I’d like to talk about why I am big fan of the premade system in Classic WoW.
One of the reasons I am posting this is in response to the constant threads that call for a solo queue option. I believe that a solo queue option is actually bad for the game, and here’s why:
Real quick, I’d like to dispel the myth right off the bat that ‘you always face premades’ when you queue up. The simplicity is this: there are certain times and days of the week when you are more and less likely to run into a premade.
Okay. First, why are premades good for the game? Three main reasons:
Community building. Premades create a natural progression for players who are getting into PvP. When you see players from other servers all playing together and farming honor efficiently - you might just start considering the benefits of joining the community that could already exist on your server. This brings people together, and is positive.
Team building. Premades are a display of the power and consistency that can be achieved through working together and building a strong team of like-minded players. Being forced to play against them is going to encourage many players to consider the benefits of joining a team and putting shared goals above their own. This is positive.
Motivation to improve yourself. Premades give you a reason to strive to be a better player, in ways that are not always obvious. Examples include: using your CCs to save teammates, not breaking their CCs, defending objectives in WSG or AB, LoSing so that your healers can bring you to full, bringing consumables or doing other things like Engineering in order to maximize your contribution to the team, etc. You are going to see premades doing these things, and they might encourage players to consider more of the things they can change about their own playstyle - that will positively impact their win rate.
Now. Why is a solo queue option bad for the game?:
Just for a moment, think of a solo queue option as a protective bubble. Consider the things listed above and imagine that a solo queue option would prevent a large percentage of the playerbase from ever joining a PvP community in the first place. This is not positive.
Encourages toxicity in the game. The fact of the matter is that we all have a reputation on our own server. If we care about our player experience being a positive one, we are going to maintain that reputation as best as possible. If you have the option of solo queuing, it becomes very possible for someone to only ever play with strangers from other servers. They will never have to worry about what they say impacting their reputation on their own server. This is what happens in many games that have a solo queue option. People treat each other poorly because there is a huge playerbase and ‘I will never see these guys again.’ This is not positive.
These are my thoughts on why I appreciate the premade system in Classic WoW. I solo queued up to Rank 11, at which point I was approached by the PvP community on my server. After being stomped by premades in the majority of the games I faced against them, the opportunity to finally join one seemed fleeting. From that point on, it was magic. A group of 40-50 people playing together, having fun, building friendships and grinding out honor together has been a very positive experience. Next Tuesday I will hit R14 and I have so many new friends and people to thank for this journey. I gained friendships, learned to be sweaty af, and now feel like a part of a community of great people. If I had solo queued the whole way, I never would have gained all of that.
Even if you disagree with me, that is okay. At least let me leave you with this: try premades. Join the PvP community on your server for a day or two. Give it a chance. I am glad I did.
I really enjoy playing with premades. When you get one with negative people it can be no fun, so the key is you don’t group with those people. Once you get in with a good group it is super fun.
It has nothing to do with pug stomping for me, that is just something that happens.
I’m ranking a second time on an alt just because I like it.
Haha in all seriousness though, I think we’re about to see a big decline in the number and quality of premades with AQ releasing. I would say it’s gonna be a relief for pugs but alot of them already gave up. Grats on 14 my man!
Except adding a solo queue option wouldn’t do anything to prevent you from still premading if you like it so much. You just wouldn’t be able to pug stomp while doing so.
Actually, I am glad you said this. It would have likely prevented me from being able to premade at all.
Many of the players that make up our PvP community are not hardcore sweaty vanilla PvPers. If they had the opportunity to solo queue only, I suspect many of them would never have joined the discord in the first place. We may never have had enough people to consistently fill our premades. It is important for solo queue and premades to mix.
Lol and the trolls are out flagging people who legitimately point out that the only reason the OP doesn’t want separate queues is so she can pug stomp not because it actually adds good gameplay.
Premades only work if there is a point to do them, and believe me I think the social part is best but once a pug becomes better honor people will go to that. This is exactly what happened during the AV premade days where alliance had premades but horde had solo queues. I had friends who wanted to do WSG with me but the honor was SO MUCH worse that they felt compelled to do solo AV, so we simply didn’t get to play together.
So you are right, there has to be a carrot.
I have said many, many times give premades more honor for fighting other premades and I am fine with splitting queues.
As a response to the typical responses to this it about how premades are bad for pugs, well it does suck to wait 25 minutes for AB only to get steamrolled as a pug, I had this happen to me many times when ranking. But now that queues are nearly instant for both sides it’s not a big deal. If you face a premade take what you can from them, either by winning, getting HKs or simply getting the game over quick, and move on to the next.
Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah…
Your points at “Why premades are good for games” are invalid since it would be the same if there would be Premades vs Premades.
Also love how you contradict yourself :
…then…
I bet you did love that grinding when you were stomped.
Premades love the system because they can stomp pugs… Easy and fast games or else ranking 14 would be a harsh.
I’d like to address the point people are bringing up about stomping pugs all day every day. This is not at all true.
Two different situations that happen ALL the time:
Premade vs Premade (both high rank)
Premade vs Partial + High Rank PuGs
These games can range from difficult to losses. The sweat is real when two serious teams go against each other, premade or not.
To think that all we do is PuG stomp all day is just false. It shows that you have never even given this system a chance! If you look at the situation from the perspective of only having solo queued - of course your outlook is going to be slanted.
See, the problem with promoting premades, is that eventually EVERYONE will be premades. You only enjoy premades because you get to completely stomp on PUGS. As soon as 90% of your games are against other premades, you’ll change your tune.
Premades are bad, especially when you facing nothing but premades from tuesday-sunday nonstop.
Why would their tune be changed just because they go against other premades? Tuesday - Friday nights my premades go against other premades most of the time and my opinion doesn’t change.
I did premades a few days when I was ranking and most of the matches were just pug stomps. I didn’t really enjoy it, and I did most of my ranking solo because it was a lot more fun to me even though I did end up just getting rolled by premades somewhat often.
I can get why being a healer is more fun in a premade, but I don’t think it’s good for classic PVP that the system is so imbalanced in terms of how matches are.
As it is, at this point I mostly just world PVP or play AV when I’m looking for PVP.
This at its heart is the problem with classic pvp. The goal for many is getting as much hph as they can not having fun. If a pre v pre only system was put in place most low tier pre-made groups poof over night followed shortly by mid tier because thiers little incentive to join that que, being that low and mid tier groups are the pugs of pre made v pre made.
This is the correct answer. The reality is a lot or the people like ez efficient stomping while spamming /laugh at the pugs being graveyard camped lol.
I think the real problem with his argument is as soon as a solo que option gets implemented and it hypothetically becomes the more efficient route to rank 14 most those people would abandon the premading route because they don’t actually care about team building and community, they care about rank 14.
