The Isolation of Random Matchmaking

[GoOutside]

I would think that because it's matchmaking, the player doesn't have any freedoms in choosing their opponents. They more or less grant the auto-matchmaking system the authority to tell the player who to play against. In UT, you could CHOOSE which server(and consequently, which players) you wanted to play against but in match-making, it is more along the lines of, "Ok. So you want to play against someone? Let me go find someone I think is good for you."

Despite a very well written and extremely persuasive argument, there's just this voice in my head that keeps saying "In UT, you had the choice to pick which server to go on rather than clicking a button that is gonna match you up against another player." I guess the big thing I'm trying to get at is on the one hand, you give the player to freely go out and look for who to play but on the other, that freedom is taken away and the player has to put his faith in a system that is trying to look out for the player's best interest.

I don't know much since I'm not in the beta (Q.Q) but if anyone could enlighten me on how everything works, I would greatly appreciate it and think on it accordingly.

 

[ad4m101]

Back when i was playing CnC generals, i learnt most of my tactics by watching replays from my opponents point of view, in games where i was completely crushed. I got quite good

 

[Doc Cannon]

Left 4 Dead 2 - no server browser means no way to play with the same strangers more than once, no way to make friends, no way to build community.

Actually, it uses Steam, so you can make a lot of friends really fast and invite them to join you in a heartbeat.

 

[F8L Fool]

I totally agree that it's nice to be able to choose who you want to play with. I remember in Gears of War 1, especially early on, I could choose who I wanted to play against at all times. Right down to the host I was joining. Then they changed it and made it a bit more difficult to distinguish, but at the very least I could see who was in the room and whether or not I wanted to stay there prior to the game starting. If I knew the people in the room were amazing and I was grouped with scrubs, I could leave, or try to overcome them. That was my choice.

Then when Gears of War 2 came out everything became automated. You were pitted against people of "similar skill", and number; if you're in a team of 4, they'll try to find a team of 4 to fight against, rather than four random people thrown together. The upside of having everything being automated is, well, it's automated so you just hit go and it does its thing. Beyond that it's absurdly frustrating because you can't be selective like in the original game. You can't choose your map, who your opponents are, nothing.

The good thing about random/automated matchmaking is that it's harder to cheat and boost your statistics. But truth be told cheaters will always find a way to cheat, and I do mean always. So really there is very little downside in my eyes for being in control of who you play.

 

[Haywire]

While embarrassing to admit, when I confess a lack of proficiency with RTS games, it's a statement made from experience rather than intimidation.

Thanks for the reply
Genuinely, my point was that while you may be bad, there are many people who are just as bad. Not exactly a rosy comment, but my hope (and expectation) is that enough people will be playing at that level where you will find plenty of people you can beat among the people you can't. Whether or not that is enough to keep people playing or even draw a purchase in the first place is of course a person to person choice

 

[GeneralGrant]

To be honest, I don't see there being a problem here. If you want to play with random matchmaking, that's the experience you get. If you want to play against known players, make a custom game. Warcraft 3 and the first Starcraft both had custom games, so will Starcraft 2.

 

[Gringoloco]

When you play 1vs1, random play is great IMO, random sucks when team play is involved - 2vs2 or 3vs3 (or more of course). GeneralGrant, the problem with custom games now is that in most games they aren't counted as valid, ranked matches, like back in the good old days. Dawn of War 2, and I guess SC2, make random the only way to "level up" in your online rankings...