Matchmaking/Balancing - An immodest proposal

I came here looking for information about how to duel with my friends. Finding that I cannot currently do that, I stayed to read about your plans for such a feature. Seeing the discord already growing in the forum, I thought I'd just tell you what to do. Heh.

Automated matchmaking is a very difficult problem to solve. Mechanical balancing of this game will prove much the same. In both cases, the core issue is: "What to do about dickheads?" In both cases, the answer is: "Shun them!"

We (the players) will never agree on what constitutes dickheadery. The use of potions will quickly become a divisive issue, the extent to which gear is allowed to overwhelm player skill. Each and every detail of every aspect of the game will become a rallying cry. We (the players) will form factions. If you (the company) try to do automated matchmaking and/or mechanical balancing, then you will bring those factions into conflict with one another in such a way that you must deal with the issues (or the consequences of failing to deal with them) in one way or another.

If you (the company) let us make up our own rules, then we will mostly ignore each other and get on with the fun. Pissing contests will still erupt from time to time, both in game and on your forums, but they will be relatively rare and mild compared to the urine tsunami that you'll unleash if you try to make up the rules.

You've seen this happen. You know it's true. A goodly chunk of your beta base is here because a certain other company did it wrong.

Here's the germ of a plan that might work better. Give us a relatively convenient way to specify our own rules, enforce those rules, let us keep score on the open web.

1. Let players who want to moderate a faction (run a league) create and register sets of rules. Stat rangess. Banning/allowing particular skills. Buffing/nerfing individual game mechanics. Maybe allow standard gear, or a choice of gear from a standard list. Which zones are allowed, whether or not the mobs spawn. Allow/disallow gear swapping. Deathmatch/timed resurections/who wins or loses. This part is a website activity, either yours or somebody else's.

2. Let players who want to PvP select the rules that they want to play by from a list. Sort the list so that the rule sets that have been selected by the most players recently are at the top.

3. Once the game has started, enforce the rules diligently.

4. Expose the results of a game through a web api. Very little information is actually required: a reference to the set of rules that was used, the list of winners, the list of losers. (The set of rules needs to be available through the web api too.)

Someone in your company probably owns a suit. This bit is for him.

You decide what can and what cannot be specified in a rule set. You decide from whom you will accept rule sets. You decide whether or not a particular rule set remains available to the players. You decide to whom you will expose results data. You minimize conflict among your customers. You minimize the expense of mediating the remaining conflicts. More of your customers will find something they like. You continue to control the core asset (the PvE portion of the game). Your core asset is more valuable because it is more entertaining.

You've already got a tiger by the tail, GGG, and you're making it look easy. Grab another one.

Sincerely -

A player who just got his head ripped off by the cheap shotting, no-skill, twinking dickhead of a n00b that your f'ng matchmaking system foisted upon me.

There is no matchmaking system yet, so don't say how bad it is, when it is not even added to the game yet.

Currently when 2 players who are logged in from the same Gateway are in the 1v1 queue together, they just get paired automatically, no matter what level they are, no matter how often they've won / lost already.

At the moment it is just a very simple automatic instant pairing!

A real matchmaking system will probably be added soon, as improving the pvp system is one of the main priorities at the moment.

So when you want to duel with your friends, you need to be both logged in at the same Gateway and just join at the same time, when there is no1 else in the queue.

the truth in matchmaking word
ppl see it and they start think that there is some kind of system
but there not
not yet ^^