In the end, there's no real one-shoe-fits-all solutions
There is. An in-game LFG tool.
I mean, alot of the people disagreeing with matchmaking, already have their groups they raid with, and matchmaking wouldn't affect them. At all. Not even a modicum. Let people who matchmake deal with matchmaking with other players who may or may not know the raid. It won't affect you at all, because you'll probably still PUG a group on here or Reddit.
I'm so inordinately
sick of this concept; "it won't affect you so why would you care?"
Raid matchmaking would never impact me personally. I oppose it
specifically as something that will only impact people who are not me.
In particular, people who may very well have their first experience with one of Destiny's raids in a blind matchmade scenario. What you want when you put together a raid in this particular game, both in terms of designing the raid from a dev perspective and putting a group together from a player perspective, is a compromise between enabling players to progress and finish successfully, and enjoy themselves/minimize stress. Every group that is formed for a raid in Destiny lies somewhere along this spectrum. Too little eustress and the group will never get anywhere; too much and the group will not have any fun no matter how "well" they do in terms of completing the content.
I have spent many hours at this point with players who are experiencing an individual Destiny raid for the first time, a Destiny raid of any kind for the first time, a raid in any game for the first time. I can tell you right now that a not-uncommon scenario for these players in a blind matchmade scenario would be:
-Load into the raid with no designated leader
-Throw themselves against the initial encounter without any coordination and little to no communication
-Fail to progress and say "fuck it" and leave after the onset novelty has worn off
-Come to the conclusion that "this is what Destiny raids are like" and swear off of them completely.
This may not make my experience playing Destiny any different. But it would make
Destiny a worse game. I don't want anyone to have that kind of experience and I want the game to do everything it possibly can to avoid it, not make it more likely. It's about what is best for the game at all.
If you want to argue that raid matchmaking is in fact good for the game, then so be it. But knock off this fallacious "it's never going to affect you, just let people do what they want" crap. For better or worse, I
do care about the experience of players besides myself and that's WHY I don't want to see such a problematic idea become a reality.
The entire concept of a newbie raid for me is to try and provide a controlled environment where players who might have this experience if grouped randomly with one another (and only one another) can see what actually makes this content great, and enjoy themselves. These work
because expectations are set in advance and the group has a clear leader; everyone who signs up knows what they are in for to at least a basic extent. This small measure of expectation makes all the difference in the world for content at this level.
However, groups without communities like our own should indeed have an in-game method by which to put together a group and attempt the raid with some hope for both fun and success. Rather than matchmaking, the solution to this problem is to implement an in-game fireteam finder/LFG tool.
Such a tool would enable one person (the fireteam leader) to create a group and set expectations for those who joined. This small differentiating factor would go an enormous length toward creating high-quality groups with absolutely no downside.
They can put limitations on it, like they currently do with light levels.
X light level needed, X completions of said raid, whatever.
They
could do that, implementing complex filtering and thus completely boxing out a massive portion of the players who would ostensibly benefit from matchmaking being added (those who have never raided before), or they could just add an in-game LFG tool.
Probably even a 'Complete this raid beforehand through PUGging'. Again, you don't have to deal with these things. This would be an optional thing. Nobody is going to put a gun against your head and say 'YOU HAVE TO MATCHMAKE'. People who want to matchmake, can matchmake. That's all.
Just let them use whatever bathroom they want, to make an analogy. It doesn't affect you at all. Like...it's not going to affect the majority of GAFfers or Redditors.
That analogy sort of offends me but I'm basically done here anyway.
An in-game LFG tool has all of the upsides of raid matchmaking and none of the drawbacks. It allows players to form groups for a raid they want to attempt without needing to leave the game. It designates a clear leader for the group and enables that individual to set expecations, whether it be a low-risk low-stress raid accepting all comers, or a pro-grade speed clear needing max Light. It ensures that nightmare scenarios under blind matchmaking are nearly impossible, without needing to add complex lockout restrictions or requirements to be able to take advantage of the system.
And oh yeah, such a tool could also be used for Nightfalls, Crucible fireteams, special quest strikes, and so on and so on forever, all again without any of the downsides of adding raid matchmaking to the game.
I don't understand what I'm missing and why this is still at all controversial.
