Informal and Unofficial Poll- Would you prefer to keep or abolish GC-based PVP queues

[DividedSky]

Have the three nations remain the three factions in name only.

Treat the Adventurers as freelance mercenaries with fluid loyalties and can join whatever GC campaign provides them the work.

Lore wise, you can excuse it as the nations becoming desperate to fill their ranks to gain some sort of edge, and signing a release of restrictions on Adventures so that they may support who they choose to. This is not without precedent, the Grand Companies have, on many occasions, differed to adventurers for assistance regardless of allegiance, even when their interests were in question.

No reason to impose players for the lore restriction on characters.

The better option would be to keep it the way it is and allow players to change GC whenever they want by reaching the required rank and going up to the GC counter and switching without a 2 week delay. That way you have to make that conscious effort to teleport there and accept that you are changing your GC rather than just clicking a quick button when you queue. Granted its still very simple to switch GCs this way. This would also courage people to rank up in each GC and experience each GC quest line.

[Cidolfas86]

The better option would be to keep it the way it is and allow players to change GC whenever they want by reaching the required rank and going up to the GC counter and switching without a 2 week delay. That way you have to make that conscious effort to teleport there and accept that you are changing your GC rather than just clicking a quick button when you queue. Granted its still very simple to switch GCs this way. This would also courage people to rank up in each GC and experience each GC quest line.

Except the problem right now is that they are imposing an artificial boundary with GC restrictions that aren't really adding anything to PvP in terms of pure gameplay. Separating people by GC as it stands right now is no different then calling everyone Fangs vs Claws vs Whiskers. Except its screwing with que times because some grand companies aren't populated enough depending on your data center.

Letting people switch whenever they want "might" fix the GC population in the short term. But with lots of people doing it could make things worse and even more lopsided for overpopulated grand companies. Not to mention its just a tedious, unneeded barrier having to switch constantly to play with friends, versus just treating us like mercenaries and throwing us onto any old side. You have to consider ease of use and QoL as well.

[DividedSky]

So let me ask this.... if you remove GC where is the competition? Its game by game competition since you wont be playing with the same players or against the same players next round. At best you que with at minimum 16 players you don't know (if you form a pre-made) and up to 23 players you don't know if you que solo. You get no reward for doing well no matter how good you play (the rest of your team could be god awful) No matter how much you try to teach your team you get no benefit with no GC because lets be honest you can't teach someone frontlines in one match....... it would be TOXIC to the community to remove GC the more I think about it. You will get people who just DGAF because they know they might never play with you again. So they do whatever they want... don't care what they say.. don't care if they win b/c all they want is Tombs. It would be absolutely terrible. Imagine how many trolls you would have if people knew they wouldn't play with you in the next match. LOTS more than there are now. There would be no competitiveness at all because there is no longer a reward for helping your team get better. Its a bad idea, even if it does improve que times... Honestly last night was amazing for queues in primal adders.... it seems that queue times fix themselves over time.

SE just needs to show who's in the queues so players can see the GC discrepancy and also allow players to switch more easily should they so choose. They should absolutely not get rid of GCs the more and more I think about it. The end result would be again TOXIC to the pvp community. I mean... have you played LOL? Imagine LOL with 72 teammates. That's what you will get with random no GC queues. NO THANKS.

"Except the problem right now is that they are imposing an artificial boundary with GC restrictions that aren't really adding anything to PvP in terms of pure gameplay." - It actually does contribute to gameplay AND community. You teach your teammate a trick and that trick stays on your team until the other team figures it out. ... However in the world of no GCs... you teach a teammate a trick... he is your enemy next round.

"Letting people switch whenever they want "might" fix the GC population in the short term. But with lots of people doing it could make things worse and even more lopsided for overpopulated grand companies." - Only dedicated PVPers will be switching to get max rank in all GCs and those people are few and far between. There will not be and you can quote me on this there will NOT be "lots of people doing it" even if they made it easier for people to swap. Most people do it for glamor and if you swap GCs you go back to rank 0 and lose all glamors. Most people are not willing to do this even for faster queues.

[Atreus]

So let me ask this.... if you remove GC where is the competition?

Where is the competition WITH GC restriction? The only glimpse of competition you get in Frontline is basically premade vs. premade. The rest is hoping your random party is better than their random party. That's not competition. That's basically just Halo or CoD matchmaking lol. You're doing FL to PvP and hopefully win some matches but seriously... that's not competition. You play your best but you can't help the attitudes or ability of those you get stuck with. I can't understand how that's even a point against dropping GC restriction.

You will get people who just DGAF because they know they might never play with you again.

I don't know what goes on in your datacenter but that toxicity is present even now lol, people don't care. I don't think a lot will change there.

[DividedSky]

From my personal experiences lots of players cross server know each other on primal adder. There at even strats dubbed X servers strategy. People know each other by name. There are a few random toxic players but overall they don't really exist to the extent where you can't just ignore them. I'm sorry your data center hasn't built that comraderie yet. And yes there are some toxic players but if you dont think removing GC would make it worse then I think you are blinded by bias and tunnel vision on faster queue times.

Also if you don't think GCs breed competition more so than random no-GC queues then I don't know what to say other than you are wrong.

[Cidolfas86]

Incoming wall of text pls stand by:

So let me ask this.... if you remove GC where is the competition?

Competition doesn't just disappear because you have more players to play with. This is just nonsense. Your argument here can basically be summed up with "I don't wanna play with bad players from other GCs". Well sorry to say but that's something you your going to have to learn deal with just like any other online game with PvP.

Its game by game competition since you wont be playing with the same players or against the same players next round.

Just like any other multiplayer game. As it should be. No GC should have an overwhelming advantage over another because they lack a good playerbase to draw from. Having things onesided like that is not only quite selfish, but toxic over all to what little pvp community exist and anyone who tries to join any pvp matches in this game. You run the risk of chasing off new players as a result and thats just one less player to fill the que times.

At best you que with at minimum 16 players you don't know (if you form a pre-made) and up to 23 players you don't know if you que solo.

Any kind of "pseudo camardarie" or RPing should not trump basic gameplay mechanics. It has always been and always will be a poor excuse.

You get no reward for doing well no matter how good you play (the rest of your team could be god awful).

Its a team based game. Reward comes from victory for the team. Not personal conquest. And this statement is true regardless of GC restrictions even right now. This all goes back to basically you not wanting to play with bad randoms. In competitive PvP this is something you need to learn to deal with.

No matter how much you try to teach your team you get no benefit with no GC because lets be honest you can't teach someone frontlines in one match....... it would be TOXIC to the community to remove GC the more I think about it.

Its up to the players themselves to learn more about PvP on a personal basis, since even now you aren't always going to party with the same person twice. Having artificial restrictions doesn't make someone learn any faster then going full on PUG with no GC restrictions.

You will get people who just DGAF because they know they might never play with you again. So they do whatever they want... don't care what they say.. don't care if they win b/c all they want is Tombs. It would be absolutely terrible. Imagine how many trolls you would have if people knew they wouldn't play with you in the next match. LOTS more than there are now.

People already do this now, so this argument is moot.

There would be no competitiveness at all because there is no longer a reward for helping your team get better.

See above. And people will still go out of their way to help people without GC restrictions. You act like it'll stop altogether, but thats merely hyperbole on your part.

Its a bad idea, even if it does improve que times... Honestly last night was amazing for queues in primal adders.... it seems that queue times fix themselves over time.

No, no they do not. Especially here on aether and even your own data center. Just read the forums or even reddit. People have been complaining for quite sometime about the que times, and a lot of it has to do with a lack of people queing to a particular side. Gc restrictions need to take a hike.

SE just needs to show who's in the queues so players can see the GC discrepancy and also allow players to switch more easily should they so choose. They should absolutely not get rid of GCs the more and more I think about it.

This won't help anything as your idea is based soley on the fact that people are going to do this in mass. You haven't taken into consideration that a lot of people aren't going to want to be bothered to switch over and over and over again. Not to mention with that many people switching it completely nullifies your argument about GCs sticking together to teach people things. Your contradicting yourself. It's throwing people into any random team would be much better and easier in the long run for the longevity of the PvP player base.

The end result would be again TOXIC to the pvp community.

Not really. As people will get a chance to play more than every 20-35mins.

It actually does contribute to gameplay AND community. You teach your teammate a trick and that trick stays on your team until the other team figures it out. ... However in the world of no GCs... you teach a teammate a trick... he is your enemy next round.

Once again its up to the players to educate themselves on the event ultimately. And with everyone switching GCs constantly this whole "keeping it in the family" argument goes out the water as that person you just taught could easily switch free companies and spread the good word about your tactics.

Basically nullifying the point of GCs in which case getting rid of them and throwing us into any old party would just be easier.

Only dedicated PVPers will be switching to get max rank in all GCs and those people are few and far between.

You need to let go of these absolutes your on. I can almost guarantee that the majority of people constantly switching will be people wanting to play with their friends and people who want to win. Not the top 5% hardcore PvPers.

There will not be and you can quote me on this there will NOT be "lots of people doing it" even if they made it easier for people to swap. Most people do it for glamor and if you swap GCs you go back to rank 0 and lose all glamors. Most people are not willing to do this even for faster queues.

Then there's no point in instituting a system like this if you drop back to 0 rank. Your punishing the player for little or no incentive whatsoever as, once again, GCs add nothing to PvP gameplay in any meaningful way except screwing with que times. Your kidding yourself if you think people are going to try to artifcially balance GC populations themselves, not to mention its not a smart idea for the developer to ask them to do it. People will more than likely gravitate to the GC thats dominating as they dont wanna lose. The more I think about it the more your idea just sounds terrible.

Which leads us back to, once again, to throwing everyone into a random Fangs vs Claws vs Whiskers party and calling it a day. You can even name them after the free companies and just call us mercs for hire if the lore is that important to you. Its a much simpler system as GC populations are apart of the que time problem.

[Atreus]

I'm Aether Immortal Flames and have always been Aether Flames. It's a little hard to breed comraderie when people just bandwagon over to whoever is going to get them wins. Tbh the PvP community is small enough that I know a lot of people who play for other GC's... on other servers. Knowing people by name isn't limited by "oh he plays in my GC." You'll know and recognize the regulars even if the restriction is dropped.

Also if you don't think GCs breed competition more so than random no-GC queues then I don't know what to say other than you are wrong.

Comparing two things and saying one thing is more competitive than the other.... doesn't make it competitive.

[DividedSky]

Here is your quick response to your epic wall of text. Let me point out I have over 900 frontline matches and roughly 700 wolves den matches if that even matters. I have a lot of personal experience here. I know you are rank 39 so you should have some as well but probably not half as much as me when it comes to frontlines. Here are my responses to the many many assumptions you just made about why I think GCs need to stay.

Competition doesn't just disappear because you have more players to play with. This is just nonsense. Your argument here can basically be summed up with "I don't wanna play with bad players from other GCs". Well sorry to say but that's something you your going to have to learn deal with just like any other online game with PvP.

Competition doesnt exactly disappear no but you lose a lot of it. There will be no more, grr that maelstrom pre-made at manors kept holding flag, lets figure out how to beat them! Or... omg those three ninjas from flames keep taking OP (secure) or camping OP (slaughter). There will be no more "Adder specific" strategy trends that you have to counter. All of that sort of competition is gone. Its just random players doing random things every single match because there is no coordination, because there are no GCs. When you have GC specific queuing you leave a match, re-queue, and enter with many of the same players allowing you to build on the strategies of last match. A better ASSumption would have been "you dont want to play with random players because you see no gain from investing your time to teach them how to play".

Just like any other multiplayer game. As it should be. No GC should have an overwhelming advantage over another because they lack a good playerbase to draw from. Having things onesided like that is not only quite selfish, but toxic over all to what little pvp community exist and anyone who tries to join any pvp matches in this game. You run the risk of chasing off new players as a result and thats just one less player to fill the que times.

I guess this is a matter of opinion. I can see your point but at the same time on my server maelstrom use to dominate, then last month adders pulled way ahead. Currently flames are kicking the most ass in slaughter. So really the current system doesn't rule out one GC becoming better than the other over time. You might be better over a short period of time until the other team figures out your strategy and you counter it... but nothing is permanent with the current system at least from my experience thus far. Some people rage quit even if they lose in a completely random queue and even more so if they run 5+ queues with a bunch of randos they have never played with so the same argument goes either way so your point is moot.

Ugh I can't even go on your wall is too long.... Just know that I don't agree with you at all. And everything you called me out on is nitpicky and blah blah blah I really don't care and I think getting rid of GCs is a bad idea and even if I argue it wont change your mind so whatever.

[Alistaire]

First: kudos for calling this unofficial. Every time someone posts some request/petition/poll here and calls it "official" I just shake my head. (Official would be SE putting out a poll, etc)

Second: yes please abolish this. It should never have been a thing to begin with.

[Pibz]

So let me ask this.... if you remove GC where is the competition?

1. Frontline competition? lol, that's all i'll say.

2. The request for removal of GC restrictions has nothing, zero , freaking nada to do with enhancing competition(although how a massive barrier to grouping with whoever you want to make the best team makes for better "competition" is beyond me), it's about faster queues, simplicity and elegance in design that leads to better gameplay, plain and simple.

3. Most people already DGAF.