siLve00, on 17 January 2013 - 09:05 PM, said:
the only thing a matchmaker should do is :
match premades vs premades and match mech classes vs mech classes.
zack .......... all problem solved.
THe premades can show off how good they realy are.. the pugs can be happy since it will be always even.
We dont need an ELO or send premades to hell... or a pug only que.. thats bs.. just like i said.. and everybody can be happy.
No more sync. drops ( since then the other team would have 2x4 premades and so on ). No more "WW premades QQ" .. No more " ******* PUGS learn to (team)play" and so on.
To digress and set the background of my thoughts -
Personally, I think that even with the cadet bonus etc, new player retention is probably sub-optimal. The reason I believe this is that I have almost exclusively solo PUGged and the solo PUG experience is definitely not something that will be regarded as being fun for most people new to BT/Mechwarrior.
It looks cool and attracts interest in trying it out but actually playing and learning from scratch is a whole different story. The 25 match cadet bonus just masks the problem and I would not be surprised if the new player retention numbers will not differ substantially from before its introduction.
Basically, there are just 2 points that I'm concerned about:
1. Do new players have fun when put in a game with players who have vastly better mechs and experience?
2. Do solo PUGgers have fun when they are being "carried" by players with much greater experience & skills?
MWO's future depends on the fun factor given the business model they have chosen. Matching players with roughly similar experiences and skill levels helps raise this.
Please note I'm not advocating premade v premade only, etc. There should be a reasonable compromise possible as I believe it is important that solo PUGs should see the difference in the way a premade operates versus a solo PUG which means a mixed queue is needed.
I hope Phase 3 of MM is the answer but if it fails epically, I think PGI needs to seriously think about whether separate queues should be implemented for the future of the game.
I have yet to encourage any of my gaming friends or children to try this game for fear of putting them off this game forever.