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Destiny

Discuss all things Destiny.
7/31/2014 3:12:22 PM
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All you kiddies that think MatchMaking wouldn't hurt Raiding, just ask a veteran WoW player.

We, in the WoW community, had the same discussion about raiding a few years ago when Blizzard went from Destiny's current model of raiding (find your own group) to LFG (which is basically MatchMaking). I'll sum up what happened and try to be objective and un-biased in an attempt to explain what most of you might be missing in this argument. The complaint back then was that more time was spent looking for a raid group than actual raiding. To be fair, a part of that was because the raid group was up to 40 players in the beginning, now it's 25. After a few years, Blizzard eventually introduced LFG (which, like I said, is just like MatchMaking). The initial result was what we expected, faster setup times pre-raid... but that had an undesirable effect that a big portion of the community did not anticipate. You see, raids used to be a HUGE deal. They took hours and hours to setup, and even longer to progress. It was a grueling trial of not only skill, but leadership. You could have the talent and gear necessary in your group to complete the raid, but without some level headed leaders directing the group you would be destined to fail. Finishing that hours/days/weeks long raid? That was the ultimate feeling. Finally, after all that time spent forming a group, training a group, making all those friends and enemies after nights of failure... you down that last boss. Nothing beats that feeling in gaming, nothing. Now? The raids feel watered down. You log on, click that "find a group" button. Wait 10 minutes. Teleport to the raid, no words are spoken, just throwing 25 random players at a raid that most of the group has done 100 times already. No friends, no enemies. Just a sea of nameless, empty players grinding away at this now trivial Raid. Failure no longer means waiting a day to regroup because half the team had to go to sleep. Failure now means waiting another 10 minutes for another tank to queue up for the raid. What used to feel massive and utterly rewarding has now become a chore. A chore that you must perform over and over again until you can find no enjoyment short of getting that occasional gear upgrade. Blizzard addressed this by lowering the difficulty of "LFG" raids, and made "Normal" and "Heroic" modes that you HAD to group up for. But still, the damage has been done. You never enter a raid with your friends anymore. LFG has become mandatory to gear properly for the "Normal" and "Heroic" modes, but by then you've done these fights dozens of times. There's no thrill of exploring, no thrill of learning the fights and the map. Just a different type of grind that has already lost its appeal days/weeks before you even needed to find a real group to do it with. Look, I know I said was going to try to remain unbiased, but the truth is MatchMaking ruins raiding. Raiding SHOULD NOT be something you do easily. Raiding is a test of your skill against PvE as much as it is a test of your communication skills. But when you allow for a "fast track" method to access the raids, you turn it into a chore that you simply throw yourself at until you arbitrarily find a group that has the DPS/HP numbers on their side. If you're arguing FOR MatchMaking in raids, what you're asking Bungie to do is water down the whole raid experience. Yeah, you'll get to do raiding more often... and that sounds appealing. But I promise, you don't know what the long term damage will be. Please consider this before you make another "PETITION FOR BUNGIE TO ADD MATCHMAKING TO RAIDS". Thank you for reading.
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  • Edited by JayJ9Nine: 8/2/2014 5:12:24 PM
    This is the first, earnestly reasonable post I've seen against matchmaking without falling to childish 'SHUT THE F*CK UP YOU WHINE B**CHES, YOU ANTISOCIAL'. You highlight the sentiment and achievement of finishing what is essentially the essence of the end-game. I never played wow but I did play Runescape(which never had any form of LFG for multi-person events besides minigames) and The Old Republic, which has consistently tried to expand the number of raids its had. It had raids and Flashpoints, and eventually flashpoitns had a LFG option. Four people to a group to finish a mission, but then there were the 16 person (or if you wanted hard mode, 32 person) raids. I rarely got to participate in them since the clan I joined was small, tightknit and we enjoyed one another's company, but there were never enough of us on at a time to take a crack at them. Occasionally though a friend of mine outside the clan would state they needed one more person to start a raid and that my gear met the requirements. The few times I participated in these raids were wonderful despite my inexperience and the fact I didn't know the fights, I messed up a few times, and almost killed the entire group once or twice. But they were patient and explained to me the fight the best they could and were quite tolerant, by the time I finished the raid, I loved the experience. Despite getting no really good loot from it, I was proud of myself and happy and wanted to do others. But sadly the LFG option for the raids took a LONG time to set up, and the lack of communication between people made it feel more trial and error. It never occurred to me that limiting the accessibility of the raid, made the final experience feel that much more wonderful when it was finally completed. (And that was just the normal modes raid I did. GOSH, when I did a Nightmare 32 person raid..haha) Considering the fact the final raid for this game only has six person fire teams, I've been convinced that the Match Making should remain off, being its not NEARLY as hard to find people to do it as it would for a sixteen team raid.... Heck if anything I'd like to see at least a 12 person raid involving special use of the team splitting up and simultaneously completing objectives for a truely raid-like experience. Course I've never played Vault of Glass, and from what I've heard its plenty tough. Ehem. So yes! Very very well written my friend, and extra points for showing your point in a 'civilized' manner without resorting to petty namecalling.

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