gungnir08 wrote:
If you're implying that more than a few premades out there only really want to farm disorganized opponents, you're probably right. But there's a problem with implementing any solution that disproportionately impacts them.
Let's assume the worst, that there exist premades like this (again, probably true). If something occurs to isolate them from the pugs they want to farm, how might they respond? Suppose they want to try their hand at playing nice and going with the new system. They will probably lose, repeatedly, due in no small part to the low skill ceiling for succeeding at consistently beating pugs. They'll also probably not have thick enough skin to weather such losses and get better at the game since they've been raised on a strict diet of curbstomp and pug tears, which don't do wonders for learning humility.
Then they either quit, or game the system. If they quit, good riddance. If they decide to game the system, we're back where we started. One way they could game this system is to simply queue as solo players for the pug-only scenario, and organize after they get into one. This is a simple plan, and one which basically renders the work involved in preparing this new system pointless. As such, it doesn't seem prudent to commit time to addressing this problem.
Still, I'd love to see this game made more pug-friendly. It seems fair to claim that the majority of players are pugs, so helping them would be in the game's long-term best interests. I just don't think this is the best way to go about doing it.
Not only do I wholeheartedly agree with what you write (and also with what others have posted in this thread to similar effect), but also I have to tip my hat to your writing, which is both exquisitely exuberant and crystal-clear in its argumentation.
That being said, I think that implementations like PUG-only scs are arguably the most pressing need the game has right now, the reason being that balance in the battlefield, be it RvR or scs, is absolutely vital and certainly imho in a schedule of major changes should be prioritised over even class balance.
Why is that? The point of a game is to have fun. There maybe bugs, disconnects, zones not open yet. OK, this is Alpha, and you can still have LOTS of fun notwithstanding all those issues. But a 500/0 sc again and again and again and again...
That UTTERLY destroys the game for any player, even for those on the winning side (at least those who respect themselves)
And I, like so many other people playing a game, cannot and should not be forced to play inside a fixed group if we don't like to. We don't ask for a treatment of preference, we just want to have a small space within the game where we can have the chance to enjoy the only fun battles, which are the not grosdsly and automatically ultra imbalanced ones that are the most common now in scs. Just ONE sc in the entire game.
