I was reading an article from Paul Tassi on Forbes the other day, in the article, he discusses raid matchmaking in Destiny 2.
I have long thought that Destiny should have matchmaking for raids. I remember when I first started playing Destiny and eventually getting to a high enough level to attempt Vault of Glass, it was extremely difficult and time-consuming to try to find a group to attempt the raid with.
Luckily, I eventually found a lot of new friends on Destiny and we would raid regularly but sometimes it can be difficult to find friends to do activities in Destiny with and this is why I think Destiny 2 should have raid matchmaking or something that makes it easier for people to get into raiding.
Whilst adding in matchmaking to raids would probably be fairly straight forward for Bungie to do, there is undoubtedly several disadvantages to a fully matchmade raid.
Destiny’s raids are pretty challenging to say the least, sometimes it is difficult enought trying to complete a raid with a full fireteam who supposedly know what they are doing, let along attempring it with 5 randoms.
How would raid matchmaking work
If Bungie where to add raid matchmaking what form should it take? Should there be any pre-requesites before you can even begin matchmaking? Yes, there should be. Possibly the most important thing for a raid fireteam to have is good communication, so the game should check to see if you have a headset/microphone connected before you can actually start matchmaking.
There should also be a setting in the game that allows you to select your preffered language or location for matchmaking so that the game will only match you with people who speak your language and/or live in your country. There is probably no point attempting a raid if you speak English and the other 5 fireteam members speak Spanish.
The game should then matchmake into a lobby first instead of flying straight into the raid.
Whilst in the lobby, everybody can introduce themselves, find out what experience or knowledge they have of the raid mechanics and plan out any strategies. Once everybody is ready to start there should be a vote to start button or ‘ready up’ button that will start the raid.
I am certainly no game designer, so I am sure there are better ways to do raid matchmaking but I think the general principle of what I described above should work fairly well.
If Bungie decided against raid matchmaking what other things could the include that would make raids more accessible?
A training raid
Bungie could include a training raid of sorts, it wouldn’t be like a tutorial but it could be a much easier version of the normal raid.
A training raid could be matchmade, it could have far fewer enemies and much easier, lower level enemies. The idea would be to let people get used to the mechanics before attempting the normal or hard difficulty raid.
If the training raid was completed, you could be awarded and emblem, which would show other people that you at least have knowledge of the mechanics.
In game LFG (Looking for Group)
An in-game LFG is something Destiny plauers have been screaming for pretty much since Destiny was released. At the very least this should be included in Destiny 2.
Any in-game LFG should have plenty of search and filtering options so you can find a fireteam with ease.
To sum up, Bungie really needs to make raids much more accessible in Destiny 2. Raids are one of the most fun things to do in Destiny, they are certainly the most challenging of the PvE activities and as such they reward the best gear and loot.
It really isn’t fair that some players can’t get this great gear, or experince the fun and excitement of completing a raid because they donlt have enough friends who play Destiny or the don’t have any raid experience – you can only get experience by playing the raid.
Lets hope Bungie makes raiding much easier to get into.
