In The Division 2, significant resistance has formed in recent days. The cause is a single sentence: The raid is coming without matchmaking. Why is the situation so complicated for Massive and how can they free themselves?
This is the problem: Today, the 1st raid in the history of The Division 2 will actually launch. For a long time, almost nothing was known about the raid – it is coming about three weeks later than originally planned.
The agents have been waiting a long time for the raid and had high expectations for it – ultimately it is the activity they have been working towards and for which they optimized their builds.
Yesterday, players were informed that the raid would come without automatic matchmaking.
It was particularly unfortunate that the information was casually announced by a second-tier developer on Twitter. That was certainly not planned.
Since then, people have been up in arms. Just on our site MeinMMO, there have been about 600 comments on the issue in two articles – the US forum reddit is full of complaints.
The topic overshadows everything, including the new secret missions in The Division 2.
Players feel deceived and patronized
This is why players feel deceived: About a month before the release of The Division 2, on February 15, The Division 2 posted a small message on Twitter regarding the “online gaming experience.” It addressed various points, discussing how they want to ensure that everything is great.
One of the 7 subpoints was the statement that they would offer matchmaking for all activities.
Players now feel misled. This was supposedly one of Massive’s promises, they say.
This is what Massive says about the accusation: Massive states in a statement in the Ubisoft Forum: As promised, all activities at launch were equipped with matchmaking. However, due to technical constraints and gameplay intentions, matchmaking could be omitted for some activities that come after launch.
You can’t just flip a switch and activate matchmaking for 8 players now.
This is why players feel patronized: Great criticism stems from the fact that players do not understand why they are not given the choice of whether to use matchmaking or not.
They see no disadvantages in allowing matchmaking – those who do not want to use it do not have to.
Massive seems to believe that the raid is “too difficult” for randomly assembled player groups – but players would figure that out themselves.
Players feel they are being forced into a mold that does not fit the way they want to play The Division 2.
“A lot of passion, even before the first one has played”
This is what Massive says: They basically say players should try the raid first before complaining.
The raid is intended for groups and clans who prepare, plan, and then execute their strategies.
It makes the team happy that so many agents want to tackle the new challenge.
Additionally, Massive leaves a back door open, saying they discuss the matter internally and with players. They listen to feedback and read comments.
Massive still does not believe that matchmaking is the best solution, but apparently, they are keeping the option open to backtrack on this. Anyway, it sounds in the statement no longer so determined.
You think you want it – but you don’t want it
Is the criticism justified? Massive’s position is understandable, but ultimately they are on lost ground. Massive is in the same situation that Blizzard was once in with WoW Classic:
They tell the players what is good for them. They explain to players why what they want is not right, but rather what the developers say is the right solution.
Blizzard told players “You think you want it, but you don’t want it” – making the developers seem as if they do not take players’ opinions seriously.
From this position, Blizzard could only lose, was mocked for years, and eventually gave in. The beta for WoW Classic ironically started today.
In The Division 2, it adds that the PR image really looks bad for Massive – they probably did not keep the promise on their radar. They cannot get out of this now – they should have been more careful in their wording.
This is behind it: The Division 2 is a game where people
- want to play everything and see everything
- want to play on their own terms
- want new content that challenges them at their level, but is accessible to them
- want to work towards something so that all the loot farming and building is worthwhile
Achieving all these goals is challenging. And all this hope is focused on the 1st raid.
The raid does not deliver in this form; rather, it is aimed without matchmaking at the “few upper percentiles” of players.
The concept is already difficult. The raid functions in its current form more as a “goal for players to strive for” than as an “activity that truly entertains people.” You can say that even before anyone has seen it.
Bungie went down with a similar raid concept in Destiny 2: Hardly anyone in Destiny 2 still plays the raids – yet new content in Destiny 2 is so important.
What would be the best solution? The MMORPG World of Warcraft faced these problems years ago. The raids were only for the “elite,” and the rest could not see them.
Developers at Blizzard spent a lot of time creating content that hardly anyone played while the rest were bored.
Over the years, WoW found the solution to provide a “scaled-down raid” with matchmaking while the harder versions were then for pre-formed groups.
A similar solution is actually available for The Division 2:
- The raid could exist on “story difficulty” with automatchmaking and toned-down loot
- and in higher difficulty levels for established groups without matchmaking and with better loot
This system would also have disadvantages; the raids would become trivial, but it would better fit the gaming habits of the agents. Everyone could have something to do and experience the raid.
There would certainly be protests from some core gamers who feel that the raid should remain reserved for them and something special, but that would probably be tolerable.
However, such a change would certainly take longer, and until then, Massive will have to find a stopgap.
The mood has changed with a single sentence – it will be difficult to simply ride it out.
