Uh (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, September 07, 2015, 16:34 (3461 days ago) @ RaichuKFM

Because that's not how competition works. Teams in the NBA, NHL, NFL, etc, don't go up against evenly matched opponents.

Isn't matching teams to other teams with similar win/loss records exactly how most playoffs work? I'm not the most knowledgeable about sportball, but I'm pretty sure that's how most major playoffs work, aside from the ones that are based on league structure, which is still an indirect skill-based measure. Why should Trials, supposedly the highest tier of competition in the game, be like a regular season, instead of playoffs?

2 differences:

1) the "playoffs" of any pro league have a barrier of entry: only the top teams from the season are allowed in. What's being proposed here is a system that makes it easier for less experienced teams to win. Very different.

2) during playoffs, there is only 1 single prize. 1 team gets it, everyone else gets nothing. The goal is to let the single best team rise to the top. Again, very different from Trials.

Now I'm not opposed to a game mode based on a playoff-style format... That could be really interesting! But that's going in a different direction than what we've been discussing, I think :)

You're making an argument that the competition should be random, but the proposed solution, that the more wins you get, the more you go up against people who have more wins, focuses the toughest challenges on the later matches, instead of just randomizing it. And that, to me, sounds how it should be?

I get that you don't want a mediocre person to be able to triumph over nine teams of other mediocre people to get to the Lighthouse, but if you are able to soundly and regularly trounce nine other teams, you're... you're not really mediocre. And under the proposed system, you'd get matched with other teams that would tend towards better and better the farther and farther in you went.

I have a couple concerns about this. 1 is a bit "philosophical", the other is practical.

One of the reasons I love Trials so much is that it is very different mentally than any other activity in Destiny. When you assemble your team and buy your ticket, you're saying "I'm ready for whatever this community can throw at me". I personally don't like the idea of anything that changes that dynamic.

Beyond that, I think win-based matchmaking would effectively make Trials even more punishing, for players of all skill levels. As much as it sucks to go in and get stomped, it sucks even more to go 8 wins and then lose. It's far more frustrating and demoralizing. Right now, it is a very real possibility. You might lose any game. But if the system used win-based matchmaking, then every single trip to the lighthouse means ruining someone else's night.

Far more worrisome is the idea that some top-level guy just gets matched up against people who don't know what they're doing, and coasts to the Lighthouse on sheer dumb luck, isn't it?

if a player is "top level" then beating players who don't know what they're doing wouldn't be sheer luck ;)
Jokes aside, if you're talking about the possibility of playing 9 easy games in a row, I think that's more of a theoretical concern. I'm sure it is technically possible, but not once have I ever gone to the lighthouse by beating 9 easy teams straight. It just doesn't happen. There aren't enough inexperienced teams who play trials. You'll run in to an easy team every now and then, but most opponents put up a serious fight.