Oh my GoW! Ranked team play to follow?

Last week, when Cliff Bleszinski explained that the multiplayer of Gears of War would disallow ranked team play, a lot of people got confused. He clarified that:

It’s “ranked” meaning that when you are joining a ranked match you are being shown games that are determined to be at the same level as you are by the Xbox Live arbitration system and TrueSkill. You cannot join with your friends as that would throw the system off given they are likely to be at different ranks and also makes it easier to cheat. So when you search for ranked match you only see games that are playing at your level. It’s required by Microsoft to be this way.

Fine. It stands to logic. No cheaters, same level of difficulty, required by the “Big M.” Sure. Can’t argue with that (especially the last bit). But it seems that a multiplayer game like this that emphasizes team play won’t let us play with our friends. We’re going to be thrown into the battle with others who are just about as good (or bad) as we would be.

Just recently, Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein suggested that they might offer some additional functionality in the future. As to what kind of functionality, who knows. All we can do now is sit tight and keep our fingers on the trigger. While a lot of people feel that a game of this caliber should allow team play with folks you personally know, the bomb of hope is still there, waiting to explode into possibility.

Last week, when Cliff Bleszinski explained that the multiplayer of Gears of War would disallow ranked team play, a lot of people got confused. He clarified that:

It’s “ranked” meaning that when you are joining a ranked match you are being shown games that are determined to be at the same level as you are by the Xbox Live arbitration system and TrueSkill. You cannot join with your friends as that would throw the system off given they are likely to be at different ranks and also makes it easier to cheat. So when you search for ranked match you only see games that are playing at your level. It’s required by Microsoft to be this way.

Fine. It stands to logic. No cheaters, same level of difficulty, required by the “Big M.” Sure. Can’t argue with that (especially the last bit). But it seems that a multiplayer game like this that emphasizes team play won’t let us play with our friends. We’re going to be thrown into the battle with others who are just about as good (or bad) as we would be.

Just recently, Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein suggested that they might offer some additional functionality in the future. As to what kind of functionality, who knows. All we can do now is sit tight and keep our fingers on the trigger. While a lot of people feel that a game of this caliber should allow team play with folks you personally know, the bomb of hope is still there, waiting to explode into possibility.