Question to players

[KatoKato]

If there are only 3 ranks, for example, there's still going to be a massive gulf in player skill between the highest and lowest player in any given rank.

This. I was reading the entire thread hoping someone will bring it up and well, thank you.
Even if we assume that SE has found some viable way to weigh players' merit, there is still a question of what's going on within the rank. Even in gold the game can easily match up 2.8k dps and 5k, which is hell of a gap itself, even if we don't go into the details about what these 2.8k dps mean for different jobs.

If it's about finding like-minded players, then instead of some shady secret mechanism why not let people actually state their preferences. E.g., to create a df profile where you tick / untick your attitudes, all that applies to one's playstyle: "I'm a beginner/Beginners welcome", "Prefer fast runs/agressive playstyle", "Want my tank to take it slow", "Braindead after 14h shift"... And when the duty pops up, players can see what positions they have matched (highlighted) or not matched (greyed out). Ideally if multiple parties are available people with similar attitudes will be paired up but if not, the queues won't become any longer but the members will be a bit more prepared for each other.

[AppleJinx]

Sounds like something that would be nice to have but the devs would never spend the time and resource to develop so meh. I just run expert with blm so I can at least make the runs more bearable for myself.

[silverlunarfox]

I'll give you an example of how this doesn't work.

Overwatch.

It simply does not work no matter how you cut it. You can be a gold level mercy, but then when someone else takes mercy (healer) (Or perhaps you just want to DPS this day) and pushes you to say, a solider 76 (dps) and youre just a bronze level player as 76 it doesnt stay true to the overall ranking you received.

While I get your idea, and how it COULD work, the fact is, it can't.

[F_Maximillian]

I feel like this was a thinly but effectively veiled way to ask a question I'd be curious to see people's answers to. I believe the bottom line of what the OP was getting at is "would you be ok with being matched only with players with your amount of skill/knowledge/effort put in"? I know a lot of people I've run into feel like they play "well enough" and while they admit there is room for improvement they don't feel like they should bother doing more than their definition of "well enough". Yet I'd be willing to bet the majority of people who feel that way, if asked, would not want to be locked in to playing only with those who approach the game the same way. What the implications of that are you can leave to imagination but it's an interesting thing to think about...

[Vespar]

I dont really care for a ranking system. Why's everything got to be a competition? Just play the game and have fun with it. If you want to be competitive go do PvP.

[akaneakki]

I dont really care for a ranking system. Why's everything got to be a competition? Just play the game and have fun with it. If you want to be competitive go do PvP.

This was more towards putting like minded players in the same group.

I believe the bottom line of what the OP was getting at is "would you be ok with being matched only with players with your amount of skill/knowledge/effort put in"? I know a lot of people I've run into feel like they play "well enough" and while they admit there is room for improvement they don't feel like they should bother doing more than their definition of "well enough". .

Pretty much this too.

[Darrcyphfeid]

Seems like a stretch, and it's boring to boot.

One day the XIV community will tune in to the fact that the people that are tuned out don't care - and that includes not caring that an echo chamber exists opposed to them, nor that their run is taking more or less time than usual. That's the entire point.

[Lilseph]

Knowing how SE sets the bar so low, you'd get gold my spamming autos.

[Xairos]

Also, while trending towards the lower "Elo", if you will, the queues would be normal to what you see today. However, at the upper end of the skill levels, say at Gold, you would have longer times for those who are at the top if you play outside of peak play times.

Not to mention in the drought of players before a patch hits. A lot of the people who only play FFXIV get burnt out before a patch hits and just stop playing.

[Guulu]

I don't think we should get a ranking system for any casual content, even savage and ultimate. Because there are player trying to improve, and until mid to high level it is not difficult to improve at all. Also we are playing an MMORPG where there is a lot of casual content, no need to be so try hard about everything.

However, I totally agree that players with poors performance deserve punish. I'm not talking about not being 95% or anything like that, it's about failing the very basic requirement of their role. For example, a tank pulling trash without tankstance and cooldown, even losing aggro. A healer who just sit there and spam cure/benefic/physic, even let the tank die. A DPS who refuse to aoe when it's a dps gain, even failing to do their 123 combo. These players have no right to whine for getting vote kicked because people can dislike their "playstyle". This should have nothing to do with "you can do it with premade" because it IS the very basic of the roles. Just imagine you booked a room at hotel but when you check in you find there is no bed, and then you are told you should bring your own sleeping bag.

Plus, there are so much more going on than aggro/HPS/DPS. Like where does the tank place the boss, healer who tries to minimize HPS but still keep everyone alive, DPS who use their buff at the right time. For pugging, a tank that willing to sacrifice few GCDs to place the boss so melee can have better uptime is far better than a greedy tank trying to maximize their dps but risking the run. A healer with no HoT don't heal because they know group will do fine and HoT will do the job. A DPS useing their raid buff on time even though it's not optimized for them. These players sacrifice personal performance for a greater good: clearing easier and faster, while what they do is hard to keep track on.

Edit: post limit