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Blizzard takes a stand against pre-made battleground groups
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri has been very active in the past 24 hours in a topic on the patch 5.1 changes to battleground queues. He's been responding to criticism of these changes, and, at the same time, being characteristically forthright on the issue of pre-mades. Quote: if you break it down, what does a full oQueue premade bring to the table that is unfair? I'll try to break it down as clearly as I can: Any addon that enables a full, organized Battleground group to queue against a randomly assembled group is creating a scenario where that coordinated group has a huge advantage. That is not in the spirit of the experience we want to provide in the normal Battleground queue. Playing with friends is fun and important, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the spirit of the game nor the fun of others. The normal Battleground queue is for players to jump in and play against other players in a similar situation. We realize that it's not a perfect system, and we're still looking at ways to improve normal Battleground queues further. Regardless, it's not meant for organized groups to "pug stomp" and get quick Honor. We have built in outlets for players that want to organize--if a competitive, social experience was really the goal, then there are clear ways to achieve that. The ultimate effect that this kind of queuing has had is to drive players away from PvP. Perhaps it's been a long time since you've been in a random group, but a lot of players will see that they're up against a premade and simply quit. At best, they suffer through it. To an extent premade groups count on this. Heck, one of the popular addons announces opposing players that appear to have rage quit. Addons aren't really a viable solution for botting issues, but we do take those issues seriously and we'll continue our work on improvements to the Battleground system, including better ways to deal with botting and other exploitative gameplay. source
Patch 5.1: No automated PvP queuing for groups greater than 5 people
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri has taken to the US forums to announce an important step taken with patch 5.1 to help prevent Battleground pre-made groups. Daxxarri In patch 5.1, we resolved some issues regarding how Addons interact with the Battleground queue system. It is no longer possible to automate queuing for standard or random Battlegrounds in groups larger than 5. We decided to make this change in order to improve the experience for all players who are queueing into random groups normally and expecting to face similarly random groups, only to find themselves crushed by a full team of coordinated opponents. We understand that players want to enjoy coordinated team play, and we invite those players to queue into Rated Battlegrounds or play Wargames to have that experience. Players can continue to use Addons to queue for Rated Battlegrounds as well.. source The issue with groups over 5 people queueing up is just as Daxxarri states, that pre-made groups have such an inescapable advantage over random groups. The enjoyment of the genuinely random group facing the pre-made in a battleground is massively hindered, and Daxxarri is quite right when saying that players who want to play as a pre-made group should move into rated battlegrounds and wargames, or arenas. This is a very welcome change, which will no doubt aid players' enjoyment of random battlegrounds. If Blizzard can beat the bots, which Daxxarri has posted about in the past, random battlegrounds will be a great place to have some PvP-focused fun again, but, of course, that's a far larger task. This is a great first step. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
The Daily Grind: Do you prefer pre-made class characters?
Although it's not a new trend, the practice of making pre-made playable characters to represent each class in an MMO is becoming more and more popular. In games like Rusty Hearts, Vindictus, Diablo, Torchlight, Aika and a few others, you pick from an assortment of pre-made characters to play the game. Customization is non-existent or minimal, but you're not really playing those types of games for a deeply customizable character. Without worrying about getting your hair and eye color just right, you can grab a character and just start playing. So is this a feature you prefer over heavy customization? Do you accept it for certain games, based on their style, or is it a complete turn-off for you across the board? Let us know in the comments below! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
