Disruptive Frontline Gameplay

[Mawlzy]

I'm not going to interpret the TOS, all that can say is the following: (1) I would be surprised if Square would view someone in a premade the same as someone who gets killed a few times and decides to AFK. (2) For myself, I have no issue with how premades can now queue in FL, as a casual mode of PvP (3) I do have an issue with people who give up if they get killed and then decide to AFK (especially if others are trying to help them) , I view that it not impacts my experience, partly because it demoralizes other people.

I respect that other people have asked that pre-mades be removed from FL and moved into their own FL. I have several reasons why I'm not really sure that it would improve things to the extent that some people think it would work- and no- it isn't because I am in a premade myself. I've never had a PvP static in this game

Thus we get back to the question of what is driving the demoralization, the nadir of which is AFKing. (Something I didn't see much of, FWIW.)

I'm intrigued by the idea of rewards being linked to performance, but that seems a heavy lift for SE. It would dovetail nicely with LB recharge only occurring during combat though. That's an idea I think has promise. If participation is being rewarded by that big chunk of roulette XP, the word should mean "participate in the battle," not simply turn up and look pretty.

The problem with performance-related awards, however, is that it incentivizes the formation of increasingly efficient premades, which to me are the primary cause of players getting demoralized.

[IDontPetLalas]

Thus we get back to the question of what is driving the demoralization, the nadir of which is AFKing. (Something I didn't see much of, FWIW.)

I'm intrigued by the idea of rewards being linked to performance, but that seems a heavy lift for SE. It would dovetail nicely with LB recharge only occurring during combat though. That's an idea I think has promise. If participation is being rewarded by that big chunk of roulette XP, the word should mean "participate in the battle," not simply turn up and look pretty.

The problem with performance-related awards, however, is that it incentivizes the formation of increasingly efficient premades, which to me are the primary cause of players getting demoralized.

Well, you bring up some very good points. In principle, players are rewarded for participating but it seems to fly over a lot of people's heads. For example, if someone is just queuing for XP- they'll get more XP for a first place, but it seems that a lot of that group is also the least motivated/interested in PvP and quits in the face of a more difficult match. So they'll settle for whatever place they get, and some of them will just AFK, and worse- some of them will force a loss as quickly as possible so they can leave. Not really fun.

So I agree in principle that performance based-rewards would be an additional incentive. There's a few questions regarding how performance is actually measured, is it going to be per job for example? and I would not compare someone who solo-queued against a pre-made group. Who knows- it might end up initially being "you are in the bottom "x" players and/or "you didn't contribute, sorry, no reward for you". I have seen a similar system when a certain number of players who didn't do a certain % of damage as compared to other players get nothing and definitely was an incentive.

Regarding the premade. Yes, I see some players being demoralized. However I also see some players simply giving up and literally not using any of their skills at the first death. That's not a "premade issue".

[Mawlzy]

So I agree in principle that performance based-rewards would be an additional incentive. There's a few questions regarding how performance is actually measured, is it going to be per job for example? and I would not compare someone who solo-queued against a pre-made group. Who knows- it might end up initially being "you are in the bottom "x" players and/or "you didn't contribute, sorry, no reward for you". I have seen a similar system when a certain number of players who didn't do a certain % of damage as compared to other players get nothing and definitely was an incentive.

Regarding the premade. Yes, I see some players being demoralized. However I also see some players simply giving up and literally not using any of their skills at the first death. That's not a "premade issue".

Agree with all this. Specifically, I suspect defining criteria (modified for job, queue status) for player contribution is sufficiently complex to make it a non-starter for SE. Maybe a better approach is simply to auto-kick anyone who doesn't provide any keyboard/controller input for 20 seconds or something.