Please Take A Moment . . .

[P4X0R10N]

They did take steps to improve queue times. Namely, they reduced the number of players needed to start a game. As for their reasoning for nor removing gcs, Yoshida said it was because it would make it easier to rmt-random match trading.

Don't call people liars. It's kinda rude and they didn't really lie.

If the choice was between the current state of the game and a situation where rmt was rampant, I'd like things to stay as they as they are now.

[P4X0R10N]

Further, the problem could be solved WITHOUT removing GCs. Just remove the players ABILITY TO CHOOSE a gc. Randomly assign players gcs before a match. This will improve queue times AND make it hard for groups of players to random match trade.

Of course this means restrictions must be placed on premades. Perhaps no premades greater than 4 players?

[Vaeria]

Further, the problem could be solved WITHOUT removing GCs. Just remove the players ABILITY TO CHOOSE a gc. Randomly assign players gcs before a match. This will improve queue times AND make it hard for groups of players to random match trade.

Of course this means restrictions must be placed on premades. Perhaps no premades greater than 4 players?

This is a fresh idea, one that would also preserve the lore to an extent since its supposed to be friendly combat anyway. What ever gets the slots filled quickest. Because the current Mael: 234 in q, Adders: 127 in q, Flames: 6 in q > More than 30 minutes- bs is draining the life outta the urge to play.

[Februs]

They did take steps to improve queue times. Namely, they reduced the number of players needed to start a game.

I'm assuming you're referring to this:

A: We’re aware of all the feedback on this topic including the requests to remove Grand Company restrictions. However, it’s not for lore reasons that we haven’t removed these limitations; it’s because we are concerned about PvP being abused in ways such as creating fixed matches resulting in moral degeneration. However, as an attempt to reduce matching times we’re exploring whether we can make a system that places you in content without waiting for 72 players and then fills in the other members as they queue. Naturally, we have not completely ruled out removing the Grand Company restrictions; however, we would like to have some restrictions in place for PvP.

Taken from the Live Letter XXIV. If so ... you must be joking.

Not only was this implemented a full year ago (as well as a full year after the implementation of Frontlines), but it didn't fix anything. Terrible queue times continued to be a problem for the entire life span of Secure, as well as Shatter, and they knew that they would be from the word go. Reducing the player count wasn't exactly an original idea. The first version of Secure had 24, 48 and 72 man versions upon implementation for the exact same reason:

To improve matching efficiency, 72 (three teams of 24), 48 (three teams of 16), or 24 (three teams of eight) combatants may be matched together depending on the number of available participants.

(taken from the original 2.3 patch notes for Secure)

Only, it didn't work. They did this at the very conception of the original Frontlines, knowing that queue times would be garbage, and queue times stayed garbage. Then they repeated a slight variation of the exact same mistake one year later, and it still didn't work. All the while, they hit us with flimsy, wet-noodle, excuses like this one:

we are concerned about PvP being abused in ways such as creating fixed matches resulting in moral degeneration.

This is a bald faced lie, if not flat out hypocritical, because win trading already happens. They know it. We know it. It's not a secret to anyone. If they didn't want it to happen, then they wouldn't have allowed pre-made parties to join the matches. Spying on other GC's happens too, and it's also not a secret. There's almost no penalty for swapping GC's and throwing a match. Further, the entire game mode was a breeding ground for afk tome farmers and bots, yet SE did almost nothing to police it. They relied on us to do it for them, which just caused witch hunts within the community. You can't really have any worse "moral degeneration" than that.

Don't call people liars. It's kinda rude and they didn't really lie

Only they did. Repeatedly.

In two separate occasions, Yoshi-P has outright said to us that they would consider removing GC restrictions, yet, within the same breath, he also said that he doesn't want to do it for fear of causing "moral degeneration." That's a promise followed by an immediate contradiction of that promise. Worse still, that contradiction is based on a false premise, because he lied, outright, when he said in the most recent interview that win-trading and GC spying were issues that were not already happening within the community. We have 2 years of evidence saying that it does, and they actually asked us on occasion to report it if we see it; yet, they deny that it's a problem that even exists and use the possibility of it as an excuse to avoid removing GC restrictions. That's just ridiculous. It's corporate spin doctoring at it's worst, because no one who PvP's regularly is buying it.