Epic, are there plans for open unranked rooms?

[Boscodog]

Everyone, PLEASE vote and comment.
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Dear Cliff,

As the post title says: are there plans for open unranked rooms? If there are plans, I can wait. But if not, my game is just devaluing and I get very little good play time from it. I've played and loved the campaign, but don't have enough friends in my almost full friends list (96 people) to fill a private game, and since other similar players cannot find my game, we are left with 2v2, 2v1! and playing with bots. It's poor. Very, very poor.

So, are there any plans for open unranked rooms? There has been no official comment on this, and I feel this needs to be clarified. We need unranked rooms, since a large population of gamers just never touch ranked, and this doens't allow us to play your game in any meaningful way.

So, again, are there plans to update Gears 2 so we can have open unranked games? An official response from anyone at Epic would be good. I, we, just need to know. We need to know if we should keep this game, or if we've got all we can from Gears 2 already.



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[pinchmatt1991]

Epic needs to fil its ranked rooms, so i just cant see it happening sorry.

[Boscodog]

That makes no sense. Explain.

Epic need people to play their game, period. Ranked or unranked should make no difference. If the gaming population moves off their game, then there can be no downloadable content to generate further revenue.

Ignoring all the people who only ever play unranked at this point will hit sales of Gears 3 as well as continued sales for Gears 2 as word gets out. Why bother picking it up new when you are only be buying it for the campaign?

This is why we need an official statement. I bought a game for single and multiplayer. It was a fair assumption to make that the multiplayer would be similar to the multiplayer in the first title in the franchise. It is not. Not because of weapon balance, granades or anything else, but because unranked rooms cannot be filled external to your friends list.

So, Epic, are there plans to add in open unranked rooms?

[xVSxNightmare]

Unranked rooms would be a great addition to this game. I can't understand why they didn't have that feature in Gears of War 2 when it was one of the most redeeming features of Gears of War 1.

BTW, it's possible that they may add the rooms later, and it's also possible that they won't. Don't listen to anyone who gives you a definitive answer that doesn't work for Epic.

[pinchmatt1991]

It makes complete sense, epic needs to fill its ranked playlists. If ranked playlists dont have enough population, the waiting times are huge. the same happens with halo 3 but bungie has a big enough population to have unranked. maybe when epic gets the numbers back and see how big the playlists populations are, theres a chace they will come back.

[Boscodog]

Again, Pinchmatt, Epic needs people playing Gears 2, period.

Ignoring how one part of your loyal fanbase plays does not bolster the numbers playing Gears 2 overall, it marginalises that population, so they will soon (if they have not already) move onto other titles. If unranked rooms were the only option for Gears 2 would that have made those who play ranked happy? No, of course not. People play how they like to play, and this game does not allow a large group to find each other's games. We feel short-changed.

The numbers will not, and cannot "return" since the unranked players have nothing to return to. Ranked is not for them, so the only option is trading in and moving on. This has been a huge oversight, and it would be good to know that something was in the works to rectify it. We want to play this game and just want to know if it will allow us to play like we used to in the future. It is not too much to ask, and a formal "yes, it's in the works" from Epic would do wonders to assuage the gamers who are ready to abandon the game.


PS There is no open unranked play in the true sense in Halo 3. It limits custom games to friends and recent players, and the social playlists force you to play game types you don't want to repeatedly (think Shotty Snipers - whoever thought that was good ...). Again an unworkable setup. Limiting options for how people want to play kills games.

[XxXx 350 xXxX]

The lack of searchable player matches is something that is seriously affecting the Gears community, aside from whatever problems there are with the actual gameplay, the fact of the matter is that people outside of the US will 100% of the time (or close to) will get a laggy public match. so much so that it is unplayable, and without the ability to search for local matches outside of ones friends list, a large number of Gears fans will and have move(d) on.

we (all those outside of the US) NEED to be able to search for local unranked matches if ranked matches are simply subject to matchmaking and not subject to any region filtering.

A large percentage of my friends list has already moved away from Gears 2, this sux because my friends list is solely made up of gears of war 1 players who are Australian. Now, unfortunately, I sit on my computer within this forum, typing this, instead of playing Gears because I cannot find a local match.

Dissapointed....

I only hope that EPIC would take the time to understand the importance of this issue for all those not in the US.

[pinchmatt1991]

Again, Pinchmatt, Epic needs people playing Gears 2, period.

Ignoring how one part of your loyal fanbase plays does not bolster the numbers playing Gears 2 overall, it marginalises that population, so they will soon (if they have not already) move onto other titles. If unranked rooms were the only option for Gears 2 would that have made those who play ranked happy? No, of course not. People play how they like to play, and this game does not allow a large group to find each other's games. We feel short-changed.

The numbers will not, and cannot "return" since the unranked players have nothing to return to. Ranked is not for them, so the only option is trading in and moving on. This has been a huge oversight, and it would be good to know that something was in the works to rectify it. We want to play this game and just want to know if it will allow us to play like we used to in the future. It is not too much to ask, and a formal "yes, it's in the works" from Epic would do wonders to assuage the gamers who are ready to abandon the game.


PS There is no open unranked play in the true sense in Halo 3. It limits custom games to friends and recent players, and the social playlists force you to play game types you don't want to repeatedly (think Shotty Snipers - whoever thought that was good ...). Again an unworkable setup. Limiting options for how people want to play kills games.

I think your genralizing players by saying people that played unranked in gears1 dont play ranked games at all. Also the social playlists is what epic would do to incorperate social in gears 2, server lists create to many programming issues.

[Boscodog]

Indeed it is a generalisation, but it is true for me and those on my friends list - and 350 above. I met most of my freinds in unranked games, but Gears 2 ranked does not foster that sort of sociability.

You're probably right about how Epic may implement unranked play though; there is a strong possibility that they would go for social (unranked) matchmaking as opposed to unranked rooms like the private rooms. But this would not solve the problem unless customisation of the game was free and people could opt to stick with a group they had joined. That might work. But the voting system and matchmaking as it is but just called unranked would not make this any better. Hopefully Epic will think the problem through farther than just making a second option labelled unranked, but identical in all other respects.

All that is needed is the facility to make private games searchable for other players looking for games. And that is not an insurmountable coding issue. Right now everything is already in place with Private games (ignoring lack of map rotation), people just cannot search and join these games. What is needed is code that tells XboxLive that I'm hosting a game. The code is even already there in the most part since my friends can see I have a game that is joinable. This (merely) needs to be extended to a central list hosted on the XboxLive servers, and should be displayed with connection quality; then people would be able to join it. Other games have worked like this for years. The guys at Epic aren't daft, they could do this. What we want to know is if they plan to, so that unranked players who set up custom games can find and play with each other.

[GaMeTiMe]

I would like player matches, if they introduced player matches i can look past other minor(ish) issues

why did they change the online system from gears 1?(server lists) it was perfect imo

[pinchmatt1991]

Indeed it is a generalisation, but it is true for me and those on my friends list - and 350 above. I met most of my freinds in unranked games, but Gears 2 ranked does not foster that sort of sociability.

You're probably right about how Epic may implement unranked play though; there is a strong possibility that they would go for social (unranked) matchmaking as opposed to unranked rooms like the private rooms. But this would not solve the problem unless customisation of the game was free and people could opt to stick with a group they had joined. That might work. But the voting system and matchmaking as it is but just called unranked would not make this any better. Hopefully Epic will think the problem through farther than just making a second option labelled unranked, but identical in all other respects.

All that is needed is the facility to make private games searchable for other players looking for games. And that is not an insurmountable coding issue. Right now everything is already in place with Private games (ignoring lack of map rotation), people just cannot search and join these games. What is needed is code that tells XboxLive that I'm hosting a game. The code is even already there in the most part since my friends can see I have a game that is joinable. This (merely) needs to be extended to a central list hosted on the XboxLive servers, and should be displayed with connection quality; then people would be able to join it. Other games have worked like this for years. The guys at Epic aren't daft, they could do this. What we want to know is if they plan to, so that unranked players who set up custom games can find and play with each other.

Yeah i guess your right, lets just hope epic listens.

[pinchmatt1991]

I would like player matches, if they introduced player matches i can look past other minor(ish) issues

why did they change the online system from gears 1?(server lists) it was perfect imo

Server lists were exploited by players i think, i might be wrong.

[Just Cause]

Dear Cliff,

As the post title says: are there plans for open unranked rooms? If there are plans, I can wait. But if not, my game is just devaluing and I get very little good play time from it. I've played and loved the campaign, but don't have enough friends in my almost full friends list (96 people) to fill a private game, and since other similar players cannot find my game, we are left with 2v2, 2v1! and playing with bots. It's poor. Very, very poor.

So, are there any plans for open unranked rooms? There has been no official comment on this, and I feel this needs to be clarified. We need unranked rooms, since a large population of gamers just never touch ranked, and this doens't allow us to play your game in any meaningful way.

So, again, are there plans to update Gears 2 so we can have open unranked games? An official response from anyone at Epic would be good. I, we, just need to know. We need to know if we should keep this game, or if we've got all we can from Gears 2 already.

Great shout. I am in the same position.

[Lovatt WxM]

Personaly "unranked" custom games, were what made GOW1 a Hit, only thing that kept players playing it for so long in my eyes.

[Boscodog]

Personaly "unranked" custom games, were what made GOW1 a Hit, only thing that kept players playing it for so long in my eyes.

Please ask your friends who feel the same to come on this site and show their support too; everyone who feels this way. If we all let our voices be heard they can do this for us.

[NicciNacciNola]

I am in agreement with Boscodog - like him most of my friends game from Gears player matches. I don't understand why the non-ranked matches are now locked to only friends, it seems like a step back to me. Also, I don't like the fact that you can't cycle your maps, and have to return to the game lobby each time the match finishes. Why oh why - it just breaks up the play.

As for ranked matches, they are nigh on impossible to play. It either takes forever to get a game and then when you do it is cripplingly laggy which makes it pointless (at least for me in the UK!)

[SuchPotential:(]

I really want some control back, and player matches are a must, there no debate about it. It should have been there to start, period. That was a huge letdown for me, I hate playing with punk kids.

[jgibo1]

Not trying to be too picky but the title should be public not ranked. But I agree a 3rd set would be great. And they could call it Gears classic - formerly known as Player matches.

[SupaStu]

EPIC should bring back public matches, or at least allow you to join your friends games without having to be invited, and also be able to join games with people you have just played. Being able to choose to "buddy" with others would save a lot of matchmaking time like in Halo 3.

Whats the point in playing a game for two rounds then going back to the menu to have to find another 4 players again and so on...

I still find the matchmaking slow, and recently had people leaving etc, the region filter or ping bars was always essential. In gears 1 I would only connect to good connections, which was normally "local" hosts not ones hosted on the moon. I keep getting non local connections with laggy games.

I do think the small update has improved the process tho, but it would be good if epic gave us more options for online rather than ranked. I'ts also annoying trying to quit a game when 1) you cant play because of the lag 2) you find that you appear as a pile of guts because of lag, I understand why they took away the option of quitting ranking but it is annoying to go back to the dash.

[Boscodog]

Not trying to be too picky but the title should be public not ranked. But I agree a 3rd set would be great. And they could call it Gears classic - formerly known as Player matches.

I use ranked as this is basically the distinction now: Private games no one else can find versus ranked Public games which are a whole different animal and are far more competive.

Sorry for the misnaming, it was purely to get the point across that we are missing the open, more social gaming option, where a group of up to ten people can play together for a whole evening, just for fun! Obviously we have it in Private rooms, but it would be better for all casual players (and new Xbox owners!) for the private rooms to be set to open to all, since not all of us can fill rooms from friends lists.

[flying c4rr0t]

Just get the MP system back from GOW1, its that simple.

[SuchPotential:(]

Just get the MP system back from GOW1, its that simple.

That would work too. Just cut their losses and make a huge patch for GOW1. haha

[Boscodog]

I'm just looking at this poll and was wondering if people could put comments for why they prefer each option, so we can all get a feel for what the benefits of different options are. Cheers.

[aaspect]

Epic needs to fil its ranked rooms, so i just cant see it happening sorry.

People just want to play , without lag, and with a lot of players, they don't want full ranked rooms.

I choose the private type cause...honnestly your poll doesn't make sense to me, of course it will be like private, how are we supposed to choose the game options if it's like public?

[Boscodog]

People just want to play , without lag, and with a lot of players, they don't want full ranked rooms.

I choose the private type cause...honnestly your poll doesn't make sense to me, of course it will be like private, how are we supposed to choose the game options if it's like public?

I agree. But games like Halo 3 have a set up like option 1 which is why I put that in. I don't like it in Halo, and would not like it in Gears 2. I find the lack of customisation to be detrimental to a game, i.e. playing game modes I don't like on maps I don't want does nothing for me. So opening private rooms to public game seaching is the most obvious option. Other people may not want to be able to set game type and match parameters, though, prefering instead voting and the variety that comes from that, so I included that option. But with option 1 you would still spend a massive amount of time searching rather than playing, where the opening of private rooms would provide the exact same options, but without losing players at the end of every round, just with the host acting like the auto server deciding maps and gametype.

Basically if I had given no viable alternative to opening the private rooms, then the whole poll would have no value...

[DayTimer]

I am a big fan of Gears and Gear 2 but I have rarely played ranked on either, I can’t see me playing ranked in the future as I just like to have a good laugh and a good game.

A system like Gears for live play would be preferable for me. Public unranked rooms are where I met most of the people who play Gears in my friends list.

With the unranked rooms being locked I have not added any new friends to my list for Gears 2 which is a shame, as this would give the game more longevity for me. When some friends move on to other games I would still have more to play with.

At the moment if my friends move on I would be forced to play ranked which I really don’t enjoy as its not as much fun, people tend to be allot more serious.

Unranked public rooms please

[superman01uk]

Play 5 rounds go back to lobby = Annoying
Playing ranked games with annoying idiots and no real choice of what your going to play = Annoying

Being able to find a normal player match or set one up like on Gears 1 = Success

Being able to choose a map rotation without having to go back to the lobby all the time = Success

Playing a ranked gametype and map of your choice = Success

Not having those features = Epic fail

Its pretty easy aint it

I want to make new friends in normal player matches (Its where half of my friends list came from)
I dont want to play against bots and I dont want 99 people on my friends list
I want to have a map rotation instead of going back and forth to the lobby

I dont want to play with people from ranked in private matches half the time because too many of them like to trash talk too much

I just want the easier system that Gears 1 had

It worked

[daddyluv 1313]

Play 5 rounds go back to lobby = Annoying
Playing ranked games with annoying idiots and no real choice of what your going to play = Annoying

Being able to find a normal player match or set one up like on Gears 1 = Success

Being able to choose a map rotation without having to go back to the lobby all the time = Success

Playing a ranked gametype and map of your choice = Success

Not having those features = Epic fail

Its pretty easy aint it

I want to make new friends in normal player matches (Its where half of my friends list came from)
I dont want to play against bots and I dont want 99 people on my friends list
I want to have a map rotation instead of going back and forth to the lobby

I dont want to play with people from ranked in private matches half the time because too many of them like to trash talk too much

I just want the easier system that Gears 1 had

It worked

Wow- saved me quite a bit of typing.

Great post!

[DynaMight]

Player matches are great in GOW1. You can play all night with the same bunch of random people, have some great banter and laughs unlike GOW2, where its different people every game, so barely anyone speaks.

I want to CHOOSE map cycles, game modes, weapons, map length, number of rounds and most importantly... I want to CHOOSE a fast connection to join, not get forced (after a 5min wait) to join some guys server half way around the earth.

[Boscodog]

I understand Mark Rein has been on the forums these last couple of days providing feedback and getting a handle on what the community wants.

So please vote and hopefully we can get a response on this issue.

[lostbuddy1]

I hardley doubt this will come even if they said yea, they would basically need to redo the whole matchmaking.... the game is finished all they can do is fix minor bugs and some lag, but this may not be true, if you have a source that there is a way they can implement unranked public matches please do post it, im not flaming im just stating what i think is true

[Boscodog]

I hardley doubt this will come even if they said yea, they would basically need to redo the whole matchmaking.... the game is finished all they can do is fix minor bugs and some lag, but this may not be true, if you have a source that there is a way they can implement unranked public matches please do post it, im not flaming im just stating what i think is true

Don't worry, you are probably right. They have gone for a completely different type of multiplayer on this and they will not want to abandon matchmaking. What I am suggesting though is extending the current private rooms. At present they are only viewable by your friends, but they are listed for your friends so therefore there is a listing on Xbox live servers that you have a private game going - only it is only viewable by your friends. It does not seem unreasonable that code could be implemented that would generate a list of all currently hosted "private" games, that you could see the connection, and that you could join the game.

Basically we would set up a "private" game as private, friends only or open. If the game was private it would be invite only; friends only means it would appear as it currently does on your friend's system, and open would list it in a searchable list of open "private" games. Private is absolutely the wrong word here, since the distinction is really ranked versus unranked or as it used to be called, player.

Extending the current code to do this though is not abandoning matchmaking, it would be adding to the game to cater for something which is currently lacking. Gears 2 does not foster the evenings of social play a lot of us were expecting. And even disregarding all the delays in connecting, the thing which many of us miss is the ability to set up a room and have people join it, thus allowing us to play with real people in full rooms, for a whole evening.

There is nothing worse than being beaten by someone/a group and having no opportunity to get your own back in the next match - and people know this, so you get all the trash talk at the end of the match. Gears 1 was always about tactics, and playing a group for an evening meant adapting tactics and learning how they played, then trying to beat them. Most people who played Gears that I know are missing this aspect to Gears 2.

So it would be fantastic if it could return. All this thread is about is trying to let them know this is how we feel. Hopefully they could then try and do this for us in an update. Gears 2 is not what I was expecting in terms of multiplayer, not because of gameplay, but because I can never enjoy playing in full rooms, full of banter, good humour and fun. And I know I'm not the only one.

It's a real shame.

[prayingmonkey]

Epic needs to fil its ranked rooms, so i just cant see it happening sorry.

No Epic needs people playing the game for it to be successfully on live & it doesnt matter if its ranked or player matches that people are playing.
I Myself would rather play unranked as there would likely be less cheating (standby & glitching) as the type of players in unranked would more likely just want to play for fun as opposed being thrown into games with self obsessed cheating rank/stat whores.

[AvatarofKhorne]

Needs moar player matches.

[CAINIAC]

Yeah I totally agree with this. The fact that Gears 2 doesn't have the open unranked Player matches found in Gears 1 is a serious issue. So much so in fact I gave up playing the game because of it.

I just simply hate the Matchmaking system period, as it completely takes away the freedom of choice from the gamer. If I wanna play a game I shouldn't have to pray that Matchmaking gives me something I want. I should be able to do it when I want.

I mean sure we got Private matches but as people have already pointed out it can really be a pain to get a good game goin a lot of the time simply cause maybe you don't have enough friends online or they are all busy doing their own thing.

All of it could be fixed though if Epic would open up unranked games to the public to make it similar to how Gears 1 was setup. If they could do that via a update I really think that would make both groups happy. People who like Matchmaking can play ranked and those who don't can play unranked. Everybody wins.

[simon123456]

I hate the fact that you can go in a game, Glitch and not worry about it, because the next room you go in its different ppl and they cant remove you, so Glitching is now an unlimited freedom!

[GaMeTiMe]

please epic bring back player matches

[ricc]

please epic bring back player matches

All that needs to be said.....

[Boscodog]

I've noticed there are still lots of threads being generated about things that open player matches would go a long way to sorting out. This morning I was reading on these forums about new players finding little enjoyment as they are frequently matched with better players: either they find they are killed frequently or quickly, or don't get any kills or see much action. Open player matches would allow people to play in environments where they could find their feet. Good player match rooms in Gears would strive to balance the teams so everyone had fun; it would be the same in Gears 2 if open room player matches existed.

I have also been reading that people want the map rotation feature back for private games. I agree with this and hate all the time bouncing between lobbies, game loading, map loading, etc. It would be great if we could have open room and match rotation back.

So, to round up:
Are there plans to allow private rooms to be made open to the public so rooms will fill up and we can all play together?
Is there any way we could have map rotation back in these rooms?

PS Last night was my first totally Gears 2 blank evening. On my friends list no one was playing, and no one wanted to play (32 people online. Most friends from Gears 1). I ended up platying Fallout 3. I know there must have been other people at their Xboxes last night who would have joined my room if it had been open. But we can't find each other.

[Brutal Black]

Personaly "unranked" custom games, were what made GOW1 a Hit, only thing that kept players playing it for so long in my eyes.

Would you believe I owned GOW 1 from the first day of its release and the only ranked achievements I got were Capital punishment and Around the world, but I played everyday?

I hate Ranked matches. Its where all the kids and elitist gather to frolic each other. I'm a "have fun" guy. I don't play so people can see how many times I've done this and that. Don't get me wrong, my stats are quite impressive, but its not what makes me come back for more, I play for fun. Gears 2 is still gears, its just lost a good amount of its fun factor.