LFG was doomed to fail. Clans/Guilds, though, might have a shot

General Discussion
1

Title says it. I expected LFG to drop the ball early on and it most certainly did. I mean, let’s face it: It’s just regular matchmaking with extra steps and longer queue times.

Guilds or Clans, though, I have a much better feeling about. Can’t really place it, but I just have a feeling they’re going to work a lot better. Call it intuition. Ever since Jeff mentioned guilds were on the table I’ve been really looking forward to seeing how they implement it.

This is a surprising amount of optimism, coming from me.

What’s everyone else’s take? Will guilds and clans be what finally tackles the game’s matchmaking woes or will it just be LFG 2.0?

2

At the end of the day it’s still adding steps and creating a stack that will need to queue against another stack though, right? If anything it creates and even additional step by presumably requiring only guild against guild… so in theory queue times will be even longer than current lfg.

Which creates the problems you suggest exist with the original LFG. Don’t really see it faring much better.

3

I’ve seen a lot of people begging for guild support, but I’ve yet to figure out what good it would even do for the game.

It’s not like guilds are going to suddenly make you more sociable with other Overwatch players. If you’re joining/forming a guild, you’re basically just formalizing some subset of your friend list.

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4

I think they could make a role queue that has similar aspects of LFG.

For instance,

  1. Pick the comp pattern/patterns you want.
  2. Pick what role/roles you want in each comp.
  3. Once the team is formed, the match starts by everyone holding spacebar. (Possibly with some AFK detection).
  4. Create an interface that allows two teammates to swap roles/heroes/location.
    (Which can be done without having to go back to spawn).
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5

Well, mostly, but in this case the players have a pre-established connection with one another rather than being total strangers before queueing. I think that might be the missing ingredient here.

It cuts out middlemen like Discord, Reddit, and the LFG forum and just integrates the process of finding and queuing with pre-existing friend groups directly into the game.

What you’re saying definitely makes sense, though.

I wouldn’t be so sure, actually. I think providing an in-game hub for finding other groups of players with similar mindsets and in-game goals could be a pretty big boost. Trying to network outside of the game to find a stable and compatible group can be a real pain.

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6

That’s a valid point. I personally don’t use role queue pretty much for that reason so it may appeal to a certain crowd.

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7

Dammit, Grey, stop putting good ideas in people’s threads all the time!

You’re making the rest of us look bad!

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8

I still don’t understand all the demand for clans/guilds. It’ll just be a more advanced and detailed friends list. It won’t help anything and infact I think it’ll cause more headaches.

[Torb only clan]
[Mercy one trick squad]
[I play reaper no matter what]
[Give me hanzo or i’m throwing]
Sounds like fun guilds to be in.

9

Yeah, but now those folks will just queue with one another and won’t be in the matchmaking pool. It’s PERFECT!

its also basically letting idiots self-segregate, when you really think about it. its for the best.

10

No reason to build something on such a large scale as a clan or guild when people cannot play with each other on a smaller scale.

The day people learn to get along with each other is the day LFG will grow, and also be the day clans or guild systems become a possibility and influence.

11

To me, a clan just seems like a glorified friendslist.

12

I think that will only ever happen if they start really clamping down with the disciplinary system. Some of the least toxic PvP game communities only manage it by being basically zero-tolerance.

Put the fear o’ Jeff into some of these folks and they’ll either straighten up or they’ll exhaust the number of times they can ask for their mom’s credit card.

Some will be, for sure. Others will likely be larger and more inclusive like their Discord counterparts. That’s basically how guilds are in MMOs.

13

It’s going to need some features like have give members role icons so you just know who plays what when checking who’s online so you don’t have to ask people every time what they play if you don’t remember

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14

I’ve been thinking about this one for a while now.

Just been procrastinating about making design graphics for it.

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15

Yep, for sure. And also a member-removal system for guild admins that lets you leave a note any time you kick someone from the guild that will show up for other admins if that person tries to rejoin. (e.g. “Removed for spamming guild chat. Refused to stop when asked. -CATCHPHRASE”)

16

yeah, I still think that Slasher is right in terms of what we need to fix competitive, Solo and Team Q, Role Q for Solo Q (either soft or hard) and then scoreboard. Clans aren’t going to do much without a propper team Q and solo will still be awful

17

Just because you are in a guild doesn’t mean you can’t soloQ.

I was more or less for guilds before but as others have mentioned in the past and present it doesn’t seem to be of any real use to the average player.

18

Do we want them to spend a bunch of time on making guilds? They’re already absurdly slow at producing content as it is.

19

All’s good and well until there are people who just don’t care.

These people often want to find themselves with others who do care.

So you pair yourself only with people who do care and suddenly those guys who don’t care are finding more of themselves.

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20

That’s what I’m hoping guilds will provide the opportunity to do. :slight_smile:

(Also you’re very articulate and I am impressed by that. I just wanted you to know.)