In this weeks’ TWAB Bungie announced the following change:
Community manager Cozmo later clarified:
A lot of feedback, overwhelmingly negative, ensued. Players that routinely go flawless or that were able to go flawless last week were very unhappy at the prospect of matching against only other flawless players after going flawless. That feedback caused a backlash against those players by players who had had worse experiences in trials last week and in earlier seasons.
In my view, there is actually a lot of common ground amongst players and even where there are differences they are differences that can be understood if not reconciled. But there have been very few people actually trying to engage and understand people on the other side of the debate. I think that if we actually listen to each other, we can get to a better understanding amongst each other and not be in a “Civil War,” as GernaderJake called it today:
The Common Ground
Here are some things that I think the vast majority of players can agree on, in order of least controversial to most controversial:
By the end of last season, Trials was not fun except for maybe the very top players (and maybe not even them).
Trials (or any PvP playlist) is better with increased population.
People will quit playing if they are having poor experiences.
I list the last as ‘most controversial’ because in earlier trials matchmaking discussions when I brought this up about average to lower-skill players, good players would respond that they players will continue to enter a playlist and get stomped if the loot system is good.
Say what you will about the feedback, but what it has made 100% clear is that experiences matter. The Trials loot system is fantastic, both in terms of generosity and ability to focus. It was a big driver of people reentering the playlist, or entering for the first time, last week. And it was a big driver of people staying in the playlist last week. That system was not changed from last week to this week.
What did change is the experience of players that go flawless, after they go flawless. And over and over again people have said that their experiences got worse enough that they will not play for the rest of the weekend after they go flawless. Even though they did last week, and the loot was the same. What changed is the experience.
All of the players that are themselves deciding, and loudly proclaiming, that the loot is not enough incentive for them to keep playing once they dislike their experience should recognize that the same dynamics apply to less-skilled players that don’t go flawless and have consistently bad experiences in the non-flawless lobby. If good players know that they would quit in flawless lobbies, they should see that less-skilled players are going to quit in non-flawless lobbies if they have the same experience. And everyone would recognize that less-skilled players quitting is a problem unless they are replaced.
By the same token, less-skilled players should recognize that average to good players playing great players and having bad experiences feels just as bad as their own bad experiences. There should be some empathy about that rather than accusations that anyone and everyone bringing up these concerns is an elitist that just wants to stomp on lesser-skilled players all the time.
Some Important, and Maybe Irreconcilable, Differences
Everyone has their own threshold for a minimum acceptable experience. And though I knew that before these past two weeks, it’s now become apparent that those thresholds vary widely. Datto, one of the best Destiny PvE players in the world, said this about playing Trials last week:
Chevy, another of the best PvE players in the world, solo-queued into trials this week for the first time. Here is what he had to say:
Wow, that sounds like he had an awful time, doesn’t it? I looked into it and then responded to his tweet:
These are incredible PvE players who are decent-to-good PvP players. Datto can and has gone flawless. Chevy held his own very well (better than me!) in solo-queue trials. I would be content with their experiences. They are not. They don’t want to play anymore. Likewise, at least some other players feel like their experiences are bad even when I think that same experience for me and many other players would be good. This guy hates the flawless matchmaking pool EVEN THOUGH HE CAN GO FLAWLESS IN IT:
Understanding that these differences exist helps us understand the challenge Bungie has in front of it. Bungie needs to minimize the number of people that have experiences below their minimum acceptable level to remain in the playlist. Leaving the playlist for the weekend but then coming back the following week is less bad than leaving the playlist forever, but both are bad. But what does Bungie do with a player that is only happy if they go into every match as a 90% favorite, if there are no players that are ok with going into matches as a 90% underdog? It’s likely not possible to come up with a matchmaking scheme that will satisfy everyone — even last week’s did not satisfy Datto and likely did not satisfy a bunch of lesser-skilled players that had an excessive amount of 5-0 losses. Because in a system where round wins are how you get loot, then no matter how good that loot is and how good the focusing system is you are going to be frustrated when you make zero progress while losing match after match.
If we all start from the principle that everyone’s opinion and experience deserves the same consideration and respect — not agreement or action, but consideration and respect — then these online discussions will stop feeling like a “civil war.”
Recent Comments