Guild Wars 2

My sole disappointment with the Heart of Thorns information releases thus far is that Stronghold will share the same queue as Conquest and Courtyard. Allow me to explore why this is a very bad idea.

I thought this was play YOUR way, not play THEIR way.

Guild Wars 2 is founded on the principle of “play your way” – the ability to viably choose to play only the content that you want to play. A voting system betrays this by throwing nine-tenths of the stage-selection power to other players. This is a minor nuisance when all maps are on the same mode (though I am certainly prone to, as a personal preference, loving certain stages, like Khylo and Legacy of the Foefire, and hating others, like Spirit Watch).

With entirely distinct, separate modes, however, merged queues are simply a betrayal of this founding concept entirely. I want to play a PvP form that is more similar to MOBAs or Guild Wars 1 GvG. I do not ever want to play Conquest again (unless it has unique achievements) once Stronghold is released, as I find point control repetitive and shallow. Unfortunately, the choice is mostly out of my hands. If Stronghold, like Courtyard, ends up less popular in the long run, I’m largely out of luck, as are players who currently prefer Courtyard.

Players must be able to specialize in certain PvP forms if they so choose.

A large part of competitive improvement is practice and specialization. Merged queues hinder this by diverting players from their chosen game type whenever it fails the vote.

The existence of merged queues will increase the number of leavers and the amount of toxicity.

This is a point that has no doubt already been touched on in multiple threads. If players are not given the opportunity to play in a form that is acceptable to them, they are substantially more likely to get frustrated and leave, and, frankly, I wouldn’t even be able to blame them. I have no desire to play Conquest, and there will be players who will have no desire to play anything but Conquest.

I would add, however, that merged queues will also increase the amount of hostility in the PvP community.

- 9 out of 10 players vote for Stronghold.

- Random selection results in Conquest being selected.

- “Okay, which one of you kittens voted for Conquest?!”

Merged queues will create an ugly dynamic in stage selection.

We already see this with Courtyard, but when a non-Conquest stage appears in the rotation, it takes up a slot that could be used to create more Conquest stage variety.

Furthermore, if Stronghold is to be viewed as a legitimate competitive mode in merged queues, it must be an option in every voting pool, taking up the slot every time. If this does not happen with merged queues, players will lose even the possibility of electing their own preferred game type.

This will only get uglier if and when Stronghold gets alternate maps that may or may not appeal to players more than its first one.

Conquest and Stronghold WILL have different metas, as they are different formats

Certain builds WILL function better in one mode than the other. Yes, you can change builds during the waiting time before a match starts, but this is a slow and annoying process thanks to the lack of templates.

Furthermore, players WILL be more skilled with a certain class in one mode than the other – and there is no way to change class selection based on an unforeseeable voting outcome.

Simply put, it’s a bad idea.

Merged queues between differing PvP formats are simply unhealthy. They bring nothing to the game – save, perhaps, for the illusion of a larger PvP community – while significantly damaging player convenience and gameplay preferences.

I’ve been a strong supporter of the concepts of this expansion. I WILL buy it, and I am looking forward to Stronghold. In this one issue, however, I have to speak up, because the decision being made is not a healthy one.

Yeah… this isn’t a good idea.

If it’s because they fear it’ll split the community; then that should speak volumes to them that one of their game modes are lacking. If everyone plays Stronghold still after 3 months, then they need to improve conquest. If people leave stronghold to rot, they need to improve stronghold.

Forcing players to play whatever mode is given to them isn’t only bad from a player’s perspective; but from a developer perspective it skews their data in a way where they can’t tell which mode players actually prefer.

I basically agree with everything you say here… +1

Listen to this guy and indeed your community. Merged queues is a terrible idea. I hate conquest. I will leave every conquest game when this mode comes out, in favour of playing this. Stronghold is an excellent game mode by the look of things, don’t make me a leaver!

Listen to your community.
+1

Possible solution: when queuing, choose which mode you’d prefer. It’ll still be unranked/ranked queues, but with an additional step in between to choose your mode. The Matchmaking puts you into a match based on your priorities – if you choose Stronghold, the system will prioritize that, and only give you Conquest if it can’t find a suitable match. Similarly for if you choose Conquest as your preferred mode.

Map selection interface would also be based on the game mode. If you get into a stronghold game, you only have one choice, so it’s not a problem. If you get into conquest, you have your standard map selection options. If stronghold gets more maps, then the map selection for stronghold will change to include that.

I’m seeing a lot of “combined queues are bad” posts, and suggestions along the lines of “separate queues”, so this is an alternate suggestion – keeping the combined queues, but still giving players the game mode they prefer.

Or introduce Build templates in PvE and PvP – preferably before HoT.

It almost feels like trolling. There is no way in actuality that they can merge the queues because you are only supposed to be able to play Stronghold if you buy the expansion. If you don’t own the x-pac and the queue picks Stronghold, what are they gonna do, kick you from the queue?

That’s why I say it feels like trolling. If you really like Conquest and Stronghold doesn’t look all that interesting, why buy the x-pac? If it is indeed going to kick you from the queue if you don’t own the x-pac, why continue playing?

This whole thing feels poorly thought through and terribly communicated to the playerbase. If they wanted to explain it properly they would have told everyone whether or not Stronghold is actually a part of the expansion. If it’s free and I only PvP, I would definitely play it with the base classes before making a decision to even purchase it.