No, what you are describing (purposefully losing matches so you can curb stomp less skilled players) is very much part of the problem. If you can’t see why I really don’t know how else to explain it to you. I won’t be replying to this any further encase you are trolling as this conversation is absurd.
6 Likes
You’re clearly not thinking at all beyond your own nose here.
So you actively tank your elo because you want to have fun and facing challenges is not as fun as noob bashing to you. And then you argue when some poor guy gets noob bashed by you after you’ve tanked your elo with 300 it’s not your fault but theirs because they should just get better.
If some other fellow tanks their elo by 600 and suddenly it’s you getting noob bashed, you won’t be enjoying the game like you want to anymore (I can imagine getting stomped by a player 300 elo stronger leans more towards facing a challenge than it leans toward noob bashing) is it not their fault either but just your fault for not getting good then?
If all the games you got after you got home from work was getting noob bashed (as opposed to you noob bashing others) you’d just shrug and accept it because it’s not the noob basher’s fault but just your own for not getting good?
7 Likes
Thank you, this post has given me some perspective. I am now not sure what my views are as I can see the argument from both sides.
3 Likes
yes I see how this is a “prisoner’s dilemma”. However, until large numbers are reached, me being the “bad guy” doesn’t impact the community that much. Like I said, many have improvement mindset and take this game like it’s their life, so for them losses are a learning experience. You could also flip the argument and say that for such people, me stomping them is an incentive to actually learn build orders etc.
If the amount of “people like me” got large enough to the point where rank carried no meaning, I would find some other game. You guys act moralistic about a CHILDREN’S VIDEOGAME and forget that games are intended FOR FUN mostly. I do not seek a challenge or a fair experience, I think you guys should realize the difference between being “unfair” in a GAME and being unfair IRL, it’s NOT the same thing.
You do see how it’s not as fun when someone is being unfair towards you as much as it would be when you’re unfair towards someone else. You do, it seems, recognise that what you’re doing is unfair (whether or not you think it only can count if it’s outside of a video game).
The ranked queue is intended for fair play. There is an outlet elsewhere for unfair play called custom lobbies where you “bad guy” people can just misleadingly title the lobby ‘noobs only’.
Elo tanking is not cheating, it’s true. You don’t get banned. But it is counter to the purpose of the ranked queue and to the point of an elo system which is why you’re being discouraged with the timeout from the queue. Because fair play is indeed the intention with the ranked queue as well as with the elo system, whether or not your intention with AoE2 or “CHILDREN’S VIDEOGAME” in general is something else entirely.
4 Likes
do you get upset when someone IRL takes a job from you cuz they are more qualified? Or when someone skips the line? Unfairness is pretty much present everywhere, as long as it’s “tolerable levels”, I don’t see the problem.
Pursuing some ideal of “perfect society” is dumb, even in a videogame. I mean I guess you are technically right about ranked ladder having to be fair, but at the end of the day, you gotta realize that this is a children’s videogame, particularly in low elos, say 800-1300 bracket (where I am), the difference between 800 and 1100 is not so huge, both are bad players that play the game at 20%.
Tanking your elo so you can have fun noob bashing is not meritocracy. Raising your elo by beating your opponent in the game is.
2 Likes
Dude, it is not a mandatory timer/feature. No one is forcing you to use this feature 11
1 Like
Or just from people that had their game crashed bc of bad patch implementation and then get banned. Even if the hotfixes improves on crashes you still will have crashes in the future and people getting banned for this.
Why is there bans then? If I wanted to play arabia only I can pretty much do that. I may occasionaly get another map but if I wanted I can easily play 90% arabia. While I want to play arena that’s not possible. I have to ban arabia to increase chances although I might even like the map. So ranked is for people that either dont care about maps or want to play arabia but not for people that want to play other maps? Doesn’t make much sense that argument.
Then elo never had a meaning bc you can do so. Same for tgs. Getting arabia in 3v3 is super complicated while you can have a lot of games on arena if you want so.
If you actutally tried it you’d probably understand. Apart from the fact the lobby games insanely laggy it’s basically impossible to find games past a certain elo. And if I face people that have 400 elo below me that’s neither fun them nor for me.
Indeed but the problem really is the combination of map pref and bans. Map pref on it’s own actually is great thing but as soon as you add bans to this it leads to a situation where you might play maps that both player’s don’t really wanna play. So simplest solution is to disable ban feature. At least then all the people who want to play only arabia and can do so while telling other people “play lobbies” will be forced to play other maps. At that point they might start complaining and maybe then devs will finally rework the disfunctional matchmaking.
3 Likes
My personal take is that the system is fairly good, in theory, but it doesn’t really belong here due to how the community has developed during time.
In fact for me, since I have started playing on DE and I like 1v1 arabia, the system is mostly fine since I’m kinda used to play different maps and I can get a setting I like anyway most of the time.
Where the system really struggles even for me is when I need some form of consistent practice to get good at some specific map. Example: 1v1 nomad. Every time it’s in the pool and I let it open, I just get stomped by someone who probably has practiced that before DE, so even if we’re equally skilled on arabia there’s probably a 200 ELO difference on nomad (once I managed to lose playing malians vs chinese for example), and DE doesn’t give me any realistic way to catch up with him since I don’t have a chance to consistenly practice on the map since a lot of people ban it.
And before preferred map feature, this issue was even worse since I used to face the same problem on arabia due to winning gimmick maps (hill fort, golden swamp) when I was on even ground with my opponent, while tanking ELO on arabia with opponent that practiced consistently the meta before DE, thing I couldn’t really do myself.
The only way to do that would be alt+f4 everything that isn’t nomad for the time being and play only that for 2 weeks to learn the meta. In the end, since I can live without playing nomad, better give up, ban nomad and play arabia.
For TGs is even worse since it’s even harder to get the map you want to practice and then don’t need to practice just for yourself but even prepare strategy with teammates, all of this while getting stomped by prepared opponent on equal skilled. In fact, no way I can persuade my clan mates (all of us started with DE) to leave BF or nomad unbanned after getting sistematically stomped 
1 Like
We can’t control what others do but we can control what we ourselves do. We can’t make the society perfect but we do have power over whether our contribution is going to make it better or worse.
A better comparison to what you’re doing would be nepotism, because it’s completely opposite to someone getting what they’re qualified for. You’re getting an elo you are absolutely not qualified for and it’s because your own action it is that way. You had power over whether you (regarding your contribution) were making the game better or worse for everyone and you chose to make it worse (because to you it’s somehow fun).
A real life example would be an employer giving the job to their unqualified son (it’s making both the business and the society worse but yay for the employer’s son) - not a person getting a job because they’re qualified.
1 Like
You don’t need to live in a utopia to not noob bash. Most well adjusted people follow some form of mutual respect.
9 Likes
At this point I’m not sure if he is only trolling or serious
1 Like
I see a lot of players in this thread whining about not having arabia only and arena only queues. Surely, you guys realize that arabia and arena players are in the most privileged position in the ranked queue. Together, arabia and arena games make up over 70% of games in 1v1s.
If you feel you’re being “forced” to play maps you don’t like, imagine being someone who wishes they could play only Gold Rush or Four Lakes? Those are sometimes not even in the pool. At least the current system gives those players a chance to have ranked games on the less popular maps.
If us players get to make all the decisions, ranked could become very stale. I enjoy the way a rotating ranked map pool keeps things fresh.
3 Likes
but being qualified is also a form of unfairness, how dare he have gone to a better school, and how dare them hire a qualified person as opposed to a person who is eager to learn !
The irony here is a bit that we are judges and victims of our “fairness” system. But this conversation is getting too sidetracked so I will stop it from my side. I don’t think we will agree, but I don’t think deranking is inherently bad (in a videogame), unless you take this game as your life.
No it’s not. You don’t inherently deserve to get either a job or a certain elo. You earn them.
This game is part of your life if you’re spending your free time with it after coming home from work. And if you truly believed that anything in it can’t be inherently bad you wouldn’t have come on this forum to complain to begin with.
1 Like
You are honestly wasting your time here. I think they are either trolling or have an inability to empathise with others ( I am not saying that to be rude it’s just from what they’ve written there’s not even an attempt to see things from other peoples perspective or understand the impact of their actions). Either way it’s pointless to continue this debate and I am personally happy that the new system is discouraging / punishing people who play the game this way.
I think this covered it best:
4 Likes
While there is a significant segment of the community who wants to play non-Arabia and non-Arena maps, I don’t think there are many people who want to play specifically Gold Rush or specifically Four Lakes over and over. I don’t think it’s realistic to treat those maps as if they were the same as Arabia.
Ideally a matchmaking system should not even take into consideration the popularity (or what we see as assumed popularity) of each map, if the user can set preferences.
2 Likes
The change is good for 1v1, people got 3 map bans which is fair and enough, so they should not dodge the match.
It is a disaster in TG. I will absolutely not play a game when I get matched with teammates with low win rate. I will instantly alt f4 when I see somebody with lower than 40% win rate in the team of 2k+ elo games.