Brawl Busters - Matchmaking

I wrote in my pros/cons list of this game that one of the things that I don't like about it is the matchmaking system. It's not quite terrible enough to ruin my enjoyment of the game completely but I could see how people might not want to play the game because of it.

Here's how it works: You choose a lobby room from the eight listed (2 for beginners, 2 for advanced players, and 4 open rooms for everyone.) Then inside that room, you're provided with a list of available player-created games. They give you a description, the game type, the map, the number of players in the game waiting and the latency of the host of the game.

Speaking of latency, I'm still not sure how it's calculated. I have a really good internet connection so I've never seen my latency below three bars but I see people with red Xs (zero bars) all the time. I'm not sure if that latency is to their login servers or to the host of the game or what.

Once you're in the game of your choosing, you must click "Ready" to show that you're ready to play. Once enough people join and push "Ready", the host clicks "Start" and the game starts. Another button exists for the hosts called "Balance Game." This will move players around on the teams based on level to keep the teams "fair."

In a perfect world where everyone is a mature, sensible human being, this would probably be a fine matchmaking system. But, as anyone who's been on the internet for more than five minutes knows, those people are few and far between, especially in a combat-based PVP game.

Unfortunately, there yet exists in the game a way to make sure you can play on a team with your friends. If you and a buddy join the same game on the same team, there's a good chance you could get balanced off of the same team and be forced to play against each other. On the other side of the coin, you'll often join a game which has all of the highest level people on one team. I'll join these games and sit and watch for a moment as the game sits at 5/8 with a person joining and leaving every few seconds. I wonder if these other people actually get to play the game very often because it seems as if no one would want to play against them.

The LFG system that WoW uses would be awesome in this game because games are so short. They can keep their lobby games, just have special games that are server controlled. Eight people click "random game" and those eight people get teamed up, balanced, and the game starts. It would only take a few seconds and would allow you to spend more time playing the game and less time sitting in the lobby.

I've been trying to come up with a good description for the games I start. "4v4 ASAP" is what I usually put. And of course, I still get one person joining and saying "1v1, let's go."

Next time I'm going to write a basic strategy article from my experience as a slugger.