Well, this thread was going to go to pit anyways...
Firstly:
>Use slang including sexual innuendos in international company
>Tell people they are being "intentionally dumb" when they don't understand it
(inb4 "check it in the dictionary" - as it includes innuendo I assumed I'm better without knowing because I geniually thought that it may be some weird sexual term)
It's incredibly hard to believe that someone on the internet has not heard the term before, international or not, but 'tis while I posted the definition.
Secondly:
>Everyone who agrees with Imagine are right/reasonable
>Everyone who agrees with Disaster are "circlejerks"
Incorrect on both accounts, or at the very least, that's not what I said. I brought the term up because the last page or so had devolved into a lets shit on matchmaking and Muse party, and it was pretty annoying.
>Fill most of the post with insults to your opponents
>Expect to be treated seriously
I mean, I'm just callin' em like I see em. Any time Matchmaking is brought up the same group of like 6 people sit around yelling about how awful it is and how much they hate it.
Thirdly:
I've never seen anyone hating on matchmaking not going into incredible hyperbole in an attempt to prove how bad it is.
Not that that's anything new for this community.
You are a liar and/or you don't seem to understand (willingly? should I also say that you are being intentionally stupid?) what is happening around you. Sure, in many threads there were hyperboles but also reasonable arguments, even by the same people. I understand that you may have a different opinion on the subject but there is no point in arguing someone that is lying or not willing to even aknowledge existence of contrarguments to your thesis.
I also think it's worth noticing that experiences with the matchmaker may differ depending on how you use it - whether you matchmake alone or in whole ship or even 2-3 ships. I think that part of an argument may be caused by this, some people try to matchmake alone (and they have a bad experience) and some matchmake with whole ship or two, usually with high-lvl friends (and they may have good experience).
Also, given that some other changes that matchmaker were implemented in the same time - should they be considered in this argument? For instance timer? That's debatable, I think.
I've repeatedly said that in no way is matchmaking perfect. The algorithm it uses to match up people is baffling at best, I've give up trying to figure out how exactly it works. Personally I always thought that the high turnover ratio of people who play the game plus the general smaller pool of those to pick from would make it hard to have a consistent baseline of MMR, and that generally seems to be more or less of the case. However, in cases of people arguing against it the like number one thing that gets brought up is about lobbies and how slow the matchmaking is and how it hasn't helped speed up matches is, well, complete and utter bullshit. Ask Muse at a fireside chat. Matches start faster than average now, and while assuredly there's wait times still, anyone who claims that it's going slower now is looking at the old system through rose-colored glasses (since you might not understand that term either, it's basically looking at something in the past and remembering all the good things while leaving out the negatives).
If we're talking about arguments for server browser:
It gave player freedom of choice. We used to choose lobby (on various basis) and after quick glance on situation decide whether we want to stay or try in other one. That action of choosing, checking and deciding would take around 30-40 seconds (all levels have been visible). Time of game start would differ depending on lobby and player slots left - but if you were just hurry to play with anyone you could hop into the lobby with 1-2 free slots and start within minute or two. Also it was easier to manage and balance a lobby back then and after few matches usually more-or-less balanced lobby would emerge and people could stay in it (no 3 rematch limit). Players have been using this system succesfully for a long time (in my opinion there was very little wrong with lobbies and server list, only small amount of players) and it was taken away from them, replaced not offering much in exchange. Since there is very few people in the queue matchmaker isn't able to create good lobbies, especially when you consider that veterans do everything to fly together (because having a noob on your ship is a pain in the ass). So for many players matchmaker neither gets them faster in a lobby nor makes lobbies better. Also when you wait in a lobby you can socialize with other people, but when you wait in a crew form it's just boring, so for many people the same amount of waiting became more bothersome. Before matchmaker you could also just go into the already started game and if it has free slots - join and if not just wait until match ends (because often after match ends few people leave the lobby, so there will be a spot for you). Now it's mostly impossible. And no, the "but you can still do that, just add everyone to your friend list" is not a contrargument. So this is as reasonable as I can get, I hope you'll be satisfied.
See, this is the rose colored glasses I'm talking about.
What actually used to happen is that you'd join a lobby, then wait several minutes, after which your pilot would leave, then a new one would join, then they'd ready up, and then unready, then ready up, then someone on your team goes afk so they unready, then they change ships so the other side changes loadouts, so they both unready to change again, then half would ready, then an opposing captain would leave, then a new one would join, and by now like 3 people in the lobby would be yelling READY UP repeatedly, and you get my point.
While I do miss the ability to join specific lobbies, what I wrote was far more often the case than some magical world where games would start promptly and civilized.
Look, there's a reason Muse identified the issue of games taking too long to start as the biggest problem that needed to be addressed, and, in general, matchmaking has made that much better.
