Bringing the Online Community Together

By RemV on June 22, 2009 3:49:34 AM from

So I made a post in someone elses thread touching on this subject but thought I'd get others opinions on the matter.

Currently the online game types are split up into Custom games, Skirmish and Pantheon, with Skirmish and Pantheon games invisible to other players in the community. By invisible I mean noone can see how many there are going on or how many people are waiting in lines. Whilst this may not matter to some people since theyre supposed to be matched anyway, I present another solution to the ghost town of my timezone.

Ranked/Unranked
Why not list Pantheon and Skirmish games (or better yet, combine the two into a "ranked" category), in the same way that Custom Games are listed (and present them as either Custom, or Unranked). Players may setup their own games with limited or preset options to comply with Skirmish/Pantheon rules/ideals, and with their ranking shown in the list, player can then see how many people are out there, this sort of transparency gives more of a visible community feel which could drastically improve the mentality of the 'is this game dying?' people as they can see the other games going on. They could even be in the same list, with "Ranked/Custom" shown as a category column.

Players can then join games in the same ranking as themselves (perhaps make these appropriate games full strength text, and brackets you dont belong to half faded or something maybe, just throwing ideas out there). You could even leave in a "Ranked Quick-Join" button to put you into a premade game that suits your rank instead of finding one yourself.

Compromising
If there are really no other games going in your bracket, perhaps players could then choose to take part in a game that they are fully aware is against someone better/worse than themselves provided both parties agree. Maybe give the host of the lobby an "Player X with 1000 ranking would like to join your game, Accept/Deny" Option. You dont want this? Don't need to accept it.

This allows people to also be more aware of what they're getting themselves into, perhaps even if the higher ranked players are good sports they could split themselves up with the newbies and teach them a thing or two.

Overall, Listing pantheon or ranked games in a window similar to custom games (but with the pantheon/skirmish preset rules) will make the community more visible, perhaps encourage people from the custom game community to try ranked games more, and overall improve the community feel of the game instead of hiding some games away from visibility. It may help decrease the occurance of players quitting when they see who they're up against, or map etc (unless that was forced random for Pantheon). It may just be my own opinion here, but I view segregating the game to too many online types (and hiding some of them) as hurting the community vibe.

Thoughts/Opinions?

+4 Karma | 5 Replies

thoughts/opinions:

this doesnt matter

Skirmish? Skirmish are supposed to be offline games and you can't "spy" without user consent since they haven't really login and therefore the game exe is not suppose to exchange any info with the Internet.

There are online skirmish games, that is what I was referring to, not offline skirmish.

And not matter? One of the biggest problems with pantheon at the moment is apparently people dropping out when they see who they're up against, or dont like the look of the lineup.

This would take care of that particular problem as people would know before the game is commited.

I think there are currently two main issues with Pantheon.

1. People dropping because they are trying to get into premade teams thus game the system.

2. Lack of trust on players part that the system will make relatively balanced matches, partly dues to people gaming the system and also because it sometimes makes bad parings.

I don't think it is an easy problem to solve though. On one hand it would be nice to know more information about the players in the matchup without having to look it up on the Pantheon website. On the otherhand, some people might be more inclined to drop when they see that they are going against some tough competition.

For example, you are 3 players with ranks in the 10-11k range and you are pitted against two players in the top 50. Stay or leave?

What about you are in the top 50 and partnered with someone in the 20k range against 3 players one of which is in the top 100 and the other two have ranks between 6k and 15k. What do you do?

I've seen similar cases to these two examples so I know that the Pantheon is doing these matchups. I can also tell you that people will react differently to these situations. Some might stay, some might drop and some might do a bit of both.

If they where going to do a more informative interface I'd suggest an interface similar to the one used in custom games where it show who is playing on each side and what their rankings are. The match making system automatically adds players to the match if spots are available based on rank balance. Players are free to chat with each other while waiting for the match making to complete. If they don't like the match they can drop and the match making system will find a replacement. When the game fills up and everyone agrees to play then they all click the ready button and the game starts. This sort of match making will take longer but should also give the players a greater sence of trust in the system. Part of the reason that I think this will work better is that players can chat with each other while waiting which makes the wait feel less long and builds a sence of community.

I agree the custom map type interface would solve a lot of these player-preference-mismatches. Its more or less what I was trying to express in the OP A custom game interface that the system slots you into, or you can find one that appropriately matches you from a list of games that might be up. I agree that being able to talk would definitely build more of a sense of community, absolutely. And people being able to leave before they ruin a commited game, is a good thing for both parties.

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Bringing the Online Community Together