Petition for Buddy Queue Mini's

[Rathothis]

Just because ~30 people sign your petition, there is no reason to suppose that this is the majority of all people that participate in minigames. There are way more people playing minigames than a bunch of guys posting in this forum. If you want a meaningful estimation of the players wishes you must vote all players ingame.

And you honestly think that you and the two other guys who posted against buddy signups are speaking for the majority? But in any case, this isn't so much a matter for a vote - it's a matter where game designers will look at their own data (massive decline in PvP population), at what other games do (even PvE-focused games like WoW allow buddy signups), and at what the options on the table mean for player incentives.

The good thing brought out by this thread is that
(i) there is apparently a not insignificant number of forums users who would be interested in buddy signups,
(ii) this includes both a good number of hardcore PvPers, and some casuals like myself, and
(iii) in terms of player incentives, the weight of arguments in favour of and against buddy signups clearly speaks in favour, because (a) being able to play with friends is a key feature of MMOs which contributes to player retention, and (b) PvP is more motivating in the long term if it is about skill and coordination, rather than about luck of the draw.

[Slith]

(iii) in terms of player incentives, the weight of arguments in favour of and against buddy signups clearly speaks in favour, because (a) being able to play with friends is a key feature of MMOs which contributes to player retention, and (b) PvP is more motivating in the long term if it is about skill and coordination, rather than about luck of the draw.

This is pretty much the essence of this issue. Current system is suitable for bored raider who might be interested in doing a mini before raid gathers up and it's what Craig "PVE" Morrison wanted. I have always had soft spot in my heart for this man but this is single most dumbest thing he has done.

[Kurt2013]

This is pretty much the essence of this issue. Current system is suitable for bored raider who might be interested in doing a mini before raid gathers up and it's what Craig "PVE" Morrison wanted. I have always had soft spot in my heart for this man but this is single most dumbest thing he has done.

What Rathotis said is important, because the friends will play together willingly or subconsciously in most cases anyway, be them on same team or enemy team. Still what you say or what Craig had in mind according to you is not necessarily a dumbest thing. A dumb thing was the execution, making it not real random while keeping the inbalance for example. A dumb thing was to offer no real alternative for groups or players to have control over who to play with. Another dumb thing was to make the current signup basically the only option.
But the casual aspect and chance for any player to sign for a mini and keep it "on hold" while doing other stuff is an important one and might be the only real pro about current system.

One danger with changing the existing queue lies imo with introducing some kind of lockout mechanisms, that could make signing as a solo casual for "just one mini" harder as now (just imagine allowing buddy teams of 2, then it could be possible in theory to make getting into a mini as a single person impossible, depending on the coding and execution of course. And if you want to keep a "balance" algorithm with buddy signups, it will not be as easy to code and to avoid pitfalls. If you go 2 buddies + 4 pure randoms, you will have a complete different balance too). If i learned from ranger revamp, i learned that it can always come worse...so i cannot opt for content replacement, but if you do it as usedtissue promoted (try it out with an option to revert), it will be worth a try. I completely agree that in an MMO you should have the option to control who you are playing with (currently not in tournament due to technical and design issues and not in pug queue for obvious reasons).

[Patoson]

this is the worst idea ever,

what this gonna do is only make a tagteam game inside the mini. 2 guys working on teamspeak calling targets and easy kills together
imagine 2 sins/rangers that wanna troll the game

this will never benefit the other 4 in game or very rare

Better force ppl with lvl7+ to get in a queue for grp signups (oldschool signups) or add pvp lvl 11 and 12 and make only xp reachable via grp signups / tournament mode

If we could sign up with a friend, so could everyone else, resulting in each team consisting of 3 pairs of 2 friends each, or randoms. This can't be worse than the current system at all.

Besides, there are times where, in this current pug system, one team is very good and has coordination without having to know each other or use voice communication, and the other team gets stomped. What would be the difference anyway?

[Usedtissue]

And you honestly think that you and the two other guys who posted against buddy signups are speaking for the majority? But in any case, this isn't so much a matter for a vote - it's a matter where game designers will look at their own data (massive decline in PvP population), at what other games do (even PvE-focused games like WoW allow buddy signups), and at what the options on the table mean for player incentives.

The good thing brought out by this thread is that
(i) there is apparently a not insignificant number of forums users who would be interested in buddy signups,
(ii) this includes both a good number of hardcore PvPers, and some casuals like myself, and
(iii) in terms of player incentives, the weight of arguments in favour of and against buddy signups clearly speaks in favour, because (a) being able to play with friends is a key feature of MMOs which contributes to player retention, and (b) PvP is more motivating in the long term if it is about skill and coordination, rather than about luck of the draw.

Well said.

The important thing is not necessarily the numbers but the fact that there is a lot of interest in the issue. Not that the numbers are insignificant. The forums are such a small part of the population and yet 30 people is the same number of 80's online on either Rage or Fury during late US hours.

(iii) in terms of player incentives, the weight of arguments in favour of and against buddy signups clearly speaks in favour, because (a) being able to play with friends is a key feature of MMOs which contributes to player retention, and (b) PvP is more motivating in the long term if it is about skill and coordination, rather than about luck of the draw.

QFT.

[Kurt2013]

If we could sign up with a friend, so could everyone else, resulting in each team consisting of 3 pairs of 2 friends each, or randoms. This can't be worse than the current system at all.

Besides, there are times where, in this current pug system, one team is very good and has coordination without having to know each other or use voice communication, and the other team gets stomped. What would be the difference anyway?

For some people this actually is worse, but imo it will be a solveable issue (e.g. a priority issue, when you already have tag teams in one group). It is still an issue to be kept in mind when creating the buddy queue.

@Rathotis: Even if it is a matter of vote, i think it is obvious where the favour of this thread lies.

Oh, and as final note from me here: Your concern about a buddy queue as third option dividing the already small population (apart from what i already said), would be easily adressed by just making it the default choice (as now is pug balance queue). Lessens the risk of funcom deleting code they should keep as backup after a test phase as well.

[Patoson]

Instead of a buddy queue why don't they change it so it's like it always used to be? You can make a group and sign for a minigame and then you will be in the same team as your group members. Since this seemed to be an issue, I still like the idea of signing up with 1 or 2 buddies, so half a team would be at least somewhat coordinated.

No need for a different signup system, just let us sign up with a friend or two normally. This current system is terrible.

I just want to play with my friends. Is that too much to ask?

[Lurvi]

It's so funny they spend time on some PvP arena which is likely to fail, when instead they could do the safe thing and give us duo signups.

[kalston]

They don't know what's good for them. Sadly something that has happened a lot in AoC history.

[Mogsters]

Teamed up with Mechanno (Conq and PoM)

5 minis in a row on diffrent teams, logged off.

I got better single player games.