Quickmatch should be the games most popular multiplayer mode, but most people are playing custom games right now. I don’t want to spend time browsing for an open lobby or finding a game only to see the host is AFK.
People are mostly playing custom games because quickmatch uses the default settings which people discovered wasn’t much fun a long time ago.
It’s been discussed before, but the game settings for quickmatch games need to be changed and standardized ASAP. Like speed locked at 2.0, hill country for DM games, population 200, etc. I think RM should use every map except hill country. This would make DM more unique.
To further motivate people to play quickmatch, I’d remove the ranking from custom games. Having a rank in custom game is also silly because people can easily trade points in custom games. People also play weird settings like legion wars and wonder races that dilute the value of rankings. Quickmatch games should be the only ranked mode.
Blame the developers/designers for making the Lobby terrible in terms of User Experience.
As a DM player, now I have to visit all custom games to see which one is actually a DM. Because people don’t put it in the title (and we shouldn’t expect them). Apparently nobody came up with the bright idea during the design to add an extra column called “Ranked Mode” which said Yes/No.
And Legion Wars or Wonder Races has been as old as the release of the games themselves. Legion Wars being a different flavour of Choson War, but instead only Legions allowed and you can choose Roman too. Where in Choson you had to pick Choson and towers and barracks units were your only offensive or defensive stuff.
I have no problem with legion wars, archer wars, etc. I used to like playing games with different settings sometimes like tiny map, Persian war. If certain alternate rules are popular, they should be integrated as a quickmatch option. Ideally, the units and technologies would be disabled too so people can’t cheat. Like disabling all the non-legion units and technologies in a legion war.
I still think custom games shouldn’t be ranked. People need to be pushed to quickmatch since it’s a better experience.
Custom games were a problem back on MSN. A lot of highly ranked players only got to the top by playing wonder races or trading points.