People who really do want to Raid and take it at seriously who aren't willing to manually form a group aren't really taking it seriously imo. The exception would be the player who wants to try the content but doesn't have a lot of time and in those cases, they'd likely have to drop group after a few wipes anyways. Matchmaking would help them get started quickly but not necessarily give them the time to progress meaningfully.
In my WoW days we filled the rest of the group in the most casual manner. The first ranged DPS with decent gear got in (if we needed rDPS). We didn't do it because we wanted to meet the player and know his strategy, we did it just because we needed to. If we had the chance I'm sure we'd opt for an automatic system. "Please oh please computer fill these 2 slots with ranged DPS of at least X item level, I don't want to bother spamming the chat"
And we were dedicated and taking raiding seriously, but even with a medium sized guild there are off days. 1 or 2 guys missing. That'll happen in Destiny too, and it's more annoying because we have to do all of that out of the game.
Learning usually done in more or less static parties where you can replace really bad players. And farming usually requires "previous clears" that are easily checked through trophy/achievement list.
Both of which can be easily done with an automatic system called matchmaking. Good players play with good players (after a few runs the game would know where you fit in the bad/good spectrum). And there would be no need to check 5 different achievement lists when the game can do that for you.
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Am I the only one thinking long term? Are you guys happy that you'll need to repeat this process of not only searching for 5 other players, but good ones, over and over again? Adding and removing friends, making chat rooms out of the game, and so on...
I'm really curious about the ratio of players that will stick with the same group of people (not just in the first couple of weeks, but 2, 4, 8 months down the line) and those who will look for new groups. I'd bet the group hoppers will be a far greater %
It's easy for a youtube personality, or someone engraved in a community like Gaf to get people (I think that's why most of you guys don't care for MM, because you already have a reserved raiding seat, so why would you care?). But not everyone who likes this end-game stuff participates in forums. I like to lurk/read, and only occasionaly participate, where is my luck now? I'll have to get to know people in the bungie forums, DestinyGaf, a subreddit or even /vg/ to get a temporary raiding group. All of that because there isn't a MM option.
There is no way that matchmaking could possibly check for all the things you're suggesting and still be an "automatic, instant process." And even if it could, the nature of matchmaking checking players to that degree would automatically restrict players who were late to the game or progressed slower than the general playerbase.
Why? Math is quick for computers. Just grab your total gear score (say you have
500 of Armor + dis/str/int) and look for players in a 40 gear range, so
480 to
520. It's simple but effective. And since bungie records a lot of stats it could also take into account some sort of "raid KDA" or "score to deaths" or "score per minute".
Ex: You might only have 480 "gear score", but since you play so well in raids you can get up to the 540 range and play with better geared players. (and vice versa, you can have good gear but play like shit so you would rank slightly lower)
Also new players wouldn't be left behind. There are always new players so they would get grouped with them.... Know how new players would be left behind? With no MM. In 8 months if I started playing It'd be hard to find a 8 month-old raiding group willing to play with be regularly.
Likewise recruiting players on a message board allows you to actually ask them what their experience, level, and gear is ahead of time. It would also serve to allow more experienced and geared players to group with less experienced and geared players to help them progress. They also share the camaraderie of a community, making them more likely to stick things through than a random group of players who couldn't care less what you think of them.
Yes that is a good advantage but you won't have the patience to do that (5x each time) on your 34th run, now will you? It becomes more of a process as time goes on and you'll want to get over it quickly.
It's all fine and dandy for the first few runs, to meet new people and actually ask them to add you and whatnot, here "forum hunting" is better imo. But in the farming phase (when you completed the raid more times than you care to remember) you just want to get it done, that's where matchmaking helps.