I always thought matchmaking would have been a quick-join replacement, with the match-list as the more full-fledged, a la carte option. Then we got this. 3v3s, which pre-matchmaking, we had usually at least one going on in the list during most parts of the day, with the occasional 4v4, and several 2v2s, all of them varied game modes, going on all day. Then we get matchmaking. 3v3s? maybe three to five times a week, not counting custom lobbies. 4v4s? Only once in a blue moon, and with that, almost exclusively deathmatch. Want to play crazy king, or King of the hill? Cross your fingers, it's probably not going to happen. Want the tactical maneuvers and team coordination? That'll happen in 3v3s. not 2v2s, as it's pretty impractical in a 2v2 deathmatch. Muse! Next patch, reimplement the match list back in! but keep matchmaking, and see how popular each is. Put the two options side by side, and show them to the player once they press "Play". Explain the differences, such as for matchmaking, a quicker, faster match and turnaround time, while the match list system has a more in-depth gameplay aspect, socialization, communication and thoughtful tactics, and just plain fun organized stuff. And not just the current lobby type added back with a list, the old lobbies, where you had gentlemen's agreements on when to ready up, no force-starting by the game, and lasting lobbies and the option of lasting crew pairings or groupings, with the option of people to PICK WHO THEY WANT TO PLAY WITH! The complaints about stacking by the newer players were not because all of us veteran players like pub stomping, but because of the folly of the novices, wandering into a higher-levelled match, without a thought of what they might experience. Matches that which happened to have a weaker, or less coordinated team on the other side, due to veteran players wanting to play with friends or people who communicate. Then, a percentage of them come here, complain about it, blaming us, the veteran players for their own mistakes. Eventually all these complaints, along with the inability for the servers to cope under sale-sized loads of player traffic, lead to the implementation of matchmaking, which decreases the overall competence level per match, and throws us veterans into it, with only a few competent players, usually at most one or maybe two, to a ship, with the not so competent or unwilling to learn and/or listen players also, dragging the games down, leading to a spiral down into madness. And to add insult to injury, we get a half-assed way of replacing the custom game mechanic, which uses the same UI as the matchmaker, having confusing language, and if we want to get everyone of high levels to play with, we have to track them down, or get carpal tunnel from clicking and typing in quick bursts, enduring menus to add people to a hard-to-navigate friends list just to get a shadowy facsimile of the old functionality and joy of the true lobbies of icarus experience, to set up custom matches with friends , among other things, We get an inconvenient location for featured matches, which worked best at the top of a match list, and a horribly unintuitive way to set up and join custom matches or lobbies for events such as those for the competitive scene. Not to mention that matchmaking made the community driven weekly matches and events into an extinct breed, as it became practically impossible to fill up and start up anything, such as the Iron Fork of Friday or Merry Men Mine Madness Monday events.
On top of that, the matchmaker does not do the sort of balancing we were promised. We were promised that it would not be too different than it was before. It was drastically different. The quality of play went into the toilet. Anything besides Deathmatches became practically extinct. 2v2s became pretty much the only commonly played game size. Want to socialize with the other team and other players on your team while in a lobby? Sorry, not possible any more, you will have to deal with either a party or setting up a teamspeak/mumble and trying to get everyone to join it. Muse, just put back in match lists, and let the player base decide and the numbers tell you which is preferred.
