Fellow MechWarriors, I recently put out a tweet asking @Russ_Bullock when they would split the queues so that PUGs and 12 mans would be separated so that it doesn't feel like such a waste of time. Many of you disagreed and I respect your right to do so, but I ask that you respect my choice to play as a solo player sometimes. There were many comments... see below.... I have several thoughts for these individuals.... If this is an attempt to build a community why would you force players to adapt to YOUR idea of MWO should be all about? Wouldn't you rather have a happy thriving community and give them the freedom to experience their own ideas on play; either as a solo player or as a group/clan member? Saying that this is a team game and players should suck it up and join a unit is like all the jokes made about America saying "They have oil over there? Sounds like they need some freedom! Lets mobilize". It alludes to imposing your ideals/will upon others. Seriously uncool. PUGs, who are also consumers/customers, should be able to play as individuals, yet still being part of a "team"; restricting that ability will cause the game to suffer for it long term as more players get frustrated and bored of the game. It is called Quicksand. First one thing goes wrong, then another, then another. PGI attempts to stop-loss the game by making improvements (which they have been doing, with great alacrity) but at some point you have lost too much already to sustain overhead. Maybe this is why the queues are the way they are; the player base has shrunk to levels that would not sustain individual queues. PGI would never admit that even if it were the case, and I'm not saying it is, but it is within the realm of possibility. Nobody is saying that you can't play against 12 mans. In fact I am saying the opposite. If you are all grouped up with your Try Hards then you should face other Try Hards. Would be interesting to see how cocky some of you are then, when you face full teams of guys like of Eclisse, TheMagician, Azure, Cube hell even some of the MechSpecs guys (FX et el). Guys who have aim that is either augmented or preternatural. It isn't a fun experience when you face an -SA- 12 Man with PUG players who are literally asking you "How do I open the gates?" and "Who is attacking? I thought we were defending". Clearly those players do not belong in the same battlefield as aforementioned icons of the game; add to the fact those players are on TS3 and most of the competitive players are sporting Clan mechs since they are the best Combat Zergers (Murder of Crows anyone?) out there. I'm sure PGI is struggling with this issue right now. My next question addresses the whole "don't whine if you don't". Step outside of your clan mech long enough to take a look around you. I'm already in a unit but not one that can field 12 mans every day, all day, and I do a lot of PUG dropping in CW to attempt to support the beta testing and metric gathering for this phase of CW. That is probably going to come to a stop right quick because frankly it is a waste of my time. One less person for your "community". I do not enjoy being farmed by 12 mans day in and day out. I'm not here to waste 10-30 minutes of my time WAITING for a single CW match only to find it turn out to be a 12 man of (insert elite clan group here) who farms my entire PUG team in less than 7 minutes with a Zerg Rush of Stormcrows all sporting SSRMs and SRMs. What is the point? Does that make ME a better player? No. Does it make your team better players? Probably not. Does it do anything to further the game? Not in the least. It really is a waste of time and in the long run might even be detrimental to MWO. You may truly not see it that way, or you may be part of the "PGI Can Do No Wrong" faction but what do you think the guy who just got steam rolled 5 times in the last hour is feeling/thinking? Before you say "Get Good" or some such silly comment; I've seen many skilled players PUG drop and get ROFLSTOMPED. I've seen guys carry PUG groups with 8-10 kills in a match and 3000 points of damage still lose. I'm not whining here as a player; I win some, I lose some. It is what it is. There will always be someone out there better than me. I'm not screaming murder or tears of rage at things like Coolant Flush etc. I'm giving you the opinion of someone, who lost faith a year or so ago, in MWO and who is slowly attempting to wade back out in to these waters as your "average joe player". Please don't attempt to force me to play your particular brand of MWO. Chances are I will rebel against being told "you must play this way" and find something else to spend money on; like Star Citizen. PGI already has had some extremely big setbacks, publicly, as evidenced by Transverse, lets not make more bad moves. The last thing they want to do is to force players into pigeon holes and then attempt to extract money from them. They have made some awesome strides recently, and have really improved since the days of IGP. Hell, even I am playing again and I was a staunch "I won't spend a dime, or my time, on this POS until this and that are done", yet here I am. Great progress, but there is still much work to be done. Help the community to help you. Regards, Mason Grimm Registered Members may offer constructive discourse and feedback HERE
