Without reading the article I will say that even if matchmaking is not the answer (and I'm willing to buy that) they still should be pumping WAY more resources into making it easier to form a team. Let me see who is online from my guild. Let me set a want to play/need help flag with opt-in visibility to all online friends and guild mates. Let me queue up to join friend between rounds of crucible or strike playlist. Increase max fire team size for many activities but e low hanging fruit would probably be patrol.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/06/01/if-bungie-built-destiny-around-groups-they-need-to-help-players-fin...

Some interesting stuff in here. There's a quote from Deej addressing the many requests for in-game matchmaking for high-level activities:

"At current, our philosophy about endgame content is that part of the challenge includes forming up a team."

To which the article counters:

"If you’ve designed a game around group-based endgame activities, part of your challenge as a developer is figuring out how to get players together in case not everyone has five spare friends with the same console and unlimited free time lying around. It’s not the player’s responsibility to combat this glaring issue on your behalf."

Anyway, some good thoughts and good suggestions in here. I think we've all seen these suggestions before, but it's well presented.

I can't read the article right now but I strongly disagree with the premise that finding a team to tackle challenging activities should be push-button easy. No one thinks this way about any other team activities. You don't walk down to the park and expect two full basketball teams to be there waiting for you, minus a slot just for you. If you can't make the effort to find players, it's a good predictor of your effort once the game starts. The ease of finding players should be commensurate with the stakes. It's like the 20% down rule that used to exist for mortgages. It used to be that if you couldn't save 20% for a house downpayment, you couldn't buy a house because you not having the 20% was a strong predictor of your ability to afford a house payment. Sure, everyone wants a house, but if everyone gets one and they're not ready for it, it's a disaster (cf. 2008). My workmates complain about this all the time, but they never think about how bad the experience will be when people routinely quit after a wipe or two.

It's pretty well financial. They could do in-game what the LFG tools do, but better. They don't. Why? Because 1- it can be a horrible experience, and 2- they get you to market their game to your friends so you can do the upper level content. If I hadn't been referred to DBO by DogCow 6 months ago, I would have stopped playing probably long since -- it's not nearly as much fun solo.

When I first started playing destiny I was incredibly annoyed by the lack of matchmaking in all activities. I wanted to do the Vault of Glass but I didn't have enough friends to do so. I was also intimidated by destinylfg. It was a scary prospect to message a stranger and get in their game.

When I finally started using destinylfg.com it changed my Destiny world. I'm having a ton of fun and surprisingly often the people I play with end up on my Friends list. Mics are usually on and it feels like I am playing with humans.

Now, let's contrast that to the matchmaking activities that DO exist in destiny. Jump into the weekly strike. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Sweet. Enjoy your 9 strange coins.

Did you talk to the other two players that you were paired up with? Joke around? Share strategies? Send a friend request?

I'm betting you didn't. I bet you cruised through the level with a couple other players that might as well have been NPCs. If you're like me you join the team chat with your volume on but your mic muted, just on the off chance that someone does speak for some reason. Match over, see you later.

So i get what the Forbes guy is frustrated with, because taking that step to tap into a different system to find players can be initially intimidating, but I think it works much better than straight matchmaking does. Personally I find that it works so well that I don't really care if Bungie puts dev time into a similar system.

If they did add something I would suggest a new social space, with proximity voice enabled, where people can form up into teams. That would be much better than folks spamming me with messages when I go to the tower. But as it is it isn't that hard to find a team and it creates a far more social experience than matchmaking.

I like his ideas and think Bungie might very well implement something like that--his second idea is what I and others have suggested before, too. What I like about it is that teammates aren't a button press away. It's not matchmaking the usual sense. A little effort to gather teammates translates into commitment to the activity.

I think the issue is less about over-reliance on matchmaking and more on the lack of end game activities that can get by without it. Part of that is fundamental to the design of destiny; it's best mechanics and encounters are designed around multiple players. That's why I've kind of petered out for the end of the story, but I've been enjoying strikes/Crucible. Part of it is about the tunnel vision to focus the end game around those mechanics.

I think there are steps in the right direction, for example level 28 POE seems like a positive move, and the wolf packs do a good job of generating teamwork even with strangers.

My design sense tells me that it needs activities that aren't so binary in their success/ failure. Maybe tiered/scored strikes? That way you can have activities that req mastery but aren't so frustrating to fail at. Public events kind of do this, but they aren't endgame activities.

I'm not sure why Forbes has now decided to start caring about videogames, but I have to admit nearly every article they write about it makes me want to pull out my hair.

"My opinion is that every mode in Destiny should at least have the option to pair random players together in the game, and I’ve talked about how once that functionality was introduced to the Weekly Heroic Strike, it completely changed the way I played. Once I was able to farm for Strange Coins effectively, I built up two alternate characters who could now complete the weekly challenge because of the insertion of matchmaking."

I'm so glad you can now play this social game with strangers, rather than not at all, instead of making some online friends. Your ability to solo the Weekly coincided with my necessary decision to stop playing the weekly except when I have a full fireteam, because playing with one random is an exercise in frustration more often than not (although I did have a good experience this week).

The compulsion of so many players to speedrun everything, running past not just patrol enemies but even enemies that are part of the mission but don't need to be killed in order to advance, is infuriating. It nearly always results in a wipe as the solo player rushes ahead into the darkness zone while the others are still behind actually playing the strike.

Two players at level who know each other and communicate are more than capable of taking on any Weekly Strike there is. But because of the incessant whining about needing matchmaking for everything and "at least make it an OPTION" we now can't do it without going through matchmaking.

That's another thing that drives me nuts-- this "make it an option" nonsense. It can't work that way. The whole point of matchmaking is that it's mandatory. The only way to get in the random singles like the Forbes writer is to force all the fireteams that aren't full to accept players. If we could opt out we would, and there would not be enough fireteam spots for every player (or journalist) with an empty friends list who wants coins.

So, thanks, Forbes.