{"id":932,"date":"2010-08-07T11:41:40","date_gmt":"2010-08-07T16:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/?p=932"},"modified":"2010-08-07T11:42:21","modified_gmt":"2010-08-07T16:42:21","slug":"bad-vs-good-matchmaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/?p=932","title":{"rendered":"Bad vs Good Matchmaking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello again everyone.\u00a0\u00a0 Its been a busy summer for me, I have made sure to keep some time to play games and I figure its time for another “what I’ve been playing” update.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This time two games I’ve played approached a system in such strong opposite fashion that I’ve title my post around it.\u00a0 Matchmaking<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Let’s start with the bad:\u00a0 APB<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/span>I have spent maybe ten hours of playing APB most of that in action zones and I can see the fun.\u00a0 Unfortunately the fun is hiding behind a terrible matchmaking system, and complete reliance on PVP for conflict.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The game has a great character creator, some amazing customization options, a pretty cool music system, and decent core mechanics.\u00a0 I really believe Realtime Worlds would have had a much more successful game if they had done two things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Provide some PVE content.\u00a0 Use this content to fill in the gaps between PVP, and to craft more elaborate missions.\u00a0 The core GTA like mechanic is fun, but without story, context and character it feels shallow and repetitive.\u00a0 More involvement of NPCs would go a long way to “selling” the world to me. <\/li>\n
  2. Created a matchmaking system that actually made match-ups that were even close to fair.\u00a0 When my friends and I all R15 get matched up against 3 people all +R150 something is Broken.\u00a0 Worse is that when we kept getting matched up with those 3 people mission after mission.\u00a0 BROKEN.\u00a0 You are not encouraging new players to play your game, by matching them up with crazy high people.\n

    Find a way to expand your pool of people, pull people from one instance of a district into another,\u00a0 use PVE enemies as opposition if there are no appropriate leveled humans.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe even allow the match-up to happen, but “level scale” the teams to make them closer in power to one another.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now for the Good. No the Great: Starcraft 2<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    This is a fantastic game.\u00a0 A game that is not afraid to be what it is, a classic style RTS.\u00a0 No bones about it if you play Multiplayer SC2 the game is all about build order, APM, counters, and all the other (scary to me) troupes of RTSs.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet Blizzard created a matchmaking system that WORKS.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes you will Lose<\/strong>,\u00a0 but the system does work and after a few losses you will get matched up with players you could win against, and even players you do win against.<\/p>\n

    Even more so, they provided one of the best (if not the best) Single player Campaigns I have ever played in an RTS, along with achievements, challenges, unlocks, and pretty darn good A.I. opponent my friends and I struggle against.<\/p>\n

    Blizzard provided a the complete package of a game in the box, sure it was a $60 box but I already feel its 2x the game than many games on the market today.<\/p>\n

    Now on to other games I’ve been messing around with:<\/p>\n

    Eve Online<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Account canceled again.\u00a0 Simply the fear of other players and the shear enormity of all the human interconnection scared me away.\u00a0 I would love to play a single player or better yet a co-op version of the game, but the full MMO where almost anyone could be an enemy\u00a0 is not for me.<\/p>\n

    World of Warcraft<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Yes, I am still playing.\u00a0 Just very little now and then.\u00a0 As much as I would love to do raids and play around with the “end game”\u00a0 I could not bring myself to commit the time and attention to playing at that level.\u00a0\u00a0 So instead I’ve\u00a0 been slowly working on leveling up my Rogue and maybe going back and leveling up some other characters.\u00a0 Growing new characters is my favorite part of the game, and I want to experience as much of the old world as I can before the Cataclysm. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Of course if I had a Cataclysm beta key, I would be playing a whole lot more. *hint, hint*.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Bioshock 2<\/span><\/span>
    \n <\/strong><\/p>\n

    I bought this back during the July Steam holiday sale and have been slowing playing around with it.\u00a0 Its a good game, exactly what one would expect, I guess, from a squeal.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Though nothing in it thus far surprises me and nothing stands out as memorable.\u00a0 The first game, well outside from awful end fight, stood out for me as a triumph in FPS; memorable characters, environments, and gameplay.\u00a0 This game, thus far, not as much,\u00a0 but it’s been a solid experience and one that I will probably complete.<\/p>\n

    Angry Birds Iphone<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    This game.\u00a0 *sigh* I bought it for my wife and I, and she loves it.\u00a0 I like it and its great fun when all I have is my phone and a few minutes,\u00a0 but oh boy am I terrible at it.\u00a0\u00a0 I recommend it for any iphone\/ipad owner.<\/p>\n

    ‘Till Next Time<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    That’s about it. I am sure there have been other games.\u00a0 When I get the time I really need to go finish Red Dead Redemption, and Alan Wake, as well as several PS3 games.\u00a0 Of course Dead Rising 2 and Civilization 5 are just around the corner so I’m not sure where I’m going to find time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hello again everyone.\u00a0\u00a0 Its been a busy summer for me, I have made sure to keep some time to play games and I figure its time for another “what I’ve been playing” update.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This time two games I’ve played approached a system in such strong opposite fashion that I’ve title my post around it.\u00a0 Matchmaking. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,38,9,10],"tags":[112,116,111,113,85,84,107],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","category-fps","category-games","category-wow-games","tag-design","tag-fps","tag-games","tag-mmo","tag-rts","tag-starcraft-2","tag-wow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}